Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (novel)
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| Author | Matthew Stover |
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| Cover Artist | Steve Anderson |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Era | Prequel |
| Series | Film novelizations |
| Galactic Year | 19 BBY |
| Canon | G |
| Subject(s) | Star Wars |
| Genre(s) | Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
| Released | Hardcover: 2 April 2005 Paperback: 25 October 2005 |
| Media Type | Hardcover & Paperback |
| Pages | Hardcover: 432 Paperback: 480 |
| Size and Weight | Hardcover: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches 1.6 pounds Paperback: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches 7.8 ounces |
| ISBN | Hardcover: ISBN 0-345-42883-8 Paperback: ISBN 0-345-42884-6 |
| Preceded by | Labyrinth of Evil |
| Followed by | Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader |
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is a novelization of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith written by Matthew Stover and published on April 2, 2005 by Del Rey Books.
The plot of the book corresponds with that of the movie, beginning and ending at the same points. There are several elements added not seen in the film (Lorth Needa as commander of the Integrity at the Battle of Coruscant, for example), while several sections of the plot are removed for pacing. All of the deleted scenes with the founders of the Rebel Alliance are included. The Clone Wars micro-series is also referenced; Asajj Ventress, a Clone Wars character who does not appear in any of the films, is mentioned on more than one occasion in the novel.
The novel was very well recived, with a four and a half star avarage at amazon.com from over 250 reviewers, and voted best expanded universe work by theforce.net users. [1]
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[edit] Narrative style
Stover makes frequent use of second-person narrative when describing a character's emotions ("The first light in your new universe brings pain") and often introduces and describes characters with simple declarative statements ("This is Obi-Wan Kenobi," "This is what it feels like to be Anakin Skywalker," etc.) These literary devices are repeated at key points in the story.
There is also heavy use of metaphor as a means of foreshadowing; for example, Anakin's eventual fall from grace is set up by descriptions of his fear as a dragon, one he thinks he can conquer by embracing the dark side of the Force. Also, the narration makes far greater use of events in the previous films to describe him as a character, particularly his childhood as a slave.
[edit] Notable differences between the film and the novel
[edit] Duel with Count Dooku
Secondary villain Count Dooku's personality is described in far greater detail in this novelization than in the films. Stover depicts Dooku as an evil man who has no conceptions of friendship, loyalty, or love, seeing others only as tools to be used for his own ends. It also reveals that he despises the galaxy's non-human species, and plans to exterminate or enslave them once in power.
During his duel with Anakin and Obi-Wan, Dooku uses the Force to throw chairs and particles to the Jedi, which is left out from the movie. In the movie, this duel is relatively short, especially after Obi-Wan Kenobi is knocked to the floor.
Before the duel itself, there is a short conversation between Palpatine and Dooku, revealing the plan Palpatine uses to lure Dooku into a confrontation with his new candidate for Sith apprenticeship. This is the first scene in the various Star Wars novelizations to confirm Palpatine and the Sith Lord Darth Sidious as one and the same.
The novel makes it clear that Anakin wins the duel by giving in to his anger. After Dooku is disarmed and Palpatine urges Anakin to kill him, it becomes obvious for Dooku that he had been used as a means to an end: "Treachery is the way of the Sith".
[edit] The Battle of Kashyyyk
The Battle of Kashyyyk shows Commander Gree deceiving Yoda, as well as the Separatists' attack. These scenes are not included in the novel.
[edit] Palpatine tests Anakin's thirst for power
This is a short dialogue not featured in the film, describing in metaphor Anakin's fall to the dark side due to his lust for power.
During this exchange, Palpatine offers to give Anakin anything he wants. At first, Anakin wonders if the Chancellor is only playing a childish game with him. He wishes for a new speeder, at which Palpatine wants to know if this is all he wishes for. The 'game' culminates when the word comes to Corellia. Sidious asks him if he wishes only for the planet or the entire system. Anakin then tells him that he desires the whole system. The point of this game is to further tempt Anakin towards the dark side and present Palpatine as the gateway to the power denied to Anakin by the Jedi.
Also, the novel states explicitly that Darth Plagueis was Palpatine's Sith Master; in the film, it is merely hinted at.
[edit] The arrest of the Chancellor
In the novelization, Mace Windu contacts Yoda once more after learning the truth of Palpatine's identity, marking his upcoming decision and action as approved by the Grand Master of the Jedi Order.
The novelization states that Darth Sidious could indeed sense the approach of the four Jedi Masters and Anakin's emotional conflict. The novel also describes how Palpatine prepares for the upcoming duel in detail, including how he recovers his lightsaber and prepares an audio recording.
During the duel, Jedi Master Saesee Tiin is beheaded when Sidious catches him off guard. Second to die is Agen Kolar, whom Palpatine stabs through the head.
Anakin rushes to the Chancellor's office past Shaak Ti, who stands in his way, trying to convince him not to go. Anakin brushes past her without a word.
When Anakin arrives, he witnesses a small part of the battle between Kit Fisto, Windu and Palpatine. He does not see who the combatants are yet, only their lightsabers. When Fisto's green blade disappears, he rushes into the office. There, he finds Kolar's corpse and the heads of Tiin and Fisto. Anakin then watches the lightsaber duel between Windu and Palpatine for some time; in the film, he arrives just in time to see that Windu knock Palpatine down.
Mace Windu can sense Anakin's presence through the Force before he breaks the office window. When the fight moves to the ledge, he senses Palpatine hesitate for a moment, and the Sith Lord slows down.
Windu confesses then that his lightsaber combat style, Vaapad, can not overpower the Sith Lord, and that it is in fact his ability to sense weaknesses, or "shatterpoints," which allows him to gain the upper hand. In the book, Windu does not kick Palpatine's jaw, and he slices the Sith's lightsaber in half instead of the Chancellor dropping his own weapon.
When Windu holds Palpatine at blade point, he tells his opponent why the Sith always lose: because they are always defeated by their own fear. Palpatine counters by screaming "Fool! Do you think the fear you feel is mine?" and blasts the Jedi Master with Force lightning.
During the fight, Windu realizes that Palpatine's shatterpoint is Anakin Skywalker himself. When Anakin approaches Windu, who is fighting against the lightning bolts, the Jedi Master senses that Palpatine does not fear Anakin at all, and would make no move to defend himself. He then concludes that this is the shatterpoint of the Sith, and the absolute shatterpoint of the dark side itself.
When he is betrayed by Anakin and shot with Darth Sidious' lightning, Windu realizes too late that he forgot to look for the shatterpoint of Anakin himself - his desire to save Padmé Amidala, his secret wife, at any cost.
[edit] Order 66
Order 66 is described in a few short sentences, with no mention of any Jedi's death or any clone commander who executes the order by name. Only the scene in which Obi-Wan is attacked by clone troopers is the same as seen in the movie. Yoda's escape is not featured; he appears next when he meets Obi-Wan on the Tantive IV.
When Anakin, newly renamed Darth Vader, arrives in the Jedi Temple with the clone troopers, the narration describes how he murders the Jedi inside, including the gatemaster Jurokk. In the film, the scene cuts away after he ignites his lightsaber in front a youngling; the murders are implied.
Stover describes the Clone Wars as "the perfect Jedi trap". This is the first account of the full extent of Sidious' plotting.
[edit] The return to the Jedi Temple
In the novel, the full range of Obi-Wan's grief upon learning of Anakin's betrayal is described in greater detail. Among other things, he mourns the younglings more overtly, and says that he should have died before Anakin was discovered by the Jedi so his apprentice could have had a Master strong enough to keep him from falling to the dark side.
[edit] Emperor Palpatine's duel with Yoda
In the novel, it is implied that Darth Sidious is indeed superior to Yoda in lightsaber combat. Yoda also realizes that the Jedi Order mistakenly focused on fighting the old Sith rather than the new, evolved Sith of Darth Bane's order. Yoda realizes that "he had lost before he started. He had lost before he was born."
In the novel, Yoda enters the Chancellor's holding office from a different direction, so the Royal Guards do not attempt to stop him. Yoda deflects Palpatine's Force lightning, blasting the Guards into unconsciousness; in the film, the lightning blasts him across the office. Yoda then knocks Palpatine to the floor with his physical body instead of a Force Push.
At the end of the battle, the lightning energy ball does not explode. Sidious safely leaps to a nearby podium, and Yoda follows. Palpatine turns around and blasts Yoda back against another podium which fell down to the bottom of an energy shaft.
Stover describes Palpatine after the duel as "a very old, very tired man." Palpatine can not direct the search for Yoda as he hurries to rescue Vader, but he tells the clones to destroy the whole building if they have to.
[edit] Obi-Wan's duel with Darth Vader
The duel between Obi-Wan and Vader is shorter than it is in the movie; the narrative focuses more on their respective inner monologues than the battle itself.
[edit] Darth Vader's reaction to Padmé's death
The novel is far more explicit than the film in describing Anakin's emotional transformation after learning of Padmé's death. It reveals that he blames himself, and subconsciously realizes that Darth Vader — the fearless warrior he imagines himself to be — does not really exist, and that only Anakin Skywalker is responsible for his fall from grace. Stover also describes in detail how it feels to be Darth Vader; robbed of much of his former power and in constant agony from his injuries, he now feels like "a painter gone blind, a composer gone deaf."
[edit] Other key information found in the novel
- Names and details are given for the lightsaber techniques the characters use in their respective duels. All the seven lightsaber combat forms are mentioned and described except Form VI.
- Anakin wants to access the Holocrons of the Archives to know more about Darth Plagueis.
- Towards the end of the movie a conversation takes place between Obi-Wan and Yoda in which Yoda tells the younger Jedi that Qui-Gon Jinn has "returned from the netherworld of the Force," and is ready to teach the pair of them how to do the same. In the novel, Qui-Gon's return is described in full during a significant conversation his spirit has with Yoda. During the discussion Yoda laments having had reservations about the headstrong master prior to his death: "A great Jedi Master you always were, but too blind I was to see it." He then humbly declares: "Your apprentice, I gratefully become," as he prepares to embrace the Force in such a way as to retain consciousness after death.
[edit] References
- ^ http://theforce.net/books/story/Top_100_Expanded_Universe_Works_111631.asp - Theforce.net's List of 100 Best Expanded Universe Works
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