Wednesday 6 October 2010

The flaws of human nature

It is possible that I am one of the last people on the planet to have watched the Stars Wars Sextet but hey, better late than never.

Before I started to watch it, I had to confirm with my two favourite brain boxes on watching Episodes IV, V, VI first and then I, II and III. One said to watch it consecutively, the other said watch it as they were released. Hmm...thanks guys.

So I decided to watch it as they were released. I must say Episodes IV, V, VI were rather simplistic with even simpler dialogue. Bleh...

BUT onto I, II and III! Whoa! Anakin's journey from obscurity to power hungry Sith is captivating. All the while knowing what is going to happen, I will still rooting for him to be good, remain good...very much like watching Romeo and Juliet - you know they're are going to die but you hope and pray that by some twist they won't!

Regardless, I feel a lot of compassion towards Anakin Skywalker for the simple reason that he is so flawed, so subject to his emotions, has much emotional baggage...it made him more human, more accessible. Evil manipulated that to their advantage so they could get the upper hand. But yes, Anakin did chose it himself as well even though he was only trying to protect what he held beloved. He is indeed a tragic hero, and now one of my favourites too.

In any case, seeing the character's demise made me think about how we all approach emotions - it can be so strong and can pull us to do so much - the very high of highs and the lowest of lows. The Jedi Masters, along with many religions in the reality we live in, preach about having that calm centre and disassociating the self from fears and attachments, especially in this physical world. That is something Anakin clearly did not practice. He had emotional baggage from the time he was a child, and I wonder how detrimental it is to people in their normal lives, if they do not deal with their emotional baggage. Are those from dysfunctional homes therefore more prone to snap at some point, if their issues are not resolved, or if they do not make peace with it? Are they at a natural disadvantage with all the chips on their shoulder? Does that mean that people who have led a relatively normal lives from childhood more prone to achieve all that they can, be all they can be? It made me think about being at peace with oneself, truly and fully, lest you go down your own dark path, whatever that may be for you.

3 comments:

Raj said...

The Force will be with you. Always. :)

Az said...

I think I'm the only one who hasn't seen I, II and III. And I can vaguely recall watching the others when I was a pre-teen.

But I also heard that I, II and III is quite good. I don't fancy myself as a Sci-Fi chick but I once worked with a guy who was equally uninterested and he said that he went to watch III first and was so impressed that it inspired him to watch all the others :)

Prixie said...

Hey Raj! Long time! I HOPE the force is always with us! :)

Azra: well i think since I,II, and III was way before my time, it was hard to identify with it. Granted is has spectacular visuals and technology for it's time! I am so a sci-fi nerd! :)