A Little Bit About Star Wars, Episode II (2): Attack of the Clones, In Light of the Official Canon
The Star Wars storyline progresses very rapidly in Episode II. Who is Count Dooku, Sifo Dyas, and Darth Tyrannus? What role does Jango Fett play in all this? How is Anakin related to the Lars family, making Owen and Beru Luke’s uncle and aunt?
Warning: Sorry for the video quality, I used a different process for recording – it wasn’t the best choice.
There are lots of parallels and similarities between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode IV: A New Hope, several years have passed since we last saw Anakin and now he and Luke are about the same age and more comparisons can be drawn between the two of them than there were in Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Padme Amidala is still using body doubles, but not as queen – her two terms ended; she is now represents Naboo in the Senate.
Sheev Palpatine is still Chancellor of the Senate, and in this film he gains even more power. In an effort to cut through delays Palpatine is given special powers to make military decisions without senate approval.
Padme was actually the leader for the group of senators opposing the formation of an army for the republic. Palpatine is controlling both sides of the conflict though and needs an army to go to war with his other army (the Separatist Droid Army controlled by Palpatine as Darth Sidious). It is because of Padme’s opposition to the army that she is being targeted by the bounty hunter Jango Fett on behalf of Darth Tyranus, aka Count Dooku, who impersonated slain Jedi Master Sifo Dyas and used Jango as the blueprint for a clone army grown and trained on Kamino. Jango has an unalter clone made, who he calls and treats as his son, Boba Fett. The cloners on Kamino (as we see in Star Wars: The Clone Wars) know that they really are working for someone other than the Jedi Order. So, we see the Sith playing the Republic, Trade Federation, and Separatists like puppets to fight a war where they win no matter the outcome – with the outcome rally being unification under Palpatine’s dark rule. Padme is sent back to Naboo for her own safety, with Anakin as her bodyguard, and Jar Jar is duped into meeting Palpatine’s needs in the Senate.
The creation of the Grand Army of the Republic further removes the autonomy of the Jedi Order from the political and military functions of the Republic.
There are two scenes in Attack of the Clones that harkens back to the asteroid field of Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the indirect correlation of Anakin and Obi-Wan chasing Zam Wesell through Coruscant traffic into a club (that serves as a Mos Eisley Cantina type location) where it becomes evident that Anakin is a skilled pilot and thrill seeking, danger loving, risk taking firebrand. In the club Obi-Wan cuts off Zam’s arm (never confront Obi-Wan at a bar unless you need an arm amputated). The second is much more direct, with Obi-Wan pursuing, and then being attacked by, Jango Fett in an asteroid belt.
In this film we get to see the type of relationship that Obi-Wan and Anakin have, it is not just master/padawan, but also father/son. Anakin both loves Obi-Wan (abhors the idea that he would “be the death of” master Kenobi) and has angst towards him and feels that Obi-Wan does not treat him fairly. Part of this is because of how Anakin’s ego is stroked by Palpatine, who also subtly plants distrust and resentment of the Jedi Order in Anakin’s mind.
As we are introduced to Count Dooku and learn more about him the “lineage” of Anakin’s Jedi teachings extends from not just a near-rebellious Obi-Wan back to a contentious Qui-Gon Jinn back further to Count Dooku (Qui-Gon’s former master) who has now joined the Dark Side, as Anakin will eventually do too.
There is discord in the Jedi Order itself, we see this in The Clone Wars tv show between episodes two and three as well, a Jedi has erased some records – what else is being done to harm the Jedi from the inside? In this film Yoda and Mace Windu realize just how blind they are and how handicapped that is making them.
Anakin does return to Tatooine after reoccurring nightmares about his mother. He (and we) are introduced to a young Owen Lars (not yet married) and Beru as well as Owen’s father. Shmi Skywalker Lars has been taken by Tusken Raiders. Anakin tries to save her, but is too late – after she dies in his arms he slaughters a tribe of Sand People (men, women, and children) – truly beginning down a path to the Dark Side from which he cannot turn away from on his own(it took his son to make him realize his evilness, and goodness).
The Clone Army is approved, used by the Jedi on Geonosis to reduce Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme – who, like her daughter, is a woman of action. On Geonsis we see that the Separatists are planning for the Death Star. And super-cool, we see Yoda in a lightsaber fight!
Yoda was concerned about Anakin from the beginning, despite insistence of others that he was the Chosen One. In this installment we see couple instances where Yoda is specifically feeling Anakin’s actions and feelings through the Force and he is troubled much by the path young SkyWalker is heading towards.
In Attack of the Clones we not only see Anakin’s journey towards the Dark Side, but also his journey towards robotic appendages int he form of him losing an arm that is replaced y a mechanical one.