I can totally buy the fact that in a moment of weakness Anakin would try to block but not kill Windu as that was potentially his last chance of saving Padme gone and after seeing his previous vision of his mother's death happen he was willing to do anything to not feel that pain again.
Following this, and becoming complicit in the murder of a Jedi Master even if he didn't strike him down, he would have felt totally alone, knowing he would now never be allowed to remain a Jedi, meaning he will witness the love of his life die and be vilified by the order that he has grown to distrust. His only remaining option to achieve the power he has been promised all his life as the chosen one and be able to save his love was siding with a guy that, until very recently, had been the only man besides Obi-Wan that he could trust. His only reservation would have been that he has grown up being told by the Jedi that the Sith are evil but in his eyes everything the Jedi say is now questionable so he finally decides to leave the order and join one that even after his impulsive act will still accept him.
The one thing that ruins this transition (or at least sours its near excellent execution) is that immediately after Lucas decided that his first act as a Sith should be something bold and very evil by killing a class of Younglings. I just don't think that anyone who is already still confused and conflicted would agree to such an act immediately after joining.
In my opinion it would have served the story far better if after that awesome sequence of Anakin leading an army of Clones, marching into the Temple that he would aid the Clones in sacking the key enemy installation and fighting off 2-5 adult Jedi trainers/trainees while the Clones take care of the Younglings and others off screen. At the end we see the Temple up in flames and the statement that the boy once seen as the Chosen One of the Jedi is now a Sith.
He didn't block Windu, he cut his fucking arm off.
He would totally go murder some stupid kids to save the only person he still cared about at that point. It's not a stretch in my opinion. He killed a fucking Jedi master and abandoned everything he professed to dedicate his life to.
At that point what's it matter if he takes a few kids with him
Ryder Baker
I took it as he went to block him (stop him) but in the moment went too far and cut it off. Thats why he says "what have I done" after since he knows hes let his emotions get ahead of him and theres no way back to the Jedi now.
He already was losing faith in the Jedi so he wasn't that dedicated to them anyway but he was still unsure if joining the Sith was the right thing to do. Thats why I think if they scaled it back a bit to adults it would seem more like an act of war than the needless murdering of children as his first act as a Sith
Hunter Barnes
I wish they showed the scene of Anakin literally butchering these kids. lmao look at that kid's face.
Xavier Hernandez
Nah he cut his arm off on purpose. Anakin would not make a mistake like that. His regret referred to his hand in killing the Jedi Master.
Ryder Anderson
Its possible but even still, it was his moment of weakness after building fustration and fear but he regretted it after. His only choice then was to join Sheev and his anger at the Jedi and belief that they were too powerful would be his motivation to turn on them.
Having him kill Younglings straight away though is, in my opinion, too far and makes his transition less believable.
Zachary Perez
>Having him kill Younglings straight away though is, in my opinion, too far and makes his transition less believable.
What choice did he have? You said it yourself, he lost everything. He could only join Sith to try and save Padme now, that's all he had in life then.
So again, he just thought fuck it might as well go along with that and murder some padawans. Whats the difference?
Parker Ward
...
Alexander Morgan
Oh and, not to forget, he had turned at that point (and actually even earlier).
He'd been impulsive and did evil things since episode 2. He was gray at best and straight up Sith at worst (cutting Dookus head off, killing the sand niggers).
So while he may not have murdered a Jedi willy nilly, he was ready to do it in the right situation. He was evil enough. Then he turned, and went full Sith. So murdering some kids is not unexpected.
>Anakin murdered an entire village filled with tuskens, including their women and children, just because he heard his mom got kidnapped. >But just can't piece together, or believe the idea, of Anakin doing the same thing when it comes to murdering a bunch of snotty little shits so he can save another person he loves.
Joseph Cox
Oh no I agree that the way its written, If Palpatine told me I may have considered it too. But I feel for such a clever, scheming character, Sheev wouldn't have given him such a morally clear choice in killing a bunch of kids after just convincing him to join his side. There would be a very good chance that Anakin would reject it, say that saving his lover isn't worth such an evil act and refuse or kill himself for all we know.
As a crucial point in the story if he had been sent to do something more mild, not to mention more pressing to Sheev's goals, by killing adult Jedi ready for battle rather than kids who won't be a threat for decades is in both his interest for the war and for making sure his new apprentice remains loyal to his cause.
Michael Nguyen
it was a bad idea for children to be part of the jedi temple. maybe George was trying to point out the flaws of the jedi order but I don't give him that much credit.
Ah thats a good point actually, I guess it just feels more evil when he sets out with that being his intention rather than it being something that happens in the moment.
That said I'd say its questionable whether Anakin as a character would have been at the stage where he'd kill the woman and children of the sand niggers in AOTC and the choice to show that by Lucas may have been questionable in that film too
David Bailey
This was fucking great. Alec Guinness really was a phenomenal actor.
James Cook
That actually is a great clip, though one thing I heard there was >He helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights So imo it would have been more powerful and effective if instead of killing the Younglings they showed him fighting 2 Jedi Knights in the Temple and beating them as that is a direct action against his former order that has an immediate impact on the state of the war and conflict between them and the Sith.
>muh moment of weakness Yeah and I bet slaughtering those sand people was a 'moment of weakness' too. Fucking idiots can't understand the continuity of the prequels, baka
I said I hadn't really considered that in this thread but think that even in AOTC it felt a bit out of place.
> Fucking idiots can't understand the continuity of the prequels, baka Also I was enjoying having some serious discussion on this thread so please don't degrade this into the usual level of discourse that goes on here
David Bennett
>I said I hadn't really considered that in this thread but think that even in AOTC it felt a bit out of place. >That said I'd say its questionable whether Anakin as a character would have been at the stage where he'd kill the woman and children of the sand niggers in AOTC and the choice to show that by Lucas may have been questionable in that film too Why is it questionable? The scenes on Naboo in that movie serve to show that he's not capable of maintaining the self-discipline the Jedi demand of him. Without Obi-Wan around to remind him not to pick up fruit and cut it with a knife using the Force instead of his hands, he just does whatever the fuck he wants to do, and it's usually for the purpose of impressing Padme. Remember that 'attachment' and romantic love are paths to the Dark Side of the Force. That's what's central here: his attachment to his mother, raped and murdered by Tuskens, leads to his rage, which leads to his remorse, which gets buried under layers of PTSD from the Clone Wars, which leads to the Jedi not understanding what he needs psychologically and spiritually (with help form Sheev's Force-blocking powers, at work through the whole prequel trilogy), which leads to his alienation from the Order and Palpatine's surrogate fatherhood and his fall to the Dark Side. I mean it's like you don't even know the plot of these movies.
>please don't degrade this Watch the fucking movie before saying retarded shit, Anakin's arc is flawless
Nicholas Murphy
Anakin in the Prequels is a child soldier fighting an intergalactic war against the Sith with other Jedi, and was born a slave. I seriously doubt he had to the time to learn so good morals since the Jedi acted more like Space Templars than Ideal Knights.
Ryder Long
>I seriously doubt he had to the time to learn so good morals since the Jedi acted more like Space Templars than Ideal Knights. This, if he had been taken at a younger age he would have been trained properly.
Tyler Johnson
He killed the black kid first
Lucas Young
you are a sick man
Jose Edwards
whether or not it is believable as a character, it was still over the top and it would have worked better for the movie if they left that out, I agree. It would have also made a anakin / obi wan confrontation a little more engaging than what it was
Gabriel Robinson
>it was still over the top He killed billions of people when he didn't chop Tarkin's head off before he could order the Death Star to blow up Alderaan, this is just his warm-up act. It's entirely in character. He is becoming the most evil man in the history of the galaxy.
Adrian Gutierrez
The animated series fleshes out Anakin's character to make it abundantly clear he turns to the Dark Side out of fear of losing his loved ones and frustration with the militarization of the Jedi. The council attempting to kill Palpatine in private, who was elected by the people to represent their interests in the galactic senate, was what sealed the deal.
Jackson Jenkins
Yeah that was my point too, even if it makes sense in the context of the film I feel it would have worked better overall if they left it out
Adrian Thomas
no I got that from the movie, I'm just saying, the kids weren't necessary for me to believe he had turned evil because he lost control of his emotions, and once on that path it would get uglier and uglier. They could have shown that even ending with killing civilians including children, but straight up first mission murdering a bunch of kids was a bit much to digest for everyone who saw that movie, even if it's believable. It's still a children movie
Jace Davis
I thought it was believable because at that point in the movie, Anakin is all Palpatine has left to carry out his orders. The Clones have their hands full executing the Jedi, both Dooku and Grevious were killed off to prevent them from leaking Sidious's true identity, and Palpatine can't afford to get his hands dirty since he has to make himself look sympathetic for the general public. Anakin at that point is just a strongman for Palpatine.
