See the funny thing about tragedy.. is that the protagonist generally knows exactly why they are doing what they are doing... and through one fatal flaw in character their fortune is reversed and tragedy ensues.. Hamlet had his indecision, Coreolanus had his pride, Oedipus had his clay feet, etc.
you forget Othello, whose major flaw was that he trusted too much in the veracity of his lieutenant, Iago. parallels might be drawn to Anakin, who may trust too much in Palpatine. Othello knows what he is doing, but not really
The writing of Anakin in these movies seems to have gone from bad to comical...
Everything is basically spelled out for Anakin.. which is fine.. but then rather than let him swing.. Lucas has to CONSTANTLY let him off the hook each time he makes a bad choice.. so there is very little drama in this at all... now basically we have the penultimate moment of his transformation being described as some sort of combination between a con-job from Palpatine and not wanting to see his wife die?
but I just get the feeling that Anakin's gotten more outs than a baseball game... it just seems like Lucas keeps letting his character off the hook.
He killed the Jedi BUT...
He killed his wife BUT...
He's trying to kill his son BUT...
It just takes away from the character, and in a sense, takes away from the drama and emotional impact of the sacrifice that all of the other characters make throughout the films.
That's my only beef... I think Lucas is letting his character off the hook ALOT
this is not the way i see it at all...characters must always have motivation, which might seem like 'letting him off the hook', but it isn't really. Anakin knows right from wrong, but may think that what he's doing (killing children, destroying the Jedi order, etc) is in fact what has to be done to secure his objective ...given what has been established in ANH and ESB (Anakin was a 'good friend', a 'powerful Jedi' - given what we know of the Jedi as an apparently noble group of warriors) one must see just how an apparently good person, good enough for such a one as Obi-Wan to call 'friend' can go to being completely evil....there must be sufficient motivations other than just 'anger', and it must graduate without abrupt discontinuity in the character's development....
i mean, if i just walked in on the noble Othello choking the life out of Desdemona, i might be tempted to say: well, he's just a barbarian Saracen, who suddenly snapped....what can one expect? until he begins to divulge his reasons....that won't justify his actions, but will give them context independent of something as random as 'anger' or 'sudden madness'....
several people (typically high-brow literati types) have in fact raised this objection against Lucas' characters: that he requires them to be larger-than-human....i mean, isn't it natural to be angry after finding your mother tortured and having her die in your arms....isn't it natural to want to preserve the life of your loved ones if you fear they are in danger...?
of course it is....but at what cost? - in the end, one must, i think, make a choice and remain true to oneself....
i say this for the obvious reason....parallel themes run thru the OT and the PT, and what is interesting is to see how father and son make different choices when confronted with similar situations, which shows at least implicitly how responsibility devolves upon the person him/herself...
and any potential darkness in Anakin is ALWAYS negated by the fact that he just never really has all of the information at any point, everyone is telling him different things...
i've read somewhere on these boards that Anakin clearly knows he is choosing evil over good, but then goes ahead and does it anyway....and so your argument above isn't as valid as one might think....
additionally, i'd like to think there is nothing that can justify killing little kids, or standing by and watching a whole planet get blown up as in ANH....clearly Anakin knows what he is doing is wrong....what the story-teller has to answer, as mentioned above, is why he is doing it anyway....and notice, 'why' isn't justification (an 'out'), it is simply motivation.
I used to think Darth Vader was a firebrand who succumbed to his anger and let his emotions get the better of him, and fell to the dark side.. turns out he's just another new agey pasty faced wimp who can't take responsibility for any of his actions or decisions.
i think Anakin is all these things: a 'firebrand' who let 'his emotions get the better of him', especially perhaps his fear...moreover, he will take responsibility for his actions, though not perhaps as you want ....i.e. seeing them for the atrocities they are....
i hardly look at Vader as a 'misunderstood' villain....but i do think he is much more complicated than a Maul, Grievous, or Palpatine, who follow the old-fashioned straight-up archetype: antagonists who 'revel in villainy'....
christ...i normally don't post...and when i do they are never this long, but you did raise several interesting things, DanSh1138...
vanillazinger just said it for me using less space...
