Yep, it's time to babble about STAR WARS!!

Morat has some thoughts about Attack of the Clones and the prequels in general. He's one who has been disappointed in them, but he seems to be coming around. At least, he'd better be. I am less forgiving than the Emperor. Or something like that.

A fairly common complaint about the prequels has been that it all feels preordained, because we know what happens: the Jedi all get slaughtered, the Republic becomes the Empire, and Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Now, this has never really bothered me, but I can see where it's a legitimate stumbling block. There is a difference, though, between the story's events being preordained within the story and them being preordained in the mundane sense that we know already what's going to happen. (Not that Morat is making this mistake; I just wanted to draw the distinction.)

One thing that strikes me is that Anakin's fall is a side-story, almost, to the larger story of the prequels. If Qui Gon had never found Anakin, Darth Sidious would still be scheming and maneuvering himself into power...but his fall is necessary, though, in the sense that the beginnings of his fall -- his forbidden love of Padme -- plants the seeds, almost literally, for his later redemption. The other thing thought that has occurred to me is that Morat is right about the prequel focus being on Obi Wan in particular, and on the general incompetence of the Jedi in general. Not only are they completely taken by surprise when the Sith return, but it turns out that Yoda's own Padawan, Count Dooku, has been turned to the Dark Side.

So far in the prequels, there have been numerous mentions of Anakin being "the Chosen One" who will "bring balance to the Force", but what's telling is that the Jedi seem to have no idea what that means. They simply assume that it's all a good thing, and they never consider the possibility that in order for Anakin to restore the Force's balance he will have to descend into darkness and then find redemption. The Jedi seem to be making it up as they go; at one point, Yoda even says something like "We cannot allow them to know of our weakness" -- in other words, "We have no idea what's going on, but we gotta keep acting like we do." The Jedi are, dare I say it, vain.

Morat also says that he'd like Anakin to be revealed as the child of a rape. Personally, I doubt very much if that will happen; that somehow seems too dark for Star Wars. I wouldn't be surprised if George Lucas simply never mentions the whole "midichlorian/immaculate conception" thing again and simply leaves it as a little Easter egg to drive fans crazy. But in a sense it would add to the subtext, if Palpatine turned out to somehow behind Anakin's birth -- for it would give Yoda and Obi Wan one more chance to be wrong, in the end. In Return of the Jedi, Luke objects that he cannot kill his own father, which Obi Wan seems to think is the only thing that can fix things. But in the end, assuming Palpatine is behind Anakin's birth, the good side of the Force triumphs and balance is restored when Anakin kills his own father. But again, that's pure speculation, and Lucas might not have any such thing in mind.