![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Star Words: Episode II, Part 3
Oct. 12th, 2017 11:47 amIt's no secret that I'm a diehard Padmé/Anakin shipper, so any quotes that relate to them are going to generate an inordinate amount of fangirling from me. I could probably include the entirety of dialogue from their Episode II moments in this series. I'll try to restrain myself. ;)
Their reunion scene is just delightfully awkward. They haven't seen each other since Anakin was a boy, and while they've both done some growing-up since then, his transformation is much more dramatic. (Anakin's maturity is illustrated rather easily by the casting of an older actor. Padmé's is more subtle, mostly accomplished through costuming. 14-year-old Padmé never wore anything remotely revealing or form-fitting). As he's spent much of those ten years harboring a crush on the girl who befriended him on Tatooine, he is desperate to make a good impression upon reuniting with her. Things...do not go exactly as he might have hoped.
"Ani? My goodness, you've grown."
"So have you. Grown more beautiful, I mean. Well, for a Senator."
Poor Anakin. He's barely once sentence in and he's already putting his foot in his mouth. Then comes Padmé's response.
"You'll always be that boy I knew on Tatooine."
Anakin probably wants to crawl into a hole in the ground and never come out. So much for proving his maturity. Looks like he has always been and always will be a child in Padmé's eyes. No wonder he's so insistent afterwards on pledging to track down the assassin, against all his master's disapproval -- he's desperate to win Padmé's favor to make up for such a wrong-footed introduction. Alas, Obi-Wan's chastisement only humiliates him further.
By the way, there is so much secondhand embarrassment in this scene, illustrated by way of cleverly-timed cuts to the onlookers' faces. Typho, Dormé, Obi-Wan, even Jar Jar -- they all notice it, and there is much hiding of smiles and darting of eyes. I love how editing can tell a story without a word of dialogue.
But here's the thing. I'm sure that Padmé didn't intend her response as a put-down at all. Her face is full of fondness and warmth. And Jar Jar points out to Anakin afterward that she's visibly happier than he's seen in a long time. She's not denying that Anakin is a young man now rather than a boy; she's recalling all the good things she remembers about that boy on Tatooine -- helpful, kind, eager to please, bright and inquisitive and good. Maybe there's a patronizing quality to her words, maybe not, but at their heart they are words of praise.
And they become all the poignant as Padmé and Anakin's relationship progresses. Anakin's qualities as an attractive young man are no doubt very enticing, but what really makes Padmé fall in love with him? Many of those same traits she admired in the boy, though now infused with the intensity and tumultuousness of young adulthood. And when he falls to the Dark Side; when he betrays all that she believes in, what does she cling to? The hope that somewhere deep inside, the innocent boy still remains. The trinket he gave her as a child is a powerful symbol of that innocence, and she carries it to her grave.
Next, Obi-Wan's words of dubious comfort...
Their reunion scene is just delightfully awkward. They haven't seen each other since Anakin was a boy, and while they've both done some growing-up since then, his transformation is much more dramatic. (Anakin's maturity is illustrated rather easily by the casting of an older actor. Padmé's is more subtle, mostly accomplished through costuming. 14-year-old Padmé never wore anything remotely revealing or form-fitting). As he's spent much of those ten years harboring a crush on the girl who befriended him on Tatooine, he is desperate to make a good impression upon reuniting with her. Things...do not go exactly as he might have hoped.
"Ani? My goodness, you've grown."
"So have you. Grown more beautiful, I mean. Well, for a Senator."
Poor Anakin. He's barely once sentence in and he's already putting his foot in his mouth. Then comes Padmé's response.
"You'll always be that boy I knew on Tatooine."
Anakin probably wants to crawl into a hole in the ground and never come out. So much for proving his maturity. Looks like he has always been and always will be a child in Padmé's eyes. No wonder he's so insistent afterwards on pledging to track down the assassin, against all his master's disapproval -- he's desperate to win Padmé's favor to make up for such a wrong-footed introduction. Alas, Obi-Wan's chastisement only humiliates him further.
By the way, there is so much secondhand embarrassment in this scene, illustrated by way of cleverly-timed cuts to the onlookers' faces. Typho, Dormé, Obi-Wan, even Jar Jar -- they all notice it, and there is much hiding of smiles and darting of eyes. I love how editing can tell a story without a word of dialogue.
But here's the thing. I'm sure that Padmé didn't intend her response as a put-down at all. Her face is full of fondness and warmth. And Jar Jar points out to Anakin afterward that she's visibly happier than he's seen in a long time. She's not denying that Anakin is a young man now rather than a boy; she's recalling all the good things she remembers about that boy on Tatooine -- helpful, kind, eager to please, bright and inquisitive and good. Maybe there's a patronizing quality to her words, maybe not, but at their heart they are words of praise.
And they become all the poignant as Padmé and Anakin's relationship progresses. Anakin's qualities as an attractive young man are no doubt very enticing, but what really makes Padmé fall in love with him? Many of those same traits she admired in the boy, though now infused with the intensity and tumultuousness of young adulthood. And when he falls to the Dark Side; when he betrays all that she believes in, what does she cling to? The hope that somewhere deep inside, the innocent boy still remains. The trinket he gave her as a child is a powerful symbol of that innocence, and she carries it to her grave.
Next, Obi-Wan's words of dubious comfort...
