The film’s lack of genuine emotional resonance is the main reason that the story is not engaging for many who see "Sith" expecting something more. The purported justification for Anakin’s turn to the dark side, love for his wife and unborn children, doesn’t ring true. He must know that certain assumptions about his personal character underpin Padme’s love; no love is truly unconditional. The Anakin Skywalker she loves is a selfless, if tempestuous, hero who upholds the ethical traditions of the Jedi Order. She could never be with a man who slaughters innocent children for political ends.
The depth of self-deception required for Anakin to sidestep this self-knowledge is beyond the bounds of human experience. Believing their love could survive his betrayal of the Republic is a stretch no one can accept short of Anakin’s actual mental illness. Lucas pushes us to accept the Anakin is in a deeply delusional state by presenting us with his belief that the Jedi are evil, and that he’s saving the Republic instead of ending it, and with scene 190 on Mustafar in which Anakin reveals his still sensitive soul by shedding a tear after having murdered all the Separatists on Mustafar (but not after the children at the Jedi temple, apparently). But Anakin’s supposed self-deception is undercut at every turn and ultimately appears self-serving.
In the end there is only one conclusion that makes any sense, Anakin turned himself into Darth Vader willingly for one reason only - political power. And only one brand of loyalty remained in his value system - "If you're not with me, you're my enemy" - the absolute kind. Anakin’s destruction of the Republic, the Jedi Order, and Padme, was not the tragic consequences of an misguided, but loving, obsession. The damage he wrought was to seize political power, all else was intentional deception, or willing self-deception.
Anakin/Vader’s political philosophy is essentially Platonic, expressing the same complaints about democracy as Plato, and settling upon many of the same solutions as does Plato in the ‘Republic’ and the ‘Politicus’ dialogs: the wise king (emperor) who is above all law, the aristocracy of philosophers (Sith lords), and the limited utility of democracy to fashioning policy (the rubber stamp Galactic Senate). Lucas’s vision would have been dark indeed if his films stopped here. But we know that eventually even Darth Vader loses faith in his chosen idol, and clears the path for a brighter tomorrow with his own hand. In the end, the political manifesto of Star Wars might be summed up as ‘don’t put too much faith in any political order’. Regardless of how people are organized what is important is justice, equality, openness, participation, accountability, and a struggle against harmful absolutisms. Ultimately, it was the lack of those virtues that threw both the Republic and the Empire onto the rocks of history at the hand of Anakin/Vader.
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".