ANAKIN: The Republic is unstable, Padme. The Jedi aren't the only ones trying to take advantage of the situation. There are also traitors in the Senate.PADME stands and reacts ever so slightly.
PADME: What are you saying?
ANAKIN: You need to distance yourself from your friends in the Senate. The Chancellor said they will be dealt with when this conflict is over.
PADME: What if they start an inquisition? I've opposed this war. What will you do if I become a suspect?
ANAKIN: That won't happen. I won't let it.
PADME: Oh, Anakin, I'm afraid.
ANAKIN takes PADME in his arms.
ANAKIN: Have faith, my love. Everything will soon be set right. The Chancellor has given me a very important mission. The Separatists have gathered in the Mustafar system. I'm going there to end this war. Wait for me until I return . . . things will be different, I promise.
Yes, very different. All possible resistance will be crushed and Padme would have no choice but to acquiesce to the new order. Now, when Padme disobeys Anakin’s direction and seeks Anakin out on Mustafar, Anakin gives her a political manifesto and an ultimatum. Anakin doesn't speak as to somebody you have sacrificed everything to be with, but Padme still speaks the language of love:
PADME: Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can. [Padme appeals to their love]ANAKIN: Don't you see, we don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be. [Anakin counters with a political ultimatum; interestingly, the exact one that he will give to his son in Episode V "The Empire Strikes Back"]
PADME: I don't believe what I'm hearing . . . Obi-Wan was right. You've changed. [she means his politics have changed]
ANAKIN: I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me. [any political disagreement has become a rebuke, which trumps any personal relationship]
PADME: I don't know you anymore. Anakin, you're breaking my heart. I'll never stop loving you, but you are going down a path I can't follow. [because it would betray her politics, not her heart]
This film sets in place the keystone of the entire story arc of Star Wars. The entire six film cycle is the story of the political birth and maturation and denouement of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Anakin’s political philosophy is formed by the circumstances of his youth on the edge of the Republic as a powerless slave. As he grows in power, he first serves, and finally questions and betrays the Republic, destroying it. He then passes through the same pattern of service and disillusionment with Empire. His political worldview and its evolution drive the entire plot round a full circle. ‘Return of the Sith’ is the axis around which Anakin’s political identity revolves. The deep structure of the plot is the willing, even eager, transformation of Anakin from a bulwark of freedom and justice, into the willing tool of tyranny and injustice.
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".