posted
The whole timeline of the Origin Story was rushed when it was seen onscreen. If they hadn't felt the need to have Padme's gestation period last about, ooh, at least three weeks, then it'd have been possible for a) her to be pregnant without Anakin realising; b) to give Kenobi a sufficient period in hiding to have "not gone by the name ObiWan" prior to the birth of the twins.
The confrontation between Anakin & Padme solves some problems with the Origin Story, but creates others. It provides a healthy dose of guilt to help complete Anakin's transition to Darth Vader; it explains why he never tried to find his wife and/or child(ren), because he thought they were dead. But the Emperor's lie that Anakin had killed her was stupid; he didn't know it for certain, no body at the scene after all, and if he knew she died in/after childbirth then surely he'd know that the children survived and there were two of them! It's only later on he could have known about her death for real when he'd receive reports of her funeral on Naboo. And to ignore the RotJ revelation that Leia remembered her mother. . . That's just downright sloppy. The only reason I could imagine for it would be to avoid having to explain a mother willingly giving up one of her children to an uncertain fate (and a bloody stupid one at that, giving him to the step-brother of the person you're trying to hide him from).
I suppose it's kind of sad that future generations will likely watch the films in their own internal chronological order, and as a result lose the visceral impact that Vader's single line "I am your father!" had. They may even come to bview the original trilogy as inferior (due to not-as-good special effects, even in the Spec Eds) and pointless (though I hope not, but who can tell with ver kids today?).
quote:But the Emperor's lie that Anakin had killed her was stupid; he didn't know it for certain, no body at the scene after all, and if he knew she died in/after childbirth then surely he'd know that the children survived and there were two of them!
I wouldn't doubt that Palpatine would know Padme was dead, reports from Naboo or not. Especially if, as some have suggested, Palpatine had something to do with her death. Throughout the saga, it seems that Palpatine only experienced major surprise when Vader turned from the Dark Side and threw him in the pit.
As for Anakin's children, who says Palpatine didn't know that they had survived? In Return of the Jedi, Palpatine obviously intended to replace his "damaged merchandise" (i.e., Vader) with Vader's significantly more intact son. He could have been planning this since Vader was injured. While Luke was growing up, Palpatine would have wanted to keep Vader away from his son for as long as possible due to the Sith tendency to betray their masters. As we saw in the Empire Strikes Back, as soon as Vader had the chance, he tried to recruit Luke as his new apprentice and planned to destroy the Emperor. Anakin had even proposed a similar plot to Padme while on Mustafar. It's likely that Palpatine had sensed that Anakin would betray him at the first opportunity (such as gaining his son as an apprentice) and thus kept him in the dark for as long as possible.
-------------------- "Having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged
Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I think Obi-wan meant that Vader didn't know that Padme's twins were still alive after he killed her. Although that might've been a mistake on G.L.'s part.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
