Ryu2.mind

Another Star Wars entry, if anyone still cares. =)

I originally posted a shorter version as a comment on Jimmy's blog, but I've been reading multiple peoples' 'reviews' on the movie, most touching on the seemingly abrupt and rough depiction of Luke's "turning" to the Dark Side -- so I thought it might be good to throw my opinion out there.

Yes, a 2 hour movie does not do the movie and Anakin's "fall" justice... but I think the best way to understand what Anakin goes through is NOT to typecast the Light Side and Dark Side as the "good guys" or the "evil guys", nor view the cause of Anakin being "converted" being solely persuasion from Palpatine/Sidious. (If the latter were the case, then I totally agree, the hurried exposition in the movie would be flimsy at best.)

Instead, Anakin simply is naturally fulfilling his fate of bringing balance that was prophesied and predestined, that had been happening throughout his whole life; his transformation is not something unexpected, but a natural part of this. The thing with the nightmares about Padme merely catalyze it, but the ball was already rolling quite merrily by the time of Episode III.

To elaborate some more, Light and Dark are two manifestations of the same Force, adhered to by two groups, the Jedi and the Sith, respectively. The harnessing of the Force was already unbalanced in that there were thousands of Jedi, following the Light Side through pursuing ascetic detachment from everything, and only 2 Sith, following the Dark Side with a Machiavellian philosophy of ruthlessly using power and treachery for gain.

Both these schools of thought and their practitioners are extreme and have their shortcomings, and a implicit lesson expressed in the Star Wars story arc as a whole is that there needs to be a middle ground between the two. While it's easy to see the Sith as being odious in their thoughts and deeds, the Jedi too have their fundamental faults -- through e.g. their decree on forbidding any affection towards another person, or the reactionary nature of the Jedi Council (cf. the reluctance in Episode I towards training Anakin).

Anakin, as the prophecy foretold, did restore balance... but not in the way one might think. Rather, after ultimately destroying both the Jedi and the Sith (himself included), he leaves a legacy in the form of his son Luke who is able to reestablish a new Jedi order without the dogmatism of the old one, one that embraces both the Light and Dark Side as integral in its thought.

There's been a lot written about this by others, and this is hinted at more in the novels, so I can hardly claim credit in any way for this.

[Yup, you could say I'm into Star Wars, albeit a notch below the folks who dress up in costume and camp out at the movie theaters for seats on opening night of every new Star Wars flick and go to conventions like this one.

Now, I'm fully expecting jedimasterdan to write an essay in the comments elaborating on what I wrote or furiously rebutting everything. =P ]