Would Attack of the Clones have been better being sooner after The Phantom Menace?

[suarezguy]

Just 3-6 years later, even having an older Anakin in Episode I (12-14 and maybe played by someone older) and then having him also appear in II (with the character then being 17-20)?

For me it is pretty unfortunate that 10 years pass and a lot, especially with Anakin's portrayal, is just very skimmed over but that much time passing probably wouldn't have been such a big deal if Anakin wasn't written so differently.

 

[fireproof78]

I would say, "Yes." 10 years is a long time and a lot of character stuff is just glossed over and the audience has to fill in those details. Anakin's obsession over Padme, how long he has been dreaming of his mom, they all come across really poorly in a ten year span.

I think they might have also benefited from having the same actor across the trilogy for Anakin.

 

[Reverend]

I don't see it making any substantive improvement. Indeed it would kind of derail his arc.

Anakin needs to be a child when he's separated from his mother for the trauma to be that deeply rooted in his development. His feelings about her as an adult are a child's feelings, frozen in amber. Had the separation occurred even a few years later, the trauma would still have occurred but his feelings would've been more complex and thus in the long run, easier to process and contextualise as he matures.

The same applies to has feelings about Padme. Had he been older, he'd have had *some* kind of awareness of and experience interacting with the opposite sex so that Padme wouldn't have made such a lasting impression. Again, since meeting her happened at the same time as the loss of his mother it meant he pretty much imprinted on her like a baby duckling.

The long separation means that he's spent the last decade (pretty much his entire adolescence) putting Padme up on a pedestal while essentially living in a monastery. It's the perfect storm for a very unhealthy obsession. You also need him old enough so that 1) the actor playing him is physically capable of credibly doing Jedi things, and 2) the romance doesn't get...well, OK it's creepy either way, but not THAT kind of creepy.


If I had to make a change, it wouldn't be to Anakin, it would be to Padme. Make her closer to Anakin's age in TPM and for the sake of credibility, have her be a Princess instead of a Queen. Or have her parents killed off in the first act making her a child Queen (which was essentially how it played out in the early "Annakin Starkiller" drafts of what became ANH.) That makes the bonding between them a little more mutual and doesn't make Padme out to be quite so...I don't want to say "dumb" but she clearly exercised some very poor judgement in AotC.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I think the essential pieces of Anakin story from The Phantom Menace, being found by the Jedi and separated from his mother, should have been handled more concisely, perhaps in a prologue, and then have the story of the clone wars began in the latter half of the first movie.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Waited another 5 years, so that Jake Lloyd could be older action man Anikan, and Portman would still look like a pedophile.

 

[JD]

If it was me, I would have jumped right to the start of The Clone Wars in the first movie, and then done a movie set in the middle of The Clone Wars as Episode II.
I think most of the important stuff about Anakin and the Jedi can be covered in exposition or the opening scroll, and the Anakin/Padme relationship could still work with a little tweaking to make the meeting in her apartment the first time they meet. It wouldn't have the 10 year crush, but I think it would still work out OK if Anakin's feelings for her started right there.

 

[Reverend]

I think the essential pieces of Anakin story from The Phantom Menace, being found by the Jedi and separated from his mother, should have been handled more concisely, perhaps in a prologue, and then have the story of the clone wars began in the latter half of the first movie.

Maybe, but then what's the emotional through-line for 'Episode One' going to be? Part of the problem here is that not only does the overarching story need to be served, but each instalment needs to be a complete and self contained story in and of itself.
You also have to come at it (as Lucas did) with the assumption that this is also going to be the first Star Wars movie a large proportion of the audience (mainly kids) may have seen, so it also has to introduce the world and set the stage.

If it was me, I would have jumped right to the start of The Clone Wars in the first movie, and then done a movie set in the middle of The Clone Wars as Episode II.
I think most of the important stuff about Anakin and the Jedi can be covered in exposition or the opening scroll, and the Anakin/Padme relationship could still work with a little tweaking to make the meeting in her apartment the first time they meet. It wouldn't have the 10 year crush, but I think it would still work out OK if Anakin's feelings for her started right there.

Can you imagine what ANH would have been like if every thing about Luke growing up on a farm, finding the secret message in a droid, meeting a wizard, finding out his dad was also a wizard, having his aunt and uncle die, meeting a space pirate and rescuing a princess from an evil sorcerer's fortress was all just in the opening crawl and it just dropped you right into the action with them escaping the Death Star?
You need that slow ramp-up to introduce your characters, set the stage, establish some kind of emotional connection between the audience and the protagonists. Otherwise it's all just a bunch of incoherent noise.

Part of the problem with the PT is that there's really too much ground to cover in just three 2 hour kid's movies, which is why AotC was such a rough ride. Lucas knew this and even contemplated making it four movies instead of three: 1) A prologue (basically TPM), 2) Ep1: "Clone Wars Part 1", 3) Ep2: "Clone Wars Part 2", and 4) Ep3: "Epilogue" (again, basically RotS).
Only he can say why he chose not to go this route (probably because it would've taken a decade to pull off and he didn't want to spend that much of his life on it) but ultimately, the movies aren't really about the Clone Wars, it's Anakin's story so that's what he hewed to.

Thankfully the Clone Wars show did wonders to flesh out that period and help add a lot of context to Anakin's story that the movies simply didn't have time for.

 

[Ithekro]

The other option would be there to have been multiple Clone Wars. the First one we see is during Ep 1, where a not quite so young Anakin is already a pilot that gets caught up in events. Meets Obi-wan and Padme. He manages to save the day through his piloting skills mixed with his latent Force powers. Obi-wan decides he needs to train this young man, or teenager. The next film shows a few years have passed. Another Clone Wars is brewing, with young Skywalker still training as a Jedi. At this point, many of the Attack of the Clones story elements still function. One can setup an attack on Tatooine to assassinate Anakin's mother in revenge for whatever villain he defeated in the first film (this may also show part of why Owen wished Anakin had stayed home). This helps drive Anakin's anger since he's not fully trained yet, and (like Luke) still hasn't fully learned Control. Padme seems to bring him back into an emotional balance with her love, or his love for her. Episode 3 runs about the same as the years of war between 2 and 3 have driven Anakin more and more into his anger and frustration with the Republic and the Jedi for not letting him do what he thinks will end the conflict and bring order to the galaxy. But Palpatine knows....he's been there since the beginning (as always) manipulating events and people to get the Republic, and Anakin to this point. The point where even and oppressive dictatorship that is orderly looks better than the constant cycle of wars and death and chaos that have been going on for most of Anakin's generation's lives. Anakin turns at some point...perhaps more naturally than he did in Revenge of the Sith. Padme is either very pregnate, or gave birth already, but Anakin was already the enemy, and thus, she wasn't able to tell him before Obi-wan either took her and children and ran, or before Obi-wan was forced to duel Anakin. In that variant, Padme would die on Alderaan with Leia (based on Leia having memories of her mother). Be that from wounds from her escape, or pining over the lose of Anakin and the Republic.

However, with the understanding that Leia may have been the more powerful of the twins, it is also reasonable that she may have had a connection with Padme in the womb, and thus got her feeling before her death.

 

[JD]

Can you imagine what ANH would have been like if every thing about Luke growing up on a farm, finding the secret message in a droid, meeting a wizard, finding out his dad was also a wizard, having his aunt and uncle die, meeting a space pirate and rescuing a princess from an evil sorcerer's fortress was all just in the opening crawl and it just dropped you right into the action with them escaping the Death Star?
You need that slow ramp-up to introduce your characters, set the stage, establish some kind of emotional connection between the audience and the protagonists. Otherwise it's all just a bunch of incoherent noise.

Oh yeah, you definitely can't do that with ANH, but I other than Anakin meeting Padme, and being taken to be trained as a Jedi, there really isn't that much in Phantom Menace that has a direct impact on the rest of the series, that couldn't have been worked into Attack of the Clones and a potential movie between it and Revenge of the Sith. It does start Palpatine's rise to power, but I think the point of that can still be gotten across without having to actually see it first hand.

Part of the problem with the PT is that there's really too much ground to cover in just three 2 hour kid's movies, which is why AotC was such a rough ride. Lucas knew this and even contemplated making it four movies instead of three: 1) A prologue (basically TPM), 2) Ep1: "Clone Wars Part 1", 3) Ep2: "Clone Wars Part 2", and 4) Ep3: "Epilogue" (again, basically RotS).
Only he can say why he chose not to go this route (probably because it would've taken a decade to pull off and he didn't want to spend that much of his life on it) but ultimately, the movies aren't really about the Clone Wars, it's Anakin's story so that's what he hewed to.

I hadn't heard about that before, that could have worked pretty well.

Thankfully the Clone Wars show did wonders to flesh out that period and help add a lot of context to Anakin's story that the movies simply didn't have time for.

Definitely agree on this point.
I actually do like the PT a lot more than most other people, but I still recognize that there are a lot of ways it could have been better.

 

[FederationHistorian]

The Clone Wars should have begun at the end of Episode I, with the clone troopers marching off to war against the Trade Federation under the newly crowned Chancellor Palpatine. And make Episode II be set in the middle of the Clone Wars, and focus on Anakin and Padme’s relationship develop within a wartime setting. But that kind of subverts with the idea of Episode I; a representation of an innocent time before the Clone Wars and the Galactic Empire, hence why the film was handled that way with a focus on Anakin’s upbringing, and pod racing and peace on Naboo at the end of the film. Episode II may have been a better movie for it though, and may have let everything occurring on screen have greater meaning.