What I don't get about the Star Wars prequels.

[arcadian]

Episode I Anakin is a cute little kid with a gift.
Episode II Anakin is a out of control teenage dickhead with a gift.
Episode III Anakin is a complete dick, Hitler scale dick. Kills a bunch of younglings.

And then by Episode VI he redeems himself by only sparing one life, his son's, and all of a sudden everything is hunky-dory. WTF? What about the younglings????

This draws onto a serious question. If Lucas just did the series in order would releasing Phantom Menace in 1977 and Newe Hope through Jedi were the ones released in the 2000s, what would that have done to the franchise?

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. In my years as a fanboy

I have found switching to decaf to be quite efficacious.

;) :hug:

Updated cuz fanboys can't spel.

[arcadian]

3. Younglings!

[Fire Walk With Me]

They were all going to grow up as whiny as Luke Skywalker. They had to go.

[RandomThoughts]

6. That is full of win LOL

:rofl:

[JTG of the PRB]

2. I think the general idea was that Anakin Skywalker was "conceived" to bring balance to the force.

According to the Jedi, the Sith are the cause for the Force being unbalanced because they tap into the darker side through pain, suffering, yadda yadda yadda. When Darth Vader killed the Emperor in RotJ, he knew doing that would likely kill him.

There are only supposed to be two Sith at a time - the master and the apprentice. The Emperor was the master, and Vader was the apprentice. With both of them dead, there would be no one around to pass on the ways of the dark side of the Force, and the Sith would be utterly destroyed (supposedly forever), thereby bringing balance to the Force once again.

So when Darth Vader sacrificed himself in order to kill the Emperor, he was doing what the prophecy had said he would do - bring balance to the Force. it just took about 30 years longer than the Jedi thought it would.

And I'm officially a geek.

[arcadian]

5. So the living force or good force brought Anakin around ?

And it's cool that he killed younglings because it all evened out in the end?

[JTG of the PRB]

9. It's hard to tell what brought him around in the end.

It's never explicitly discussed in the movies, though I'd imagine that Luke Skywalker, in someways, reminded Anakin of the man he once was a long time ago. Anakin was once a young man in love, willing to go to great lengths to protect his loved ones, and the Emperor (then-Chancellor Palpatine) used that fear to twist Anakin's emotions and his thoughts into joining the dark side and becoming a Sith.

Perhaps seeing Luke, as a grown man and a full-fledged Jedi, reminded Anakin of what he had lost and what he had done, and he realized he needed to atone for what he had done in his past and become the man he always should have been.

As for the younglings, Luke never new about that, as far as we know at least. The only people who knew were Obi-wan and Yoda, and by the time Luke confronted Vader in RotJ, they were both dead. In any case, the concept of death was a little different for the Jedi, no amtter from where that death came:

“Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealously. The shadow of greed, that is.” -Yoda

Death was a natural part of life, whether premature or not. That was the fear Anakin had - that he would lose the ones he loved most, and that was how he was convinced to come to the dark side - with the dream of protecting those he cared about from Death itself. That fear began his journey to the dark side.

[arcadian]

12. R2 probably knew

[Dr. Strange]

8. See, I don't think that's what the problem was.

The reason for the lack of balance in the Force was, ironically, the Jedi. They spent so much time and energy trying to ignore their emotions. A proper, balanced view of the Force requires that one be in CONTROL of their emotions--but not at the expense of ignoring them. Indeed, it was this ignorance that allowed the Sith to rise up--right under the nose of the Jedi!

This balance is restored in Anakin and his son Luke, as evidenced (for example) by Luke falling in love and getting married (something Obi Wan and Yoda would have found verboten).

And with that, I have out-geeked you!

[arcadian]

10. That brings up another point, Luke and Leia making out.

And it wasn't like "oh they made out at the end of New Hope and then found out they were blood related at the end of Jedi." It all happened in Empire, so George Lucas knew damn well what they were doing, not mention there was most definitely tongue in that kiss.

[JTG of the PRB]

11. Well, sir, I will tip my hat to you in this particular case.

I agree that the Jedi were part of the problem, but they were also the greater part of the solution in the end, at least as Luke Skywalker became the first non-traditional (and better-balanced) Jedi before starting the new Jedi order.

In any case, I bow to thy geekiness!

[Bucky]

4. You should just pretend none of the last four movies ever happened.

Also, pretend you never saw this...

[arcadian]

7. I can live with Jedi,

They should have just made the Ewoks more fearsome. And parts of I, II, and III have their moments. Revenge of the Sith is a pretty kick ass movie. Look at that film with out the others and it does alright standing alone. But when you add it to the others it kind of falls apart.

[lunatica]

19. OK That's it! Go to your room!

[jobycom]

13. I don't know how hunky-dory everything was.

I mean, Vader killed the Emperor and died. Luke was pretty happy about his life getting saved, and all emotional that his daddy had finally done the right thing, especially since he had done it for Luke. That right thing ended the war and the threat and made butterflies sing, so everyone was happy he did it. Vader was dead, so there wasn't much to forgive or overlook. Luke was a sappy bloke, and everyone just sort of went along with him and danced with the Ewoks.

I mean, for most of the Rebels, all they cared about was that Vader and the Emperor were dead and the war was won.

As for the order of the movies, I liked the later three, and think they were probably as well made as the earlier three. I think what changed were people's exposure to better effects and more sophisticated sci-fi/fantasy, and that's why the later ones didn't work as well for most people.

I didn't like Return of the Jedi much when I saw it, and thought the Vader conversion was silly, and the happy Annikan ghost a bit much. When I saw the Prequels and then watched the original three again in order (not all in one sitting, I'm not that much of a Geek), I liked the Return ending a lot more. So I think the Prequels were successful as part of the storyline, even if weaker as standalone films. Whether the release order could have been reversed, who knows? It's impossible to take the films out of the context in which I originally saw them. My older daughter saw the Prequels first, then the earlier films, and she still liked all of them, if that means anything.

[lunatica]

14. The younglings went to the Force just like Ben Kenobi

[SoxFan]

15. Just what the Galaxy needs

A bunch of holographic third graders fading in and out, asking if we're there yet...

[Swede]

16. People! Get a life!

[dugaresa]

17. personally I think the last prequel was horrible because it wasn't believable

i think that to really justify Anakin going apeshit and becoming a dick it would have been better to have made it a play on jealousy.

Personally I think that if it had been written to make Obi Wan look like he was messing around with Padme (even if he wasn't) and to channel jealousy. Are the kids his? What is she doing? blah blah

it would have made the final sequences more justifiable. otherwise it makes Anakin/Vader look like an OCD wack job afraid of people dying which is inevitable.

[Sky Masterson]

18. You should watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI
And everything this guy puts out..(Don't let the voice turn you off,wait for it)
The rest of the vids are at the link.