mostly copy-pasted from cc.net

fourth viewing today.

1) maybe yoda just decided that he was too evenly matched with palpy? or maybe that, given his age and the immensity of his recent loss, he just didn't have the edge in the fight? or, maybe, my newest insight: he had a feeling somewhere deep down that he just wasn't meant to win this battle. because doing so is not going to bring the balance back. quite frankly, he's not the chosen one and he knows it.

2) and then there was some sudden emotional depth add-on to yoda's situation: that he's probably wondering what his teachers/mentors/masters think of how he's handled the situation. his early youth saw the supposed extinction of the sith, his middle years was spent strengthening the jedi order, his old age gone to preserve the vestige of the worth of the jedi way. now, though he's at the peak of the jedi thinking, he still loses. it's just incredibly sad that he's seeing the flaws of his life's work break down everything that he and his kind had sworn to protect. how's that for guilt trip and major failure depression. made me think of how each generation should look backwards from time to time and realize that you are, and should always, be the student. it's easy to lean into over-confidence if you are at the tip-top of society while in your prime. so many people do that...have always done that throughout time. whatever happened to the worth and value of the people who went before you? i think that's what ultimately makes yoda such a wise being...that he's humble because of his understanding of wisdom and power. he doesn't make assumptions on principle (e.g. mace going "the sith have been extinct!!" in tpm) and he's open to change. obiwan takes the Real Long Hard road to that lesson. in such, luke was wiser than either his father or obiwan. he got it and he got it much sooner than either of them.

3) part of what keeps obiwan at a distance from anakin, what keeps him from truly seeing anakin as his emotional equal if you will, is his persistence in placing anakin on that "chosen one" pedestal. he says that on mustafar..."you were the chosen one...!". like, he just couldn't seperate anakin the person from anakin the savior and that put a block between them. plus, the man's just way over reserved. he had more than a few opportunities to reach out to anakin as a supportive friend but he held back to jedi principles...ideas that may have worked on any normal jedi but not on anakin.

4) even if palpy was defeated by mace or yoda so early on, it doesn't mean that chaos wouldn't have reigned. it would've been a different kind of chaos than what the empire eventually wrought, but it'd be chaos nonetheless simply because the government and society of the galaxy in its current state is already corrupted. so corrupted that vast numbers of senate officials can be bought because they are more serving their own ends than others. people complain about our own current U.S. government being corrupted but i think that there's at least a strong core of belief in the principles of the system by all that glues the government and people together. i'm not saying that there aren't corrupt officials in congress or anything but that, for the most part, we come from a stance of fairness for all -- whereas the people in the star wars universe have lost that belief. basically, the twenty years of suffering and collapse under the rule of the empire had to happen before people could truly realize and appreciate what it is to have a real republic system. in the eu, there is still plenty of corruption in the new republic. but i think that the difference between the new and the old is that the new generation carry with them the lessons of loss and are more inclined to work towards a government for the general good.

5) palpy was sneaking looks at anakin's reactions during the anakin/mace exchange on the window ledge. he kept opening just his right eye to look sideways at anakin when anakin was arguing with mace.

6) so like, people keep talking about why anyone could just access security recordings of the chancellor's room. and that, if him talking to his new apprentice darth vader was recorded, why didn't anyone else notice? my initial logic was that, since the jedi are the impartial protectors of democracy, it'd make sense for them to have access to the security cams in the chancellor's office. after all, protecting him is part and parcel with keeping peace in the galaxy. nobody else would get to see inside palpy's office cuz then it'd be an invasion of privacy. then, after today's viewing, i realized that it's not even a recording of them in his office at all...it's actually anakin talking to palpy's hologram after he's slaughtered the jedi in the jedi temple. thus, hey of course the jedi would have access to the recordings in their own temple. duh. it's their home. god, am i smart or what. this whole time the answer was right in front of me.

7) it's been questioned why obiwan would not recognize the droids when luke brings them to him on tatooine. i just realized today that i never thought obiwan didn't recognize them to begin with...he was just pretending because it's part of his plan to trap luke. and, for the record, i thought that he was pretending from the first time i ever saw episode 4. from the start i thought he was a sneaky bastard. if you see it again, it's pretty easy to conclude that he's lying because he does the whole "touch my chin and look thoughtful" pose and pauses for just a slight second before answering luke. punk.

8) i've read elsewhere on another board that palpy was literally deconstructing the senate when he starts flinging senate chair frisbees at yoda. while i didn't quite see it so literally, i did, from the first viewing, get a flash of "whoa, he's just so far gone at this point that he's not even gonna hide his contempt for the system any longer". when he and yoda blast each other away with force lightning in the end, his cackles of glee as he's struggling to climb back onto a senate chair was just perfect...perfect personification of a man who's just totally gone over the edge. completely wonked out.

9) this movie is perfect. bascially i'm just not in a "let's be kind to people with differing opinions" mood any longer. whatever. there's nothing wrong with this movie...no bad acting, no bad lines, no bad scenes, no inconsistencies, NOTHING. the end. if you're looking for a space opera, then just imagine the cast of, say, days of our lives in a sci-fi space setting. cuz guess what, people on days die of a lack of will to live all the damn time. star wars is just couched in mythological themes that touch a universal chord rather than deal with issues such as love and betrayal on a singularly personal level.