This is what it's like to be a particularly annoying authorial tic, right now: [....]
I have to say, I'll take this over the usual knuckle-dragging movie-to-novel conversion ("Anakin screamed in pain as he was burned by the lava. Obi-Wan looked sad, then walked away. Sadly.") any day.
Re the plot (of the film): Sure, it's still a connected series of setpieces. But for once, those setpieces are of plot, rather than mere wowza scenes dependent on eye candy. IMHO, of course.
It's true that Obi-Wan is far more selfless than Anakin--but in some ways, that may be the problem. Aside from setting up his inevitable failure with Anakin, there's no Obi-Wan plot per se--and that's precisely because he doesn't have any particular desires of his own, other than carrying on Qui-Gon's wishes (post-TPM). What makes both Anakin and Luke succeed in changing things (badly or well) is that, yeah, at some level they're both selfish. Anakin doesn't know how to subsume that, and the result is societal collapse. Luke also acts in the end out of selfish desires, though--to save his father--and this time it works. (Or, depending on your take on things, it leads again to societal collapse.) For better or for worse, selfishness seems to be how you get things done in the GFFA. (Heck, if Han hadn't left Yavin early in ANH, he might not have survived to be there to rescue Luke at the end.)
Luke doesn't seem very bitter towards Ben in ROTJ, at least for more than a line or two. In fact, I suppose that could be the basic difference between him and his father right there: When Anakin feels betrayed, people die, while Luke's at least able to see enough of other people's sides that he can connect (or connect back) to them.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2005-11-14 10:50 pm (UTC)This is what it's like to be a particularly annoying authorial tic, right now: [....]
I have to say, I'll take this over the usual knuckle-dragging movie-to-novel conversion ("Anakin screamed in pain as he was burned by the lava. Obi-Wan looked sad, then walked away. Sadly.") any day.
Re the plot (of the film): Sure, it's still a connected series of setpieces. But for once, those setpieces are of plot, rather than mere wowza scenes dependent on eye candy. IMHO, of course.
It's true that Obi-Wan is far more selfless than Anakin--but in some ways, that may be the problem. Aside from setting up his inevitable failure with Anakin, there's no Obi-Wan plot per se--and that's precisely because he doesn't have any particular desires of his own, other than carrying on Qui-Gon's wishes (post-TPM). What makes both Anakin and Luke succeed in changing things (badly or well) is that, yeah, at some level they're both selfish. Anakin doesn't know how to subsume that, and the result is societal collapse. Luke also acts in the end out of selfish desires, though--to save his father--and this time it works. (Or, depending on your take on things, it leads again to societal collapse.) For better or for worse, selfishness seems to be how you get things done in the GFFA. (Heck, if Han hadn't left Yavin early in ANH, he might not have survived to be there to rescue Luke at the end.)
Luke doesn't seem very bitter towards Ben in ROTJ, at least for more than a line or two. In fact, I suppose that could be the basic difference between him and his father right there: When Anakin feels betrayed, people die, while Luke's at least able to see enough of other people's sides that he can connect (or connect back) to them.