Execution Arena Symbolism

Oops-let me add dialogue to that subject. In my opinion: The monsters that come out of the gates to kill Ani, Padme, and Obi represent their inner demons. Their chains represent their "attachment" (forbidden) which make them vulnerable. Obi's creature has a bluegreen and white coloring, all goodguy colors in SW. Obi is the least emotionally attached of the 3 prisoners, so he is freed early in his struggle and roams the arena with ease. His creature has 6 legs, one for each episode Obi is in. He cuts off 2 of its legs, showing that he was dead in the last 2 episodes. Ani's creature is red and black, the evil SW colors. Three white horns? Three episodes in which he is good (more or less). to be cont...

 

Anyway, Obi is the only one who defeats his own creature, and he effectively commits suicide by letting D.V. kill him in ep 4. Obi's creature only attacks battle droids after the Jedi arrive.
Ani's creature unites with him via the chains. It knock's obi down and chases Windu around, just as Ani will "hunt down" and kill Jedi in Ep 3. His creature dies fighting Jango, and Vader died fighting the Emperor. The creatures right horn gets cut off, showing either or; Anakin was only good halfway through ep 3; Ani will lose his right hand (twice, mind you.)
Padme's creature screams "duality". White and black fur, red and green eyes, and a forked tail. It kills a Geonosian upon entry, just as Padme defeats her foes on entry to the series.
Padme is halfway freed from her chains before the creature gets to her, and Padme is almost free from emotional attachment. The creature hurts her, and she hurts it back. In the old trilogy, Leia describes her mom as "sad", and the creature can be heard whimpering.
Most significantly, her creature is killed by Anakin's creature. At that moment, she frees herself from her remaining cuff, and her chains are off.
Other symbols: A son holding the helmet of his dead father.
And, worst of all: The only witnesses of the inner struggles of SW characters are the fans, and the witnesses of the arena executions are weird termite critters.

 

Has anyone else noticed that the light saber of the Jedi with 2 brains changes from blue to green during the fight in the arena? It's only visible for a moment, but it's right when Yoda's crew lands to get them, and the Jedi with extra brain size is right behind Padme.

 

Interesting...

But does Lucas know all this too?

 

These points are one of two things

1. Absolutely tremendous understanding of what George Lucas was trying to show.

2. Absolute rubbish.

I tend to favour option 2 but you deserve credit for such deep analysis.

 

Wauw, it works internally in and of itself, I haven´t studied it so clsoely, but it makes sense somehow


Funny how things can connect isn´t it?





DD - Symbolic Spliff

 

It makes sense to me.
Check out the [link=http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=403461&page=1] Random Symbols[/link] thread. I think it's right up your alley DarthWrytard.

 

Good thoughts, DarthWrytard. I have to admit, when I first started reading this thread I thought, oh boy this should be interesting. But it actually does make sense and I commend you for your insights. Even if they turn out not to be deliberate, it's still a pretty cool analysis.

LOL, Plo Koen! Still, I do believe because of GLs strong mythology background that he does do these things on purpose and puts that level of detail in his films. It's one of those "for he that eyes to see" sort of things.

 

Actually I think the arena acts as a symbolic mating scene between Ani and Padme. I wrote a fairly detailed post on this in a thread called "outrageous sexual innuendo", but I can't find it now. I'll try to summarize, but if you are interested, look for the original thread.

- the scene is literally the climax of the film

- notice the phallic (columns) and vaginal (doorways and balcony decorations) shapes in the arena.

- note which beasts attack Ani and Padme and how each are killed.

-scene starts with a parody of the "tunnel of love" scene found in many a romantic tale.

I have more points, but it would be much nicer if I could find the original.

 

It's easy to assume that this is all coincidental. I certainly can't picture the SW production team endlessly debating all these symbols - six legs for six episodes etc.

However, I'm sure they pondered "which creature should attack Anakin?" and "what type of creature would they set on Padme?". Through this thought process you can imagine how they arrived at a red creature for Anakin and a black and white furry cat for Padme

Finally I note that someone posted another thread which drew attention to the similarities between the arena creatures and the manufactured warmachines. It appears that the Geonosians took inspiration from their monsters.

 

It seems more like a scene from Rome, but the plebians are replaced by flying aliens and the Christians replaced by the jedi getting ready to be executed.

 

Here's what I saw:

Anakin is physically in the middle between Obi-Wan and Padme. Thus, he's torn between them, or is going to be soon. He's going to have to make a choice between Padme and the Order sooner or later.

 

Don't forget that Obi-Wans beast kills one of the Geonosian.
Is that symbolic of the fact that Obi-Wan is killed on the Deathstar which is built by the Geonosians or that he helped destroy the Deathstar?

 

Good point DarthWryard.

The monsters .... represent their inner demons.

I wouldn't go as far to say that the animals represent their "inner demons," but I would agree that there is a symbolic connection to Obi-wan, Anakin, and Padme.

Obi's creature has a bluegreen and white coloring, all goodguy colors in SW.
Ani's creature is red and black, the evil SW colors.
(The Nexu has) white and black fur.

I agree that the coloring relates specifically to the characters. I would add that in SW films, the color red represents passion, not exclusively the "evil" traits of anger and aggression.

In addition to the coloring, there is significance in the nature of the arena beasts. Vladimir_imp said it best: I'm sure they pondered "which creature should attack Anakin?" and "what type of creature would they set on Padme?"

For example, the Reek is an aggressive creature that charges headlong into its victims with reckless abandon. Anakin could also be described in this manner. The Acklay is appropriate for Obi-wan, because Obi-wan "crabs" his way through AOTC. In a roundabout manner, he uncovers hints and clues about Confederacy and Clonetrooper conspiracies. Finally, Padme's creature is a feline, and there is a connection between felinity and femininity.

I believe that this is the extent of the symbolism. The manner of the creatures? deaths is more of a function of the story. There is no real significance in how they died. (However, that "outrageous sexual innuendo" thread does sound interesting.)

 

That thread is gone.

 

[edited]

YJ edit: While I appreciate your thoughts and contributions, that theory isn't entirely appropriate for a family forum.

 

This is good stuff!
Good thinking!

 

hmmmm.... I commend DarthWrytard for thinking of all this! I could never have done that myself! I'm not sure if all of this was random or not, but I do agree with whoever said that the creatures represented each character's inner demon. If you think about it, the beasts do represent each character quite well.

 

God, well done for even noticing all of this, even if GL didnt.

 

thats very amazing

 

With all respects to Yoda Jeff, this has been posted in the past with the approval of other mods. If it was suitable then, it is suitable now. If there is any gutter language, by all means edit it out. I don't think any children are even going to know what I'm talking about, let alone derive any sort of salacious thrill from it. If they do, well kudos to them for having such an advanced vocabulary and the ability to read more than a paragraph without "kewl" in it.

YJ edit: In my opinion, that isn't appropriate. I am going to bring it up with other moderators to get outside opinions, but I don't consider that appropriate for a family forum. Send me a PM if you would like to discuss it.

 

Another bit of symbolism: smoke rising behind the reek almost makes it look like it's burning. Anakin's body was burned in RotJ.

 

"Oops-let me add dialogue to that subject. In my opinion: The monsters that come out of the gates to kill Ani, Padme, and Obi represent their inner demons. Their chains represent their "attachment" (forbidden) which make them vulnerable. Obi's creature has a bluegreen and white coloring, all goodguy colors in SW. Obi is the least emotionally attached of the 3 prisoners, so he is freed early in his struggle and roams the arena with ease. His creature has 6 legs, one for each episode Obi is in. He cuts off 2 of its legs, showing that he was dead in the last 2 episodes. Ani's creature is red and black, the evil SW colors. Three white horns? Three episodes in which he is good (more or less). to be cont..."

Maybe Lucas just wanted to have the characters fight cool looking monsters?

I guess Anakin's clothes may kind of act as foreshadowing( they are darker than other Jedi robes). But I never really thought about it until this thread. I really don't care for symbolism, because its usually the audience's interpretation and not intended by the creator of the story. Just about anything can be symbolic if people think of a way to interpret it.

But if you like it thats cool.