Anakin's path to darkness too steep! (SPOILERS)

[Banshee16]

I agree that Vader took a bad deal. Palpy offered him the following:

"Join with me, your friend Palpy, who turns out to also be the murderous bastard indirectly responsible for cutting your arms off that it turns out that you've been dedicating your life to hunting down. We'll kill all the Jedi, and if we do it quickly enough, we'll have a month or so figure out from scratch this ultra-advanced power that only one guy has ever developed which might save your wife."

Heck, if Vader truly understood how to be a Sithy bastard, his reaction should have been to kill Palpy and use the publicity to develop a combination of fame, political power, and force ability that would make him the most powerful guy in the universe. He could even stick with the light side at that point, at least for a while. The Jedi Council would have no choice but to make him a master then.

He could EASILY parley that into leeway regarding his relationship with Padme, such that he could expect her to not have to hide form getting proper medical care, and/or be able to garner a whole lot of resources towards making sure she survives.

All I can say is that people do foolish and not very logical things for love every day.....Anakin was effectively a teenager....immature, emotionally unstable, confused, being actively manipulated by a super-genius, and madly in love.

To me it's really no mystery why he made the decision he did. How many people stay in a bad relationship, put themselves at risk, or even worse, put other people at risk due to an infatuation. I've known parents who threw away marriages, despite the fact that they have children, people who have cheated on each other, and many other things that were done out of love.

Anakin made a decision, which wasn't necessarily a good one. But he wasn't an actively "evil" person. But once he made that decision, and chose the wrong path, he had to justify his actions to himself.....so he built a mental framework through which his choice made sense. Once he did that, his actions changed to keep him consistent with his new "world view"......and hence, he firmly chose darkness.

Banshee

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Dumb mistake on my part, actually.

Hardly, actions speak louder than words... He said he did it in EP II and you saw the actions in EP III.

As for the raiders, I think your opinion of them is pretty standard as they where presented as antagonist in ANH, there ugly, they don’t speak basic, and their civilization isn’t on par with most of the republic. So all in all, it’s a very common mistake but Obi-Wan didn’t kill a single one when he could have killed them all… and he probably did so for a very good reason.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Yeah, I was expecting that to be an Episode III thing not an Episode II thing.

You can kill all the orcs, er... tuskan raiders you want, they're just like robots.

Realistically though, rage filled slaughter when you just found your beat and murdered mother, is quite a bit different from cold blooded slaughter of children you may have been working with last week.
Also, he at least acknowledged and felt guilty at the sandpeople's death. There's no remorse as he kills the defenseless kids in the Temple.

 

[Staffan]

Realistically though, rage filled slaughter when you just found your beat and murdered mother, is quite a bit different from cold blooded slaughter of children you may have been working with last week.

The difference is one of scale, though. The acts are similar. And given the emphasis the Jedi place on keeping your emotions under control, one might argue that slaughtering in rage is worse than cold-blooded killing for a purpose.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

The difference is one of scale, though. The acts are similar. And given the emphasis the Jedi place on keeping your emotions under control, one might argue that slaughtering in rage is worse than cold-blooded killing for a purpose.

It has my vote. They're both heinous acts but at least killing the younglings served a purpose.

 

[TwistedBishop]

I can't believe there were more people in a sand person village than the entire Jedi Temple.

As far as emotions go, I completely disagree. Negative emotions lead to the dark side, they're not all the dark side is. Don't give in to anger and hate, because it might lead you to do evil deeds. It's the deeds that you do which matter. Palpatine was probably never happier than when he was killing off the entire Jedi order, and that didn't suddenly make him turn to the Light.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I can't believe there were more people in a sand person village than the entire Jedi Temple.

I don't think it really matter which had more people in it but consider the republic was at war I would almost venture a guess that the sand people's village had more people. Harsh environment, lots of deaths, equals alot of children.

As far as emotions go, I completely disagree. Negative emotions lead to the dark side, they're not all the dark side is. Don't give in to anger and hate, because it might lead you to do evil deeds. It's the deeds that you do which matter.

Interesting, but since each action can be viewed from many different angles one’s deeds should necessary be what one is judge by. While emotion cannot be viewed any other way, anger is anger, hate is hate, its unchanged no matter how you look at it and cause of this emotion is the only fair and unaltered…

And I never heard Yoda or another Jedi say, or hint at, otherwise.

Palpatine was probably never happier than when he was killing off the entire Jedi order, and that didn't suddenly make him turn to the Light.

Huh? Sorry, I don't follow here.

 

[Kesh]

Remember, as far as Palpatine was concerned, those kids were Jedi-to-be. They weren't innocent, and they had to be killed to protect the new Empire's stability.

Anakin knew this. He knew what he was being asked to do. And, he "knew" that doing it was the only way to learn power enough to save his wife and stop the war. He rationalized it away... and then used his own resentment towards the Jedi to help fuel that.

I wasn't surprised he killed the children. And, in fact, I think the director did an excellent job with that scene. We never see Anakin do anything... but the second that lightsaber snaps on, and you see the kid jump back, you know he's going to do it. They can then cut to another scene, and your own imagination is more disturbing than anything they could have filmed.

 

[TwistedBishop]

Interesting, but since each action can be viewed from many different angles one’s deeds should necessary be what one is judge by. While emotion cannot be viewed any other way, anger is anger, hate is hate, its unchanged no matter how you look at it and cause of this emotion is the only fair and unaltered…

And I never heard Yoda or another Jedi say, or hint at, otherwise.

It just wouldn't make sense for "Anger" to *be* the dark side, or else every ten year old in history would be a sith lord. It has to be a path to the dark side, where you let negative and selfish emotions rule your decisions.

Huh? Sorry, I don't follow here.

I was trying to show that negative emotions by themselves aren't what keeps you dark. Palpatine is a murderer, and it doesn't matter if he's happy or angry at the time.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

It just wouldn't make sense for "Anger" to *be* the dark side, or else every ten year old in history would be a sith lord. It has to be a path to the dark side, where you let negative and selfish emotions rule your decisions.

Quite right, but that still isn't one's deeds. (Oh and I think you hit the hammer right on the head when you said the ten year old comment... Jedi are trained from a young age for good reason. )

I was trying to show that negative emotions by themselves aren't what keeps you dark. Palpatine is a murderer, and it doesn't matter if he's happy or angry at the time.

Was there a time he was happy in any of the movies? Honest you can wear a smile and not be happy, you can be a dark lord and have moments, abit few, of happiness and still be quite evil.