I was going to save this particular topic for a later date, but when I realized my blog was inexplicably chosen as "Blog of the Day", I decided to haul out a (hopefully) worthy entry.

As my friends and I begin work on our loving parody/remake of Revenge of the Sith (to join the legions of its fellows), seeing the film many, many times is in order to get the right feel for the flow and pace. In doing so, it raises questions and reveals answers the casual viewing might not. During a recent viewing, I recalled one of the gripes of many of my fellow fans besides the Jedi's apparent obliviousness to Order 66 (see an earlier blog of mine for this discussion) was Anakin's seemingly lightswitch-like turn to the dark side.

I've seen it many times in the parodies... Anakin arrives in the Chancellor's office, stands around for a minute, lops off Mace Windu's hand and suddenly becomes Darth Vader. For many, it seemed like the "Hero With No Fear" just spastically decided "Sure, I'll be evil and kill everybody" and was off to the races.

But his fall only seems sudden if the only movie you are watching is Episode III. It is important to remember that Anakin's descent into darkness is chronicled in all three prequel films. Revenge of the Sith is only the very climax.

"Once you start down the Dark Path, forever will it dominate your destiny; consume you, it will. As it did Obi-Wan's apprentice." These were Yoda's words of wisdom to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, and after having seen Episode III, it is clear what he meant. Once Anakin got past a certain point on his journey to the dark side, there was no turning back. Or so it seemed.

That point was clearly the slaughter of the Tusken Raider camp in Attack of the Clones. His strong attachment to his mother meant that her death at the hands of the sandpeople drove him into a fit of rage, as it would for any of us, really. The difference is, with his control of the Force, it is far easier for Anakin to exact his revenge than it would be for the average person. It's not that there is some weird property of the Force that causes Dark Side users to slide down a slippery slope of evil, it's just plain human nature. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Once Anakin realized how easy it was to kill the Tuskens using the Dark Side of the Force, he would be more inclined to use it in the future. Humans (or perhaps I should say "beings") are more inclined to take the path of least resistence, and when the easiest thing to do is evil, chances are it'll be done anyway.

Which brings me back to my main point. Anakin Skywalker's fall to the Dark Side doesn't begin or end in Episode III, and he could have turned out all right if any one of several factors hadn't been applied. First off, he started training far too late, and had already formed an attachment with his mother. Secondly, he formed another attachment to Padme, and an overwhelming one at that. Third, he witnessed his mother's painful death and took his anger out on the entire Tusken village, opening himself up to the Dark Side. Finally, his overwhelming attachment to Padme proved to be a powerful weakness when he began having dreams about his beloved's death. (Personally, I think Palpatine was ForceFaxing these images into Skywalker's head, especially since they don't EXACTLY match the actual event, despite being reasonably detailed.) It was just the straw that broke the camel's back, as they say, pushing poor Skywalker over the brink. He was willing to do anything, ANYTHING to prevent Padme's death.

And Palpatine knew it.