Assuming that we’re going to get an announcement about the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie soon, I realized that not only will that likely mean an appearance of kidlet Luke at some point to make me cry, but that ALSO THIS WILL PROBABLY BE WHERE OBI-WAN FINDS OUT THAT VADER IS STILL ALIVE. This is probably going to be where Obi-Wan sees the suit for the first time and we’re all going to have to sit our asses down in that theater and be crying wrecks in fucking public because Ewan McGregor’s face as Obi-Wan Kenobi is going to see what has really become of Anakin Skywalker, after he thought he was dead, and I’m going to have to watch that with my own two eyes and try not to full on sob in my seat.
Oh god…
Why?
WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?
You can think that stuff but you don’t say it!
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??
And what if Obi-Wan has hallucinations or nightmares?
Or even worse, he’s doing whatever it is he’s doing and he hears a familiar…
“That’s not how you fix a vaporator, Master.”
Or the faintest, distant echo of “Did you train the boy, Obi-Wan?”
Or…. Just to REALLY make us all bawl our eyes out…
“I have always loved you, my Obi-Wan.”
And no matter how many times he looks up, they’re always gone.
And Obi-Wan is always alone.
There. My suffering is complete.
I KNOW RIGHT I AM STILL OFFENDED BY THIS POST MINUTES LATER.
PS: YOUR ADDITION WAS ALSO UNCALLED FOR.
There’ve been rumors (but nothing confirmed yet, as far as I know) that Hayden Christensen might return in VIII or IX.
WHAT IF HE ALSO RETURNED FOR THE OBI-WAN MOVIE?
Flashbacks to the Clone Wars with Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen! Or even just:
IMAGINE EWAN AND HAYDEN ACTING THAT OUT ON TATOOINE. Imagine seeing a shot of Hayden!Anakin walking over a sand dune in the blazing sun, only for Obi-Wan to blink away the mirage and there’s nothing there.
I’M NOT GONNA MAKE IT.
Lets just imagine that poor Hayden finally gets a chance TO act, okay? That poor boy deserved better. HE. DESERVED. BETTER.
Also, you deserve this pain…
The stars of the Tatooine night sky are breath taking. With no light pollution to hide them and little to no cloud cover to speak of the arms of the galaxy spiral overhead, a diamond studded river in an indigo blue sky. Obi-Wan watches the fire and then sparks carried up into the night, born aloft by a surprisingly chilly wind. He pulls his robe more tightly around his shoulders and tries to ignore the cold.
“You should be inside,” a voice says, painfully familiar. “The desert can kill with cold just as easily as with heat, Master.”
Obi-Wan closes his eyes and does not look up. If he looks up the owner of the voice will vanish, some how making his exile all the more solitary. “That is why I built this fire. But I do thank you for your concern. I regret that I have nothing to offer you by way of refreshment.”
The voice says nothing and Obi-Wan will not look, cannot look. If I look he’ll vanish and… and… I must not look.
“It’s all right. I’m not hungry,” the voice says, weary and exhausted. “Why are you out here? Aren’t you worried about the Tuskens? Lightsaber or no, if they get the drop on you, you’re as good as dead.”
Obi-Wan exhales and looks up at a distant homestead. He was here because he was concerned about the recent activities of Jabba’s men. They had been causing problems with the homesteaders and he could risk Luke getting caught in the crossfire.
“I’m looking after someone,” Obi-Wan answered turning his head just slightly, not enough to see but enough to indicate… what? That he was listening to his own hallucination, his own mental persecution?
“Are they worth it?” the other person asks and Obi-Wan can almost imagine him stretching backwards on warm sands, his long leg crossed at the ankles and his weight resting his elbows as he leans back and looks up at the sky. Loose dark honey curls would fall back from his face and for a moment, he would be at peace as if the stars above sang a lullabye only he could hear.
“Is he worth it, Obi-Wan?” the voice asks again, interrupting Obi-Wan’s imaginings. “Is that boy worth all of this?”
“Luke?” Obi-Wan confirms even when his heart says another’s name.
Anakin.
“Is that boy worth it?” the memory of his heart’s brother asks. “The heat, the danger, the isolation and the terrible food? To say nothing of the sand.”
“You never did care for it, did you?” Obi-Wan asks softly, not moving and barely breathing, afraid that any harsh movement will scare off the spectre. “Why are you here?”
“Is that really what you want to ask me, Obi-Wan?” comes the soft reply, in a voice higher and softer than that nightmare he glimpsed on the holofeed back in Mos Eisely. That creature of pain, rage and fury trapped under volcanic glass.
I did that to you.
I am so sorry, Anakin.
“No, I suppose that’s not what I want to ask you,” Obi-Wan sighs. “But to answer your question, yes. He is worth it.”
“Who? Luke?” the memory’s voice is closer, there are sounds of a body moving through space, of leather boots and glove creaking and fabric rustling. “Why? Who is he? Why are you out here when you could be in the galaxy, helping people? Isn’t that why you wanted to become a Jedi? Why we both wanted to become Jedi?”
Obi-Wan closes his eyes. He’s so close, Obi-Wan could almost reach out and touch him, could almost lay one thin hand on a strong natural arm and squeeze a hand that should have been whole and healthy. Not a durasteel prosthetic covered in black synthleather.
Taking a breath, Obi-Wan answers as he opens in eyes. “He is important because he is your son, Anakin.”
And for a moment, Obi-Wan sees him, or thinks he sees him, beautiful and sorrowful under the silver light of the galaxy overhead, his dark curls dancing on the cold breeze. His eyes are so blue it almost erases Obi-Wan’s memories of Mustafar and their last words.
A log collapses in the fire and throws up a storm of sparks and smoke and then he’s gone.
Obi-Wan turns back to the distant homestead and his exile and murmurs to himself, “You were worth all of it. Even now.”
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: “You’re breaking my heart.”
aka: I will FIGHT U that Hayden wasn’t the perfect choice for Anakin, because that is some A+ Unhinged Face, that’s a guy you’re supposed to be uncomfortable watching, you’re supposed to be on edge watching him because he is Not Right.
I applaud Lucas’s insistence that Anakin be the most attractive when he is at his moral worst.
I really am wholly onboard with this, all the more so because it’s exactly how Anakin Skywalker was meant to be portrayed–he’s the most beautiful of all the angels before he fell, that he had to be this beautiful before he was burned–and, as George says, he has to be burned up for what he did to the Republic, to the Jedi, to the children–to illustrate the tragedy of his fall even more.
You see someone so attractive and bright and full of all this possibility and promise, someone who is gorgeous to look at, but he’s burning himself to ash and the physical handsomeness of Hayden in these scenes is there to be a further highlight to that fall into darkness and burned ashes.
Allow me to add: Crazy Wild-Eyed Psychopath Who Committed This Giant Murder Spree For You Because He Cares is one of my favorite Anakin Moments. I think Hayden did a great job here. I always half-expect him to break into insane laughter; he’s so unhinged in this part.
YES, I LOVE HIS ACTING IN THIS MOMENT, TOO. When I first watched it, I had this really uncomfortable feeling about it, like, I DO NOT ENJOY WATCHING THIS, and it was hard not to slide into the idea that it was Bad Acting because of it.
But I think, instead, it’s uncomfortable and weird and awful because it’s supposed to feel uncomfortable and weird and awful. You’re supposed to feel like you just watched someone that you cared about do horrible things and you’re not sure what he’s going to do next. You’re supposed to feel deeply uncomfortable by someone who has become so deeply unhinged that he’s justifying the murder of children as “bringing peace to the Republic” and that they don’t have to run away because IT’S JUST FINE EVERYTHING IS TOTALLY FINE.
You feel how brittle and fragile Anakin is in these moments, how desperately he clings to his ever-shifting justifications–”We don’t have to run away any more. I have brought peace to the Republic.“ he says one minute. “I am more powerful than the chancellor. I- I can overthrow him.” He is trying so hard to stumble his way through this, he trips over the words and stutters and, oh, it’s so awful and awkward because it’s supposed to be awful and awkward.
And it’s supposed to feel like he’s just Trying Way Too Hard in this scene and I think it’s easy to forget that that’s exactly what’s going on here, but it’s not Hayden trying too hard, it’s Anakin that’s trying way too hard.
It’s Anakin who desperately wants Padme to buy what he’s selling, it’s Anakin who desperately wants to convey this thing he feels so strongly about, it’s Anakin who is blatantly not actually believing it, but trying so, so hard to justify it and sell it to those around him.
LOOK AT HIM. This isn’t a guy who is comfortable in his own skin, this isn’t a guy who believes what he’s selling, this is a guy who is desperate for validation from Padme that he did it for her and that he was right.
But then Padme backs away from him, doesn’t know him, he chokes her for disagreeing with him, for not fitting into his narrative, and Obi-Wan shows up and is like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, ANAKIN? Obi-Wan’s “Your new Empire?” reaction, like he cannot fucking BELIEVE what he’s hearing, is perfect because that’s what we’re feeling as well, like, whoa, WHAT THE SHIT, ANAKIN, THIS IS NOT A GOOD ROAD, this is a deeply WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, ANAKIN? road!
And literally like a minute later, “I have brought peace… freedom, justice and security to my new empire.“ What happened to the Republic that he was so passionate about protecting and killed the Jedi because they betrayed it? It was just a desperate grab for a reason that the things he did weren’t horrible mistakes.
We’re so used to expecting someone who is in control of their anger and how that’s expressed, that it’s a controlled unleashing of it finally when they pick up a stadium and threaten to drop it on everyone. There’s a smoothness in the way most characters “finally breaks into being a villain and unleashes hell” acting that we expect a certain thing.
But Hayden doesn’t deliver it as someone who is in control of this thing he’s unleashing. He delivers it as someone who is genuinely unhinged and dangerous, like a gunman on a ledge with nothing left to live for and a whole cartridge full of bullets. That thought hits a deeply visceral uncomfortable place, a cringe factor that I think it’s easy to mistake for bad acting, when instead it’s about showing that this isn’t some awesome FUCK YEAH moment, but a character who is breaking.
And all the while he is SO PRETTY while he’s doing it, because this is an angel falling, because it reflects the beauty of who he was before, all that kindness that he had, all that desire to help people, his beautiful face was an extension of that, it was a representation of someone who was supposed to be a good person, but then chose to go down this horrible, horrible path.
So, like, I appreciate this just on a purely aesthetic level because GOOD LORD HE IS SO PRETTY but I also appreciate it for what it gives to the story and what it says about Anakin’s journey, that Hayden was the perfect choice for Anakin and I WILL DEFEND HIM ALWAYS.
Master, I’ve disappointed you. I haven’t been very appreciative of your training. I’ve been arrogant, and I apologize. I’ve just been so frustrated with the council.
FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW: THERE IS ANOTHER by Gary D. Schmidt
And it was right at that moment–at that exact moment–that Yoda felt Obi-Wan grow suddenly stronger, and stronger, and stronger, and then move in a quick burst into the netherworld of the Force. And Yoda felt Anakin fall even more deeply into painful loneliness. A loneliness so terrible that Yoda almost felt pity for him.
This was not Sith against Jedi. This was not light against dark or good against evil; it had nothing to do with duty or philosophy, religion or morals.
It was Anakin against Obi-Wan. Personally.
Just the two of them, and the damage they had done to each other….
konekorambles 