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Prequels and Superman

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Forgive me if someone's already stated this before, but, has anyone else ever noticed how Anakin's character and the parent/ child relationship in Ep.II is so reminiscent of that of Clark Kent's in the original Superman Movie with Christopher Reeve? Kent's Father dies tragically; Anakin's Mother dies equally as tragic. Both have superhuman, unnatural powers, however, they're both perplexed and stunned on how they couldn't "save" their loved one. They both wine about it (and rightfully so) in their funeral scene. the only major difference I can see is Kent doesn't fall into evil temptation, whereas Anakin obviously does. I know Lucas is notorious for "borrowing" ideas from other movies, stories and such, but these two mirror each other too much to be just coincidence... Just a thought. What does every one else think?
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I never thought of that.

I personally think it seems a little too vague, and as you said, Anakin falls while Kent doesn't.
By the way, you might want to change your avatar, because you're avatar is currently being used by Starkiller.. and it brings back some bad memories.

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I don't know that it's lifted from Superman so much as it is just a visual representation of the typical five stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). That's just what both directors/writers are showing. Both movies represented that visually and it has been shown in hundreds of other movies as well.

Both characters just chose different avenues in the acceptance phase.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
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I also don't really think that Clark's father died all that tragically from Kal-El's point of view. Sure, they all died in a planetary explosion, but this happened before he was even aware of it. As for his terran father, he died of a heart attack.

Very different from someone kidnapping them when you're an adult, slowly torturing them, and having them die right in your arms as you witness it.
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I agree with Bossk, that type of situation has been used by writers since writing down stories(or telling stories) came to be.
"I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings."
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Just a quick comment about Superman...
Superman became evil in Superman 3, under the effects of Richard Pryor's manufactured kryptonite.

Not the same as Anakin, but worth noting.

BTW: Chaltab, I'm going to try again to change my avatar. Hopefully, I can get it to work right this time.
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No luck. I keep getting an error when I try to upload...that the file format isn't valid. Its a 50x50 JPEG taking up about 2.16KB of space.
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Just email it to Jay and he'll put it up; the avatar upload has never really worked.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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I understand that Lucas may have not ripped off the idea straight from the story of Superman. I do know that he's used other plotlines, stories and characters as a foundation for his own. For example; James Bond was an inspiration for Indiana Jones, and I read somewhere that Robin Hood was a pre-concept for the character of Han Solo. I believe it was Nitsche who stated there is no such thing as an original idea. As a writer myself, I understand that borrowing ideas is not plagiarizing nor stealing, I just find it interesting when two separate stories coincide almost identically, yet have an almost totally different outcome.
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I'm sorry but i see essentially no parallels in these two movies. I mean sure you can probably find parallels in any two movies choosen at random...but i dont see any to the extent that your talking about.

Planet blows up with clark having little to no knowledge of whats going on. until he hits 18 (or there abouts) he doesnt really fully understand his origins besides what the Kent's might have told him (I believe he had some knowledge from when he started getting some 'weird' powers). So i fail to see how his parents death is so tragic...and you compare his dad to Anakin's mom...well both Clark's parents were on Krypton when ip blew up.

When was Clark perplexed that he couldnt save them? First im pretty sure that he is aware that on krypton he wouldnt have the powers he has on earth. if you mean when his dad dies of a heart attack i dont really think he wined about it...grieved maybe, questioned why he couldnt stop it with all his power yes, but wine? i would go that far. and (i think its in the first one) he does later use his power to save Lois.

and any way this whole death of a parent thing happens in so many movies (or comics in this case because superman is based off a comic) for example, Batman, Leon The Professional (matilda's parents die and she then wants to become a 'cleaner'), Firestarter (her mom dies before the movie starts and her dad dies at the end), and im sure countless others. Plus if you expand the concept to loved ones you can add countless others The Saint, Snatch (Brad Pitts characters mother, so its actually fits in the family category), could even argue that shawshank redemption does this.

its not the same in all of them but the death of a parent/loved one causing a significant emotional change in the main character is there in all of them.

-Darth Simon
Why Anakin really turned to the dark side:
"Anakin, You're father I am" - Yoda
"No. No. That's not true! That's impossible!" - Anakin

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*touchy people disclaimer*
some or all of the above comments are partially exaggerated to convey a point, none of the comments are meant as personal attacks on anyone mentioned or reference in the above post
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I should have been more clearer. When i said "father", I didn't mean Marlon Brando's character, but that of Glen Ford's (when he dies of a heart attack). I'll be more precise in the future.
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I believe you're all correct. It was just a thought, nothing more.
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I wasnt trying to bash your comparison...i was honestly confused about about which parents you were talking about when though

I probably wasnt totally clear but i guess the point of my post is that the ideas that you were drawing the parallelism betweenthe two movies are fairly common methods of character development and manifests itself in lots of different movies.

but i will agree that Lucas does pull a lot of ideas from other sources...specifically he draws alot from asian culture
Why Anakin really turned to the dark side:
"Anakin, You're father I am" - Yoda
"No. No. That's not true! That's impossible!" - Anakin

0100111001101001011011100110101001100001

*touchy people disclaimer*
some or all of the above comments are partially exaggerated to convey a point, none of the comments are meant as personal attacks on anyone mentioned or reference in the above post
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I find more similarities between Superman and Dragon Ball Z (person with superpowers and flying abilities are sent in a pod to Earth in the day his planet explodes) than Superman and Star Wars.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering