Hi! Thank you for the very kind words! I think that you’re right that they’re meant to be compared and I haven’t seen George speak on this directly, but here’s what I think contributes to this:Anakin is the Chosen One and I’ve long held the headcanon that he was meant to side against Palpatine in that moment, that fight with Mace in his office, as the whole reason the prophecy was about Anakin. George Lucas in the ROTS commentary: “It’s fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flipside of greed. Greed, in terms of the Emperor, it’s the greed for power, absolute power, over everything. With Anakin, really it’s the power to save the one he loves, but it’s basically going against the Fates and what is natural.“ The moment Anakin chooses is that moment, when he cuts off Mace’s arm because he can’t let Palpatine die because he’s too fearful that Padme will die. That is the moment he sides against his own Fate, which I think was about that moment as the Chosen One. Which, in my view, lends a certain narrative weight behind stopping Palpatine right here being the best choice possible.It fits with how the choice of standing over Dooku is also a major turning point and very clearly echoed from Return of the Jedi where Luke is struggling against the dark side, as he stands over Darth Vader, whose hand he has just cut off, while Sidious watches and tries to use that hate and rage boiling in him. In that moment, Luke makes the choice that Anakin cannot. That’s the major parallel, because they are both facing an enemy that has been beaten.Mace vs Palpatine is more complicated because you’re right that it’s an echo, but also the situation is a bit different–Palpatine is far from beaten, his “oh noooo this mean Jedi has been attacking poor defenseless little old me!” schtick is deliberately an act, he has not been unarmed (literally or figuratively!) because he still has his lightning, he’s still very much armed and dangerous.But also Mace isn’t entirely in the right about this, but I think he knows that and he’s making this choice, to sacrifice himself because he knows there’s no other way. If they left Palpatine up to the Senate to deal with, he will win, because he has control of the Senate, there is zero question about that. Yes, you should believe in democracy and support it and try to change the system from within, that’s what the Jedi believe and it’s what Mace believes, but he also knows that will not work with this specific instance.So, he’s willing to take the hit to his morals and probably his freedom, to take Palpatine out.Dave Filoni once did commentary on TCW that said: “We showed this at the end of the episode that after Dogma shoots Krell, the military police still arrest him. There has to be a whole trial, they have to look into the whole thing. “And that feeds into how the Chancellor–and for those kids that haven’t watched Revenge of the Sith, don’t watch this spoiler part–but when Mace Windu and the Jedi go to arrest him–can they just execute this guy? I mean he’s essentially the head of the entire galactic Senate. You can’t just walk in and kill him and say, ‘He’s a Sith Lord!’ because what does the Senate care? 'Yeah, but he made the trains run on time.’ “If Mace Windu kills the Chancellor, Mace Windu gets arrested. It’s a very complex world. And while, at the end of the day, it’s a fairy tale and very black and white, Luke in the end, it’s a personal vendetta with his father and the Emperor and the whole […]”He sort of trails off after that, but the point is that Mace Windu will get arrested if he kills the Chancellor, which is something he has to know, but he does it anyway, because all other paths will lead to the Empire. There isn’t another way out of this, not with Palpatine controlling the system in the way he does.Jedi should not be vigilantes, this goes against what Mace genuinely believes, but he also believes in sacrificing himself (not necessarily dying, but his own standing within the Republic) if it will lead to a better future. And I think he was right about that, that Palpatine’s multitude of plots and back-up plots meant that there was no other way to defeat him legally at this point, not without the Empire happening and things getting a whole lot worse before they could get better.The difference between Mace and Anakin is that Anakin did it out of rage and revenge, all the darkness roiling inside of him at what Dooku had done to him and justified it as needing Dooku to die so the war would end. Mace, in contrast, has nothing personal to gain and we’re never shown that he has any boiling rage on a personal level for Palpatine, this is truly about the Republic and truly about someone who is not yet beaten, as we see Palpatine still shooting lightning.It’s not the Jedi way for either of them, but the Jedi way depended on a galaxy that was inherently good faith and Palpatine was practically the literal embodiment of bad faith, so there was no way a good faith approach was going to work with him, imo.
jbbartram-illu
stormborns
yousharknotpass
2087
izzy806
titsay
theartofmadeline
discoholicmusic
