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

[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.