Star Wars Episodes 1-3 get ragged on a lot for various reasons (Jake Loyd, Haden Christensen, Jar-Jar Binks, midichlorians...) but nobody ever seems to talk about the real reason the movies are bad.
First, Obi-Wan is... too young?
Obi-Wan is depicted as an old man in Episode IV. Probably somewhere in his sixties. However, the expanded universe shows that Jedi strong in the Force age slowly, so in reality, Obi-Wan looked like he was in his sixties, but how old would he have to be to look that old? Well, the EU also reveals that Qui-Gon Jinn was sixty-five when he died. Sixty-five and he looked like he was probably in his forties, maybe. Supposedly, Obi-Wan was twenty-five when he was knighted. Twenty-five, and we know in Episode 2 that it has been ten years since Anakin saw Padme, so Obi-Wan has to be about thirty-five in Episode 2. The Clone Wars only last about three years, so Obi-Wan would be thirty-eight. Luke and Leia were about nineteen in Episode 4, so Obi-Wan would be fifty-seven. Still younger than his former master. Episode 1 should have been set further back in order to make Obi-Wan's age match up.
The Chancellor and the padawan
Anakin and Palpatine are showed to have a relationship in Episode 3, to the extent of a mentorship. Why? In Episode 1, we get a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fact that we're building to Vader when Palpatine tells young Anakin "we will watch your career with great interest."
Sure, in Episode 1, Anakin was the incredible boy pilot who blew up a Trade Federation control ship, but Anakin spends no time with Palpatine in Episode 1 or 2, and suddenly in Episode 3 Anakin just hangs out in Palpatine's office as if it was perfectly normal for a young Jedi to just chill with the most important and busiest man in the Republic. Sure, there's a war on, and Anakin was a commander, but how often does the president meet with lieutenants or captains? Palpatine would obviously meet with Yoda, Mace, or Obi-Wan. They are generals. Anakin was only recently knighted. He wasn't knighted in Episode 2, but he is a knight in Episode 3, so at some time during the Clone Wars he was knighted, so within the past three years. He wasn't a master yet, and even though he was knighted, in Episode 3 he is only ever shown in battle alongside his former master, Obi-Wan, and never shown actually leading a battle, so he's not a general.
Aside from all of that, there is no build-up to this in the movies. Anakin and Palpatine just go from perfect strangers in Episodes 1 and 2 to friends in Episode 3. Are we to believe that just because Anakin rescued Palpatine from Dooku in the beginning that Palpatine is suddenly a mentor to him? No, when Anakin has defeated Dooku, we see Palpatine encouraging Anakin to kill Dooku, and when they do speak during the escape, Palpatine doesn't act like a chancellor giving orders, but like a friend giving advice.
General Grievous
Dude knows how to fight, but he has no Force powers. Why has it taken the Jedi so long to beat him? Even a padawan should be able to get the best of him. Just lift him and hold him in mid-air. Now he can't fight. Moving on.
The Jedi go to war
In Episode 4, Leia referred to Obi-Wan as "General Kenobi" in her hologram and stated that "years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars." Lucas basically wrote himself into a corner here. He needed a reason for Obi-Wan to be a general during the Clone Wars, so how did he solve that problem? Well, have the clone army commissioned by a Jedi, then have Yoda decide to go get the clone army in order to save Obi-Wan from Geonosis, but wait a minute, by Yoda's own admission in Episode 6, he is not a warrior and says "wars not make one great." Why would Yoda consent to leading an army? The army should have been turned over to the Republic and the Jedi should have stepped back. The Jedi, by their own admission, are peacekeepers. It goes against the Jedi's own teachings for them to actively lead a war. Their only role in war time should be to protect VIPs, act as negotiators, maybe take on missions of special circumstances where it would cost too many lives to send in soldiers, but even then...
The Jedi serve the Republic
The Jedi are supposed to be unbiased practitioners of the Force. They follow the will of the Force. The Jedi temple should not be on Coruscant. We see Jedi Masters constantly consulting with politicians in Episodes 1-3. The Jedi becoming generals for the Republic shows us that the Jedi are more concerned with serving the Republic than they are with serving the Force.
Anakin was right
If the Jedi Council was more concerned with serving the Republic than it was with the Force, then Anakin was right. The Jedi had become corrupt, not by the Dark Side, but by politics. So, Anakin did bring balance to the Force by destroying a corrupt system and forcing it to start over.
Anakin wasn't dark enough
Anakin's fall to the Dark Side begins in Episode 2 where we see him slaughter Tusken Raiders because of his mother's death, and in Episode 3, he fears losing Padme, and Palpatine uses that as a way to manipulate Anakin further, but when Anakin turns, it's like flipping a switch. Sure, we can see some frustration in Anakin, due to Palpatine's involvement, with him feeling like the Jedi are holding him back, but once he turns against Mace, he's suddenly "I have to kill ALL the Jedi." Anakin doesn't question anything. He knew Palpatine was a Sith Lord, he knew Palpatine needed to be arrested, he even said to Mace "he must stand trial," but once he sees Palpatine kill Mace, he just abandons all that. He just accepts that "oops, I goofed, guess I'm a Sith now." Palpatine, a man Anakin knows to be a Sith, kills the Jedi who was trying to end the evil of the Sith, and Anakin just decides that instead of trying to stop Palpatine himself, or running away and waiting for Yoda, he'll just go kill. He goes from seeing Obi-Wan as his brother to "I hate you!"
Obi-Wan was an idiot because plot
We already know that Obi-Wan had to defeat Anakin, but we also know that Anakin had to live, so because plot, Obi-Wan can't kill Anakin. That's fine, but the way their duel ended allowed Obi-Wan and Anakin to share some heart-breaking dialogue. THAT was stupid. Because of that scene, Obi-Wan walked away from a still-living Anakin, who he had just left disabled and watched burn beside a river of lava. If Obi-Wan really loved Anakin, he would have tried to save him. Anakin had only one arm, no lightsaber, he was no longer a threat to Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan should have used the Force to render Anakin unconscious, then carried him from Mustafar to get medical attention. However, because Lucas (or his writers) didn't know how to write the scene correctly, Obi-Wan does the most evil thing he could do for a brother. He walks away and lets him lie there in agony, not knowing if he was going to die, or if someone else would save him, but who else could save him? If Obi-Wan walked away, the only other people in the galaxy who knew where Anakin was were Yoda and Palpatine! So, Obi-Wan leaving Anakin was basically saying "you're either going to lie here in pain until you die, or Yoda will fail to kill Palpatine and you'll be rescued by the only person in the galaxy we don't want you to be with."
The scene should have taken place far above, on one of the platforms suspended over the lava. Obi-Wan could have had his heart-breaking lines, then Anakin could have lashed out in a rage, Obi-Wan cuts him down, Anakin drops his lightsaber, but falls over the edge to the lava below. Obi-Wan sees him fall, unsure of whether he lived or not. Obi-Wan goes to search for him, but senses Palpatine coming and realizes he has no choice, and has to flee. Or the scene could have played out like it did in the movie, but Obi-Wan takes an unconscious Anakin back to the ship, and on the way, he is intercepted by Palpatine and is forced to abandon Anakin in order to safely escape with Padme. Seriously, there are other ways to have written that scene.
Speaking of idiocy...
Owen and Beru Lars were Luke's actual relatives? That was stupid! Anakin had already visited them in Episode 2. He knew where they lived. Yoda thought it was a good idea to hide Luke there? Owen should not have actually been related to Anakin. He should have been a relative of Obi-Wan, or one of the non-clone officers who served the Republic during the war who befriended Obi-Wan, maybe could have even written in that he saved Obi-Wan from Order 66 or something! That would have been awesome. It also would have made sense for the Jedi to hide Luke with someone Anakin didn't know, and by putting Owen in the war along with Obi-Wan, it would have given Obi-Wan a reason to trust him, and a reason for Owen to act like he did in Episode 4, not wanting Luke to go off to the academy. As it was written, though, there's no real reason for Owen to keep Luke away from Obi-Wan. No real reason for Obi-Wan not to train Luke as a child. If Owen had actually fought in the war and had first-hand experience alongside the Jedi, maybe even witnessing the effects of Anakin's fall, then his reservations would have made more sense.
The planet it's farthest from, yet everything happens here
Why oh why was Anakin born on Tatooine??? Episode 4 already used Tatooine as Luke's home planet, where the Jedi chose to hide him from his father. Just like we shouldn't hide him with actual relatives, how about we don't hide him on his father's home world? Episode 7 introduced us to Jakku as another desert planet. It wouldn't have been so hard to create another desert planet for Episode 1, or here's an idea, how about anywhere other than a freaking desert? They have podracing on Malastare, how about that planet? Ord-Mantel? Anoat? Seriously, there are so many planets that are named in the EU, or even mentioned in the movies that we never see on screen, why not expand the galaxy a bit more and use them? Why does everything have to happen on Tatooine? It's Anakin's birth place, Luke's home, and also happens to be where Jabba runs his organization. For a desert in the outer rim, a planet Luke describes as "if there's a bright spot in the center of the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from" it sure is a pretty important planet.
Technically, Dagobah is farther
In Episode 5, we learn that Yoda lives on Dagobah, a swamp in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, nobody ever has a reason to go there because we never see any sort of settlements. The only living things we see are Yoda and a bunch of birds and lizards. Yoda obviously lives here for a reason. In Episode 5, Obi-Wan says Yoda is the Jedi Master who taught him (which Episode 1 screws over by making Qui-Gon Jinn his master, but hey, I guess Lucas can't remember every line from the orig trig that established continuity), so we know Yoda is a more powerful Jedi than Obi-Wan, so even without the prequels or the EU, we can guess that a really powerful Jedi would live in such a miserable swamp in order to hide. So, we know that at some point after Episode 3, Yoda would go into hiding on Dagobah. That doesn't mean he has to give up, though. In Episode 3, he duels Palpatine, puts up one hell of a fight, even gets the better of him a couple of times, but when the two of them hold Force lightning between them until it explodes, Yoda just decides he has lost and runs away and goes into exile. He doesn't even try again?
You know what would have been really awesome? What if Yoda didn't use a cane in Episodes 1-3? Yoda duels Palpatine until Palpatine injures him so badly that he can barely walk. Yoda barely manages to crawl away after the explosion and the next time we see him in Episode 5, he has a cane. That would have been pretty cool, and would have given Yoda a better reason for giving up the fight.
One could argue that after that point in the duel, Yoda could sense he was going to lose, but in a movie, it's really hard to convey what a Jedi senses if they don't tell us. Yoda could have said to Bail Organa, "too powerful he is, defeat him I cannot," rather than say "failed I have, into exile I must go." Failed? How did you fail? Yoda's line in the movie gives us no explanation. It makes it feel like Yoda just gave up.
So, rather than complain about the poor acting in the prequels, or midichlorians, how about we instead complain about how they effectively ruin the story of Star Wars? With Episodes 4-6 already 20 years old when the prequels were made, it's not like the writers didn't know how the story would end. You established things 20 years ago, now write the prequels to fit what you already said.
No comments:
Post a Comment