Star Wars! Whether you’re a fan or not, those two words will most likely conjure up images of famous light saber battles, unusual life forms in a diverse galaxy, and of course who can forget the force. I liked Star Wars growing up but it wasn’t until I got older that I really began to further understand the story much deeper, which allowed me to develop a greater appreciation for what George Lucas managed to accomplish with his sci-fi epic. But I must admit, for all it’s brilliance there’s been a few things about the six movies that just never quite made sense to me.
To begin with, the story started in 1977 with
episode 4 A New Hope, which introduced us to a young man by the name of Luke Skywalker, who would later become the central figure of this epic. It would later end with
episode 6 Return of the Jedi where Luke managed to escape the temptations of the dark side thus compelling Darth Vader (his father of course) to fulfill his destiny and bring balance back to the force by killing his master Darth Sidious. Fast forward to the summer of 1999 where a new trilogy was born starting with
episode 1 Phantom Menace, and ended in the spring of 2005 with
Revenge of the Sith. Many die-hard fans believe that the new films have put a stain on an otherwise great legacy that was created more than a decade earlier. So my biggest question is why did Lucas tell the story out of order starting with episodes 4 – 6, and later returning with the first three movies? To me it’s like reading a book from the middle to the end only to later start at the beginning to read everything that was missed from the beginning. I’m sure there’s a good explanation for this, and if you know please tell!
Another thing is that the number re-releases on DVD of the first trilogy has forced me to scratch my head many times over. I remember there was the boxed set that came either packaged in shiny gold or silver. Later came more re-issues of those classic films. I’m sure there’s a logic behind this; what that is exactly I just don’t know.
Finally this brings me to the other thing that I’m not sure of. This is actually more an observation of story telling than anything which has to do specifically with Anakin Skywalker himself. He grew up living a harsh life as a slave on Tatooine. As fate would have it, his saviours showed up and helped free him from his less than ideal life style. Unfortunately for him, his mother was not to share in his newfound freedom. She remained the property of her master Watto until he later sold her to a moister farmer by the name of Clieeg Lars. Young Skywalker would eventually become trained in the Jedi arts and along the way he showed remarkable talents in the various ways of the force. But largely through his own personal struggles, he slowly began his descent into the realm of the dark side which led to him transform into the galactic tyrant known as Darth Vader. In my view I just don’t see enough inner conflict in his life that would lead him to become such a menace to so many planetary systems. I can certainly see a person having some tough struggles starting life as a slave, being forced away from your only family only to later learn that his mom had undergone brutal torture from the sand people who captured her. Oh and I can’t forget his love interest in Padme Amidala which was very interesting considering that love and attachment were forbidden within the Jedi order. With all the strain put on his fragile emotions, it’s only reasonable to expect a person to go through all sorts of ups and downs, but I just find it a stretch that because of these events that someone could later become a galactic tyrant. Maybe I’m being overly critical, but these are just my observations.
