TheoOdo said:Well, let's get creative here. How would you have done the relationship? Supposing you were completely redoing the prequels with no thought at all for the ones that were actually made, how would you make the relationship between Anakin and Luke's mother (doesn't even need to be called Padmé) work?
I've thought about it a little, but it's actually pretty tough. With Han, you can see why a woman'd fall for him but with Hayden you'd be more likely to call in a restraining order. I mean, Jesus, crying at the fire saying "love me dammit"? Just plain creepy and creepier that George seems to think that is romance.
Its not that tought, there is no reason Anakin has to be, or should have been a whiney, creepy, little jackass. Make him a real hero, and so many problems are solved. Padme falling in love with him would work. Audienced would no longer be yelling, "fall in the lava, fall in the lava you stupid little punk! Just fall in the lava already!" during the final battle between he and Obi-Wan. One thing that would have gone a long ways in making the prequels work, would have been for Anakin to have been a hero we could have really cared about, someone we could sympathize with.
We could do this with Luke. He was a normal person, completely average and run of the mill, living the boring life of a farm boy in a pathetic little berg, were he goofed around with his friends and dreamed of going to the Academy and becoming a real pilot, flying around in space and seeing the galaxy. Who can't relate to that? Wanting to get away and see the world? Experience adventure and excitement, but feeling trapped in a mundane world. Through a turning of events, Luke suddenly discovers he is not what he seems, he is the son of a great war hero, he leaves home and by the end of the movie he has become a hero himself. As the story continues, he continues to do heroic things and matures all the while.
The Phantom Menace followed this same sort of path, boy wants to see the world, discovers he has Jedi abilities, leaves home and becomes a bit of a hero himself by single handedly destorying the Trade Federations ships, it was a little bit of a tiny bopper, but the main idea was there.In Attack of the Clones we see our young hero has grown into an annoying teenager, the kind that that makes you want to wring their neck. Over the course of the movie, at no fault of his own, a beautiful girl falls in love with him, he says stupid things and freaks out and cries and so on, and she feels sorry for him because she broke his little teenage heart and so on. Eventually he kills a whole village of people, and she comforts him and tells him it is alright, everyone gets pissed and commits mass murder sometime, and she seems to fall in love with him even more. When facing the firing squad they declair their love for one another and choose to be together in the even they live. ROTS, whiney jerk grow into whiney annoying man, does whiney annoying things, freaks out and gets scared, kills Jedi, kills, kids, kills wife, tries to kill best friend, gets appendages cut off and sinks into pit of lava.
Who can sympathize with any of that? Maybe Charles Manson or Jeffery Domher. This guy is killing women and children, hacking them up with a laser sword, and then our seven year olds dress up as him for Halloween. Pah.
If Anakin had been a character we could sympathize with, his fall to the dark side would have been so much more tragic, and believable. Instead Lucas followed the idea, "Well, everyone already knows he is Darth Vader". Lame excuse, a really good prequel will do its best to prentend it was made first, so people new to the series can watch them in order as if they were made that way. If we could fall in love with Anakin as we fell in love with Luke and Han and countless other movie heroes we've liked, then we would have no problem believeing Padme could fall in love with him. It was too forced. A liberal do gooder like Padme would have never fallen in love with a strange psycho killer like Anakin. Bad dialog and acting or not, it just didn't work.As for the love story specifically, why follow the cliche of the Romeo and Juliet young forbidden love theme? Why not the simple classic, boy meets girl, they get to know each other, and over a short period of time fall in love. The whole "I have always loved you, you torture me, you are in my very soul, I've loved you since I was nine years old and I must have you, I MUST HAVE YOU I MUST I MUST I MUST!!!! DAMN F-ING SAND!!!! YOU"RE SO SOFT! GIVE ME THE SOFTNESS!!! It wasn't believable, and if it had been believable, it would have been even more creepy than it already was. Seriously, did anybody watch those movies without thinking, Whoa, that Anakin guy probably needs to be on some sort of medication.