illuminating science

So I just wanted to post some quick thoughts about Revenge of the Sith, and some of the questions it answered and raised. Sure, it’s not physics, but what better way to spend your day than analysing the mysterious of the Universe, even someone else’s?! Read on if you’ve seen the movie - spoilers follow!

So, here’s a few of my thoughts and ideas about what this movie means for the Star Wars universe. Starting with the most mundane, why was C3P0’s memory wiped at the end of the movie? (”To be consistent with the original trilogy” is not a satisfactory answer…) The best I can come up with is that C3P0 is a little flakey, and couldn’t be trusted with the knowledge that Amidala did indeed have her children, and who they were, where they went, etc. Why R2D2 was trusted, I don’t know - but he’s consistently proved himself to be a worthy fighter, particularly in the opening scenes of this movie, which I thought was very cool.

As I mentioned, I loved the scene where Anakin and Palpatine are at the theatre, and Palpatine talks about the old Sith who was murdered by his apprentice. Of coursre, it has to be Palpatine’s master, and Palpatine reveals just a little more of himself as he describes the Sith’s downfall. (Incidentally, I thought Palpatine was wonderful in that scene - so sinister!) I wonder how long ago that was? One of my friends suggested that Sifo-Dyas, the Jedi who supposedly ordered the clone army, might have been this Sith master, as he was “killed” (how is not explained) and was involved with the whole Clone thing. However, I don’t think the timing works out - the army would have been started around the time of Episode 1 (about 10 years before Episode 2) when we know that Darth Maul was Palpatine’s apprentice, and according to various sites, Darth Maul was kidnapped and trained from birth. As there is only ever two Sith (these days, anyway) that means Palpatine must have been the Sith lord for quite a long time.

So that still leaves the question of who Sifo-Dyas really was. Some have suggested that is was Palpatine/Darth Sidious himself, citing the way Yoda and Mace respond in Episode II (silence, but looking meaningfully at each other) which suggests there’s something fishy going on. But I can’t believe that Palpatine could double as a Jedi and not have someone know about it…Hard to say what’s really going on. Clouded, the future is.

Then, there’s the battle between the Emperor and Mace Windu. One has to think that the Emperor wasn’t really beaten in the light saber battle, and could have stopped Mace at any time - after all, if Yoda couldn’t take him down, could Mace Windu reall have? It could have been a lucky hit, sure, but the Emperor didn’t even fire lightning until after Anakin came into the room, and indeed, lost his saber just before Anakin arrived. This leads me to think that the fight was staged by Palpatine so that when Anakin entered, he would see Palpatine, his old friend and father-figure, being threatened by the Jedi.

Then, he starts the lightning battle. Was he really trying as hard as he could? Yoda was thrown across the room by it when the Emperor went full out. I’m inclined to believe that it was all an act, and that he was making himself appear pitiful and weak so that Anakin would be forced to act to defend him, and stop Mace Windu. As for his delightfully scarred face, it’s hard to know if that was intentional or not. Perhaps it was still another way to gain Anakin’s sympathy and trust, or perhaps it was a consequence of using the lightning for so long, or perhaps it was his true self showing through - it’s hard to know. Most likely, I think, is that the lightning reflected off Mace’s saber caused the damage - and he needed to prolong the encounter for as long as he could to gain Anakin’s sympathy (but I don’t know whether he intentionally wanted to be damaged like that…).

And my last question - what did Anakin really believe, what was he lying about, and what did he pretend, even to himself, that he believed? Did he believe that the Jedi were against democracy and trying to take power for themselves? He knew that Palpatine was a Sith, and had originally handed him over…so one finds that hard to believe. Perhaps it was just an excuse, for himself and for everyone else, to allow him to pursue what he truly wanted - to save Amidala’s life. Did he really believe that he was going to bring peace to his “empire”? Did he believe that he was actually doing the right thing? Hard to know - but the tears on his face at various times seemed to suggest otherwise. Yoda said that he had become twisted by the Dark Side, so there may well be more at play than simple psychology.

Anyway - I better leave it at that. Hopefully that’s some food for thought. And hello to all the visitors from around the world, stopping in for their Star Wars info!