A Fan’s Retrospective on Revenge of the Sith 20 years Later
Twenty years ago this month, the world saw what we thought would be the last of the Star Wars films. Years before it even came out, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was thought to be the final piece of the puzzle of the Prequel Trilogy. How Anakin fell to the Dark Side, the Jedi were almost wiped out, and the Empire rose from the ashes of the Old Republic. While Star Wars could, and would, go on in other forms of media, Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be the big one. Yet as history would come to show us, that would be wrong.
Within three years, another Star Wars film, an extended pilot for the upcoming The Clone Wars film, would premiere in theaters. While that film would be panned, it would lead to the highly successful show of the same name airing on Cartoon Network. Then, in 2012, LucasFilm would be bought by Disney, who proceeded to axe almost all Star Wars media from canon. That paved the way for a new generation of films, the Sequel Trilogy, to be released over the back half of the decade. In a great sense of irony, they would end up being maligned by older critics the same way the Prequels were. For all their faults, though, they did the same good thing that The Clone Wars series did: they made Revenge of the Sith even sadder.
The Star Wars media that has come out since Disney bought the franchise has made Revenge of the Sith an even bigger tragedy. One that the franchise has yet to heal from, thanks to Disney. And it is this added context that makes the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith all the more poignant.
The Clone Wars Reminded us that Anakin’s Fall Wasn’t Sudden
When the ad campaign for Episode III started, it didn’t bother hiding how things would end. Everyone, save for the youngest of fans, knew that Anakin would become Darth Vader; it wasn’t that big a reveal. The true reveal was learning the how and why. Fans really wanted to know why the sweet little boy introduced in The Phantom Menace would turn into the menacing Vader. The Prequel trilogy would do a good job of showing how, even as a kid, the seeds for Vader were already there. However, there was only so much that could fit into the span of the films. It’s the things that weren’t mentioned in the films but in additional media that reveal how Anakin’s fall was in the making for three years.
Over the course of The Clone Wars and other media during that time, Anakin would demonstrate a protective streak a parsec wide towards those he cared about. Whereas the Jedi tried to eschew unhealthy attachments in fear of the Dark Side, Anakin did the opposite. As a result, whenever those he cared about were at risk, or he thought they were, he would pull out all the stops to save them. It got to the point where he was even willing to torture his enemies if it meant protecting those he loved. While Anakin was, in many ways, what the Jedi should’ve been like, he was also an example of their shortcomings. Because there were several times where they would end up failing him.
The Jedi Let Anakin Down
During The Clone Wars, there are two prominent times when the Jedi let Anakin down. Firstly, there was the time they chose to fake Obi-Wan’s death so he could go on a deep cover mission. The Council chose to keep Anakin in the dark to sell the ruse, but this nearly backfired when Anakin hunted down and nearly killed the disguised Obi-Wan. Afterwards, Anakin rightfully called out his master and the Council for manipulating him like that when they knew he had issues with losing people. And for once, Obi-Wan couldn’t come up with a good counterargument.
The second was when his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, was framed for bombing the Jedi Temple and expelled from the order. Despite Anakin proving her innocence, the Council never truly apologized for their mistake, prompting her to leave the Order. While this would save her life, Anakin would never forgive the Council for their willingness to throw Ahsoka under the speeder like that.
Thanks to this added context, Anakin’s seemingly immature frustration with the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith becomes a lot more understandable. Despite what they did to him, they were still unwilling to give him their full trust. What makes it worse is that, had Ahsoka stayed and accepted knighthood, Anakin would’ve automatically become a master. The scene where the Council refused to do so only seemed like salt in the wound. And instead of explaining this to Obi-Wan or Padme, he chose to confide in the worst person possible.
Anakin and Padme’s Relationship Looks Even Worse Now
One of the most criticized aspects of the Prequel Trilogy has to be how the relationship between Anakin and Padme. Whether it’s due to bad writing or Hayden and Natalie not being a good fit, their onscreen chemistry seems rather forced and cringeworthy at times. While supplementary media like The Clone Wars would do much to help flesh out their relationship, it would also demonstrate that it was even more toxic than people had realized.
As the show demonstrates, Anakin and Padme truly did love each other, but their relationship had problems long before the events of Revenge of the Sith. There were at least two instances where Anakin would demonstrate an extreme amount of jealousy toward Padme talking to another guy. It got to the point where Padme even forced him to sleep on the couch for a time. To be fair, Anakin accepted he was stepping out of line, but their need for secrecy meant they never got the help they needed to make their relationship work.
What makes things even worse, though, is that The Clone Wars revealed that they didn’t need to keep their relationship a secret to begin with. Obi-Wan knew the whole time! He just pretended not to because a.) he knew how happy Padme made Anakin, and b.) he probably felt guilty knowing his bad advice would lead to Anakin’s mother dying in his arms. He may not have been happy, but he probably would’ve helped them if they told him they were going to be parents.
The Clone Troopers Were Just as Much Victims as the Jedi
The execution of Order 66 was already a heartbreaking moment in the Star Wars franchise. With just three words, Darth Sidious would wipe almost all of the Jedi out in the blink of an eye. Then, to add insult to injury, he dragged their reputation through the mud and made the galaxy and the people they wanted to protect turn on them. That was already horrifying to see, but The Clone Wars took this tearjerker and made it into straight up nightmare fuel for all parties. And it was because of the way that show humanized the Clone Troopers.
As The Clone Wars revealed, their turning on the Jedi in Order 66 was not of their own volition. Sidious had engineered each of them to have inhibitor chips that would let him take control whenever he wanted. The chips were so powerful that the Clones couldn’t resist them for long before they took control. By the time they came to their senses, they almost always found themselves standing over the bodies of the comrades that they had fought alongside for years. The only people who ever treated them as more than just expendable bantha fodder, and they killed them.
The Clones lot only got worse from there. Follow-up series like The Bad Batch and Rebels revealed that many of the Clones would develop PTSD thanks to Order 66. Then, just to kick them down even further, Sidious would eventually drive them out of the Empire they helped to create. A few of them managed to get out, but for every one that did, countless others likely met a horrible fate.
The Sequels Made Revenge of the Sith Even more of a Downer
When Revenge of the Sith released in 2005, it was always meant to be a tragedy. However, the pain of what would happen was eased by the fact that the Empire would come undone during the Original Trilogy. The Republic would return as the New Republic, and Luke would restart the Jedi Order and give it the chance to thrive once more. Then Disney, in all their wisdom, decided to make everything that had happened be for nothing.
As shown throughout the Sequel Trilogy, almost everything the Rebellion and surviving Jedi fought for became undone. The Empire would return as the First Order and Sith Eternal and nearly reconquered the Galaxy. The New Republic would collapse almost overnight, powerless and impotent due to failing to learn the right lessons. Even Anakin killing Darth Sidious seemed pointless when the Dark Lord of the Sith used cloning to bring himself back. In addition, Luke, Leia, and Han would meet their ends. Ben would sacrifice himself to save Rey, ending the Skywalker bloodline. And Luke’s efforts to rebuild the Jedi would end with him giving up until Rey appeared at his doorstep! And to this day, we still don’t know if the Jedi will ever return because Disney keeps dragging its heels on things!
Knowing that the events of Revenge of the Sith would be undone in the future helped make the film more bearable. But thanks to Disney deciding to make the Skywalker family suffer even more, the film feels even sadder twenty years after its release. The Galaxy would be freed from Sidious, but the Skywalkers, the family that Star Wars started with, wouldn’t live to see it. That makes Revenge of the Sith even sadder to watch, and until Disney lets the Jedi come back, it will stay that way.
May the Force see that it doesn’t stay that way!
