Next Episode II trailer out...

New apprentice answers? Sure.

Why have they given Hayden Christiansen a shitty haircut though? I want to see the 70s shaggy mane hair style return to the 'Wars', not that awful bouffant look.

I think it's a homage to Timberlake.

Or possibly Doug Henning.

Thanks Ned. That facial hair on Ewan is scaring the shit outta me tho. That big mixing bowl on his head in that picture isn't doing him any favours either.

But here's really intriguing bit of all this is. Right now, I have to wonder how little Annakin hero-boy turning all dark and stuff is going to mess with the little tyke's heads. I was quite surprised at how much we were meant to feel affection for him in Episode I. I'm not trying to be entirely flippant either, because just thinking of how I would have been *devastated* if Luke had gone all evil when I was a young fan, I'm wondering how the kids now are going to deal with the inevitable cognitive dissonance. It's going to be the biggest mindfuck of innocents since someone shot Bambi's mom. Especially in this world of the New Disney sanitized happy ending. I mean, it seems as if no one has been dishing out this kind of moral conflict to kids for ages now, unless I'm forgetting some super angsty plot point in Toy Story that is.

But maybe we'll find out why Anakin turns out so bad. Obviously, there is going to be a certain amount of tragedy involved, rather than just being coerced by the dark side. I suspect he will lose some loved ways along the way and/or be unable to prevent their deaths. As Yoda said in Menace "I sense much fear in you, fear leads to anger, and anger leads to the dark side". Whereas Luke lost Ben, and his aunt and uncle...this turned him in the opposite direction of his father. But, Kim is right, it won't be such a pleasent experience for kids now who liked the young Anakin. So, hopefully the next two films will show the tragedy of the boys life. There was always good in Vader, he was just blinded by anger and rage. There must be a twist somewhere...I know clones will be involved (Darth Maul coming back?)...

My prediction for the last scene of episode three, is Ben Kenobi handing over Luke to his Uncle...and then wandering of at sunset into the desert, whilst an imperial fighter flies overhead.

In order to buy time for Ben to get the babies Luke and Leia to safety, Anakin thinks he can defeat the emperor alone. In the battle the emperor messes Anakin up big time, and totally turns him over to the darkside, because the emperor has been studying him since his childhood and knows that fear is his weakness. There you go, Anakin is a fallen hero consumed by rage and fear, but his last noble act (before jedi) was to protect the last known jedi's from evil!

Plus all the other jedi's except Ben and Anakin are dead, so that's why Anakin makes a last stand. The odds are already stacked against him form epidode one!

Wow, this must be the most I've ever written on ILE! :)

One problem with that scenario tho... I've always been under the impression that he wasn't even supposed to know about Leia? Remember "There is another" and all that jazz?

Oh yeah!...I assumed too much. Hmmm, Okay then, Anakin tells Ben to get his wife to safety, unaware of her pregnancy. My scenario could work then.

Yup. Also, the general idea (never mentioned in the earlier films, but spelled out elsewhere and presumably canon, though we'll see) is that Obi-Wan and Anakin are the ones in the final battle and Obi-Wan leaves Anakin a barely functioning wreck, though certainly Palpatine could be the one sending Anakin out to take care of Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan obviously defeats but doesn't kill Anakin, though there's not much left of him at the end, thus the Vader robot suit etc. In that case the tragedy becomes multiple -- Anakin's collapse and virtual enslavement by Palpatine, who is clearly the one keeping him alive via soldering him into the suit or whatever, is matched not only by Padme's sheer horror at what must have happened but also by Obi-Wan's self-torture over losing Anakin to the dark side and having to fight and seemingly destroy him, not merely an attack on an apprentice and presumably good friend but on the command Qui-Gon gave him to look after Anakin at the end of Ep 1. Then the regret and concern Obi-Wan manifests over what happened to Anakin in Episodes 4-6 -- obviously not really planned by Alec Guinness with a full knowledge of backstory, but George presumably gave him some general direction -- combined with the need to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again with Luke becomes that much more strong.

No Jar Jars were invoked during the making of the above paragraph. ;-) The mirror site now lists a variety of spots holding a *much* better quality version of the newest trailer at 13 megs; I highly recommend it.

presumably good friend

Actually, obviously good friend, thanks to that one line before Obi-Wan gives Luke the lightsaber. ;-)

That's a great analyis Ned!

I'm really looking forward to episode 2.

'X-Wing Alliance' is quite a good game, I rediscovered it yesterday. Hey, it's Star Wars related, be quiet.

Here's my further guess as to what happens in Episode 2 itself (a bit of weeding in the garden let my mind wander...), based on the info from the trailers and a couple of other notes (not really spoiler info here, this is an educated guess, but I'm going to try a little HTML trick and see if it works -- you should see a blank space below this, just highlight to read my speculations):

Christopher Lee's character, Count Dooku, has been confirmed to also be Darth Tyrannus, and he has confirmed on his website that's him fighting Christensen in the duel in the darkened hanger at the end of the first trailer. The situation at the end of the first movie is that we know there's always only supposed to be two Sith Lords, master and apprentice, and that's it, and that nobody knows who Darth Maul was in that equation.

Darth Tyrannus seems too old to be Palpatine's new apprentice, it wouldn't make sense. So who is he? Various hints of backstory in the deep past that have seeped out indicate that unlike the Jedi Order, all dedicated to a uniform cause, the Sith Lords in the past were as interested in wiping each other out as trying to fight the Jedi. Eventually the two-and-two-only formula was established in order to ensure that the Dark Side continued to thrive without wasting itself and its energy along the way.

However, this doesn't preclude the existence of more than one master still, where there are fights to become *the* master. I'm guessing Darth Tyrannus and Palpatine are enemies, possibly fighting for the same general things -- control of the Republic, control of the Sith tradition (for lack of a better word), even control of Anakin, perhaps. As such, one could easily be trying to use the other, or better yet, be trying to play the Jedi off against the other. Consider: let's say the Jedi find and destroy an obvious Sith Lord master. There being no apprentice apparent, Darth Maul being dead, they can relax...but the other Sith Lord master can quietly relax in comfort and continue scheming.

You can probably guess where I'm going with this: Palpatine is out to destroy Darth Tyrannus, while Darth Tyrannus is making his own play for the Republic/incipient Empire. The assassination attempts on Padme are likely part of Palpatine's own plot to increase fear and loathing, even to justify greater -- ahem -- security. However, Darth Tyrannus could easily be behind it as well, we'll see. The Jedi seek to investigate what's going on, to protect Padme and to track down the assassins. Somewhere along the way Obi-Wan is captured, specifically by Darth Tyrannus (in the 'Breathing' trailer, when you see Obi-Wan in the force field, that's him coming in to the left of the shot right as it fades). Anakin seeks to rescue him, among other things getting caught up in the battle with Darth Tyrannus we've seen bits of. Presumably Darth Tyrannus is destroyed, but who knows? He could be a good continuing element for chaos in Ep 3.

Meanwhile, presumably Tyrannus' forces launch an attack on the Republic. Palpatine as Chancellor says, "No problem! Our latest top- secret project has been a clone army!" Who clearly are meant to be the precursors of the stormtroopers as well -- and you can see them marching into Republic ships in the 'Breathing' trailer snippets. Attack of the Clones as a title, after all, doesn't say who is being attacked. ;-) So at the movie's end, the Jedi think they've beaten back an assault on the Republic, but Palpatine now has an army at his command to take things further on his terms...

Well, that's my thought on it all, anyway. Be interesting to see if I'm right!

Yeah Ned, I've avoiding a lot of info re. Episode II but this sounds believable and certainly fits Palpatine's modus operandi.

Oh boy, I'm starting to get good ol' Star Wars fever. Sorta feel glad now I was patient with TPM. If Lucas plays this out with a bit of intelligence (and lo-J.J. input of course) he should even be able to eclipse the original trilogy. Maybe that's a large part of the fun now, observing if Lucas can bring his own creation to a satisfying conclusion.