Anakin's Hooded Moments as Darth Vader

Did anyone else find the hood visually effective?

Not only does it pre-figure the infamous helmet that Anakin will soon wear and make him more shadowy and sinister, but it's also a way of visually suggesting Anakin's conflict without having to constantly show his face or employ dialogue. The hood obscures us from the real Anakin just as surely as Anakin was allowing his Vader persona to obscure his earlier self; yet he couldn't hide his actual face. More pertinently: he still HAD his face. Thus, the hood is telling us that Anakin is conflicted and somewhere between the two sides of his nature as he commits his repugnant deeds. Add in the occasional face shot and the occasional tear, not to mention Anakin's voice cracking as he declares his actions to Obi Wan with his back turned ("I have brought peace, freedom and security...") and his continued use of a blue sabre, and we actually have a lot being suggested to us.

Thoughts?

 

The hood was good, but there was just too much damn squinting.

My mother made the joke for days after we saw the movie: "Look! I'm turning to the Dark Side because I'm squinting! Look! Now I'm evil. *squint*"

 

Oh... you haven't seen the worst of it, Jenny. Here's a picture I did:

[image=http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y178/0Cryogenic0/hes_gonna_turn_evil.jpg]

In all seriousness, however, Star Wars is visually driven. That's why the picture was so easy to play on and that's why Anakin can be found furrowing his brow as much as he does.

OK, back to the hood...

 

All it did for me was signify his turn. I see no other visual impact, but then again, I don't go looking to see if every single scene has a meaning to it.

**Play nice. That's baiting.**

 

I think it?s very visually effective. I think a simple way to put it is that the hood represents his evil side ? Darth Vader. When he has it on he?s a whole other person, he?s not himself.

 

*Edit: Stop. Getting that out of his profile is also baiting. Let's end this right here.*

 

I think it was great! He looks evil while he have the hood on. BTW Im back now, I havent been on the boards since the release of EP3! So hello again!!

 

And...the bait is taken!

 

That was not meant as bait, I was only speaking about myself.

 

Back to Anakin's Hooded Moments. Yoshi, quit perpetuating drama.



That is all.

 

I do agree that Anakin putting the hood on before and when he committed his evil deeds was quite powerful.

I thought it was so interesting that when he arrives on Mustafar, he tells R2 to stay behind. I took this that he did not want R2 to witness his evil deeds, then he walks and away proceeds to pull the hood over his head. Even R2 could somehow sense somewthung was wrong.

Then after the killings he keeps the hood on, reports to Sidious and really sounds sinister in doing this. Then he is just standing there looking out over Mustafar and we see the inner conflict within him between good and evil. Then he sees Padme's ship arrive, and then he pulls the hood off and suddenly transform back to good old loving Anakin. I thought this was powerful, because it showed for me how the Sith accomplished what had over the many years, because they could transform at will appearing as an angel of good and light like Palpatine had been doing so long in deceiving the Republic. It worked for Dooku as well. By the way, I wish now we could have seen Dooku with his hood over his head

Darth Sin!

 

Ever since AOTC came out, I had been waiting to a see a pre-suit Darth Vader.

I wasn't let down by what I saw in ROTS, I thought Hayden actually became likeable once he turned bad! Just wish we'd seen him take out some Jedi with the hood up. Even ONE would've sufficed!

 

Anakin with his hood up is what I have been waiting for. Him walking up the temple steps getting ready to kill the jedi, with his hood up and the 501st right behind oh it gives me chills.




Emporer Gerner Dark Lord of the Sith

 

I think the most symbolic thing the hood could have represented is that he could only see straight ahead. It blinded his peripheral vision. He had his eyes forward looking only at one thing more and more during the movie and was blinded more and more of the things around him. Most of it knowingly and willingly at first.

 

very good

 

YEAH!!!

This thread has had some varied contributions thus far. And that may be the best of the lot!

Obviously, it's a stretch to read so much into one little aspect of the film. In that respect, I agree fully with Sidious_T. It could be something and nothing. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar and all that spiel... Yet it's interesting to see what we all take from the same material - especially in a film series that is, by its creator's own admission, visually driven.

Here is what the owner of Lard Biscuit, a very wise man in my humble opinion, has to more generally say on the matter:

The hood definitely puts something extra across that those scenes would lack without it. Seeing ANAKIN as Vader was one of the more startling and surprising aspects of the film.

 

[bI'm not saying that George Lucas deliberately planted every single nugget of symbolism I'm about to discuss in this section. In fact, it doesn't matter whether he did or not. Any mythic narrative worth a damn carries messages and resonance going beyond what its authors consciously set down.][/b]

Ill go along with that. But remember, Obi-Wan walked around with hood on in Episode 4 too.

 

^As did Qui Gon and Obi Wan in Episode 1.


Difference is, neither of 'em was dressed nearly all in black like Anakin was. Symbolism, my friend, symbolism.

 

Much that is taken from the film depends on the individual I feel these things can seem minute but I feel it depends on the individual as to what they take from the film. A lot that we find Is probably unintentional but these things are more abstract and there for left up to many interpritations. I believe when Obi-Wan of the OT wears the hood each time it is representing where he is at the moment. In hiding. When he makes the Boga noise to scare the Sandpeople. Then before he approaches Vader I believe. Also when he and Qui-Gon have thier hoods up they are negotiators boarding a Federation Ship. (Of course it would be wrong not to mention it was obvious it was done for the reveal factor.

 

Vader wearing his hood is much like Maul and Sidious wearing their hoods almost all the time. The Jedi rarely keep their hoods up when fighting, much less wear their robes. Had Anakin not been injured, he would've continued to dress as he had.

Obi-wan and Qui-gon had their hoods up to keep their identities a secret from Nute Gunray. They don't know that the Chancellor's ambassadors are Jedi. And once TC-14 identifies them to Nute and Rune, they freak out. Obi-wan had his hood up on Kamino due to the rain. And again when we first see him on Tatooine in ANH, because he's supposed to look like a ghost or the very thing that killed a tribe of Tuskens. Luke has his hood up to look like a Jedi and a Sith.

 

But what about Obi-wan fighting Vader with his hood up on the Death Star?

 

What do you want him to do? Smile the whole time?

 

I really enjoyed the scenes when he's Vader but not yet in the suit. You can finally see all of his ferocity at the height of his strength and power. That's the image we should have seen walking through the door on the Tantive had Obi-Wan not sliced him up.

 

I non-suited Vader or as we fan girls call him, Mustafar Ani. [image=http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d172/rplatan/hoodedani.jpg]

 

I've been calling him Anavader because he really is Darth Vader at that point. The problem is my thinking over the course of decades immediately thinks of Vader in the suit. So Anavader accomplishes what I need.