Samtemdo8 said:
Funny people likes the Clone Wars cartoon even though its still heavily tied with the Prequel Movies?
The Anakin we see here is still the same "I don't like sand" Anakin from Attack of the Clones.
One of the root causes of the PT's failure to captivate audiences, was that it introduced a large number of characters all at once, not all of whom having a real purpose in the story, and jumped from plot point to plot point without really giving breathing room for character development. Bad dialogue was just the tip of the iceberg; the OT had some pretty iffy dialogue but leaned heavily on storytelling through environment and character action, where the PT was reliant to a fault on exposition.
Compare Qui-Gon in TPM to Obi-Wan in ANH. Qui-Gon had more screen time and dialogue than Obi-Wan, but despite this really didn't have a character arc or real role. He was just there, said some stuff, and died to Maul. The film would have been literally no different if they wrote him out completely.
Without Obi-Wan, there is no ANH.
Period.
Hell, compare Vader in ANH to Maul in TPM. The comparison is even
more glaring. In ANH we see Vader the strategist, and Vader the statesman; he's a complete character with a definitive role in the film whose presence moves the plot productively forward. Maul's character is "Palpatine's dragon" and his only role in the film is to give us a couple cool lightsaber fights, and to kill the character so extraneous to the film's plot he could have been written out completely. And, like Qui-Gon, he could be written out completely at zero impact to the film whatsoever.
Allow me the indulgence of belaboring the point with an alternative scenario. Obi-Wan is a young, idealistic, but stubborn, Jedi Knight eager to prove himself capable of taking on an apprentice, on a mission to resolve a trade dispute on Naboo. He goes to the Trade Federation ship, and due to inexperience fails to spot an obvious trap; it's sprung, and he has to escape to Naboo by stowing away on a Trade Federation transport. Upon landing he meets Jar-Jar, takes an instant disliking to him, but since Obi-Wan is stranded on an unfamiliar world blockaded by a droid army needs Jar-Jar's dubious help.
Jar-Jar helps him get to Theed, and the two of them escape with Padme aboard her yacht. They're forced to land on Tatooine, and Obi-Wan has to rely on his wits and guile to get Padme's yacht repaired. In the course of this he meets a slave kid named Anakin who has a natural talent and renown for piloting, senses the kid's Force sensitive, and the will of the Force the two should meet. So, he liberates the kid and decides to take him to the Jedi temple on Coruscant. But, Watto suspects Obi-Wan swindled him (he did), and sends bounty hunters after him, giving us a second-act action sequence.
Obi-Wan takes Anakin to the Jedi temple and asks the Council for permission to take him on as Padawan. The Council refuses; Mace senses something dark about Anakin, and Yoda believes his former apprentice not yet mature enough. This pisses Obi-Wan off, because he's taken a liking to Anakin, and Obi-Wan believes himself capable of guiding Anakin. Meanwhile, Padme pleads her case before the Senate, and Palpatine manipulates his way into the Chancellory.
Obi-Wan, Jar-Jar, and Padme meet and decide "screw this, we're doing what's right", and Obi-Wan takes Anakin anyways because he wants to prove the Council wrong about them both. They return to Naboo, and rally its people to rise up together against the droid army. Obi-Wan fights alongside Padme and her royal guard, and together they win the day by capturing Nute Gunray; Anakin sneaks away and gets in a fighter, not on accident but because the Force guides him, and ends the "already won, but not yet over" battle by destroying the control ship.
Amidst the celebration, Obi-Wan and Anakin talk about the battle. Anakin understands he killed a capital ship full of living beings in a battle that really wasn't life-or-death, but he doesn't have a problem with it because they were "bad guys". Obi-Wan overlooks the troubling subtext of the conversation, but Palpatine who has been spying on them
doesn't, and walks away having identified a potential apprentice under the dubious guidance of an inexperienced and headstrong Jedi. Yoda travels to Naboo, tells Obi-Wan the good he did helping unite the people of Naboo to overthrow the Trade Federation outweighs his violation of orders, and that standing up for what's right despite the potential cost to one's self is the highest ideal of the Jedi order. Therefore, the Council has reversed its decision to deny Obi-Wan the privilege of training Anakin, but they'll be watching as Obi-Wan still has much to prove.
No Qui-Gon, no Maul, but it's literally the same movie. In fact, by removing Qui-Gon and Maul, the film frees itself of a
ton of exposition, character presence, and run time to emphasize the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin, and establish the character flaws in Obi-Wan which lead to his later denial of Anakin's growing darkness.
Where the CG series got it right, was it incorporated that storytelling through environment and action, and kept exposition to a minimum. It gave breathing room for characters to actually grow and evolve, and for audiences to absorb the content. We weren't just told that Ahsoka was growing up and becoming a Jedi beyond her years in strength, character, and wisdom beyond her years; we
saw it happen.
