Emerie Karr's Glasses
In The Bad Batch, Emerie Karr almost always wears a pair of glasses with red technical readouts in the lenses. Emerie's glasses imply a certain way of looking at the world; they symbolize the materialistic and impersonal worldview she has picked up from her mentor and master, Dr. Hemlock.
In Star Wars, the color red is associated with the material world, a desire for control, and a focus on the self. Emerie's red glasses recall two other important instances of red-tinted vision in Star Wars.
In A New Hope, when Luke Skywalker is trying to destroy the Death Star, he uses a targeting computer with a red technical display. The computer, which can only make judgments based on materially perceptible sense data, is meant to give Luke a sense of control. However, when he is encouraged to "let go" and "trust the Force" by the disembodied voice of his master and mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke sets aside the computer, surrenders his desire for control, and trusts in the immaterial, spiritual Force. Emerie's red glasses, like Luke's targeting computer, alter her vision to block out the spiritual, so that she only sees the world as material to be manipulated and controlled. They prevent her from seeing the children in Mount Tantiss' vault as children; instead, she sees them the way Hemlock sees them, as mere "specimens."
In Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, a shot from his point of view reveals that the lenses of the helmet's eyes are tinted red with technical readouts, much like Emerie's glasses and Luke's targeting computer. Anakin's transformation into Vader is the result of his desire to prevent Padmé from dying; it is the culmination of his obsession with control over the material world. Moreover, Vader's helmet encloses him in an attitude of self-protective self-focus, cutting him off from personal relationships. When he asks Luke to remove the helmet in Return of the Jedi, he says, "I want to look on you with my own eyes." The removal of Vader's helmet redeems him from the way of looking at the world he has picked up from his master and mentor, Palpatine, and restores his ability to see Luke as a father looking at his son; it marks the restoration, encouraged by Luke, of their familial relationship. Similarly, in "Plan 99" (The Bad Batch 2.16), Emerie removes her red glasses when she reveals to Omega that they are related as sisters.
At the end of The Bad Batch, after the destruction of Mount Tantiss, Emerie no longer wears her red glasses. With Omega's encouragement, she has been redeemed from Dr. Hemlock's materialistic and self-focused way of looking at the world.
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Characters: Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader / Dr. Hemlock / Emerie Karr / Luke Skywalker / Obi-Wan Kenobi / Omega / Palpatine
Films: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / Episode IV: A New Hope / Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Shows: The Bad Batch
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Concepts: sight and blindness
Interpretive Tools: Tripartite Soul Theory
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