Hal Sparks: No Sympathy For The Sith Lord

[samantha]

Usually, most of the artists voicing their opinions about Anakin turned Vader on starwars.com are doing pretty much all right, very understanding even, but not trying to lecture people.

Well, not this time:

www.starwars.com/community/news/rocks/f20070214/indexp3.html

When I've read this, I was dumbfounded. Having been into Anakin's situation, and you may say, being his feminine pendant, I felt like hearing voices from a faraway past that had been erased from my mind when I made it back to the Good Side.

I went straight to this artist's site and submitted the following comment:

Hello,
I've just read about you were saying about Anakin turned Darth Vader on starwars.com, and got quite shocked by your approach and raisoning of the character. I didn't recognized myself at all in it, for the simple reason that I've known a similar emotional anger trial as Anakin underwent himself. Therefore, your point of view to have gotten him sell back to somebody else, because of what he'd become later isn't doing any better that he'd done in his case, then.

What I mean is, you've not understood Anakin at all. He was very emotionally enslaved first, before to become physically enslaved due to his giveaway to anger and to the Dark Side.

It's our lack of control of our inner emotions that's leading us to the Dark Side, and not otherwise. At least you got that point right, but the approach virtually wrong, for you've never been under Vader's skin, but I did.

Anakin loved his wife very much, but he never thought that turning to the Dark Side would cost him so much, and create so much grief onto the galaxy. Simply because he's been tricked, that's a fact which can't be denied, for when our emotions are gone unleashed, we become an easy target to prey on, and ready to buy the first biggest lie we're being told. I know, I've been there, and it didn't feel nice at all.

Don't say that Anakin was a bad guy firsthand, for to me, it was like hearing others when I was still trapped into my emotional anger trial that I was a bad girl firsthand, too.

But, there's a but. A few believed in there was goodness in me, that I could make it back to the good side, and they'd turned out to be right about me. How did I make it back? It's thanks to Hayden Christensen's accurate rendering of Anakin's own emotional anger trial. He shown me what was wrong with me, without throwing it at my face, unlike I felt it in your article on starwars.com. To you, Vader didn't have the right to have been mistaken, and therefore, it was as if I didn't had the right to have been mistaken either.

My point is, by saying you have no sympathy for Vader, I concluded you had no sympathy for those who underwent, emotionally speaking, a similar situation. It's a pity.

All my apologies for being so long, but I couldn't keep quiet at this. I'm akind to Anakin in nature , and I'm assuming it gladly.

Cordially,

Samantha Rosenwood.

I know you may find that gutsy, but I simply couldn't keep quiet. For it's by spreading a false comprehension of those, who like Anakin and I, are going, or underwent an emotional anger trial that people are naively buying the Bad Boy/Girl's image, without knowing, nor having understood the person's story. Obviously like in here...

Kisses,

Sam.

[crystalcat]

I wish you luck, Samantha, but I don't hold out much hope that you've gotten through to him. He'll probably just decide you're some silly girl doing nothing more than gushing over Hayden. That sounds cynical, I know, but six months of the SW boards made me that way so far as many of the members there go. I can't stand to go there anymore, personally; I just got so tired of all the judgement over the character of Anakin. Way too many people who insist they "would never do what he did" when in fact, they don't know because they've never been in his place.

There are (or were) a couple of us who tried to explain that no one knows how they will really react until they are actually in a situation (and we included ourselves in this bunch). But the others are all so self-righteous and insisted they would be perfect and we were just gushing over Hayden (something about "if a good-looking guy hadn't played the part you wouldn't feel sorry for him" is what we got told).

There is also at least one female there (registered with a male name) who sees Anakin as her ex-boyfriend/husband that she just can't forgive. She goes on and on and on about poor Padme and how he should have listened to her, etc. etc. while she trashes Anakin (as the surrogate ex-boyfrien/husband) from one end of the galaxy to the other. She is quite obvious (once you know she's female), but there may be others with a similar mind-set who are less obvious.

[samantha]

I wish you luck, Samantha, but I don't hold out much hope that you've gotten through to him. He'll probably just decide you're some silly girl doing nothing more than gushing over Hayden.

I thought of that, too, and in return, decided to not care about at all if he'll decide I'm a silly girl doing nothing more than gushing over Hayden. For in fact, that very perspective makes me laugh, simply because it'll confirm to me that he thinks he knows better.

a couple of us who tried to explain that no one knows how they will really react until they are actually in a situation (and we included ourselves in this bunch). But the others are all so self-righteous and insisted they would be perfect and we were just gushing over Hayden (something about "if a good-looking guy hadn't played the part you wouldn't feel sorry for him" is what we got told).

What you're telling me here doesn't surprise me at all, Crystalcat. For into the past, when I've been briefly part of others communities, I had ended up hearing the very same lecture. But reality soon caught some of those, and the perfect image they were so badly wanting to render into their behavior to others, shattered into pieces. Perfection doesn't exist, we can only get better by not hiding ourselves behind such a mask: those who's been there know.

at least one female there (registered with a male name) who sees Anakin as her ex-boyfriend/husband that she just can't forgive. She goes on and on and on about poor Padme and how he should have listened to her, etc. etc. while she trashes Anakin (as the surrogate ex-boyfrien/husband) from one end of the galaxy to the other. She is quite obvious (once you know she's female), but there may be others with a similar mind-set who are less obvious.

Gosh! This is quite an extreme case we're having here! I've been confronted to a case like that to into the past. There was an Italian girl who was seeing a character as her husband/boyfriend, through the other character's eyes she was associating herself with. Very creepy, I agree. It scared the craps out of me when I understood, for she was trashing another female character her husband was supposed to end up with (it turned out that in reality it checked out, to my relief).

But you got a point, and so did I, according to my own experience: with such mind-sets, all dialogue is impossible, since they're believing they're owning the truth, and think they know better. However, when it starts flirting with madness, like in here, you may start worrying, for it's not very healthy, let it be for the person concerned, nor the others witnessing it.

Kisses,

Sam.

[Annie]

It makes me so mad that people don't have sympathy for Anakin, and that some even believe he didn't really love Padme! I have gotten into so many fights with those guys on SW.com I don't even go by there anymore. I always get so upset!

[PadmeSkywalker]

UM who is this Hal Sparks? Never heard of him, why is his opinion even posted?