Chaldfont said:
I thought this same thing when I saw the movie on Sunday. It would be much cooler than the whole virginal conception and its heavy-handed symbolism.
That's where I disagree. Well, not with the heavy-handed symbolism, because I do agree that that was a pretty weak move on Lucas' part. But a dark side power that can spontaneously induce pregnancy in women being somehow "cooler"--I disagree with
that. All arguments aside--the fact that Palpatine says Plagueis had the power to manipulate midichlorians and prevent death, not create life, say--in itself the concept is still amazingly cheesey, and much like the idea of midichlorians in the first place, doesn't jive with the feel of
Star Wars (and by
Star Wars I mean the movies, not the campy fanfic sometimes referred to as the EU).
Mouseferatu said:
All that said, I've read--though I'm afraid I can't quote you a source--that an earlier draft of the script had Palpatine explicitly stating that yes, he did create Annakin, but that Lucas cut that. (For, I think, obvious reasons.) Take that for what little it's worth.
Nothing short of Lucas' word or an authenticated copy of that draft would convince me of this; not, of course, that it matters, since it isn't in the movie anyway. Lots of things change in drafts (hell, you write books, you already know this), and the
fact that they've been changed is all the evidence we need to say that they're now
incorrect interpretations. At one point Luke was a girl, Anakin's name was Starkiller, Vader wasn't Luke's father, and a thousand other things were different; including,
possibly, an attempt to write Palpatine as Anakin's creator. But all these things were written out--and this isn't an argument for Palpatine being, in effect, Anakin's father
in the movie as we have it. Drafts are great for us curious folks who like to see things evolve, but as far as the story goes the fact that Lucas wrote this explanation out is more of an argument
that it is incorrect than that it is correct.
).
