Didn't Anakin foresee himself freeing the slaves on Tatooine?

We knew that Anakin could never come back and free the slaves, since they're still there in ROTJ. So Lucas never intended to have Anakin go and do it in the PT. To end slavery, Anakin would have to go out and kill Jabba. Then go after all the other Hutts to prevent them from picking up the pieces. There is a meaning there as inkswamp said. Anakin as a young boy has a naivee (sp) view of the galaxy. His mother tells him that the galaxy would be better off if everyone helped each other. He believes that the Jedi are invincible. He has this innocence about him. Fast forward ten years and we see that he still has this naivety (sp). He thinks that the people should be forced to reach a solution, much like a dictatorship. As a boy, he's going to come back for Shmi and free the slaves. As a young adult, he does come back to rescue his mother. Before doing that, he was going to wait until he could go and do it. He couldn't as a Padawan, but he can as a Knight. But circumstances occur that forces Anakin to race to Tatooine, without permission and without help. When he gets there, he learns that his mom is no longer a slave. So she has been freed. After learning of what happened at the Lars, he goes off to rescue her. He's too late and takes his vengeance. Now, at this point, going back for the slaves is no longer an issue. His mother was freed and then killed. The Clone Wars were beconing. So his priorities shifted.

Now we see Anakin want to prevent Padme from dying, just as he wanted to prevent his mother from dying. Because he waited so long to go back for Shmi, he wasn't there in time to save her. To prevent the Tuskens from doing what they did. But now he has an opportunity get it right. He can stop her from dying, just as he vowed before. Anakin has suplanted (sp) one vow for another. It becomes an obsession for him to prevent Padme's death, whereas it was not an obsession to free the slaves. He exchanges a selfless deed for a selfish one. Once he turns, he changes again. Now he wants to rule the galaxy. He will want people to do what he wants of them. Only his injuries curb this for the next two decades.

Symbolically, Anakin does free the slaves by destroying the Empire. The slaves of the galaxy as a whole.

 

Sinister, intent is not enough. Lucas can intend to do this and that, but it's also the execution of ideas and concepts that counts. That's what gives us quality films, not the intent. The intent is the personal POV of the filmmaker. While that's interesting, it's almost a side issue. What matters is what's up on-screen at the end of the day.

Lucas himself has admitted he doesn't always make things clear enough or things he "intended to do" don't always work out.

 

Possibly. Who knows? And what does that have to do with anything? We're not rewriting the movies here. We're looking at what's there.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. You're assuming too much. You don't know why the slavery thing was thrown in, but you do know how the whole story turned out, and you do know that it was never explained explicitly. The logical explanation would be that it was there for some other reason beyond a literal interpretation. It's there to tell us something about Anakin or explain why he acts the way he does.

You've answered your own question. Look at how petulant and angry Anakin is after his mother dies. He's not acting like someone who has lost a loved one (mostly--there is some grief, but mostly anger.) He's acting like someone who wasn't allowed to have his way with something. It's clear from much of the subtext in AOTC and much of the outright dialogue in TPM that Anakin has a strong desire to return to Tatooine. Ostensibly, it's to see his mother again or to save her, but we also know that he has this dream of freeing everyone. He sees himself as this great hero returning home to bring freedom, but the reality is that he's less powerful than that, the galactic equivalent of a cop. When he returns to Tatooine and sees his mother die, he feels powerless, and then he reacts against the Jedi and Obi-Wan for not letting him come back sooner. So the dream of freeing the slaves plays a role just the same even if it's not explained--it shows why Anakin is so eager to return to Tatooine and why he utterly flips out when his mother dies.

I'm surprised at how literal some of you are with this stuff. I call that kind of storytelling tab-in-slot plotting, where everything has to be there for an obvious reason. Life isn't like that at all. Not all tabs fit into a particular slot. It's never that neat and tidy, except in Hollywood movies. I'm not sure why you would impose that kind of thing on Star Wars. Despite their size and budget, they have always been the antithesis of the big Hollywood movies.

 

I think this nails it, combined with what sinister said above i don't see a plot hole.

Also since Anakin's visions are not exact in RotS, the details keep changing, it is clearly established in that film that the future changes and the visions are not always reliable.

It may have, at one time been a plot point that was abandoned, but if so it was well covered on screen and is not a glairing problem.

The one thing i don't do is listen to Lucas' explanations, since he'll change his mind and contradict it the next time he opens his mouth, i don't see the point to listening to him.

 

The one thing i don't do is listen to Lucas' explanations, since he'll change his mind and contradict it the next time he opens his mouth, i don't see the point to listening to him.

Thats the truth.



We really shouldnt hold lil Annie to what he says at 10. After all, he also said no one can kill a Jedi.

 

Could have been a metaphor for the whole galaxy under the rein of Palpatine. Notice how he said "I came back here and freed all the slaves."

We know from ROTS, Anakin "dies" and is replaced by Darth Vader but returns in ROTJ to destroy evil and free everyone from the reins of evil.

 

"The hour's approaching to give it your best
And you've got to reach your prime
That's when you need to put yourself to the test
And show us the passage of time
We're gonna need a montage
Ooh, it takes a montage
Show a lot of things happening at once
Remind everyone of what's going on
In every shot, show a little improvement
To show it all would take too long
That's called a montage
Girl, we want a montage
In anything, if you want to go
From just a beginner to a pro
You need a montage
Even Rocky had a montage
Always fade out in a montage
If you fade out it seems like more time has passed in a montage..."

Well, I know it doesn't quite fit Order 66, but it makes me smile

I have to agree with Roland: Order 66 is, for me, a really powerful part of RotS. If there's anything I'd have changed, it's that we keep seeing Sidious ordering individual clones to enact it: are we to assume that he tells each clone seperately? that just doesn't seem efficient to me

Back on topic. I'm definitely of the opinion, like others, that Anakin's ambition to free all the slaves was a device to indicate the nature of his character, rather than to directly foreshadow events to come. I must say that, although one might construe it as a vision of Anakin's ultimate destiny, such an interpretation feels to me to be "reaching" somewhat!

I think Anakin's dream (of freeing the slaves) was also clever in that it, like other scenes, encouraged people to want to know what *might* happen in the following films, thus ensuring a sense of connection across the saga (eg if people are thinking back to TPM when watching AotC, this strengthens the holistic view Lucas wants the viewer to take when watching these movies). It's just a pity that some people are so disappointed that their predictions didn't come true that they feel so let down by what was, I think, a pretty fab film and a brave attempt at meeting expectations that had been built up over more than 25 years!

Be seeing you,

A

 

"where little Anakin says he had a vision that he came back and freed all the slaves, if his visions were so accurate how come he didn't do this?"

I believe he says he had a dream, not a vision, which is quite different.
He was a child who had a wishful dream that he some day returned to Tatooine
as the hero and freed the slaves. It wouldn't be unusual for a child to
dream such a thing given he was a slave.
I think there's too much read into that line from the movie.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

 

Maby this time when he had a dream it wasnt a preminition and maby it could have happened if he stayed on tatoone longer in AOTC with padme there it would have gave him moral support for when he was actually freeing them......maby.....maby not.