Always on the move

The music still ringing in our ears, and our feelings immersed in a turmoil of passions, we are leaving.

When did ROTS stop being a movie and start being a part of our personal history ?
I couldn't say, it can't be defined as clearly.
Well, the Stakhanovian enthusiasm we've been putting to it surely is partly responsible for it, but this episode is cleary a big one for any Star Wars fan; and as such, we were thrilled, moved, shocked ... all those feelings any good old "ad-venture" movie promised its viewers.

It's too early (and too personal) too express what teachings (if any) can be deduced from ROTS. The scale of the story, the implications of decisions made however call for some deep thinking about ourselves.

What are the consequences, are we being influenced even when we think we are acting for the good ?
And even if our thoughts are not as free as we would like, who can tell we are not going to change radically in the future, despite all our environment ?

Which produces the following wondering: what makes us what we are? The things we do, and how we look while doing them, or the deep roots that are not shown, but from which radiate everything we use to interact with the outside ?

During the OT, Anakin/Vader is what he looks: threatening, evil, eventually redeemed, but through suffering.
During the PT, we see his outer self transform into something he did not choose to be, which casts an entirely new light on the OT. But his inner self is still there, all the time less able to express itself.

Vader's inner strength

We too face choices that are consequences of our actions, and of our surroundings.
The question being, do we want to let our outer self become what we are, or let our inner self loose ?

Well, this ROTS in Lund'un blog is at an end, it is now time for us to leave.

And so it is.

Once in a lifetime

Or rather seven ... :)

Jedi might have found the path to immortality.
Does that mean the Force will be shaken to its very foundations, unbalanced to the point that another Dark swing is needed to preserve the universe's entropy ?

There are so little Jedi remaining after ROTS: Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin in a way, and the now few castaway Jedis that will surely be swept away by an anger filled Vader.
So the Force is clearly unbalanced at the beginning of ANH, and will remain so until ROTJ.

But what of the following years ? According to the expanded universe (EU) novels, the Jedi are to rise again thanks to Luke's academy. I am still not totally sure if EU novels are considered canon, but since no other movie or TV show is supposed to cover that time span, we can only but try to guess.

And so, it is inevitable that the Dark side came back after the glorious days of the new republic's victory over the Empire.
Be it by political or direct Force corruption, I feel the universe needs alternate positions to fuel itself.

After all, don't the prophecy and the whole movies gravitate around the "balance" concept ?
Theoretically, a balance is a stable but easily modified state of contradicory powers within a system (the universe, or a marble on top of an inflated balloon).
A small amount of energy or Force nudge is all it takes to have the marble slide one way or the other, to make the universe hurl towards the Dark or Light side ...

But maybe another balance can be reached, maybe that inflated balloon is more like an air mattress, with several possible balance spots ?

The purple rose of Coruscant

Six times ...

Six republic falling, and Sith rising. Multiple treasons and endless attempts to avoid the unavoidable.

The good thing about this episode is that viewing ROTS six times doesn't mean we saw the same story each time.

We started enjoying the simple (nearly slapstick) humor, the high speed chases and combats. The talking parts are slightly left in the background, since they seem to have little influence on these overwhelming acts of war.

Then, once the surprise part of the action sequences passes, we focus on the threads tying those action scenes together, that is the exposition parts, the conversation sequences.
Important information is revealed there, with direct impact on what we see afterwards, but not only, since references are made to things we haven't seen and will not see in the movie. This is where the fun begins, because we start to feel, how the plot is thicker than just a few fiercly clashing lightsabers.

The story takes a new turn as the number of viewings increases, as we nearly know each sentence, every voice tone or brief glance ... we are there, we feel like we are sitting in the Jedi temple, aboard the "Invisible hand" or riding a jolly varactyl ...
The story arcs are all clear, and help us discover hidden ones, or why not make up our own ?

This is a living movie, in which we feel very much alive ...

R1-D1

Teraflop made a comment on another droid narrator: R.Daneel Olivaw (and R. Giskard Reventlov) from Asimov's "Robots" and "Foundation" unified cycles.

I thought of the analogy too, and it struck me, enough to stop and think: what else could it mean, what kind of other relations could there be between R2 and the others characters, and the Force ?
After all, R2 witnesses much of Anakin's heroics, and is present during most of Luke's training on Dagobah.

This is getting more and more disturbing and interesting !

PS: Miobi spotted Mon Mothma, she saw her on the landing pad where Anakin and Obi-Wan land on after having rescued Palpatine, and Obi says he's not going, not willing to take credit for Anakin's high deeds.

It's a small galaxy after all

What is more important: please the fans, or serve the story ?

Is the limit so easy to draw ?
When Boba Fett was added to the special edition of ANH, was it only to wink at the fans, generate more cards to collect and action figures to play with, or was it a valid move, because knowing that Boba was just one of Jabba's cronies, like 'krispa Greedo', would give the character more interesting 'canon' data to play with ?

The answer is: both, because avid collecting freaks need more sealed boxes, and fans are always hungry for official stories about their heroes.

Revisiting the Lars' homestead in AOTC was a clever move, because it solves 3PO's knowledge of binary moisture vaporator in ANH ("It's like a second language to me"), introduces the Owen and Beru characters, and of course, makes us visit once more that well known place where Luke grows up ...

ROTS is no exception, since we get to see governor Tarkin, complete with nearly imperial uniform, supervising the behemoth space station building.
We also see early TIEs, star destroyers, X-Wings, the real Tantive IV Corellian Corvette, with genuine Captain Antilles, responsible for 3PO's mind wipe (if you take my meaning).

And ... I think I'm really imagining things here, but it seems to me that one of the troopers attending Obi-Wan's briefing before his departure to Utapau has something of a resemblance with a very young (17 or 19 years old) Han Solo !
I know the age doesn't really match with the movie time frame, but nearly ... if Solo is in his late thirties during ANH, it could work !

It is not unlikely that thanks to Palpatine's propaganda during the clone wars, humans found the desire to enlist in the republic army, soon to become the imperial armed body.

That idea is validated by a woman republic officer I saw briefly during one of the battle sequences, she did not look like a Jedi.
And I don't think she's Mon Mothma, who is more political than military anyway.
Speaking of which ... where the blazes is Mon Mothma ??? I saw the action figure, but she seems to hve been cut from the movie !
Let's hope she will make her way to the DVD deleted scenes section :)

Wait a minute ... didn't Mace Windu do that already ?

Do astromech droids dream of cloned nunas ?

Star Wars is also about time, how it transforms us, despite our actions, and how we use it to our advantage, even against the odds.

Time for an ignorant farmboy to grow up to a new Jedi, time for a powerful Jedi to be burnt down by his passions.
Time for a galactic republc to turn into an Empire, and back.

But what is time without a way to measure it, without a witness ?
How useful is a story without anyone to remember, and to tell it ?

These musings lead to the inevitable but so exciting question: who is the narrator of that story that happened a long time ago, so far away ?
It must be someone with exceptional longevity, unnaturally accurate memory. Someone who would have lived all this, and survived all these battles and wars, someone who would not have been influenced by Palpatine's propaganda to make people forget about the Jedi, someone who would not have had a memory wipe ...

Yes, R2 could and should be that supernatural narrator ... He (or she, or it, as you prefer) was there when all memorable events took place, he insisted that Luke met that old hermit Ben.
I know several situations of the OT still need explanation to fit that stunning revelation (especially the R2 /Yoda meeting on Dagobah), and I'll let you work on that little exercise; I did it myself, and ... let's say that crazy idea seems to be possible.

This guy's wise


They are for sale, if you want them ...

The big picture

As usual in Star Wars, the story of ROTS is not a single one. Several threads are followed, some coming from previous episodes, some appearing for the first time.

All however are woven into a great picture, the proportions of which transcend each and every one of the protagonists.
Each new time we see this canvas unveiling, we get a more acute feeling of being presented with a tapestry of grandeur and magnifiscence that we couldn't grasp after the first screening.

And so, new details, new implications and reasons that were all but hiding in the shadows, become obvious, giving us that feeling of earned knowledge, and raising at the same time a new list of questions.
"Were Anakin's visions real or created by Palpatine ?" "Is Palpatine mentally linked to Anakin, and influencing him to come to his office despite Mace Windu's orders ?" "When Anakin lands on that floating platform next to Obi-Wan, he loses his balance for an instant. Could Obi-Wan have struck him at that very moment ?"

I can't wait for tomorrow, more things will be revealed ... :)

Odeon Angels

In a minute ...

Spoiled and rotten

Where to begin ?

There is so much to say after having seen "Revenge of the Sith" twice on that first day.
Let's just say that George Lucas definitely spoiled us fans, and that I am utterly 'rotten' now.

Beware, I shall now spoil you abouts ROTS.
Let's begin ...

That last movie of the new prequel trilogy (PT) contains nearly all that was initiated in the first two, with ingredients of the original trilogy (OT).

First, that light humor during tense moments is back, bringing to ROTS something that was somewhat missing in TPM and AOTC. Don't getta me wrongo, ROTS is not a funny movie, it is sad, and even tragic.
Because not only does the story reveal what happened to Anakin Skywalker, but also focuses on the fall of the Old Republic, the story of Palpatine, and tying all the bits of information from the PT and the OT.
And as if this was not enough information to swallow, we even get to know a host of new planets, several new flavors of clone troopers, not to mention the ever growing list of vehicles, weaponry and tiny bleeping and blinking pieces of Star Wars technology.

Creating Sith

Most important of all, the Saga is now complete, the story now has a beginning, and I already have that urge to see the OT, again, because it won't mean the same again, not after ROTS.
This difficult task of bridging two generations (of characters as well as viewers) is, in my opinion, a success.
We were happy to finally get to see that Obi-Wan / Anakin confrontation, to witness the twins birth, and of course, the creation of the dark lord of the Sith, with genuine helmet attaching hissing sound, and original James Earl Jones deep voice !
And that feeling of relief was equally balanced with brand new subplots and ideas, such as where Palpatine found his Dark knowledge, and that there are still Jedi in hiding throughout the galaxy, and that R2-D2 did not get a memory wipe as C-3PO !!!

One of the things that pleased me the most is that I seem to have foreseen things correctly (not a very Jedi way of thinking, I know :)
Palpatine mentions that a Sith that I believe to have been his master had found the way to create life out of Midichlorians. He says that while giving Anakin a strange look.
This matches an idea I had since episode I: Anakin's mother, Shmi, carried her son without a father, and this son has the highest midichlorian count ever measured.
I was thinking at the time: what if Palpatine, master of deception and manipulation, had used outer rim, backwater lawless worlds (such as Tatooine) as experimental fields to try and create beings artificially, with midichlorian manipulation ?
That would make of Palpatine, virtually, Anakin's father ! And so, ROTJ would be the story of a grandson (Luke) fighting a father (Anakin/Vader), killing a grandfather (Palpatine) ...
That would create the possibility of other artificially created midichlorian freaks on other lost planets.

Oh well, it's getting late. I have more things to say, but they will have to wait ...

Here we go again ...

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away ..."
In three hours from now, we'll see those words one last time on the big screen.

Not so far away

"What ?! You mean you are not queing up already ?"
Well, with all our tickets booked in advance, there's no need, we booked our fourteen seats two months ago (yes, I know, people always give us 'that stare' when they understand we are going to see ROTS seven times in a week :o)
And so, we still are going to enjoy a typical cooked english breakfast, and, oh yeah, RUN to the theatre, because we won't be able to contain our excitement any more !
So much for dignity and grace, this is 'the' time, the great ending, the Ouroboros of all things (well, Star Wars speaking ...)

Without further ado, let's go !!!

Good thing the seats are numbered