The theme of immolation in ROTS

We all knew a long time before the release of Revenge Of The Sith that Anakin would burn to a crisp on Mustafar, and that this would result in his being put into the black Darth Vader suit. But it just occurred to me that Sith actually has not one, not two, but three immolation scenes! And the question is: Do the first two in some way anticipate or foreshadow the third?
The first one, of course, is R2-D2 roasting the Super Battle Droids on the Invisible Hand. A quite funny and humorous moment, resulting in much applause from audiences.
The second one, of course, is Obi-Wan blowing away General Grievous on Utapau, roasting the cyborg from the inside out.
So...as stated above, we have not one, not two, but three burning scenes in Sith! What gives? I sense a motif...

 

I never gave the R2 one a second thought till now. Good catch!

There's also a scarring motif in the film. Grievous is clearly "damaged goods", Palpatine "deforms" himself with lightning/hatred and Anakin's immolation permanently damages his body.

On top of that... Anakin's fateful jump across the lava seems to be foreshadowed when he jumps out of the elevator and finds himself clinging for dear life. (This is also a falling motif). When Anakin manages to climb back inside the elevator, Obi Wan hastily draws his lightsabre, unsure of who it is (in the words of Yoda: "The Dark Side clouds everything...").

There's always more to discover!

 

I like your observations about the "scarring" motif, Cryogenic!
Of course, I made practically the same observations about the "scarring" motif several months ago. But probably nobody remembers it!

 

Dont forget about Anakins forehead scaring (not on the dvd cover ).

 

I remember the thread Darth_Pazuzu.
I thought your "decapitation motif" was more interesting, when you suggested that every time a person decapitates someone (even a manifestation like the Vader ghost) they lose their next duel. It's very true. And weird

 

remember the thread Darth_Pazuzu.
I thought your "decapitation motif" was more interesting, when you suggested that every time a person decapitates someone (even a manifestation like the Vader ghost) they lose their next duel. It's very true. And weird

Interesting, slicing in half across the mid section results in no consequences.

 

Well, good. I'll make sure to cleanly slice my opponents in two at the midsection in my next battle. And to pack the green lightsabre, of course.

There are certainly themes of fire, scarring and mutilation there, which fits in with the symbolism of the whole thing. Come to think of it, Anakin and Padme fought to save themselves from being immolated in pots of molten metal in Ep 2, as well, there in the factory...

 

But the definition of immolation isn't just burning. Its overriding meaning is a killing or sacrifice... usually done via fire. The fire part is optional to fit the definition. For that reason, I wouldn't read too much the R2 and Grievous ones which are both incidental to the main storyline.

I've wondered since seeing the movie and looking at the titles of the music if Padme's death wasn't an immolation. There's been so much debate about why she died. I have my own theory that she willed it upon herself, somehow understanding that if she survived that Anakin would find out about the children and she didn't want that. Allowing herself (or willing herself) to die so that her children would be protected would also be an immolation.

 

Fire can be seen as a cleansing, of sorts. Wiping clean the slate. Purging and destroying that which is. In the case of Grievous, it's to say that his evil has been purged from him. For the Chosen One, it's the purging of the good that is Anakin Skywalker and leaving Darth Vader behind. Then in ROTJ, it can be seen as the purging of Darth Vader, thus bringing a sense of closure regarding the Dark Side in the galaxy.

Course, I could be wrong.

 

I think we are reading too much into this. There just happened to be extra use of fire. Maybe its because it was on Lucas' mind because of the end of the film. But theres definitly no cohesive connection or meaning behind any of the non-Anakin ones.

 

so obvious, but i hadn't even made the connection yet. brilliant.

 

Good topic!
Did you notice this, BTW: In ROTS, Palpatine uses an Imperial shuttle to bring Anakin's body from the fires of Mustafar and in ROTJ, Luke uses an Imperial shuttle to bring Anakin's body from the fires of the exploding Death Star(and into the fires of the cremation).

Just something that occurred to me

 

I recall seeing an elaborate examination of the parallels between RotS and RotJ for this part of the film done on this board. One is a very complex inversion of the other!