Since Easter is next week, the next two Battles are Easter/Spirituality related.

Today's Question:

Which trilogy had the best Judas/Turncoat?

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Dictionary.com definition of "turncoat"

-One who traitorously switches allegiance

Dictionary.com definition of "Judas"

-One who betrays another under the guise of friendship.

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This one is REALLY tricky and difficult because each of the different turncoats is uniquely different than the last, but let's take eacy trilogy one by one.

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The Matrix

The only turncoat that I can think of is Cypher, played by Joey Pants.

Cypher symbolizes the dilemma of anyone who knows a lot about the world around them, but wishes that they can plug themself back into an ignorance state. But in the Matrix trilogy, doing so has dangerous consequences for EVERYONE unplugged to the Matrix, because it involves giving the Matrix the keys to Zion's destruction.

It'd be one thing if all Cypher wanted to do was get plugged back in, but it's a whole different story when getting plugged back in involves selling out those who put their trust in you.

I really like how the Wachowski Bros. used Cypher to show that once you *know*, you can't *unknow*.

His betrayal is deep, and ultimately as treacherous as they come, but he wasn't in the trilogy long enough for him to put him at the top of this list.

One could make an argument that Bane from "Matrix Revolutions" is also a turncoat, but I see that as more of an Exorcist variety. You can only fully be a turncoat if you willingly do so.

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The Lord of the Rings has both Gollum and Grima Wormtongue.

Gollum is perhaps the most difficult to write about because he's somewhat similar to Bane from "Matrix Revolutions." Gollum was a river dweller that happened to stumble upon the ultimate evil of Middle Earth, so he's at a disadvantage. His situation straddles the line of an almost demonic possession, and one of choice. It's like a demonic possession in that a lot of his actions and choices happened beyond his full comprehension. When he got the ring, he ceased to be the good person that he once was, and instantly became this whole other creature consumed by the evil of the ring.

But there was also an element of choice in that he eventually did come back to be Smeagol in "The Two Towers," but then felt betrayed by Sam and Frodo and reverted back to his Gollum ways. But even that is tricky, because the ring had become an addiction at that point. It's almost as if he wasn't consciously aware of the choices he was making. So I have to say that Gollum/Smeagol isn't really much of a turncoat at all. He may appear to be, but there are just too many outside factors that would affect anyone.

In the case of Grima Wormtongue, I'm going to have to read the books, because the movies pretty much always have him as a bad guy. It isn't until the "Return of the King" special edition that we find out that he was once a good and decent person. It isn't until he meets Saruman, that he makes the turn to the dark side. But we never fully see this transition happen. Maybe in the books they go more in depth, but all we have to work with to know that he's a bad guy is a brief scene in "Return of the King" where Theoden tries to coax Wormtongue back to the light side. But we never trully get a sense of his betrayal, because we never see him as a good guy.

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Lando Calrissian is nothing more than a bureaucrat, who's trying to save his hide, and to protect his city by selling out his friends. We get a brief glimpse of Lando as a good guy, but there really isn't much to trust about him in "The Empire Strikes Back." From the moment he walks down that cat walk in Cloud City, we know that we're not supposed to fully trust him.

So he did betray his friends, but we never suspected that he wouldn't betray them. His betrayal isn't like Cypher's because Lando was never an intimate of Leia and Luke, and was never a part of the Rebel Alliance. We know that Han and Chewbacca were friends with Lando at one time, but I've always seen that relationship as a bit of a shady alliance. They're pirates, hoodlums, who are only friends because they are pirates and hoodlums. It's like people who become good friends in prison. They care for each other, but they wouldn't think twice about betraying the other if it would save the other's hide.

It's interesting to compare Han and Lando, because they're essentially the same character in different circumstances. If it had been Lando in Episode IV, and Han as the mayor of Cloud City, it's not hard to imagine Han making the same choice that Lando made.

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But at the end of the day, all of the other people on this list are dwarfed by Anakin Skywalker. You go from sweet kid, to hot shot Jedi Padawan, to respected Jedi hero in the Clone Wars, to member of the Jedi Council, to the man who hunts down and destroys all the Jedi.

Unlike Cypher, Grima Wormtongue, Lando Calrissian, and Gollum/Smeagol, he's the only person who actually succeeds in destroying those who he's betrayed. Throughout the new movies, he continues to make bad choice after bad choice, until the point when he's so far twisted and gone that by the time he makes a pact with the devil, there isn't much good in him anyways.

Besides Lando, he's one of the only people who at least partly succeeds in redeeming himself. He ends up fulfilling his prophecy, and does bring balance back to the force.

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Here's my list of best turncoat:

1. Anakin Skywalker - for selling out the Jedi order, making a pact with the devil, and bringing about the demise of the Old Republic.

2. Cypher - for his betrayal that would have worked had it not been for his James Bond villain scene of "breaking things down for the good guys."

3. Lando Calrissian - for being the ultimate bureaucrat.

4. Grima Wormtongue - would have ranked higher, but we needed to see more moments of his goodness to fully get the betrayal.

Gollum was eliminated from the list because of his unique circumstances.

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matt out