PT “You do know don’t you if the Jedi destroy me any chance of saving her will be lost”

In Episode 3 when we hear palpatine say this in voiceover during the Padmes rumination scene, is this Palpatine saying it to anakin through the force? Is it Anakin having visions or is it just representing where Anakin’s head is at as he struggles to make the ultimate decision and choice.

Anakin has had visions before in this film with Padme’s child birth and his mother in Episode 2 but this device is very different to what we’d had before. It’s more akin to hearing Qui Gon through the force as he strikes the Tusken Raiders down.

Such a wonderful scene and it brings up so many questions for an audience to draw their own conclusions. What do you all think?

 

I believe its Palpatine communicating it through the Force. At this point, Mace and the Jedi are on their way, so Palpatine is likely just waiting for their arrival and setting his plans in motion.

However, it can be easily be Anakin reflecting on something Palpatine said to him when he found out he was a Sith Lord.

However, the former is more likely.

 

Ultimately, yeah, it’s left ambiguous and up to the viewer’s interpretation, though personally I tend to favor this interpretation.

 

I have been every voice you have ever heard...inside your HEAD

 

There is a lot of great ambiguity in ROTS. None of them require any answers, so they are not "unanswered questions", but they add a lovely shade of mystery and speculation to the story. Did Darth Plagueis exist? Was the power to save people from death real at all? Were Anakin's visions real or caused by some evil force? Would Padmé have died if Anakin hadn't tried to save her (unwillingly fullfilling the vision)?

I hate unanswered questions when it comes to legitimate mysteries brough up by the narrative, but I do think that sometimes ambiguity is better than giving specific answers to everything.

 

It's not clearly defined, but either way it amounts to the same thing: Palpatine is in his head.

 

Personally I see it as Sidious communicating to him through the Force. We know from ESB that Vader was capable of communicating to Luke across from another ship. Sidious's words are also not the exact ones he said to Anakin when he revealed his identity, so it's not Anakin's reflecting on those words.

 

Palpy left a tape recorder under one of the chairs in the council chamber, it's the only explanation

nah, he was using a simple fore projection that is all it wasn't a memory since Palpatine never said those exact words to him in the prior scene.

 

I always thought it was just Anakin's inner thoughts, but maybe it'll be retconned at some point to actually be his voice so it links to the ST. I like either interpretation.

 

Perhaps a little of both.

Anakin is ruminating and going over the decision(s) he has to make and of course whatever Palps said will be in his head...but what if also, at the same time, Palps is directing Anakin's thoughts via the Dark Side? Sort of continually nudging him psychically in a certain direction to get him to focus on what Palps wants?

 

This is what I would say as well. I don't think that it was meant as Palpatine actually communicating with him at that point, just as something he said when he revealed himself, and which is now something Anakin is thinking about while contemplating what to do. This is also supported by the ROTS-novel, which states that this is something that Palpatine had said directly to him in person, as little as that might mean in the overall picture.

 

I think it can be interpreted a few ways.

It could Palpatine directly communicating with Anakin via the force, or it could just be Anakin's head.

Personally I lean towards the former. Though Palpatine was operating in ready ground given Anakin's state of mind.

 

I like to interpret that as a bit of both, personally

It probably is Palpatine telepathically speaking in Anakin's head, but in Anakin's turmoil and indecision in the moment, perhaps he doesn't even pick up on that. Maybe he even thinks he's imagining it, his own fears manifesting as a vision or even Force-induced hallucination. The voice line being as quiet as it is works well with that

Whether my interpretation was intended or not, who can say. Probably not. But that's the wonder of film and death of the author!

 

I always assumed that he was remembering an actual line from Sidious offscreen, and to me this interpretation is superior for the story.

 

Simplest interpretations are usually the best.

 

Honestly, it’s one of those scenes where you can interpret it either way and it’d be fine. It’s already been established that Force users can telepathically communicate with each other so it’s just as good as the ‘Palpatine physically said those words to Anakin before the latter left’ version.

 

Agreed.

 

Its definitely ambiguous.

A key aspect of the scene is Anakin is otherwise silent, but we get that bit of internal monologue that isn't his voice.

So we are left to ask, "is this Palpatine speaking telepathically, is he remembering something said off screen, or is it Anakin's own mind?"

 

I always thought it was just something Palpatine said to him afterwards, maybe some dialogue that was deleted or modified but Lucas liked it and put it in there anyway. I hadn't considered telepathy, and especially considering the "I have been every voice inside your head" line from TROS it takes on a new twist (maybe one of foreshadowing Palpatine communicating with Ankain and later Ben). But the scene also has pseudo-maybe Force communication with Anakin and Padme at that moment to so it would kinda fit.

 

I never thought it was communication between Anakin and Padme. They were thinking of each other, and especially he was thinking of her.