"There...is...no...conflict!"

To paraphrase the old expression, methinks the Dark Lord doth protest too much!

One dialogue exchange which a lot of people latched onto when ROTS came out - and made a good deal of political hay out of - was when Anakin says to Obi-Wan "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!" and Obi-Wan disdainfully replies "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!"

To me, this has less to do with George Lucas' making any sort of reference to then-current political figures or trends, but more a way of addressing one of Anakin's greatest weaknesses. And what is this weakness, precisely?

Well...I personally love that exchange from ROTJ, during the Luke/Vader duel, when Luke tells him "Your thoughts betray you, father. I can feel the conflict within you" and Vader counters with "There...is...no...conflict!" Anakin/Vader's frustration is somewhat understandable, because throughout the Saga so many people in his life have been telling him about how they can sense fear, or conflict, or confusion, or...whatever in him! I imagine it's somewhat understandable that he would get rather ticked off at so many people presuming to know his own mind better than he knows himself! I mean, wouldn't you?

But as with so many of us, that's largely because dealing with his own feelings and emotions is something that he's never really been able to do all that well. As gifted and as powerful as Anakin is, introspection is not his strong suit. And how do many such people deal with life? Well, they tend to be more easily subject to rigidly embracing certain ideologies and philosophies, often in a very absolutist way, because it's...well...in the words of Yoda, "quicker...easier...more seductive!"

The Sith may rely on passion for strength, but the reason it's so easy to embrace such a code is because a way of falsely clarifying life's myriad complexities. And to a large extent, it's understandable why Anakin found it so seductive.

(And come to think of it, that's a good way of describing a certain former U.S. commander-in-chief...and so many of the men in his family.)

 

Something weird happened with the title and I read it as "There...is...no...conflict!&q uot;" Obviously it's not showing up that way anymore, but because of this I made another copy of the thread. Could one of the mods please delete this one??

 

Odd error.

 

Indeed, but the other one appears to be up. I'll close this one and we can use the other.