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Spock and Uhura or Anakin and Padme

Nevermind the fact that Hayden Christensen couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.

That's why I keep telling people to watch Clone Wars! A cartoon can do a better acting job than that guy, and does. :rommie:

(Okay that's unfair to the writers, animators and voice actor - all of whom should get a lot of credit for doing a good job un-frakking-up the most-frakked up character in sci fi history, and doing it while on George Lucas' payroll to boot!)
 
Anakin and Padme's romance is probably the worst ever to be committed to film. The writing was horrible, the acting would be embarrassing even within the context of a fan film, and the god-awful dialog nearly made my brains come dribbling out of my ears.

On top of all that, in Attack of the Clones, Anakin is already clearly a psychopath. When he and Padme are on their picnic, he goes into a rant about how the Republic should be a dictatorship ruled by force. How romantic. Later, he confesses to Padme that he slaughtered an entire village of men, women and children. But hey, what woman doesnt like bad boy? Sure evil can be charming and seductive but Anakin possesses neither of these qualities. He is portrayed as nothing but a psychopathic crybaby. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Padme falls in love with him anyway.

Later in RoTS she is shocked that he turns to the dark side. How the hell didn't she see that coming? Then, somehow, she dies of a broken heart because of it. :rolleyes: We the audience are supposed to feel sorry for her, but the way I see it, she played with fire out of sheer stupidity (and even stupider script writing) and got what she deserved.

A story somewhat along these lines might have worked if supported by good writing and good acting, but such a story was far beyond Lucas's skills as a writer and director.
 
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Watch Clone Wars!!! You will be astonished how much of the problems with the romance (and a lot of other things like his friendship with Obi-Wan) is solved simply by rewritting Anakin to make him heroic and likeable, not overtly psychopathic, and even then, not so much worse than the other Jedi. Sometimes his ruthlessness is the smart approach, and other times the Jedi do pretty sketchy things anyway, and they definitely ignore Anakin's behavior at times because it's convenient to have a ruthless guy around to do the dirty work. The Jedi are bigger hypocrites than Starfleet! :rommie:

And the addition of Ahsoka as Anakin's padawan was another smart move because it allows the writers a way to show Anakin's duality both a caring mentor and as a loose cannon in the way he's misguiding Ahsoka into becoming a mini-Anakin - ruthless, arrogant, self-justified. The Jedi are insane for letting that guy teach a kid who isn't that much younger than he is. Anakin and Ahsoka treat war as a game. They're two kids drunk on the power that the Force gives them. It's charming and terrifying at the same time.

As of where we are in the story (mid-S3),
a fascinating storyline is shaping up where Padme is becoming more of a mentor to Ahsoka, but with a very different point of view that emphasizes peace and diplomacy vs. Anakin's adrenaline-junky love of combat. I think the idea here is for Padme and Anakin's conflict to be symbolized by their tug of war over Ahsoka. In which case, the TCW writers are finding a very interesting use for what started off as a pretty useless relationship, and placing that relationship at the core of the dramatic conflict.

When he and Padme are on their picnic, he goes into a rant about how the Republic should be a dictatorship ruled by force.
TCW is explaining that a bit better - Anakin really doesn't care about politics, which is the only way to reconcile the idea that he fights for the Republic and then jumps ship to the Empire without batting an eye. He's interested in action, authority, personal freedom and power.
Later, he confesses to Padme that he slaughtered an entire village of men, women and children.
That part of the story really isn't reconcilable with Anakin in TCW, where he isn't being depicted as that far gone - yet. I've decided to decanonize the PT and just take TCW as the "real" story. ;)

He is portrayed as nothing but a psychopathic crybaby. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Padme falls in love with him anyway.
TCW Anakin is far more plausible as someone a smart lady who must have any number of romantic options would go for.

Later in RoTS she is shocked that he turns to the dark side. How the hell didn't she see that coming?
TCW Anakin isn't being so obvious about it.

Then, somehow, she dies of a broken heart because of it.
Lucas needs to let the TCW writers re-write ROTS so that they can correct all the problems, such as Padme's death-by-lazy-writing, or at least all the correctable problems.

A story somewhat along these lines might have worked if supported by good writing and good acting, but such a story was far beyond Lucas's skills as a writer and director.

TCW is proving that that is, indeed, the case. I always suspected that there was a good story in there somewhere, and now it's being allowed to come out to the light of day! :bolian:
 
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^^^Thanks Temis. I never watched The Clone Wars series - just never thought it would be any good. But you make it sound interesting, so I think I might check it out.

Now, as for Spock and Uhura, I didn't have a problem with them being together. However, I would have preferred a Spock and Chapel relationship, which would have been truer to the original series. It would have been nice to see Chapel's unrequited love for Spock come to fruition in the alternate universe. Though to be fair, a Spock/Chapel romance would probably have been a lot more difficult to shoehorn into the movie
 
^^^Thanks Temis. I never watched The Clone Wars series - just never thought it would be any good. But you make it sound interesting, so I think I might check it out.

If you are that bored I could leave paint to dry
 
^^^Thanks Temis. I never watched The Clone Wars series - just never thought it would be any good. But you make it sound interesting, so I think I might check it out.

If you are that bored I could leave paint to dry

After 2 1/2 seasons that were too focused on lightsaber duels, battles (albeit some nicely done ones) and awkward attempts to depict the social/economic/political landscape of the story, the series finally seems to be coming into focus. Last night's episode was exactly what I've been looking for, even if it's a bit weird to see Star Wars starting to do what Star Trek should be doing (and in a "kid's show" to boot)! Nice to have Star Trek back on TV, even if it's weird that it suddenly involves Jedi's, Twi'leks and lots of talking robots. I guess I can adjust.

But back to the point - they are definitely shaping up an interesting dramatic conflict between Anakin and Padme.
 
To be fair, what can be done with lines like this?

Padme: We used to come here for school retreat. We would swim to that island every day. I love the water. We used to lie out on the sand and let the sun dry us and try to guess the names of the birds singing.

Anakin: I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.
 
Hysterical laughter, perhaps? Call your agent? Walk off the set? :rommie:

The best parts of TCW's romantic scenes are non-verbal. Just a shot of Anakin surreptitiously holding Padme's hand while everyone else is distracted is worth all the dialogue in a hundred movies. Or a reaction shot when he realizes she's in danger or that he screwed up in ordering the special cake for a diplomatic dinner that she's going bonkers about. Dialogue isn't always the best way to handle things.
 
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