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Did Revenge of the Sith Accomplish What it Needed To?

© Marla Cartwright

As a longtime fan of the Star Wars Trilogy, beginning with the first movie's release in 1977 up to my Master's thesis in 1994 dealing with Luke Skywalker's mythic quest, I have been looking forward to the completion of George Lucas' massive story for a long time. A much anticipated film by fans around the world, Revenge of the Sith (ROTS) had a difficult mission to fulfill as the missing middle piece of Lucas' giant jigsaw narrative. Unlike the Lord of the Rings trilogy which was filmed simultaneously and released fairly quickly, this movie had to successfully connect Episode 2, the most recent movie, with Episode 4, the oldest movie, smoothly creating a narrative thread that would weave 6 movies together, spanning over 25 years of storytelling.

So, did ROTS achieve the narrative goals? Obviously, the biggest challenge was to provide sufficient motivation for Anakin's fall, despite what we know is his love for Padme and the imminent birth of his children. How can this be? What are the steps to Anakin's descent? The cause for Anakin's fall is three-fold. Thankfully, Lucas avoids the simplistic storytelling methods that he sometimes favors and goes for an operatic downfall that is fraught with emotion, ill-fated circumstance and tragedy.

The first major contributor to Anakin's descent into the Dark Side is his basically being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like any good Greek tragedy, blame goes to Anakin for making bad choices, but circumstances conspire against him as well. First, the Jedi Council and the Senate put him in a politically and emotionally awkward position by asking him to spy on the other party. As a young Jedi unfinished in training, why would the Council ask this of him? If they know he's going to fail, then they are relegating him to being a buffer while they figure out how to handle the Palpatine problem. As such, the Council demonstrates much less noble aims than they claim. And if it's only a political move on their part, because of Palaptine's supposed trust in Anakin? Then, at worst, they are treating Anakin as a pawn. Either way, the Council should take responsibility. They have placed Anakin in a no-win situation.

And, regardless of how Anakin chose, which side he wanted to represent, he would've been a duplicitous spy for the side of his allegiance. Innately he knows that honorable Jedi don't behave in this manner. When Ob-Wan condones this behavior, the first cracks in his trust begin to show and he first begins to question the wisdom of his training master and good friend. The best course of action would have been to have a more experienced and stabilized in the Force Jedi gather information on Palpatine, perhaps Obi-Wan. But timing and circumstances -- fate -- conspire against Anakin. The Jedi cannot afford to lose time and Anakin is seemingly trusted by the elder statesmen, a confidante. Instead, we know that he is being groomed for his potential to use the Force, a potential that can be easily swayed to the Dark Side because his mental and physical self control is neither consistent nor perfected.