Redemption and Mercy in Heroic Fantasy

I've seen a couple of columns recently questioning Darth Vader's last minute redemption. This one goes on to include Gollum and the burned Anakin in Revenge of the Sith.

While Lucas was inspired by Chinese monks in creating the Jedi, Vader's redemption is pure Christianity. According to traditional Christianity, everyone sins. It is only by regretting those sins and asking Christ for help can you go to Heaven. It would appear that Vader did something similar when he forsook the Emperor and saved Luke at the cost of his own life.

Again, according to traditional Christianity, anyone can do this at any time right up to his deathbed. Even Hitler could have qualified. The catch is that you have to be sincere. It is not enough to be sorry that you were caught. You have to realize that you were wrong and change yourself so that you would not do wrong in the future. Intentions are not enough, either. It has to be a real change. In Vader's case, this meant turning away from the Dark Side of the Force.

These things do happen in real life. Look at George Bush. He was a party boy well past adulthood then one day he changed.

Did this happen to Vader? Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is not enough. Vader had plenty of reason to turn on the Emperor. We now know that he originally planned on supplanting Palpatine. These plans were put on hold from the death of Padme until Vader learned that he had a son. There can only be two Sith lords at a time. Either the Emperor, Vader, or Luke was going to go. Obviously the Emperor was willing to abandon Vader in favor of a new apprentice. He was also willing to kill Luke and let things continue as they had.

Vader could have let the Emperor kill Luke, found Luke's sister, and started over again. Instead he killed Palpatine at the cost of his own life.

And he must have done it for the right reason. He must have suddenly regretted his long years of servitude, his cruelty, and his casual killing of others. We know because he appeared as Anakin. Presumably a primal thing like the Force would not be fooled.

What about mercy? The author of the article I linked to felt that Obi Wan should have killed Anakin instead of leaving him mutilated, that Luke should have killed the Emperor, and that Frodo should have killed Gollum. Each of these is a different situation and deserves to be addressed separately.

First - was Obi Wan showing mercy on Anakin? I don't think so. He left behind a burnt, ruined husk. Even Anakin's lungs were burnt. Without care he would have died shortly. Killing him would have been a mercy. What Obi Wan didn't know was that Anakin would be rescued before he died.

Second - after beating Vader, Luke threw away his light saber instead of killing the Emperor. This was Luke's symbolic turning away from the Dark Side. The Emperor had been goading Luke into killing one or the other. Luke was rejecting the temptation. He hadn't actually disarmed himself. He was perfectly capable of fetching his light saber from a distance. The Emperor seemed like a frail old man who was no threat - right up to when he started throwing lightening bolts at Luke.

Finally, Gollum. Even more than Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings was a battle between good and evil. In Tolkien's backstory, Sauron was the first servant and heir to Middle Earth's version of Satan. Sauron could not create, he could only corrupt.

But Gollum was different. He started as a hobbit or something close. Had his brother not found the one ring, Gollum would have lived and died an ordinary fisherman. Yes, he was evil, but it was because the ring had warped him for hundreds of years.

When Frodo looked at Gollum he saw what he might become himself.

Also, Gollum was an ambiguous creature. Frodo and Sam needed him and, for a while at least, he actually did reform. That gets back to my point about redemption. Gollum intended to reform but went back to his old ways. He didn't change inwardly, just outwardly. Without supernatural powers we cannot tell which way someone has reformed. We can guess by past behavior. Gollum could not be trusted again. That is the basis of out penal system and putting someone on probation.

All of this skirts around the big question - what should the hero do when he has the villain at his mercy? Should he show mercy or should he kill the bad guy on the spot?

More later.