Public concession and/or retraction
Posted: 2005-11-30 11:46am
This is in regards to the "Mace vs. Palpatine" duel in ROTS.
When I first watched it, I thought it was clear that Palpatine was playing a "cat and mouse" game with Mace, since he clearly could make a comeback and use FL to finish off the poor Jedi Master.
There wasn't a clear stance either way as far as arguements about it went in my opinion. The odd bits that leaked out about it since also didn't convince me either way. It started to look like this was going to be another one of those great SW mysteries that we weren't ever going to get a clear answer to. Until relatively recently, when we got a clear statement in the matter, pointing out Mace as the winner until Anakin got in the way.
In retrospect, I think that I might have been leading myself. Palpatine was always a great schemer, and I thought it would have been a better movie if he had planned the whole thing rather than having such a basic concept. I guess I should have remembered that he also had a talent for improvisation, and I should also have remembered that SW relies on remarkably basic concepts in a neat package. That's one of the basic things I like about it, after all.
I also got a bit of anti-sentiment when I first realized the duel was an issue of contention; I percieved many of the arguements for Mace as "Mace-wanking", which in my opinion isn't one bit better than "Palpatine-wanking", which the other side was accused of; this is probably after popularization of the term in regards to Palpatine's clone in "Dark Empire". Which is a sloppy generalization at best. I still feel there's a bit of "Mace-wanking" going on by his fans, regardless. But I suppose it's a right for a fan to be biased. I like Samuel Jackson's acting and I think he did a good job as Mace, but I just don't go that extra mile. The emotional argumentation for Mace did nothing to help the case, rather the opposite for me, as I believe it somewhat blinded me from a rational, objective view. I didn't feel strongly about the issue either way, so I was a bit taken aback by the strong emotions about the duel.
If I only had thought more carefully on the emphasize the event placed on Anakin, I should have noticed that it became a key event in the saga (which is really about Anakin Skywalker's rise and fall), which in retrospect makes it all clear from a Lucas' standpoint.
Finally, I have decided to come clean about the issue, in public, rather than just by myself in my (figuratively speaking) lonely chamber. I haven't spoken up until now because I didn't feel it was much to bother about. But what I percieve is, obviously, not always the same as what others see. Hence my public statement.
Overall and finally, regardless of perceptions, arguments, and reflections,
I was wrong, and for that, I conceed. Mace won the fight and if it hadn't been for Anakin's meddling, things would have turned out very differently in the galaxy far, far away. The rest was just a skillful spur of the moment improvisation by Palpatine, he took what he got and ran with it.
I think now that the whole pruneface conversion shows what FL can do to you when you aren't prepared for it, key word being "prepared", with other examples being Dooku, Luke and Yoda.
When I first watched it, I thought it was clear that Palpatine was playing a "cat and mouse" game with Mace, since he clearly could make a comeback and use FL to finish off the poor Jedi Master.
There wasn't a clear stance either way as far as arguements about it went in my opinion. The odd bits that leaked out about it since also didn't convince me either way. It started to look like this was going to be another one of those great SW mysteries that we weren't ever going to get a clear answer to. Until relatively recently, when we got a clear statement in the matter, pointing out Mace as the winner until Anakin got in the way.
In retrospect, I think that I might have been leading myself. Palpatine was always a great schemer, and I thought it would have been a better movie if he had planned the whole thing rather than having such a basic concept. I guess I should have remembered that he also had a talent for improvisation, and I should also have remembered that SW relies on remarkably basic concepts in a neat package. That's one of the basic things I like about it, after all.
I also got a bit of anti-sentiment when I first realized the duel was an issue of contention; I percieved many of the arguements for Mace as "Mace-wanking", which in my opinion isn't one bit better than "Palpatine-wanking", which the other side was accused of; this is probably after popularization of the term in regards to Palpatine's clone in "Dark Empire". Which is a sloppy generalization at best. I still feel there's a bit of "Mace-wanking" going on by his fans, regardless. But I suppose it's a right for a fan to be biased. I like Samuel Jackson's acting and I think he did a good job as Mace, but I just don't go that extra mile. The emotional argumentation for Mace did nothing to help the case, rather the opposite for me, as I believe it somewhat blinded me from a rational, objective view. I didn't feel strongly about the issue either way, so I was a bit taken aback by the strong emotions about the duel.
If I only had thought more carefully on the emphasize the event placed on Anakin, I should have noticed that it became a key event in the saga (which is really about Anakin Skywalker's rise and fall), which in retrospect makes it all clear from a Lucas' standpoint.
Finally, I have decided to come clean about the issue, in public, rather than just by myself in my (figuratively speaking) lonely chamber. I haven't spoken up until now because I didn't feel it was much to bother about. But what I percieve is, obviously, not always the same as what others see. Hence my public statement.
Overall and finally, regardless of perceptions, arguments, and reflections,
I was wrong, and for that, I conceed. Mace won the fight and if it hadn't been for Anakin's meddling, things would have turned out very differently in the galaxy far, far away. The rest was just a skillful spur of the moment improvisation by Palpatine, he took what he got and ran with it.
I think now that the whole pruneface conversion shows what FL can do to you when you aren't prepared for it, key word being "prepared", with other examples being Dooku, Luke and Yoda.