PT Anakin's look before he burned

Why does Anakin look like that in this picture?
Its just before he gets burned completely.



Does he think he dies now?
Or does he realize what he did?

 

I think, right there, his main emotion is shock at the fact that all his limbs have been sliced off by his best friend and now he's catching on fire. And yes, he probably realizes that Obi-Wan has essentially just killed him.

I don't think he's in any sort of headspace where he'd be feeling remorse. This is probably the moment where any reservations he's had about everything he's done have been forced completely below the surface.

 

You would look like that too if you get caught on fire....

 

Yep. That's the face of pain.

 

Placebo pain

 

um he's on fire.

 

He's thinking he should have stayed in bed.

 

I think the script originally called for Anakin to beg Obi-Wan to help him. And I recall reading somewhere that they actually did this in takes or at least rehearsals. Thankfully that verbal exchange was dropped (I think Obi-Wan was too emotionally fraught at that moment to be capable of coldly and decisively refusing, as he'd been scripted to do), but I think Hayden decided to go with pleading with his eyes. IMO that expression says Help me.

 

I've always liked to interpret this scene as that after hearing Obi-Wan's agonizing speech and and he was like a brother to him, he had just a split second to contemplate, and I think in that split second he wished things had been different. But before it could form a concrete thought, he caught on fire and that thought was deeply suppressed

 

Yes, that's exactly my interpretation of that expression! You put it much better.

I agree with The_Phantom_Calamari that what he felt in that moment didn't amount to regret -- which would require maturity -- but just the simple overwhelming desire that things had gone differently. I think he had felt this way ever since the Padmé's Ruminations scenelet, but just that instant was when it really overcame him.

 

I think it was just the pain and shock he was feeling both literally and emotionally. He was probably trying to grasp why he, Darth Vader, the most powerful warrior ever, had been beaten by Obi-Wan. If he felt anything else at that moment, it was probably wishing their situations were reversed and it was Obi-Wan lying on the ground sans legs and an arm. Remember, he screamed, "I HATE YOU!" so I highly doubt he was feeling any shred of remorse or guilt at this moment.

That and his leg stumps had just caught on fire and he was about to be completely engulfed in flames.

 

I think Hayden put more nuance into "I HATE YOU!!!!" than is apparent on the surface. To my ear, Vader almost sounds like he's putting all that incredible forcefulness into that roar because he's trying to convince himself.

To be clear, I don't doubt he absolutely wanted to kill Obi-Wan throughout their whole duel, and perhaps never more so than at that moment, just after Obi-Wan's reminded him of how he's taken a dump on all the hopes and dreams Qui-Gon, his mother and Obi-Wan himself had for him. But Anakin's relationship with Obi-Wan was far too complicated -- and Vader's even more so -- for the plain meaning of "I HATE YOU!!!!" to accurately summarise his feelings. And I think the look on his face in the OP hints at some those subtler undercurrents in how Vader felt about Obi-Wan -- and how he continued to feel even twenty-odd years later in the OT.

 

The thing is, the moment before the one in the pic, the moment where he's just screamed "I hate you" and Obi-Wan's about to respond with "I loved you", is the most meaningful moment to me as far as Anakin's feelings are concerned. Right then, he seems to hesitate ever so slightly. Possibly, he does wish that things had been different between the two of them.
When he's on fire, he also clearly reaches for Obi-Wan, wordlessly begging for his help. He looks so utterly devastated when his former friend just walks away that I almost tear up at the mere thought of it.
What if Obi-Wan had helped him? What if he had put out the flames and brought Anakin on board the ship? What if he'd been saved and reconstructed by the medical droids on Polis Massa, overseen by Obi-Wan and Yoda?
What then?

Those are questions that we'll sadly never know the answer to.

 

I've had a hard time getting a screen shot of it, but the moment after Obi-Wan says "you swer supposed to destroy the Sith no join them," the camera pans to Anakin. The look on his face is sorrow and regret, seeing through his own rage for that and realizing that he has destroyed his own life and disappointed everyone who had cared about him.

In the moment I outlined, his face tells a different story. At that point Anakin had spent a considerable amount of time convincing himself that what he was doing was right. The "I hate you" was just another part of the facade, not that he didn't really hate Obi-Wan in that moment, but to convince himself that his actions were justified. Anakin knew the Empire was a sham, he knew the Jedi weren't evil, and he knew that Obi-Wan was right.

 

Thats his face after this sentence: It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them


And this after Obi-Wan says: You were to bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness

 

Ironically, those moments just before the fire horribly disfigured him was the most human and 'Anakin' he's looked since the tears in the Council chamber.

They both exceeded my expectations in that scene. Ewan's portrayal of Obi-Wan's utter anguish is rightly raved about, but Hayden's non-verbal performance is just as powerful.

When I first saw the moment captured by the those three screenshots on the big screen, oh my god, The Tragedy of Darth Vader just hit me like a ton of bricks. It suddenly didn't matter that Anakin had been a whiney immature selfish brat who'd brought this upon himself. For those few seconds, he wasn't the Sith monster he'd been since the march on the Temple. He was a human being tormented by the inevitable consequences of his own choices. Between them, George and Hayden somehow combined the pathos of both classical Greek and 'Christian' tragedy.

 

Now there's a face of someone who know's he's totally screwed.

 

Yes. Xenor the pic you posted in the OP is just that of a man in physical pain. The last two there tell a much deeper story of a man in emotional anguish.

 

It could be my eyes playing tricks, but while that was going on, Anakin seems to be trying to crawl back to Obi-Wan as if he wants to beg his old master for forgiveness. The irony is that if Obi-Wan stepped over to help him, maybe that would've been the thing that got Anakin to realize that he was wrong and potentially end the 20-year nightmare of being Vader right then and there. But the thing is, Obi-Wan can't. He's too overwhelmed by grief that his own life was destroyed by the very man he once loved like a son/brother. Overwhelmed by the grief that he had to basically kill this man. He couldn't do it. When Anakin sees that his old master isn't coming down to help him, Vader takes over. Vader, who is convinced that the Jedi never cared for him, emerges and is the one who screams 'I HATE YOU'.

 

Funny that the next time these two meet, Vader can be described as calm and in charge of his emotions. He doesn't attack Obi-Wan, no hints of rage or anger. Vader is very sure of himself and his powers at that point:

I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan.
We meet again, at last. The circle
is now complete...
When I left you, I was but the
learner; now I am the master....

Another funny thing, if Anakin thought he was going to die in Mustafar, his final words to Obi-Wan would have been "I hate you" instead, his final words to Obi-Wan were an insult:

Your powers are weak, old man.

 

Vader actually sounds very cheerful when he says "I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan."

 

Thank you for pointing that out! Seriously, that's never occurred to me before. Anakin must have thought that he was going to die, that Obi-Wan had just ruined everything. His turn to the dark side would be for naught and Padmé would die in childbirth. All because Obi-Wan had to go and defeat him. Him! The Chosen One! The most powerful Force user in the galaxy!
It must've been way beyond frustrating for Anakin to lie there, knowing that he'd been beaten by his infuriating former master - and that he was about to die.
"I hate you" would feel like an appropriate farewell in that situation.

Imagine how he must've felt once he'd realized that he was going to live after all. That must've been weird for him. And then, to learn that Padmé had died... The emptiness that must've filled his soul...
Hm, maybe that's why his soul stopped aging?

 

LOL understatement much?

Well, that's why we have fanfic.

Seriously now, I enjoy fantasising that they could have had a happy ending (sort of) to RotS, but I don't really think Obi-Wan could have reached Anakin then. He was so far gone that he'd choked his heavily-pregnant wife just minutes before, and didn't even look remorseful or concerned about her -- just angry that she'd rejected his delusions. I don't think he was going to be pushed into remorsefulness by Obi-Wan after the latter has just (in Anakin's mind) 'turned Padmé against him' -- forcing him to choke her -- and maimed him. The magnitude of the evil he'd done required a degree of remorse and repentance which I think he was just not capable of at that point. He doesn't have the emotional or spiritual maturity for it.

It's not a karma thing, or that I think Obi-Wan and Padmé shouldn't have forgiven him (leaving aside the point that his crimes were against the Republic as well as being genocide and the GFFA equivalent of 'crimes against humanity', so it was not entirely up to them to absolve him). It's that you can't truly be 'good' or 'redeemed' after doing those things unless you honestly see your sins for what they are and sincerely abhor them (rather than making excuses, which is all Anakin had done). And I think Anakin was not ready for that at that point, no matter how much forgiveness he was shown. It's probably true he wished he hadn't done it, but more in the sense of "why is life as the Chosen One so hard, forcing me to do these things", rather than genuine remorse (ie accepting that he wasn't forced by circumstances, that he was entirely responsible).

 

While I'm 100% positive that Anakin knew that the decision to join Sidious was entirely his when he made it, you're probably right that by the time Obi-Wan defeated him, he'd managed to convince himself that he had to do the things he did. The dark side had poisoned his mind and turning back was probably no option at that point.
Still, anything's possible.