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The Podrace as Paradigm
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The following is only about half-serious on a good day.  It may have some merit; it may not.  It was mainly something I got to thinking about on one of those great insomniac evenings, and I figured, what the heck...why not, as Stephen King puts it in Danse Macabre, turn it over and see if it goes wocka-wocka-wocka or vroom-vroom-vroom.
The podrace on Tatooine in The Phantom Menace is one of the most exciting action sequences so far in the saga.  Beautifully choreographed and filmed, it does its job of keeping people on the edges of their seats quite nicely.  On another level, it has great character development via action (I think one of the reasons critics think the character development in TPM is subpar is because they are deaf to characterization through action rather than dialogue -- in action, it's quite a rich character piece).  We see Anakin's determination and ambition -- not to mention ruthlessness, Padmé/Amidala's protective concern, Shmi's fear, Qui-Gon's confidence...all with very little in the way of speech.  It also uses its imagery to link to the Classic Trilogy: dangerous flights through canyons, the high speed climb-and-dive reminiscent of Leia's speeder bike maneuver in Return of the Jedi, the ubiquitous presence of Jabba the Hutt.

But is the podrace sequence doing even more than it seems to be?  Is it, in fact, a symbolic microcosm Anakin's journey, a kind of map that shows the steps along the way?

Okay, okay...stop laughing now and pick yourself up off the floor.  I'm not saying it's so, and my tongue is most of the way in my cheek here.  It's just a fun idea to play with for a little while.  If any of this is on the money, it's quite accidental, I assure you.  So...onward...


Little Skywalker's Stalled!
The First Circuit

Before the podrace even opens, Anakin's arch enemy, Sebulba, surreptitiously breaks a stabilizer on Anakin's pod.  This action is focused on, and the audience sees it, but Anakin never knows about it until it's too late...but that won't be until much later in the race.  Sebulba's sabotage is left alone as the action of the race begins.

The journey into the podrace opens with a stall at the starting line.  As the other racers zoom off (with the exception of Ben Quadrinaros, of course), Anakin's engine floods, and the pod all but goes dead.  With patience and effort, he is finally able to get it started...and, despite the cheerful naysaying of the announcer, proceeds to put on a burst of speed that easily overtakes the back of the pack, despite his late start.  Ahead of him, Sebulba is knocking all competitors aside like they were action figures on a shelf.  As Anakin zooms through the canyon, catching then surpassing one racer after another, the mysterious Aurra Sing appears, watching him carefully, then disappears without explanation, and without Anakin's notice.  He is so focused on gaining ground that he barely notices the Tusken Raiders shooting at him, only dipping slightly when one hits.  The leaders come pounding around the final turn just as Ben Quadrinaros, who had the same initial handicap as Anakin, is put out of the race for good.  At first, Anakin's friends can't see him coming, but at last he arrives, in better position than anyone dared hope.

How might this be reflected in Anakin's hero's journey as the saga goes on?

As in the podrace, Anakin begins his journey at a standstill, his life sabotaged at birth by his slavery.  He is trapped far out in the Outer Rim, not found until he is far too old, by Council standards, to be trained, despite Qui-Gon's assurance that they would have trained him if they'd found him earlier.  By using his wits and the Force in the Battle of Naboo (the engine failure on board the Trade Federation droid control ship is strikingly similar to the malfunction at the beginning of the podrace), he earns himself a place of respect, probably surpassing a few other hopefuls to become a padawan despite the handicap of his past.  At the end of TPM, as at the end of the first circuit, Anakin Skywalker is placed better than anyone expected him to be...anyone, that is, except Qui-Gon and Anakin himself.

Meanwhile, his enemies are showing themselves.  Sebulba, the obvious deadly enemy, takes no notice of him in this round, only occasionally looking over his shoulder to see who's there.  In much the same way, Palpatine doesn't even notice Anakin when he first arrives on Coruscant.  He is focused entirely on Amidala, and on his own political mechanations.  What is a nine-year-old slave boy to him?  But Anakin keeps coming, determined, and by the end, he has risen above the sightline, and is a force to be reckoned with.


Looks like Skwalker is moving up...
The Second Circuit

The second circuit of the podrace marks Anakin's meteoric rise in the standings.  With a burst of speed at Metta Drop, he begins to overtake the leaders.  Still ahead, Sebulba is getting even more aggressive, moving from jostling and shaking the others to throwing things into their engines and causing serious and fatal accidents.  A pod explodes in front of Anakin, and he is barely missed by the flying debris.  As with the Tuskens in the first circuit, he seems barely to notice this; he simply makes the necessary corrections, though in the stands, Padmé and Shmi are terrified.  After this, Anakin and Sebulba are nearly alone...and Anakin has almst overtaken his enemy.

This is where we enter the misty lands of speculation about the course of Episodes II & III.  What does all this dream-like action symbolism mean in terms of foreshadowing?

The second circuit, I think, shows a path of Anakin's career as a hero.  After gaining his padawan-ship, there is a dizzying burst of speed in his life, beginning with the Metta Drop-like freefall of leaving home and apprenticing himself to a stranger.  With complete focus, he not only maintains his respectable placement, but he fights through the pack to come out in an important spot.  Meanwhile, his enemy is becoming more aggressive.  Could this suggest that as Anakin trains, our old friend Chancellor Palpatine will become more forward about his ambition?  More directly ruthless?  Will he, perhaps, be responsible for the deaths of people who stand in his way (and who, coincidentally, also stand in Anakin's way)?  Meanwhile, though Anakin is oblivious to the danger, both Shmi and Padmé/Amidala can see it, and shy away from it.

In this circuit/episode (not necessarily coincident only with Episode II; the paradigm would cover the whole journey, and I think this one may well cover into Episode III as well), Anakin begins to feel his power, begins to feel in control...and becomes his enemy's enemy.  At the end of the circuit, Anakin is almost on top of Sebulba, and Sebulba can no longer ignore him.  By the same token, is it possible that Anakin will almost overtake Palpatine, and in that way become Palpatine's focus over the next sequence of events?


Skywalker's in trouble!
The Third Circuit

The third circuit of the podrace is the most dangerous and the most exciting.  Anakin is playing fair, but the brutal Sebulba is battering him with all his strength, forcing him at last onto the service ramp.  Anakin knows he can't keep up there, so he rises into the air, and dives quickly, coming out ahead of Sebulba...and in Sebulba's sights.  It is at this point that the earlier sabotage comes into play.  Unseen by Anakin (even though his focus is starting to break, and he begins looking over his shoulder as Sebulba has been doing), the stablizer on his engines begins to shake under Sebulba's advance, and at last breaks free, and pod begins to whip back and forth in a violent, uncontrolled way.  Anakin has to fall back and let Sebulba get ahead again, while he tries desperately -- and with as much luck as skill -- to steady himself again before he is crushed against the rocks.  Sebulba, sure of himself, zooms ahead.  Anakin is finally able to restore power and stabilize by diverting energy and redistributing the balance between the engines, but he is far behind now, and his only chance is to push the pod to insane, suicidal speeds.  One gets the distinct impression that, had any other racers remained between them, Anakin would have run them off the track to get to Sebulba.  At last, he catches his prey, and Sebulba begins battering his pod again, but instead of either one of them getting ahead, the pods lock together in a deadly embrace, until, just short of the finish line, Anakin manages to break away, and send Sebulba into a crash.  He has won -- not only the race he thought he was running, but the race for his own freedom.

The end of the sequence rejoins the timeline we know -- Anakin and Palpatine become locked in a mockery of a symbiote circle, and at last Anakin breaks free and comes out into the open, saving the galaxy from Palpatine and winning back his own freedom forever (though of course, the end for Anakin is not an adoring crowd and a hug from his mother -- it is only a grieving son, standing alone at a funeral pyre while others celebrate around him).  But what might happen in between?  This is the part of the race that can serve as a metaphor for the fall.

At first, Sebulba himself seems to have forgotten about Anakin's weak spot, and he batters him as he has battered all the others.  He is even able to force him temporarily off course...but Anakin not only escapes the trap, he uses his escape to actually get ahead.  Could Palpatine, in his first confrontation with Anakin, use the same techniques he's used against other people -- deception and smoke and mirrors, as he used with Amidala, perhaps?  Does he try to simply manipulate Anakin into doing what he wants him to do?  I think this is likely, that Anakin's first mistake with Palpatine is much like the mistake we've already seen Amidala make.  It temporarily throws him off course -- "onto the service ramp," but he is able to regain his ground.  He now knows with whom he is dealing, and Palpatine is forced to change his tactics.

It is here that the sabotage, planted so long ago that it might be forgotten, comes in.  Significantly, it is the stablizer that is broken -- the element of the craft that keeps its awesome power from getting out of control.  What is Anakin's personal stabilizer?  The obvious answer is Shmi.  She has already been set up as a crisis point, the Jedi Council senses his constant fear for her, and she is in a vulnerable position.  The sabotage was set up before the race even began...perhaps Palpatine will even maneuver to get her further out of Anakin's reach.

When Anakin, at the height of his power, not only poses a threat to Palpatine, but actually looks like he might win, Palpatine uses his worst trick, and destroys the stabilizing force that kept Anakin's vast power in check.  Anakin swings wildly and violently, trying to gain control of himself, but flirting with vast danger to do it.  Palpatine comes back ahead and cruises serenly toward the finish line.

Meanwhile, Anakin is only able to save himself by redirecting the flow his energy, and when he gets back on track, his only thought is to go forward and destroy Palpatine.  Ignoring everything but that speck, he grimly accelerates...and finally catches Palpatine again, only to be caught in that lock for twenty-odd years before he can escape it.  ("That little human being is out of his mind!")

Then again, in the end, to paraphrase Freud, sometimes a podrace is just a podrace...
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