Plot Pondering
Sep. 26th, 2013 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerNot that long after watching Revenge of the Sith and getting halfway through the Star Wars movies, I was pleased to hear my copy of Paul F. McDonald's The Star Wars Heresies had shipped weeks ahead of when I'd been expecting it. Before I got around to McDonald's analysis of the half of the saga I'd just watched, though, I did want to try and set down certain of my own (if less deeply delving) contemplations, ones I'd perhaps been anticipating dealing with anew.
There are times when a "heresy" of my own comes easily to mind and I find myself wondering if, while with the old Star Wars movies some people fixated on the gadgetry and tactics of their "large" story, "the Rebellion versus the Empire," and began to miss really considering how the main characters of those movies develop, with the new movies the fates of the main characters are more obviously intertwined with the fate of the galaxy as a whole once you've let go of the little problem of interpreting everything from performances to effects with negativity and hostility, whether that springs from having been offended by broad comedy relief or just from hearing "everyone else" dwell on that. Disentangling that "large" story, though, brings to mind the schemes of Palpatine. Very lately, some new discussion of that did get me wondering once more how, since he creates the Empire and has powers that involve "foreseeing" things, there's at least the possibility that everything that happened in the three movies occurred according to a precise plan. He and his apprentice at the end may wind up damaged, but if he's indifferent to externals and this helps keep Darth Vader in line...
Even so, I still find myself resisting this, wanting him instead to be a bit quicker on his feet than everyone else and able to adapt to changing circumstances. There's not too much to point that exclusive way, and I'm conscious there may yet be "official word" at this late date (or it's already in a book somewhere, even if it's easy for me to brush the Star Wars books off), but maybe I want to keep "alternatives" in mind to be able to at least imagine the other main characters reaching a happy ending. Or, perhaps, considering everything to be part of his plan also supposes Anakin was created by the Sith after all to ruin the day of those who trusted in him, a thought that doesn't appeal to me either.
In thinking of that, I do wonder at times if Palpatine might be imagined to have a plan at the start of The Phantom Menace that would involve the Republic falling right then and there, something involving the assassination of Queen Amidala and the battle droids being able to easily overpower Jedi, as the Trade Federation might have supposed. I suppose this would, though, make a "smooth transition" from Republic to Empire more difficult. I'm also sort of intrigued by a speculation I read back in D. Trull's "The Shroud of the Dark Side" that Palpatine just wanted Anakin and Padme to grate against each other, and a full-fledged romance was a bonus so far as he was considered. All of this, of course, might just amount to "I appreciate other opinions so long as they agree with mine."
There are times when a "heresy" of my own comes easily to mind and I find myself wondering if, while with the old Star Wars movies some people fixated on the gadgetry and tactics of their "large" story, "the Rebellion versus the Empire," and began to miss really considering how the main characters of those movies develop, with the new movies the fates of the main characters are more obviously intertwined with the fate of the galaxy as a whole once you've let go of the little problem of interpreting everything from performances to effects with negativity and hostility, whether that springs from having been offended by broad comedy relief or just from hearing "everyone else" dwell on that. Disentangling that "large" story, though, brings to mind the schemes of Palpatine. Very lately, some new discussion of that did get me wondering once more how, since he creates the Empire and has powers that involve "foreseeing" things, there's at least the possibility that everything that happened in the three movies occurred according to a precise plan. He and his apprentice at the end may wind up damaged, but if he's indifferent to externals and this helps keep Darth Vader in line...
Even so, I still find myself resisting this, wanting him instead to be a bit quicker on his feet than everyone else and able to adapt to changing circumstances. There's not too much to point that exclusive way, and I'm conscious there may yet be "official word" at this late date (or it's already in a book somewhere, even if it's easy for me to brush the Star Wars books off), but maybe I want to keep "alternatives" in mind to be able to at least imagine the other main characters reaching a happy ending. Or, perhaps, considering everything to be part of his plan also supposes Anakin was created by the Sith after all to ruin the day of those who trusted in him, a thought that doesn't appeal to me either.
In thinking of that, I do wonder at times if Palpatine might be imagined to have a plan at the start of The Phantom Menace that would involve the Republic falling right then and there, something involving the assassination of Queen Amidala and the battle droids being able to easily overpower Jedi, as the Trade Federation might have supposed. I suppose this would, though, make a "smooth transition" from Republic to Empire more difficult. I'm also sort of intrigued by a speculation I read back in D. Trull's "The Shroud of the Dark Side" that Palpatine just wanted Anakin and Padme to grate against each other, and a full-fledged romance was a bonus so far as he was considered. All of this, of course, might just amount to "I appreciate other opinions so long as they agree with mine."