Eosin the Red said:
I don't know that I agree with the premise of the Plagius Creation factor. HOWEVER, it is at least a reason for Anakin's birth besides messianic prophecy. Right now, you are the one streching since by your arguement we must believe that the force spontaniously birthed him?
Um, how is it a stretch to believe what the movies say
flat out (back in TPM, in case you wiped your memory after suffering through, err, seeing it
)? Aside from it being an embarassingly common construction, Prophecy--Chosen One--Immaculate Conception, that, at least for me, doesn't suit the feel of
Star Wars at all, this is the material the story gives us. Everything else is superimposed by the viewers.
The way Obi-Wan beat Anakin was cheesey too, so it isn't like there's a shortage of cheese here. They've been flipping at each other through the whole movie, but now, oh no you better not! I have the higher ground and if you flip
this time I'll cut off your legs! Oh I don't think you will! Oh you'd better think again! I swear at one point I heard 'tis but a flesh wound.'
Taelorn76 said:
There is a discussion in another tread about the prophacy, and the balance of the force. A quick cliff notes version is that Lucas says the Sith are an abberation of the force and to achieve balance they must be wiped out.
Exactly. For some reason a lot of people look at balance and see an equation of good and evil (call it pop Taoism or something). In terms of the philosophical systems Lucas was working with, balance is
not a ratio of good to evil: good
is balance, and evil is produced precisely at the point where balance is lost and things come tumbling down. Evil is simply imbalance, so it's nonsensical to talk about a balance of good and evil--a balance of balance and imbalance? This isn't just what Lucas says, it's at the heart of the systems the Force is presumably based on. It's why Obi-Wan can call the Sith evil and say only Sith deal in absolutes in the same breath.
rgard said:
The Emperor does imply that. Of course it could just be that he took advantage of the stories of Anakin's conception and lied to further bring Anakin into the Sith fold.
Does he imply it in the script or the novelization? I haven't read those, so maybe there's a scene that was cut from the movie? There is no such implication in the movie itself. I have the scene in question in front of me as we speak, and it isn't even clear whether Sidious knew Plagueis as more than a Sith legend:
"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"
"No."
"I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying...unfortunately he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep."
And then a little later:
"To cheat death is a power only one has achieved but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret."
That's it. No implication that Sidious was even his apprentice, let alone that Plagueis lived recently enough to have created Anakin, or that Sidious knows the power and could have created Anakin himself. This is semi-relevant to the original topic in the question "why does the Emperor save Vader?" That is, for the same reason Plagueis keeps his loved ones alive.
