Could AOTC work without the kiss on Naboo scene? I do think heavily cutting it allows for an interesting implication that Anakin and Padmé sleep together that night (like Hal mentions in his commentary), but I feel most versions of the scene cut off abruptly in order to lose Padmé pulling away, and you also have the weird continuity where Padmé is wearing one dress in the previous dinner scene and then wearing an entirely different dress in next. Yes, she does change outfits from scene to scene a lot, but it feels like these two scenes could take place just an hour or less between each other.

I do wonder if the film would work just as well if their kiss in the Petranaki arena was their first kiss. Or potentially better, if we build their relationship over the course of the story and they don’t actually confess their love and kiss until the climax of the film, right before they think they’re about to die.