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Post #1322649

Author
NFBisms
Parent topic
Revenge of the Sith (The New Canon Cut) [ON HOLD INDEFINITELY]
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1322649/action/topic#1322649
Date created
29-Jan-2020, 4:06 PM

That’s fair. In the context of the rest of the edit though, there’s just nothing to suggest prior bad blood between Anakin and Obi-Wan. And since I’m not approaching Anakin’s fall from the angle that Anakin is blindly corrupted and villainous, I needed to convey that Anakin still sees Obi-Wan as a friend. Obviously Obi-Wan “turned” Padme against him, but I think it’s clear with the rest of the edit that Obi-Wan didn’t intend to. Anakin should be able to sense that.

Anakin in this edit hasn’t gone fully over to the dark side by this point. Sure, he’s killed a lot but he doesn’t like that he had to do it. He doesn’t feel like he’s the one who’s been betrayed - he’s fully aware that he’s the one betraying. He had hoped to hide this from Padme, and he could never look at Obi-Wan again.

But now that he’s confronted with consequence - a Padme who hates him - he doesn’t necessarily want to lose Obi-Wan too. Obi-Wan should have died. “Don’t you turn against me. Don’t lecture me. Don’t make me kill you.” Join me, just let me do this, get out of here or else.

“Don’t you turn against me” also gives Obi-Wan something to work with as reframed actually trying to help Anakin. Instead of Anakin’s anger and lust for power taking Padme away (as Obi-Wan responds to in the theatrical), they are the things that Obi-Wan says have turned against Anakin himself. Obi-Wan wants to convey that Anakin is a victim of his own selfish passions; he isn’t indicting Anakin as much as he is the toxic feelings that led him where he is now. He believes he can still make the right choice.

Anakin’s cognizant rejection of that olive branch is what will make him Vader. Padme thinks he’s a monster. It’s too late for him.

Darth Vader is a cold and in-control warlord. And a loyal servant of the Empire. He’s more hollow shell than vengeful maniac. I think the transition between Anakin and Vader is smoother without the in-between: the childlike, power-obssessed Proto-Vader we get in the theatrical.