In Defense of Whiny Anakin
One popular sport in the Star Wars fandom is to make fun of the prequels. And one thing they frequently point out for Episode II in particular is that “Anakin whines a lot.” But these people are forgetting an important detail.
Anakin is a teenager.
We never really have an exact age for him. Attack of the Clones takes place (presumably) 10 years after The Phantom Menace, where Anakin is somewhere between 7 and 10 years old (and that’s just based on Jake Lloyd’s apparent age). Simple addition means that, in Episode II, Anakin would be 17-20.
Now think back to your own late-teenage years. You’re just out of high school, maybe in college, and you’re still figuring out how the world works. You’re still looking up to role models as you figure out where you want to go in life. You probably rebel against your parents. You might still be subject to high-school-style crushes, but you think you’re ready for some kind of commitment.
This is exactly where Anakin is in Episode 2.
When he rants about how “Obi-Wan is holding me back,” he’s just venting the frustrations he has about his father-figure. He’s full of himself, like any reasonable teenager would be.
And he still has trouble finding the right words to get his meaning across. “I don’t like sand” is Anakin trying to tell Padme that she’s beautiful, in his own corny way.
When he talks about how he slaughtered the sand people, the apparent cheesiness comes from his grief – he’s angry at the sand people for torturing his mom, and maybe even at himself for killing them all (which is against the Jedi way). And saying that “I will become the most powerful Jedi ever” is a mix of grief (the bargaining stage) and his own teenager arrogance.
And if you think about it, that extends into the other prequels: Young Anakin is a child! Of course he’s going to say “Yippee!” and all those other “annoying” one-liners.
When Revenge of the Sith rolls around, Anakin had just spent his final growing-up years fighting in the Clone Wars. He finally bonded with Obi-Wan, but he’s still still impressionable. He’s still young enough to do anything for love – including his turn to the Dark Side to save Padme.
Now, could Anakin’s “teenager” qualities have been handled better? Sure. Even I agree that some of the lines don’t work the way they are in the movie. But it’s not Hayden Crhistensen’s fault – There’s an anecdote I read somewhere that once, when Hayden Christensen delivered a line realistically, George Lucas told him to cheese it up. So it’s clear that George likes himself a little camp and melodrama.
In general, I think a lot of the fans’ hate toward the Prequels is unfounded. Could they have been handled better? Of course. But what George really needed was people to push back on a few creative decisions. I’m convinced that, if someone had said “Anakin needs less camp here,” Episode II might have been at least a little better.
The real lesson here is that, no matter who you are or how great your past work has been, it’s always good to get a second opinion from creative peers.
awsamweston reblogged this from awsamweston and added:The Force Awakens comes out this week, so obviously people will take the time to rewatch the prequels. Here’s your...
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