Early Episode III review from Kevin Smith

[OB1]

Of course I have, and of course I do. Most people are just a little smoother than that. Though, it was really Anakin who made it crappy.

Keep in mind that their relationship was supposed to seem awkward and naive in that style of dialogue.

Perhaps so, but it definitely did seem like the Mandy Moore/Shane Whatever romance.

You crazy.

Yeah, you're totally not listening to me.

I don't care if Palpatine has a tragic past or not. Not every character has them. But most characters, good and bad, have motives. It'd be great to know why he's destroying the republic and replacing it with his Empire. It would also be nice to know what started him down this path. Or did he just wake up one morning and decide "Hey, I want to be an evil emperor!" Realistic bad guys aren't always tormented by horrible pasts and become tragic figures, but realistic bad guys ALWAYS have compelling motives. How did he become a Sith Lord? Was he born to it? Did he decide to do it? If so, why?

So no more comments about the tragic past crap, because you know that's not my angle and never was. I can't, for the life of me, why you seem to be happy Palpatine is one of the worst-conceived villains (in relation to both his importance to the story, and to the sheer amount of exposure he receives) in movie history.

You have stated in the past that real-world "villains" are not interesting unless you look at their tormented pasts or details from their childhoods, which is why I said that. But guess what? Milosevic and Hitler didn't have much deeper motives than Palpatine, and he's a fictional character! But I'll tell you what you will find out in Episode III, and will be able to gather from all of the movies put together:

-Who his master was

-How he came to power

-Why he wants to control the galaxy

-Why he is so damn evil

It would be cool to find out if the Republic was once an empire and had a glory days scenario. Palps would want the republic to return to its former glory for all he wrong reasons. That would make him a mirror to Hitler. But ultimately Hitler too just wanted more power because his penis is small and he wanted to become a living God. Which is the most frightening reasoning you could ever drive as a motive. Think of Nero; just pure perversion.

That's exactly right, actually, and some of those answers are in the first two prequels. Episode III will bring it all together.

Sharp thinking, lazy!