Well, haven't been posting too much lately, so here's a another entry today to keep up.

When we last left off, Anakin had just learned Palpatine's identity.

But let's back up a bit. While not as analysis or plot heavy, Yoda and Obi-Wan's adventures are nonetheless awesome. The brief battle of Kashyyyk and inclusion of the Wookiees was great fun. And Ewan McGregor delivers a great performance in the exciting confrontation with Grievous. His line as he jumps down in the middle of the droid army is easily the best in the film. The arrival of the clones was also reminiscent of their sudden arrival on Geonosis, and was quite cool. And the duel with Grievous was great, though in essence a disposable character, he was still a great screen presence, and his death by blaster was great, as was Obi-Wan's remarl afterwards. And so Grievous died and set in motion a series of unfortunate events.

Returning to Anakin, in a confused state, hr runs and tells Mace Windu. Many have accused Mace of turning to the dark side or indulging the dark sie in his rush to face and subsequently attempt to kill Sidious. That is totally untrue. Mace loved the Republic perhaps even more than the Jedi, and he wanted to resolve the defeat of the Sith and return to democracy. Besides, Jedi or not, how would you feel upon learning the entire Clone Wars were a lie?

So Mace takes Jedi Kit Fisto, Saesee Tinn, and Agen Kolar to confront Sidious. In a grand scene, he reveals himself and draws his lightsaber, a moment we fans have been yearning for for years. Now, some have complained that the three Jedi died too quick, or died wimpily and had undeservingly ungratifying deaths. But are they the focus of scene? Do they ever ever talk? No. The focus is the duel of Windu and Sidious, and it is awesome.

Now, many arguments have come as to whether or not Sidious lost the duel to Windu intentionally, and I would agree. But it would be great to see if Windu could take him at full fury sans Anakin of course. But anyway, it comes to the point where Anakin arrives as Windu is about to "finish" him. Sidious twists Anakin, telling him he is his only chance. As Sidious becomes deformed from his own lightning and exhaustion of dark side power, Anakin betrays Windu and chops off his hand. Sidious finishes him in a horrfying death scene, Windu screams quite loud. Despite initial remorse, he agrees to serve his new master, and ceases to be Anakin. He has become Darth Vader.

But just to hammer home that this is guy we can no longer like, a guy that is no longer a hero, Lucas has Anakin go forth to the Jedi Temple with a battalion of clones and massacre all the Jedi. Particularly gruesome was the scene with the younglings......the worst was when one of them talks so innocently, looking up to him for help, and he ruthlessly cuts the children down, off-camera of course. This point for me was when I hated Anakin, and then it was clear that the main hero was now Obi-Wan.

As heart-wrenching as that scene was, what brought me to the brink of tears was the Order Sixty-Six montage. Seeing the Jedi betrayed by the clones, especially the scene with Ki-Adi-Mundi, was excruciating. There he was, at the front, valiantly fighting, only to be cut down. But this is necessary, it establishes the clones as now evil. That way when they are cut down we are pleased instead of confused. A great bookend to the scene was when Yoda decapitated the clones that tried to kill him- the audience always cheers in this scene with a universal "Yeah, you're not killing Yoda you clone [insert expletive]."

And so it would seem that with only two Jedi left, the Sith have won. But the remaining Jedi won't go down without a fight............

NEXT TIME: PART V: CONCLUSION AND CONNECTING THE SAGA