What are Star Wars About? Not What You Though!
For a long time, many thought Star Wars was the story of Luke Skywalker. Then, we saw that it was a tragedy of Anakin's involvement in the galactic conflict. Today, however, I am convinced that the most important character of this story is Palpatine.
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Turn the Cosmos into a prison
Not even attentive viewers will notice, however, that roughly 20 years after the events from the Revenge of the Sith, Emperor Palpatine still didn't fulfill his ultimate plan. In the first three films, he managed to break the power of The Jedi Order, and it was a great victory of his, but at the same time it was merely the first step towards his goal. What was the goal? Well, in the scene of the duel with Mac Windu the "monster" cried "Unlimited power!" And that sums it up. This seems to be the entirety of his political Manifesto. That is the only thing there ever was, that's why the Death Star was built. The action of the Revenge of the Sith ends when Emperor starts building the wunderwaffe without any constraints and political opposition. The action of A New Hope begins the moment it has reached combat readiness.
Palpatine defeated the Jedi, renamed the Republic to Galactic Empire, but only decided to get rid of Senate 20 years later. This was one of the original information about the universe contained in the movies, but viewers couldn't have known exactly how important that quote was for years.
The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.
Grand Moff Tarkin, A New Hope
The Death Star was, or should have been, the final step on the road to power. In space, there are no borders, you can not protect them with barbed wire. A galaxy is too big to put a loyal party member on every important official post (yes, the comparison to Stalinism is deliberate). This, again, isn't stated explicitly in the movies, but the very existence of the Rebel Alliance shows that the whole galaxy has not recognized the new galactic order, bringing the menace of a civil war to match the scale of the Clone Wars.
A weapon capable of instantly vaporizing an entire rebellious planet, combined with the realization that the Empire will stop at nothing, should be intimidating enough to shut the mouths of all the disaffected, and end the dreams of the galaxy without the Empire.
The original plan assumed building an entire fleet of Death Stars, which – not unlike American aircraft carriers – would allow the Empire to project its power anywhere in space. How can we be certain? The first combat station was constructed over two decades. Unsurprisingly, Rogue One clearly showed that the process it was a huge engineering and technological challenge. The next one was, however, constructed several times faster. It reached combat readiness in the Return the Jedi. It's almost certain that the construction began before the Rebels destroyed the first station.
The Empire solved all the design problems and had enough resources to start mass production. It's quite possible that more stations would have been constructed soon thereafter. That was the plan. To keep the entire galaxy on a leash of fear. Absolute power without any resistance or opposition.
Blasphemous experiment
There was just one small problem. A small boy from the desert, endowed with a great power. Anakin Skywalker appeared in this story as if by accident. A broken spaceship, an emergency landing. But we are talking about a mystical story, in which everything is controlled by an invisible force. There's no room for coincidence. Let's remember it was because of Palpatine's intrigue that Obi-Wan and his master went on a journey, in which they met the man who would become Lord Vader. At the same time, Anakin met the love of his life, which was crucial to his tragic transformation.
In the movies, we see a determined boy with a good heart who ends up on a path to evil. This role may have been performed poorly, but it the character arch was well-defined and pretty bumpy. At first, a small slave gets a chance at a better life, but loses the only person who was important to him – his mother. Then, when he becomes strong enough to snatch her out of the claws of misery (Star Wars was never graphic, but the fate of a slave on a cartel-ruled planet couldn't be fun), he arrives too late. It's hard to imagine the weight of guilt in this young man's head.
He substitutes the love of his mother with the love of a woman. On top of that, Amidala was the first good girl that Anakin met between the hell of slavery and the rigor of the Jedi academy. On the one hand, he felt a deep loyalty to the people who had given him a better life and taught him how to wield his power. To Obi-wan and the wise Yoda. On the other, he could not imagine a future without the woman he loved, with whom he, as a Jedi, could never officially be together, while the thought of losing her drove him mad.
There was a great battle taking place in Anakin's mind, and unfortunately it was really easy to miss it – "the new trilogy" wasn't really masterclass cinematography. The young Jedi was being tempted by Palpatine. With promises of great power, freedom, the right to wield the Force as he sees fit. On the other, master Yoda taught him to get rid of everything he fears to lose. Who would you listen to?
