Chat corner: 9: Attack of something

[annathecrow]

Welcome to this week’s chat corner!

 

Optional chat prompt

This week’s topic is “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones”. Second movie in the prequel trilogy, little Ani is all grown up and here to give us all a load of second-hand embarrassment! Also, is it just me or does Padmé’s penthouse look like a cross between Art Deco and 90s hotel lobby?

 

Comments

[annathecrow]

As always, here is The Dark Side post.

It seems they don't get much use, but I think I'll just keep making them - better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them, I'd say.

(Perhaps it's a good sign that nobody feels the need to go trashtalk something, even...)

[fleurviolette]

Yes! Padme’s apt definitely has that Art Deco aesthetic.

I liked the deleted scenes where Padme brings Anakin to her family. So idyllic and sweet, yet very expansive on her back story. Definitely mentioned this before but it makes a very interesting what if? au if Luke or Leia was given to the Naberries to be raised tho hidden in plain sight. Very risky but hey they are family too.

Furthermore, I’m still fond of the legends canon that Leia and Pooja were fellow senator friends, not knowing that they were cousins.

[yourlibrarian]

It seems so telling to me that this rushed relationship plot should have one of the few development scenes for it cut while we have an endless speeder chase early on.

However overall I thought this was the best of the three films. The mystery (and horror reveal, really) of the clones and the arena scene and arrival of the Jedi was really striking at the time. For someone who grew up with the original trilogy when Jedi were rare, it was kind of amazing to see them in numbers in battle. Plus, of course, we finally saw Yoda in action, giving us some idea why he was the head of the order (aside from his long life).

Perhaps too it's because Clone Wars the series leads off after the 2nd film that it seems a number of important storylines are laid out in this one, whereas the third film is more like a checkbox of things that have to happen to set the stage for the next trilogy.

[fleurviolette]

Yup, agreed to all those things. The battle of Geonosis was epic to watch on screen. It was that movie that really got me into Star Wars, since I grew up around the time that the prequels were in theaters. I was a bit too young to remember ep 1 but ep 2 was the gateway to Star Wars for me.

The Clone Wars micro series was good too. And I also enjoyed playing Battlefront.

[annathecrow]

I gotta admit, when I saw the movie for the first time I could not take Yoda seriously at all. :D I just couldn't get the image of old cranky Yoda from OT out of my head.

You do have the point about Ep II vs Ep III - Ep II still gave a feeling that things are starting, while all Ep III could do was basically Ruin Everything (TM).

[fleurviolette]

That’s interesting! The first time that I watched the OT was after ep. 2. I didn’t imagine Yoda that way.

[annathecrow]

Yeah, I wish Padmé got more space in the Prequels. I'm sure it could have been done if she had been more of a priority.

[fleurviolette]

Agreed, without her, we wouldn’t have Luke and Leia.

[annathecrow]

Yeah, and she's a pretty cool character by herself, when the plot lets her. I'm reading Queen's Shadow now (the YA novel by E. K. Johnston) and she's great there.

[extrapenguin]

I rewatched the prequels recently and imo this is the weakest one, due to the heterosexuality subplot and the other two having better lightsaber battles. Mostly this is an exercise in missed opportunity for class commentary, since Padmé's refugee disguises are hilariously bad.

For those of you who recall my fic project: it has come back from the beta's! It's 25k long. I think I need to sprinkle in some extra seasoning before I can start posting. Watch these posts for an announcement?

In other news, I have figured out how to make quizzes on uQuiz!
Which SWTOR planet are you? (I) (starters, capitols, and Ilum: 7 planets)
Which SWTOR planet are you? (II) (chapters 1-3: 10 planets)

Both of the quizzes contain places you've probably heard of if you've ever opened a Star Wars (Alderaan, Coruscant), as well as more surprising places that were made up for SWTOR. Please have fun!

[annathecrow]

"the heterosexuality subplot" -- ahaha Y E S. I personally like Ep II better than Ep III because that one is all lightsaber battles and Pain, but gotta admit, the ~romance~ in Ep II makes me die on the inside. I can't decide if the writing is bad, or if it is just too uncomfortably realistic for a self-important teenager with anger issues and a crush.

I'm not the target audience for those quizzes but I did the first and some of the questions made me cackle, so thanks for that :D

[extrapenguin]

Ep III, as a friend of mine said, is a race to the wrong place but they cross the finish line in a clown car of plot holes, but as someone who likes lightsaber battles, I preferred that one. Anakin's hair was also better there. :P

I can't decide if the writing is bad, or if it is just too uncomfortably realistic for a self-important teenager with anger issues and a crush.
I went in fully expecting to go "okay, I see Anakin's crush, but why is Padmé with that guy?" and instead I got basically the opposite? In that I can see how Padmé got to the relationship place – I guess she likes bad boys and then throw in some mutual near death experience on Geonosis – but the Anakin -> Padmé side came across less as grand romance and more Dumb Autistic Teenager Succumbs to Comphet. It was all "okay, the social script says we should kiss here, so I'll kiss her!" times a lot. It was uncomfortable to watch, yes, but mostly because I could recognize half of it from my own youth. So much secondhand embarrassment.

(As a side note, the improvement in social skills Anakin experiences between AotC and RotS also fits in nicely with autistic Anakin! He goes from 19 to 22, and I at least grew a lot in social skills between those ages, as did my other autistic friends and acquaintances.)

I'm not the target audience for those quizzes but I did the first and some of the questions made me cackle, so thanks for that :D
\o/ I mean, even if you're not in the target audience, as long as you had fun, it's good!

[annathecrow]

LOL at that description XD YMMV about the hair, though, I think I prefer the weird padawan pixie cut. Although I do prefer Ep III Obi-Wan's hair to the Space Jesus look, for what it's worth.

Reading Anakin as autistic is Valid. I have to do a close watch of those scenes for a fic I'm writing, so I'll try watching it with that idea in mind...

The way I've read him lately has been "teenage disaster", mostly because I used to be a teenage disaster myself and the sympathy-nostalgia-fondness helps me cringe less. XD

(Honestly, none of this is the movie's fault - I remember when it was in the cinemas, my teenage classmates loved the romance. We just get into stories with our own baggage, and boy do I have a lot of baggage.)

[fleurviolette]

What do you mean by “this is the weakest one due to heterosexuality subplot”?

[extrapenguin]

The Padmé/Anakin (i.e. the heterosexuality) bits were cringey and uncomfortable to watch. The other stuff, like the investigation and Geonosis and the final lightsaber battles, was all nice, but I think this movie had the highest ratio of nope to runtime of the prequels.

[fleurviolette]

Yeah your mileage may vary on Anidala.

Despite the ‘forced romance’, AotC was the one movie that got me into Star Wars. I thought the universe building, the Jedi Order, and the origin of the clones were good.