So, it’s May the Fourth eve… and Rick and I are headed to a trivia competition tomorrow that’s going to cover the movies and the shows. We’ve been studying up, taking every YouTube quiz we could find, and yes, rewatching movies.
And, sigh, tonight we had to watch the prequels that we more or less politely ignore. Gritting teeth, we started with Attack of the Clones (not even to bone up for trivia will I watch Phantom Menace on purpose).
We talked all through it about new insights that came up. Yes, the dialogue is awkward AF. Like Anakin had never flirted with a girl before.
You know, cause he hadn’t.
In fact, watching it again, it struck me how horrible Obi Wan really was to Anakin. He wasn’t allowed to make mistakes. He definitely was never allowed to just be a kid. The grief that Obi Wan felt at losing his mentor, he punished Anakin with, forcing him to be worth Qui Gon’s sacrifice. Anything that was outside of that perfect mold was up for criticism if not straight up quashed.
It’s understandable, human to the core, and helped me grind my teeth at the flat repartee less. A little, anyway.
And Padme’s got a similar.. like she, too, had never been allowed to be young… maybe because she was persuing a political career before she had her first period. She knows how to be a diplomat, but she doesn’t know how to navigate the territory of adult emotions, is it so shocking she gets everything wrong, then figures in for a penny, in for a pound and commits to it?
Granted, I don’t give full credit to Lucas for being this intuitive about adolescent emotions in adults. I think he lucked out.
And maybe it won’t be several years before the next viewing- but Obi Wan suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks.
Curiouser and Curiouser 