You think Anakin was evil in episode 1?
The problem is any goodness Anakin shows in TPM (where he's played by an annoyingly wooden child actor) is undermined by the time skip and recasting. Anakin appears in AOTC and is essentially a whole new character, and it's compounded by George's decision to skip over all the development in those years that would have allowed us to really appreciate why he is the way he is now.
He saved her life and her homeworld of Naboo.
So wait, she fell in love with him when he was 9 and she was 14? How many 14 year old girls do you know who develop crushes on 9 year old boys? The other way around, sure (or if it were a 9 year old girl crushing on a 14 year old boy), but the teenager crushing on the 9 year old? No, it just doesn't happen.
Then they haven't seen each other in 10 years, so she's likely to still think of him as that 9 year old kid she spent a week with. Grateful for his help in saving her planet (and by "help" I mean he destroyed the control ship purely by accident), but in love? Gimme a break.
Now if after seeing him 10 years later she were simply physically attracted to him, I'd buy it. But no, George deems that it needs to be love...and what follows is one of the worst attempts at a romance that you'll see in a major motion picture.
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Viltrumite
8 years ago
The problem is any goodness Anakin shows in TPM (where he's played by an annoyingly wooden child actor) is undermined by the time skip and recasting. Anakin appears in AOTC and is essentially a whole new character, and it's compounded by George's decision to skip over all the development in those years that would have allowed us to really appreciate why he is the way he is now.
Is it really so difficult to fathom how magic powers and puberty as well as a childhood as a slave and an adolescence as a monk can turn a kid like that?
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FlyingJ87
8 years ago
When he's this kind, good-natured boy (regardless of how poor the performance is, even by child actor standards) in TPM, yeah, a bit. He already had his "magical powers" then too, which allowed him to see things before they happened. It also doesn't excuse skipping over all that development that would have helped the audience connect with him and understand why he's this way now. If being a Jedi, something he was thrilled about the prospect of in TPM, turned out to not be what he thought it would, then we should be shown that. But instead we see him act like an ass, which results in Obi-Wan being justifiably stern with him. That's it. They also talk about how he's an arrogant hot-head, which his actions demonstrate, while meanwhile he just complains about Kenobi being a meany-head. It's only made worse by George relegating the development and justification of Anakin's new personality to off-screen events and expects us to just accept it despite what was shown in the previous film.
It also doesn't excuse the fact that Anakin is a completely distrubing creeper in AOTC. He has no redeeming qualities here.
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Viltrumite
8 years ago
I didn't think it was that much of a leap at all. Even if I hadn't read the various comics and novels that that place between TPM and AOTC, it makes perfect sense that Anakin wold be the way he is. In one of the comics, it was revealed that 12 year-old Anakin, out of frustration seeing people suffer while the Jedi have their hands tied, plus a few nudges from Uncle Palpatine, and taunts from other Padawans about his former slave status decided to leave the Jedi Order.
"Do you know how I joined the Order? I've never forgotten. My mother asked Qui-Gon if he would take if he would take me away, if I would become a Jedi. He said yes, and that was all. My entire life, decided right then, I was nine years. Qui-Gon said Jedi training was difficult, that it would be a hard life. I saw a magic man with a sword made out of light and a starship. I was a slave on a world made of dust. What was I going to say? No?"
If this doesn't sum it up, I don't know what does.
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FlyingJ87
8 years ago
So you claim that Anakin's personality being how it is circa AOTC makes perfect sense regardless of what happened during the 10 year time skip, but then need a comic set during that period to try and explain it? Kinda proving my point.
Again, we don't see any of this in the films. Anakin's interactions with the Jedi in AOTC amount to Kenobi being stern with him (which he has every reason to be given how Anakin acts), and the Council doling out orders. That's it. Classic rule in film: show, don't tell. We needed to see his relationship with other Jedi beyond the master-student dynamic he had with Kenobi (which we don't even get much of given that they separate after the first act). But hell, with some things the prequels don't even try to tell us.
As for Anakin's claim that his life was decided right then, no, he made the choice. You can argue he was a naive child, but his life was not decided purely by others.
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Viltrumite
8 years ago
So you claim that Anakin's personality being how it is circa AOTC makes perfect sense regardless of what happened during the 10 year time skip, but then need a comic set during that period to try and explain it? Kinda proving my point.
I only bought the comic last year. I didn't need it to fill in the gaps, I'm simply using it as an example. It was pretty good. The films all take place in a smalltime frame, there's only so much you can cram into them, whereas books and comics don't have this limitation. The *Revenge of The Sith* novel was brilliant. If you haven't read it, I recommend it.
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FlyingJ87
8 years ago
Way to not address any of the other points I made. Or wait, does the novel explain these things? Because again, relying on supplementary material to properly explain things does not make the films or filmmaker look good.
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