Rewatching Return of the Jedi

[krpalmer]

After seven weeks, my personal odyssey through the Star Wars saga once more is complete. All of a sudden, the usual gritches of others on just about every facet of the movies were gone from my mind, and I just plain enjoyed watching Return of the Jedi. (It may be that I was still drawing back on memories of watching the Vintage Editions with their noticeable matte lines.)

Of course, I've been tempted at times in the past to call the three new Star Wars movies in part an elaborate effort to brush up Return of the Jedi's image. (This follows one of my first reactions to The Phantom Menace, that its final battle didn't just try to top the previous final battle by weaving four threads together, but to correct the "primitives versus technology" theme George Lucas wanted for quite some time to develop by giving the Gungans better equipment and, perhaps, by ensuring that the battle droids didn't wind up with even the minimal competence that some fans insisted on granting the stormtroopers. Not that anyone else seemed to get that idea, of course...) By establishing Anakin Skywalker's past, they help even people like me to understand that there is indeed good left in Darth Vader, that his casting down of the Emperor to save his son is the climax of the movie instead of something that just happened to happen. (It may be a subtle response to the old complaints that the Millennium Falcon "should have been blown up in the Death Star" so that "we'd be left with a sense of loss"; what actually happened seemed to have gone right over those people.) Also, I may enjoy the Emperor more now that he's explicitly the "ultimate evil" instead of "just an attempt to top Vader." However, another thought that's begun occurring to me is that Return of the Jedi is likewise necessary for the new movies. It helps further establish that there was, after all, something good about Anakin and Padme falling in love, that they shouldn't have just controlled their youthful urges and lived the way the Jedi always had.

Spreading the movies out over seven weekends gave me a chance to watch Clone Wars as well, and perhaps each movie could be viewed more as itself. It may ultimately have been as demanding of time in its own way as jamming six movies into one weekend, though, and it leaves me with the question of just what to do next weekend.

Comments

[matril.livejournal.com]

It helps further establish that there was, after all, something good about Anakin and Padme falling in love, that they shouldn't have just controlled their youthful urges and lived the way the Jedi always had.

Absolutely. I think I'm in the minority opinion here, but I feel that marrying Padme and having children was, in fact, one of the ways that Anakin fulfilled the calling of the Chosen One. The Jedi Order's complete eschewal of attachment, I believe, had led to an imbalance in the Force. (Yes, yes, the Sith caused much of the imbalance, but not all of it). The way Force-sensitivity is passed on from parent to child seems to be the natural way of things, something that could not happen with a policy of celibacy. Anakin's decision to pass on his Force-sensitive genes infused new life into the Jedi. His decision to slaughter them, of course, did the opposite...but by that point he was veering a long way from the path of the Chosen One...

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

That seems more just an interpretation I'd never thought of myself than a "minority opinion" to me, but it's interesting enough now. I had supposed that the celibacy policy could be seen as both reducing the dangers of attachment and demonstrating that the Jedi won't become a superior aristocracy... but since I've contemplated that they let themselves downplay the possibility that the Force had a will of its own, that could be a further demonstration of it.

[matril.livejournal.com]

The superior aristocracy is definitely a valid issue of concern, and I don't have an easy solution for it. As for the dangers of attachment, however, they can't be solved merely by cutting off all possibility of ever becoming attached. It's just not realistic - even Yoda is clearly devastated by the loss of his fellow Jedi. The difference is that he's able to deal with the loss. The ability to love and mourn is a strength, not a weakness - as long as it isn't colored by bitterness and envy that lead to the Dark Side. When the Jedi deny themselves of the oppportunity to learn how to deal with loss, they do a disservice to themselves as well as the people they serve (how can you have compassion for people dealing with loss if you haven't dealt with it yourself?)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I also tend to think Anakin and Padmé were "fated" by more than their hormones. While we don't know if Anakin wouldn't have turned to the Dark Side without Padmé or her pregnancy in the picture, we know he wouldn't have been brought back without the twins. The Force moves in mysterious ways.