This isn’t a review. This is an analysis of the main theme of "The Return of the Sith" and it contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie, I strongly recommend reading no further until you do.
The spine of the movie is Anakin Skywalker’s quest to be the most powerful Jedi ever. He is supposed to have convinced himself that the reason he wants that power is to save Padme from dying in childbirth, which he sees in a Force vision. He had been unable to save his mother from death at the hands of the Tusken Raiders in II, and is determined not to be helpless to save his loved one again. But saving Padme doesn’t work as the real reason Anakin turned to the dark side, despite his constant avowals of purpose in his dialog.
That motivation is not only implausible, but it provides a central contradiction of the film (it doesn't resonate with common sense enough to be considered irony). Anakin’s turn to the dark side in search of the power to save Padme is what causes the death of Padme in childbirth. There was nothing physically wrong with her. She died of a broken heart, broken by Anakin’s horrific betrayal of all their love had stood for. Here we encounter a circularity too common in uncanny plot devices used in science fiction; Anakin’s ability to have the visions is what causes the event in the visions; he wouldn’t be seeking greater power to save her had he not had the visions, and thus she would not have died but for the visions. Saving Padme is a somewhat gimmicky and ironic cover for Anakin’s real motive for his journey to the dark side: politics.
Anakin Skywalker doesn’t turn to the dark side for love, he does so because he stops believing the Jedi order is pursuing the public good and begins to believe that order and peace can only be brought to the galaxy by one strong enough and wise enough - the Emperor Sidious. After the disgusting slaughter of the younglings at the Jedi Temple, Anakin meets Padme:
PADME: Anakin, what are you going to do?ANAKIN looks down for a moment and then walks away from Padme.
ANAKIN: I will not betray the Republic . . . my loyalties lie with the Chancellor and with the Senate . . . and with you.
Anakin’s prime concern is politics, and only secondarily Padme. He’s still (willfully) fooling himself and Padme that the Republic still exists. He knows that the Chancellor is a Sith Lord bent upon overthrow of the Republic, and he now supports that goal. He has begun to actively deceive Padme, something he would not have done before, because he knows that her politics are no longer the same as his own. The conflict threatens to break out into the open, but Anakin sidesteps the issue with a veiled threat:
Article comments
1 - June Daley
You claimed that the above article was not a review of REVENGE OF THE SITH. And yet, it read like a review to me. Apparently, Mr. Lucas wasn't the only one who was . . . "misleading".