The "Darth Vader will BECOME more powerful than either of US!" line from RotS implies that Anakin hadn't yet reached Palpatine/Yoda-level... And even by the time of ESB, Vader is trying to coerce Luke into helping him destroy Palpatine -- again implying that he was still inferior to his Master.
From a film-only standpoint, Palpatine-level power was always portrayed as superior to Anakin/Vader, imo.
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Last edited by Galan007 on Nov 29th, 2018 at 11:41 PM
The point is the films are the most viewed and thematically relevant works to the Franchise. Not even 1% of people have or are expected to view past that iteration of the mythos. I'm doubting Lucas even intended Anakin to be on this level given his you have to Mace or Yoda to compete with Palps and that Anakin could have eventually competed if didn't get disfigured on Mustafar. The entire implication is that Anakin is not yet on their level within in the films so....
On the other hand, I do reconcile some of those quotes in favour of Anakin regarding potential. But the others are just bottom of the barrel sources that don't compete with the film in the grand order of importance.
Yoda would beat Anakin in a duel or otherwise.
And even if he's not winning in a direct sense, he just needs to utter some conflicting statement to unbalance the fragile desperado and then remove his hands.
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Last edited by Xiggy on Nov 29th, 2018 at 11:26 PM
He wasn’t portrayed as such, but the anxilliary sources in confluence with Gillard’s commentary seem to support the notion in Legends, and the films can be reconciled with that information.
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I think Palpatine's line from RotS(mentioned in my previous post) is sufficient to tell us how powerful Palpatine believed Anakin could have become. So from said dialogue we can logically infer that Anakin's potential > Palpatine/Yoda.
Do the films allude to Anakin actually reaching that potential, though? I certainly do not think so. You have to pick through outside sources to reach that conclusion, imo.
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Last edited by Galan007 on Nov 29th, 2018 at 11:43 PM
Considering that the lion's share of sources that support Anakin's supremacy were people involved with the production of Revenge of the Sith, I'd say that was almost certainly what was intended to be portrayed in the film.
As for whether or not it was received that way, my gut reaction is also probably not, but perhaps moreso than you might think. It's a bit ironic now, but in the past Ant and I actually dedicated quite a bit of time on SWF trying to convince more casual fans of Yoda's and Sidious's supremacy over Anakin.
It's ashame the only person who actually mattered when it comes to directional intent mucked said sentiment up once again with his "Mace and Yoda can only compete with Palpatine". And then of course the opposite being portrayed in the movies.
The movies definitely don't convey the image of Anakin being > Sidious and Yoda.
He kills a bunch of no name Jedi completely off screen, and then....gets stalemated by Kenobi before getting sliced up and burned alive. If Lucas was trying to portray his supremacy over Sheev and Yoda there, he did a really bad job of doing so.
And also using the actors and Gillard as messengers might not be totally succinct. Because one : they're not Lucas and don't share his brain. Two : many things could have happened within production leading up to the film and the final editing. Lucas could have easily changed his mind on the matter hence : "You can only be Mace and Yoda" to compete with palpatine and it clearly being portrayed with Anakin below at least two of characters in the film.
By the way, authorial intent has always been criticised, but many compounding factors make it totally asinine in the Star Wars universe.