When Anakin/Vader slaughtered the Separatist leadership

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beneficii
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25 Jul 2015, 5:29 pm

That scene in Episode III when Vader slaughtered the Separatist leadership, which he did on that lava planet after slaughtering all the Jedi (including the kids), he looked downright catatonic, like he didn't really want to do what he was doing. In the novel, however, he's depicted as enjoying himself as he slaughters the Separatist leadership, whch seems to make more sense in terms of his character. Anakin hated the Separatist leadership, Viceroy Nute Gunray most of all, and when he received the order to slaughter them it was like a dream come true.

In the novel, Anakin took his sweet time, cracking one-liners and making witty comebacks to his victims' pleas for mercy as he slaughtered them one by one. Of course, this fit Darth Sidious's plans, because such behavior against defenseless victims would ensure that the Force-user would slide straight down the slippery slope to the Dark Side.

I liked the novel, which has awesome narration.


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Kraichgauer
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25 Jul 2015, 7:33 pm

I think this was probably a case of the novelization deviating from the movie, perhaps because Lucas had ended up changing Anakin's behavior during this scene at the last minute, after giving the earlier script to the novelist.
Personally, I rather liked the movie scene, as it ends with Anakin leaving the room full of bodies in tears, realizing that he was losing his humanity with this and other actions. At least, that's my take on it.


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30 Jul 2015, 4:54 am

I think that the movie's version is more correct, because somewhere deep inside Anakin still had his "soul" (and he was never actually dedicated to Palpatine) plus he understood that he disappointed Padme. He wasn't psycho killing machine.



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30 Jul 2015, 1:04 pm

As the OP stated, Vader/Anakin makes witty one liners and comebacks to the separatist leaders as he slaughters them - but seriously, when has Darth Vader ever done that all the time we've known him? The Vader I know is taciturn and ruthless, and most of all, joyless.


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03 Aug 2015, 12:01 am

IMO, it makes more sense in the novel's way, because otherwise what is the attraction of the Dark Side? By murdering the Separatist leadership, he has been given permission to do something he's wanted to for years. IMO, the depiction of the movie making him always moody or depressed was a mistake. Sure, there's his wife, but it doesn't make sense to fall to the Dark Side just because you want to save you wife; the allure of the Dark Side is always self-aggrandizement and the accumulation of power, attaining the power to finally make things as you see fit. That was how Palpatine tempted Anakin, which involved not just the power to save his wife, but also to end the war. Slaughtering the leadership of your opponents is one way to do it. Vader thought that his dreams were finally coming true, that he would be able to set everthing right, overthrow Sidious with his power, and rule the galaxy with his wife. He was finally crushing underfoot the dragon that had haunted him. That all these goals now seemed within his grasp excited him, provided a major source of motivation for falling to the Dark Side. In the movie, I just don't see the same motivation, except in his conversation with Padme when he espoused these same goals (which horrified Padme).

As for Darth Vader in the original trilogy and the connection to Episode III, at the end of the novel Vader understands the Dark Side ain't all it's cracked up to be. He understood that it really wasn't about his wife, but thinking only about himself. Thanks to getting fried on Mustafar, he had lost a great deal of his native power: he was like a composer gone deaf, a painter gone blind. He was in pain. The suit kept breathing for him: He could no longer control his own breath and every breath he took was rough, very rough, so rough it was painful That's when the depression sets in for good.


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03 Aug 2015, 12:47 am

^^^
I absolutely agree that Vader's power as a Sith had been greatly diminished with his physical injuries, and the cybernetic implants replacing a former organic body couldn't make up for it. Obviously, the Force works best when the user is entirely organic, such as the use of Force bolts that would obviously short out his artificial limbs, and destroy his breathing apparatus (as happened when Sidious had zapped him in Return Of The Jedi).
I also agree that Vader discovered too late that the promise of power was only illusionary, as he ends up having to answer to Sidious' beck and call. And not only that, Vader, despite being Sidious' apprentice, is put into a subordinate position beneath Tarkin on the Death Star. The promise of the Dark Side never plays out, till he learns his son is alive, and with that, hopes to turn Luke in order to realize his dreams of power.


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