Padme and Obiwan would have been a better couple

[Gray Lensman]

The prequels were commercially mega-successes and consistently do well in re-releases and home video well after the backlash, so the "anyone I know saw" you refer to is charitably speaking a very small sample. I would say an extremely small sample. So small as to be fairly unrepresentative and marginal.

Commercial success does not mean "does everything right". I enjoy much of the prequels, minus the scenes where the two actors are fumbling over the script in an attempt to sound like they like each other, and Jar Jar, of course. But there are plenty of things which are popular yet still hated by anyone who isn't a fan, and I'm only claiming that the romance angle of the prequels sucks. And that Binks fellow, but I don't think I'll find many people who defend him, despite the film making tons of cash.

[WebLurker]

Although it was largely cut out of the films, there seems to be a bit of an implication that Obi-Wan knows something's been going on with Anakin and Padme, but decides out of his respect for them to not alert the council. Part of the reason he goes directly to Padme to find out where Anakin's going. (Another earlier visit before Anakin's fall is mentioned in the film, but not shown)

In the novelization, too.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

And that Binks fellow, but I don't think I'll find many people who defend him, despite the film making tons of cash.

Jar Jar Binks is in fact enormously popular with children. Any time I saw the prequels with young kids it's Jar Jar they like.

They also like the Ewoks.

In the words of the great philosopher Freddie Prinze Jr.

"Look, dawg, you’re just made the franchise is not aging with you. But that ain’t how it works. The first one was for fucking kids. The second three were for different fucking kids. And this one is just for kids."

[Beaddle]

They have nothing in common.



.

she had nothing in common with Anakin either. frankly jedis only have common-nity with each other. however, obiwan, like her acted and behaved like grown ups, Anakin didn't.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is a tried and true Jedi warrior monk, totally celibate. He wouldn't look at another woman. It's not in his character to do so (at least based on how Lucas saw him).

that's very true, reason I said if circumstances were different, I will have easily bought the idea of padme falling for obiwan instead of Anakin


.

He's good-looking, young, comes from a poor slave background, so a royal like Padme who's so philanthropic and committed to the lower classes would be drawn to him, in a kind of uptown girl wanting someone rough sense, and a sense of romantic "I can change/fix him sense".

I can see all of that but to an extent, what this should have meant for padme is Anakin needs help as a young unstable teen, the fact that she is drawn to him to the extent of marriage was ridiculous, especially her being a senator who said she was there to help the helpless, how helpful is she being when Anakin tells her he slaughtered an entire village.

The point of that relationship was it to be a tragic, doomed, romance made by two flawed people (and yeah, Padme IS flawed too). It's not supposed to be a charismatic romance like Han and Leia.

I know, the only problem is the entire romance is just poorly written. romeo and Juliet had a doom tragic romance but it was well written.

Padne and Anakin have better chemistry. In scenes like when the two visit Owen and Beru’s house has n Tatooine when she holds him against the expanse. When they kiss before the arena. And when she tells him she’s pregnant.

When I was younger, I thought Padme and Anakin had chemistry because the two actors were so pretty, now I am older I can see they did not have it, the bad acting was part of what ruined a lot of their chemistry. how Hayden delivers some of the lines were unatrural, Natalie felt as if she was reading from a script than transforming into a fictional character.
this is bad



looking back now, watching both Hayden and Natalie is laughable compared to Aragron and Arwen in Lord of the rings the two towers or Spiderman 2002 with Tobey and Kristen dunst. now that was chemistry, even without the up side down kiss.

I remember the 2002 films quite well because Spiderman, harry Potter, star wars and Lord of the rings were fighting for the number 1 box office film for the year. It just a bad reminder of how star wars attack of the clones was the weakest of the top 4 blockbusters films of 2002

[Beaddle]

Lucas sort of toyed with the concept when writing early versions of TPM when Obi-Wan was pretty much given Qui-Gon's role.

Obi-Wan was sort of given a love interest in Clone Wars (Satine) although apparently it was mainly during his Padawan days, he chose the Jedi over her, and their friendship was largely platonic during their reunions.


Her name is pretty obviously a Moulin Rouge reference, although Henry Gilroy denied it.

Obiwan is the equivalent of what a good priest should be like in the catholic church. he is a man who can control himself. I must admit that watching the earlier seasons of clone wars, Anakin and padme in the cartoon were better and make a lot more sense. the movies just tells a different story.

another thing again is Anakin in the films was very unlikeable, I don't know if it was the fault of Lucas direction or Hayden being wrong for the role. it added more dry salt to his relationship with Padme.

Padme is a very smart politician but for some weird reasons, she is completely dumb in the romantic relationship. dumb enough to marry a willing murderer, why was she so shocked to learn anakin killed younglins? the part where she and obiwan talks about it, they felt like equals. I never got that with any scene with her and anakin.



if only they had just kissed here. in other alternate universe, padme lives, marries obiwan and they both raise luke and leia.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

looking back now, watching both Hayden and Natalie is laughable compared to Aragron and Arwen in Lord of the rings the two towers or Spiderman 2002 with Tobey and Kristen dunst. now that was chemistry, even without the up side down kiss.

It's not supposed to be that kind of romance.

Padme/Anakin is supposed to be a romance that ends badly. As Lucas well knew. If he had set the pair up as this dream movie romance, the finale where Anakin chokes his pregnant wife would have been impossible to follow through.

Ani/Padme is meant to be Othello/Desdemona not Romeo and Juliet.

[David Walton]

It's not supposed to be that kind of romance.

Padme/Anakin is supposed to be a romance that ends badly. As Lucas well knew. If he had set the pair up as this dream movie romance, the finale where Anakin chokes his pregnant wife would have been impossible to follow through.

Ani/Padme is meant to be Othello/Desdemona not Romeo and Juliet.

Absolutely correct. I mean, Anakin outlines his vision for a fascist dictatorship to Padme and she basically laughs it off. That...isn't going to end well.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Absolutely correct. I mean, Anakin outlines his vision for a fascist dictatorship to Padme and she basically laughs it off. That...isn't going to end well.

Padme absolutely believes, "I can change him. Without me he'd just continue more massacres of the Sand Peoples. I need to calm his anger".

It's on that level quite accurate.

Which is not to say that Padme-Anakin have no heat. They do in that kiss right before they go in the arena of Geonosis, and also in that weird fireplace scene where she wears all leather (Lucas essentially invented Twilight there). But basically Padme-Anakin offers a look at the romance that crap like Twilight romanticise and showing how unhealthy it is.

Ultimately, it's not the relationship with Padme that was a mistake (from Ani's side, from hers yeah, it was a big mistake for her), it's his own indecisiveness, his own fears and paranoia. That relationship with Padme was the one free choice that Anakin made in a life where practically everyone decided for him.

[PwrdOn]

Commercial success does not mean "does everything right". I enjoy much of the prequels, minus the scenes where the two actors are fumbling over the script in an attempt to sound like they like each other, and Jar Jar, of course. But there are plenty of things which are popular yet still hated by anyone who isn't a fan, and I'm only claiming that the romance angle of the prequels sucks. And that Binks fellow, but I don't think I'll find many people who defend him, despite the film making tons of cash.

Intentionally or not, the love story in the prequels came off as exactly what it needed to be for the story to make sense - an awkward, forced, toxic pairing that ultimately proved to be the catalyst for Anakin's turn to the dark side. The fact that we couldn't really tell if what we saw was the intended story or just terrible acting either makes the movies terrible or absolutely brilliant, not sure which.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Intentionally or not, the love story in the prequels came off as exactly what it needed to be for the story to make sense - an awkward, forced, toxic pairing that ultimately proved to be the catalyst for Anakin's turn to the dark side. The fact that we couldn't really tell if what we saw was the intended story or just terrible acting either makes the movies terrible or absolutely brilliant, not sure which.

Words like "intentionally or not" presume or assume that George Lucas is some kind of moron who doesn't know anything or knows nothing about storytelling or movies and so on. Not that I am saying you are suggesting that, but I have seen people throw this around. "Accidentally great" and crap like that. All of them assume they know more about film-making than George f--king Lucas, who was considered by experimental film-maker Thom Andersen, his classmate at USC to be the most brilliant film student and most advanced way back then.

And in terms of Star Wars, that assumption is not true. Go back to the OT, those movies right down to the casting and interaction came down exactly as how Lucas wanted.You want to know why the characters Han, Luke and Leia have such chemistry. Well Lucas when casting those movies made sure to test actors for each roles in scenes together to see how they bounce off. In other words, Lucas got what he wanted out of the actors. Knew how to get it out of them. "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen". He knew how to cast actors, knew how to direct them.

He also decided in ESB on the Han/Leia romance after seeing the chemistry between them (and also knowing what Ford/Fisher were up to in their spare time) and he told screenwriters to model it on iconic old movie romances like Casablanca, GWTW, and so on. Ever notice why the poster of ESB resembles GWTW in terms of composition with Han and Leia dipping each other facing down? That's why. Lucas chose that.

In other words, Lucas had solid dramatic instincts. If the romance in the prequels was intended to be some grand thing and so on...he would have made it so.

[Vordan]

The idea that Lucas is a perfect genius who is incapable of making any mistakes is a really weird opinion to have. If you’ve ever watched the Making of The Phantom Menace Lucas starts to get frustrated after seeing a cut because he recognized he made mistakes. It’s well known that Lucas made up a lot of the plot as he went in the OT, and that his ex-wife helped save ANH in editing. I say this as someone who likes Lucas and who despises the ST for being a crap OT Remake. I’d rather have Lucas’ ST with all his flaws.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The idea that Lucas is a perfect genius who is incapable of making any mistakes is a really weird opinion to have.

Saying Lucas is smart and knows what he is doing doesn't mean he's perfect. The fact is most criticism of him has been unreasonable and over-the-top and driven by people with little to no knowledge of film-making.

If you’ve ever watched the Making of The Phantom Menace Lucas starts to get frustrated after seeing a cut because he recognized he made mistakes.

Yeah, Lucas shared a video to the world showing how he worked, going further than most making-of productions (which are you know feel good promos) and instead people use that to slag him.That's fandom. Lucas in that video is communicating a normal part of film-making, the second guessing, the mix of expectations and achievements and so on...obviously thinking that seeing the great George Lucas having the same problems anybody else does might help demystify film-making a bit and encourage them. All that did was convince most film-makers that "honesty is for chumps and rich people". Believe me there's so much BS about film-making that has unfortunately come to be seen as "good directing" and so on, that most film-makers, good film-makers spend a lot of time and effort on PR because it could affect their careers. Lucas was rich and didn't have anything to prove so he could afford to be honest. Look what it cost him.

It’s well known that Lucas made up a lot of the plot as he went in the OT

The basic aesthetic of those films, i.e. a Space Opera B Movie done on a large scale was consistent right through and created by him and him alone. A good part of what Lucas wrote there was reworked and redone later and touched and expanded. Lucas had basic ideas, and that provided a framework for him to move back and forth.

That's again normal process of making a movie, i.e. iterating and so on.

It doesn't mean he round-robin'd or made the movie by Chinese Whispers or anything.

...and that his ex-wife helped save ANH in editing.

Because the original editor Jympson made a huge mess, not because anything Lucas did was bad or anything. Marcia Lucas helped out, and in fact the actual editor who brought it home, Paul Hirsch (who did ESB later) and who recently put a book about his years as a editor did the rest.