The Skywalker Family

I had the opportunity to watch the Original Trilogy the other night on Spike TV, which had been running all six movies all weekend, I believe. I was able to catch the last hours of it, marking the first time I've watched all three OT movies in one day. It was an odd thing to watch. For one, because I realized that I was starting to lose my grip on how the movies originally played out. Aside from the horrendous CG bits, I couldn't for the life of me remember what had changed in the Special Editions (WEESA FREEEEEEE!).

And another thing, I started to noticed a few consistencies with the characters from the prequels and found out that Luke and Anakin are not so different when push comes to shove. This made the whole saga a tad more brilliant from a creative perspective. It certainly doesn't hide the glaring inconsistencies that arose in the gap between Ep. III and IV, but it helped me understand what Lucas was trying to go for.

And I know this isn't a new topic, since some of the similarities of the two trilogies are glaring, but, you know, whatever. xD

Episodes I/IV:

Humble Origins: Anakin and Luke are both children of Tattooine, born into a life that was never meant for them. It's the Joseph Campbell-esque zero to hero story, more or less. Luke doesn't want to be a farmer, and Anakin isn't too fond of slavery. Both are liberated by Obi-Wan (technically) and swept up into circumstances they hadn't predicted.

Episodes II/V:

The Skywalkers Whine A Lot: For as great as The Empire Strikes Back is, you cannot deny that Luke does his share of whining. I first realized this after Yoda's speech about size meaning nothing ("Judge me by my size, do you?"). It was an amazing speech, and to see Luke stand up and say, "You want the impossible," I wanted to slap him! And then I got to thinking..."Hey, I wanted to slap Anakin around at this point, too!"

These two movies are about adolescent boys becoming men, after they finally come face-to-face with the darker side of life (and both lose arms in the process). Anakin gets cocky during the Dooku fight and pays for it. Luke goes to Bespin, against the wishes of Obi-Wan AND Yoda, and pays for it. Sure, the fight between Luke and Vader was a magnificent one...but if Luke had any sense, he wouldn't have been there looking for his friends. Similarly, Anakin wouldn't have been on Tattooine looking for his mother.

Episodes III/VI:

The Sins of the Father: Both of these movies involved a battle that would come to change the galaxy forever. The cruel fact of the situation was that the outcomes of both fell to the Skywalkers, and the Emperor happened to be there to greet both Luke and Anakin. Both of them were tempted: Anakin with Padme/Unlimited Powah, and Luke with his friends/Unlimited Powah. And both of them, in the end, gave into their emotions.

The scene where Luke begins to lay into his father with that killer look in his eye: that's the dark side if I ever saw it. Not only that, but he'd tried to strike down the Emperor not a few minutes before. The break in the chain came when Luke noticed Vader's robo-hand, the one he'd lost in his fight with Dooku. He looked down at his cyborg mess of a father, then looked at his own robo-hand, and realized that he, too, could become the obedient husk that Vader had become. It was the saving grace of the galaxy, that the son would've rather died than end up like his father.

And he would've died, too, had this act of conviction not brought Anakin Skywalker tumbling back to the reality of the situation. In his last act of redemption, Anakin finally became what the prophecy had...prophesied him to become. He brought balance to the Force, allowing the New Jedi Order to come to fruition while the dark side still lay in wait, leaving his children and grandchildren to secure that legacy.

Now, this all doesn't mean that I don't like watching Luke whine more that I like watching Anakin whine (because I don't), and this is not a new conversation by any means. I just found that the deeper, repetitious connections really make for a great saga. And that the more I watch these movies, the more I value these movies as a whole.