Harry's Blog

We watched the Star Wars Episodes IV-VI on Saturday, that's A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. This is the first time I had seen the movies since seeing Revenge of the Sith a week before.

As expected, Sith really did change the way I saw many of the elements of the movies. Of course, one can nitpick; when Obi-Wan tells Luke "I've not been known as Obi-Wan since before you were born" it's now clear it's not quite true. But if Lucas went back and made every part of the Prequel Trilogy match the Original Trilogy it really just would be a pointless waste of pedantic time.

I had much more sympathy with Vader now, especially how he was just Tarkin's lackey in A New Hope. Then the way he was manipulated by Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back - being given the news he had a son must have stirred up all those thoughts of Padme that led to his downfall. Then in Jedi you hear compassion in his voice when he talks to Luke, while still on the Endor moon.

The thing that struck me most though was the parallels between Anakin and Luke. The similarities with the artificial hand are quite obvious, but having seen Episode III I was struck by how many character-based similarities there are. Luke is emotional and arrogant. He believes he has what it takes, yet makes decisions based on emotions rather than logic. This is just what led Anakin to fall.

"Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They do you credit, but they could be made to serve the Emperor" Obi-Wan tells the young Jedi in ROTJ. The Jedi Master has seen how Palpatine uses the emotions of others and how he can manipulate them. The thrown-room scenes in ROTJ became stronger in my mind with the parallels to Revenge of the Sith and Anakin's redemption all the more powerful.