This is one of my favorite scenes from Revenge of the Sith. It’s cinematically stunning, and is an excellent example of Lucas using visual storytelling. A few things I’d like to note here.
In the first gif, we see the clone troopers following Anakin into the Jedi Temple in perfect formation. They are organized and committed, following their commander into battle.
In the second gif, we see Anakin ascending the steps. This is important because it represents Anakin’s rise from one of many Jedi to becoming the Sith Lord, Darth Vader.
In the third gif, we have a beautiful top-down view of Anakin leading the troops. They travel from left to right. This indicates forward momentum— Anakin marches to war with purpose and resolve. Any hesitation he may have had before is gone.
In the last gif, we get one of the most chilling shots of the entire film: Anakin Skywalker, dark-eyed and determined, the standard-bearer at the vanguard of the new Empire.
Juxtapose this with Kylo Ren leading his troops into the Crait mine at the end of The Last Jedi:
In his commentary on the blu-ray, Rian Johnson indicates that this is an intentional callback. So, let’s take a look. In the first gif, juxtaposed with the first three Anakin gifs above (but especially the third one), Kylo leads his troops into the base. Several things to note:
Kylo leads his troops, not forward, indicating purpose, but DOWN, and slightly to the LEFT. This symbolizes not only descending, but also backward momentum. Rather than the resolute and determined Vader, Kylo enters the rebel base defeated and regressed.
The troops that follow him are not in tightly organized formation. They are not unified with him in purpose, probably because he himself is uncertain as to what that purpose is.
In the second gif, Kylo is seen advancing toward the camera, like in Anakin’s fourth gif. However, instead of marching confidently to war, Kylo dismisses his troops, leaving them with Hux, who is clearly opposed to Kylo’s reign. More to the point: he continues on alone. He has arrived at the place he thought he wanted to be, and has found it to be empty and meaningless. This is driven home doubly by the disappearance of his father’s sabaac dice, and, of course, Rey closing off their last Force connection and shutting him out.
This is the essence of the chiastic parallel structure of the Sequel Trilogy. Rian Johnson compared the shutting of the Force connection with the scene in Revenge of the Sith where Anakin is looking up at Vader’s mask descending onto him. Some have interpreted this as an indication that Kylo has passed into a deeper darkness, but I disagree.
What we’re looking at is a matter of perspective. Let’s join Anakin as he’s about to have the “door” closed on him:
His eyes widen, and Johnson mused that it was compelling to consider if Anakin felt remorse or regret in that moment, and that the ambiguity of it was powerful. Now, Kylo Ren:
While his spirit is pretty crushed here, Kylo is whole of body. This is very, very important symbolically. Where Anakin was being sealed almost in a walking tomb, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo bears only superficial scars. In a mythological/heroic sense, this means he has possibility ahead of him— what it’s actually coded as is that he remains virile and able to produce offspring, which we’ll look at briefly in the next point.
Where Anakin is at in his journey, his avenue to producing a legacy beyond what has already been accomplished has been foreclosed. Not only has he been physically dismembered, but his female counterpart is dead. In contrast, Rey is very much alive, and so is the future she saw (and maybe Kylo/Ben did, too, based on recent Databank updates).
That’s all for now. I really didn’t mean to do this, and now @mrspostlight is giving me a very frightening glare for doing this during dinner.
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