Books like Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones: Novelization
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones: Novelization
What I think of the overall book:Like The Phantom Menace, the writing in this book was impressive -- I especially liked the opening paragraphs of Chapter 1: Senator Padme Amidala stared out the main window of her spacecraft at the approaching planet. Even from space, Coruscant looks different from other worlds, she thought. Most worlds showed colors on their daylight side -- the greens of the forest worlds, the blues of watery planets, the glittering white of ice worlds, the sandy yellow of desert planets like Tatooine. On their night side, most planets were dark, with an occasional twinkle of light marking the largest cities.Coruscant's day side was a dull, metallic gray, the color of the millions of buildings and platforms that covered its entire surface. Its night side glowed amber from the lights of those same buildings, like the stars of the galaxy in miniature. Only on Coruscant is night more attractive than day, Padme thought.^To be honest I didn't expect that level of imagery in a book meant for children. Overall, like in The Phantom Menace, the book wasn't dumbed down/simplified; adults can enjoy this just as well as children, and can help them understand more aspects of the movie that isn't made completely obvious. While this book was almost exactly verbatim from the movie, it also had extra scenes and details. (Anakin and Obi-Wan's banter were thankfully included, which I appreciated.)But 2 things about this book stood out to me the most: 1. Anakin's feelings for Padme really were a bit cringey/unsettling, especially in the first half, when Padme would just describe Anakin "intensely staring" at her. I didn't really notice this so obviously in the movie, but in the book, their interactions didn't come off as completely romantic. But their conflicted feelings were still definitely there.And when Padme confesses her love for Anakin before they enter the arena, the book gives her an additional line that I don't think was in the movie, but basically summarizes their relationship (in my opinion), "My love for you is a puzzle, Annie, for which I have no answers. I can't control it -- and now I don't care." Yeah, definitely a puzzle. 2. Anakin's tantrum after slaughtering the Tusken Raiders. In the movie, we see his anger -- but in this book, we also see his regret. "They're like animals," he spat, "and I slaughtered them like animals. I hate them!" Then the angry mask crumbled away, and he broke into sobs.... "Why do I hate them?" Anakin stammered between sobs. "I didn't -- I couldn't -- I couldn't control myself. I don't want to hate them... but I just can't forgive them.""To be angry is to be human," Padme said.And that conflict Anakin feels just added so much more to the scene. In the movie, the scene ends with this dialogue, Padme: "To be angry is to be human."Anakin: "I'm a Jedi. I know I'm better than this."But in this novelization, what caught me was the added dialogue after Anakin's line:"To be angry is to be human," Padme said."To control your anger is to be a Jedi." Anakin sounded lost, and she could feel him shaking. That's it -- he's afraid they'll tell him he can't be a Jedi, she thought. But Jedi aren't superhuman. He knows he shouldn't have done this. They'll understand."Shhh," she told him, rocking him gently."No," Anakin argued, "I'm a Jedi. I know I'm better than this. I'm sorry -- I'm so sorry.""You're human. You're like everyone else."I'm so upset that Anakin's shame and regret wasn't shown in the movie; it adds to his character, and also proves how corrupt the Jedi actually were. The Jedi do not form attachments nor feel negative emotions such as fear and anger -- but they are, like what Padme said, very human and normal to feel. But the fact that the Jedi tried to restrict Anakin in that way resulted in that massacre, because he didn't know how to properly deal with those type of feelings (especially since he was trained "late" and had already developed human emotions that he then had to somehow get rid of). So when he is faced with them, everything explodes out and he loses control of himself, which is what typically happens if you bottle up your emotions for a long and unhealthy amount of time. And when this keeps building up over time... of course he would eventually fall to the dark side, where he was free to embrace his emotions instead of restricting them. (But of course, like all things, there has to be a balance, which is something the Jedi nor the Sith fully understand -- you shouldn't restrict your feelings all the time, nor should you just embrace and express your feelings uncontrollably. There has to be a level of control on each side, a balance -- which I believe is what the sequel trilogy is building towards.)---------What I think in terms of connecting this to the sequel trilogy(Just like in my Phantom Menace review, in anticipation for The Rise of Skywalker, I'm also reading these books through a lense of defending the ST, which I am a huge fan of. This is gonna be a really long ramble because I'm just very passionate about the sequel trilogy. SPOILERS -- so be warned.)Flaws of the Jedi Order (Part 2)Throughout this book, it was pretty much emphasized how the Jedi do NOT want to fight in a war; they weren't meant to be the warriors portrayed in something like The Clone Wars. They were just supposed to be peace-keepers.When Lama Su was showing Obi-Wan the clones on Kamino, Obi-Wan thought,The only thing you can do with an army is fight a war. But Jedi didn't fight wars; they worked to keep the peace and the laws of the Republic without fighting.And later on, Yoda says,"Through negotiation, the Jedi maintains peace... To start a war, we do not intend."They didn't want a war, but they had no choice but to participate and fight in it, leading the clone armies -- which I guess goes against everything they stood for. Where I'm going with this is: Luke confronting Kylo Ren on Crait via Force projection. It wasn't an "epic" lightsaber duel, it was more one-sided with Kylo doing all the offense, and I guess one of the main critiques that I'm aware of is the fact that people wanted Luke to fight and defeat Kylo? Personally I'm glad it didn't play out that way, otherwise it would've gone against everything that Luke was trying to teach Rey throughout the course of the movie: the Jedi -- the old, violent concept of the Jedi -- have to end. So the fact that Luke used the Force in one of the most peaceful and nonviolent ways possible in order to help his nephew release his anger, as well as help allow the remaining Resistance escape, was one of the truest displays of Jedi values, and true to his character arc: not using violence to drive out the darkness, but instead bringing light and therefore peace.