Rob Reads: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

I’ve written many times before on this blog about my love affair with the Star Wars franchise. Ever since Star Wars episode three revenge of the Sith was released in theaters in 2005, I’ve heard Star Wars fans. Tell me “Rob, you should really read the novel. It’s better than the movie”. I assume they’re telling me the truth, after all novelization, or the original novel of source material better than the movie annotations 99% of the time. With in mind, I never really thought much about people’s reviews. Besides, I like revenge of the Sith well enough. Now it was, by no means, perfect; but it probably was the best of the Star Wars “prequel movies” for a variety of reasons.

But then, I started to hear social media rumors of a 4-hour directors cut of Revenge of the Sith. This cut contains a lot of these scenes, dialogue and interactions that are contained in the ROTS novelization . In fact, according to Internet, gossip, the rescue of Chancellor Palpatine, which makes up the first act of ROTS, it said to be roughly 1/4 of the movie’s running time in this extended directors cut.

Last month, I finally caved in. As I was ordering Of Mice and Men to teach to my sophomore English class, I decided to finally go ahead and buy the ROTS novelization. It’s difficult for me to simultaneously read for educational and entertainment purposes. I started reading the book shortly after I finish teaching …Mice to my students.

It’s not unusual for “the book” to give you more detail or include more dialogue than “the movie“ does. But in the case of this particular novelization of ROTS, everything is turned up to 11. Anyone who is a Star Wars fan knows that This part of the saga is going to culminate in Anakin Skywalker joining the dark side of becoming Darth Vader. What I wasn’t prepared for was the internal and external conflicts surrounding so many of the other characters.

Padmé – from clichéd damsel to conflicted protagonist.

For instance, Anakin’s wife, Padme, plays a much greater role in the episode three novel than she does in the movie. In the theatrical release of the movie, Padma isn’t much more than a typical “damn distress”. She is secretly married to Anakin and carrying their twins. And I can tell her about the dream he’s had in which she dies. So the character spends much in the movie basically waiting around for things to happen. There are deleted scenes of the movie that are available that show Padmé’s part in the early days of the formation of the rebellion. This is even further expanded upon in the novelization. There, she seems reluctant at first to join, until she knowledge the greater threat that is growing within the republic.

Padmé’s involvement with the burgeoning rebellion puts her in odds with her husband. She sees Anakin growing more distant from the Jedi and closer to Chancellor Palpatine. On the flipside, Pam there’s a chancellor. Palpatine is holding onto power for too long at the Republic is on the verge of collapsing.

Padmé may also has a much deeper conversation with Obi-Wan Kenobi about Anakin. Why this particular exchange was deleted from the movie is beyond me. But it shows that Obi-Wan is fully aware of Anakin’s feelings towards Padme, even if he doesn’t know about the marriage. This exchange adds a great deal to the dynamic between Obi-Wan and his former Padawan learner.

Obi-Wan Kenobi – a helpless friend and a political pawn

One of the things that I was only struck me about the Star Wars saga is the immense guilt that Obi-Wan Kenobi must feel over the Anakin‘s turn to evil.

In the novelization, we see Obi-Wan, torn between his duty to the Jedi order and his loyalty to his student, who he sees more as a brother, Anakin. the movie does a good job of illustrating this conflict on screen, but once again, then novelization goes into greater detail. We see several scenes of Obi-Wan conferring with the rest of the Jedi council regarding Anakin. He is put into a very unviable position when he has to inform Anakin that he is on the Jedi council, he does not have the title of master. The purpose of this of course, is to get Anakin closer to Chancellor Palpatine so that he can spy. But the book shows us a bit more about Obi-Wan‘s very un-Jedi-like emotional connection to Anakin.

A greater portrayal of Anakin Skywalker’s descent

Look, Star Wars is not Shakespeare. I think we all know that by now. But perhaps my biggest criticism of the ROTS film is just how quickly Anakin pledges himself to the Sith. He attacks Mace Windu, saving the chancellor‘s life and suddenly he is taking a knee before the newly self-appointed Emperor.

In the movie, Anakin inner conflict is explored in much, much more detail. He is frustrated that the Jedi council was trying to read his abilities in. He craves more power, but, on some level, realizes that he’s ultimately not ready for it. Then he becomes dissolution by the fact that they ask him to spy on his friend and mentor, Palpatine.

Anakin not achieving the rank of “master” while meme worthy, means much more than novelization. There, he is unable to access ancient Jedi text, which would explain to him more of the Sith powers of Palpatine as described. For that reason, alone, adopting the ways of the Sith becomes much more appealing to Anakin.

Another thing of the adaptation addresses which the movie barely touches upon is Anakin’s desire to kill Palpatine. In the movie, he makes him offhanded remark to Padme about being stronger than Palpatine and potentially ruling the galaxy. However, the novelization explains this desire to overthrow Palpatine in more detail.

And if I can step outside the box for just one moment, there is actually an alternate ending to the ROTS video game that was made for the PlayStation two and the Xbox. If a player is unsuccessful in killing Anakin/Vader, the ending of the game, unfolds like this…

That of course brings us to…

A damn persuasive argument by Palpatine

For my money, actor Ian McDiarmid very well have carried much of the ROTS film on his back. He makes very persuasive arguments as to the hypocrisy and lies of the Jedi order and the corruption of the Galactic Senate.

Palpatine was right. The Jedi are arrogant. And an ROTS, they are deceitful. The Jedi justify their actions by saying that they are doing this in order to maintain the republic. But are good intentions enough? Palpatine doesn’t seem to think so. He uses this as leverage to push Anakin towards the dark side.

FINAL TAKE – absolutely recommended, to even the casual fans of the movie. The ROTS novelization goes into so much greater detail that it actually makes the movie better. I’m generally not a fan of the Star Wars or Star Trek for that matter, novels only because they generally aren’t considered part of the “Canon”. But the Revenge of the Sith novelization is essential reading for any fan of the film or the Star Wars franchise.

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The article “Rob Reads: Star Wars episode three: revenge of the Sith” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob

One response to “Rob Reads: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”

Silk Cords

March 30, 2025

It’s funny how the movie cut out so much of Kenobi’s inner conflict, but then in later productions like the Kenobi D+ series, we’re expected to fully understand why he’s utterly fallen apart to the point it looks silly. It wasn’t until that show that many people looked back and saw the PTSD in Obi-Wan during the original trilogy. It even explains why he sacrificed himself on the Death Star. He didn’t want Vader getting Luke AND that act let Luke see Vader was evil and focus on his early training.

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