Revenge of the Sith (*major spoilers*)

Just... wow. I mean... wow. I may not have the novel myself yet but what I have simply heard is enough. It's jam packed with references to things outside the films to tie up practically every imaginable loose end. It's been analysed down to the last detail by George Lucas himself to make sure it fits with the final image of the Star Wars universe that he wants things to end with. It really does tie up the Prequel and Classic Trilogies, and at the same time either affirm or rid us of all the stupid "fan made" crap that's existed for far too long. Best of all it explictely makes clear that Palpatine doesn't care jack for the "Rule of Two", meaning our own existance, as a whole load of Dark Jedi, isn't contradicted anymore by what Palpatine would have wanted.

I came across this small extract, thought it might be nice to share with everyone, it's a rather powerful piece from the novel:



This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker, forever:

The first dawn of light in your universe brings pain.

The light burns you. It will always burn you. Part of you will always lie upon black glass sand beside a lake of fire while flames chew upon your flesh.

You can hear yourself breathing. It comes hard, and harsh, and it scrapes nerves already raw, but you cannot stop it. You can never stop it. You cannot even slow it down.

You don't even have lungs anymore.

Mechanisms hardwired into your chest breathe for you. They will pump oxygen into your bloodstream forever.

Lord Vader? Lord Vader, can you hear me?

And you can't, not in the way you once did. Sensors in the shell that prisons your head trickle meaning directly into your brain.

You open your scorched-pale eyes; optical sensors integrate light and shadow into a hideous simulacrum of the world around you.

Or perhaps the simulacrum is perfect, and it is the world that is hideous.

Padme? Are you here? Are you all right? you try to say, but another voice speaks for you, out from the vocabulator that serves you for burned-away lips and tongue and throat.

"Padme"? Are you here? Are you all right?"

I'm very sorry, Lord Vader. I'm afraid she died. It seems in your anger, you killed her.

This burns hotter than the lava had.

"No . . . no, it is not possible!

You loved her. You will always love her. You could never will her death.
Never.

But you remember . . .

You remember all of it.

You remember the dragon that you brought Vader forth from your heart to slay. You remember the cold venom in Vader's blood. You remember the furnace of Vader's fury, and the black hatred of seizing her throat to silence her lying mouth—

And there is one blazing moment in which you finally understand that there was no dragon. That there was no Vader. That there was only you. Only Anakin Skywalker.

That it was all you. Is you.

Only you.

You did it.

You killed her.

You killed her because, finally, when you could have saved her, when you could have gone away with her, when you could have been thinking about her, you were thinking about yourself. . .

It is in this blazing moment that you finally understand the trap of the dark side, the final cruelty of the Sith—

Because now your self is all you will ever have.

And you rage and scream and reach through the Force to crush the shadow who has destroyed you, but you are so far less now than what you were, you are more than half machine, you are like a painter gone blind, a composer gone deaf, you can remember where the power was but the power you can touch is only a memory, and so with all your world-destroying fury it is only droids around you that implode, and equipment, and the table on which you were strapped shatters, and in the end, you cannot touch the shadow.

In the end, you do not even want to.

In the end, the shadow is all you have left.

Because the shadow understands you, the shadow forgives you, the shadow gathers you unto itself—

And within your furnace heart, you burn in your own flame.

This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker.

Forever. . .

Wow....Chilling. Truly chilling.

Nice, really gives one an insight into what a wicked bastard Palpatine was... heh heh. Thanks!

It's interesting really to gain an insight into the mind of George Lucas and all the things that probably should have been obvious all along. I quite like that it's now been said (by George himself no less) that Darth Vader couldn't use Force Lightning. He's not explained it but presumably it was simply "he uses that, his suit shorts out, he dies". It makes you respect the way in which Palpatine really kept Vader on a short leash to make sure he didn't try to pull anything; one blast of Force Lightning from Palpatine and bye-bye Mr. Skywalker. I suppose in a way it confirms the reason (albeit a now seemingly obvious one) why Anakin died right after chucking the Emperor down the Death Star shute.

It kinda saddens me that Count Dooku died. There are a few nice paragraphs from the book that grant an insight into the future he had envisioned. It goes on about how he wanted to forge a Sith Army, and convert the Jedi Order into the new order of Sith Knights, and stuff like that. More a return to the old days seen in previous Sith governments, the comics, KOTOR etc. rather than a total dictationship a la Palpatine.

For anybody that didn't read Khan's report:

http://www.millenniumfalcon.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3489

*drools*

What saddens me personally about the new trilogy is that there is a whole bunch of "disposable villains": Dooku, Darth Maul, and now Grievous. I would very much prefer having ONE character developed throughout all three episodes, like Darth Vader was developed in the old trilogy, and so that his death would be more powerful in Episode III.
We didn't know anything about Maul, and the things we knew about Darth Tyrannus are limited, and I'm guessing it'll be the same with Grievous as well. That's what the new trilogy lacks. Character depth.

You did get one villian all the way through the prequels:

Jar Jar Binks.

Good point, Kaine.

A villain most Foule, forsooth

Goat, where does it says that palpy give jack about the rules of two ? Perhaps it's me but I can't seems to find it....

and yes, people should read my reports =P

Gee Xanos did ya have to write that extract?!

I hated Vader until you wrote that, now I feel sympathetic towards him... :S

I read it on theforce.net forums. It says somewhere in the book that he wanted to create a dark empire ruled by an army of Sith warriors. There isn't a line of Palpatine directly saying "I don't care about the rule of two", it's more subtle than that, but he specifically talks about wanting to see a future ruled by lots and lots of Sith. It was partially hinted at in older sources that mentioned his Circle of Dark Side Adepts and wanting to eventually replace all the Moffs and Governors with Dark Side Adepts, but this is more specific in clarifying that he wanted Sith.

As for Jar Jar Binks... that's an interesting point. Is he in ROTS? I've not actually seen ANY mention of him ANYWHERE. About the most I expect from him is a cameo in the Senate Chamber. I don't even know if he has a single line in the entire film. There is one consistent bad guy though; Palpatine, which I think is the contrast to it being Darth Vader in the Classics that Lucas wanted to go for- though I admit I do wish Darth Sidious had more screen time. Darth Maul was a lot like Grand Moff Tarkin; died. Darth Tyrannus was a bit like Boba Fett; died (ignore books, we're talking about what you see in the film). Then you have Darth Sidious as comparable to Darth Vader as the continuous bad guy.

Personally I have to confess though that it does show that Lucas really should have written ALL the scripts first, not done the films before the writing, as I would so, so, so much have preferred Episode I to have been the start of the Clone Wars (or at least something about the creation of the Clones, Sidious recruiting Dooku, etc.), Episode II simply about the Clone Wars, and Episode III, well, the same as it's going to be. It would have been nice for General Grievous to have been in it from Episode I too, rather than all those Neimodian lamers. Lucas has his reasons though. He said all along that he wanted to highlight the importance of Sidious's need to keep recruiting apprentices. He gets through a lot though, especially if what's said in the new ROTS novel is true, and not just a lie to Anakin, about Syfo-Dias being his apprentice between Maul and Dooku.

It irritates me now that Liam Neeson was too up himself to agree to shoot scenes for Epsiodes II and III (I'm assuming he refused to be in III too), since it appears HE is the person who teaches Yoda and Obi-Wan how to "become one with the Force", meaning despite that Neeson had a pissy fit after Episode I whining about his character getting killed off too early he would still have had a significantly important role (I suppose he'd never watched Ep4-6 and realised that Obi-Wan died early too but that it didn't stop them giving Alec Guinness a role). I admit I don't get this part... as Lucas said he would explain "why Qui-Gon didn't fade but had to be cremated", but... if he's the first person to "become one with the Force" surely you'd think he'd have been the FIRST Jedi to fade. The fact he's the only one not to fade says to me he'd be the one NOT to have become one with the Force... but... meh. Whatever.

I thought Syfo-Dias was just Dooku's persona to order the Clones for Sidious.
And I can't really blame Neeson. Of all the characters in Episode I, his was the one with most depth. I'd be pissed if I were he, too.

No, Syfo-Dyas was a person, and a character much like Qui-Gon Jinn in the "didn't fully agree with the Jedi Council and thought they were doing jack all" sense. Exactly whether he had been coerced by Palpatine to order the Clone Army... no clue. But he was a real person, a good friend of Dooku, and the person Dooku had to kill to prove himself to Darth Sidious.

....I never knew that.