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Post by Gen on Sept 19, 2021 19:20:20 GMT
Driving the point home further, think of Jango's ship name.
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Post by Alexrd on Sept 19, 2021 20:13:40 GMT
Driving the point home further, think of Jango's ship name. Boba Fett's Starship™ fails to do that.  |
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Post by Seeker of the Whills on Sept 22, 2021 17:26:02 GMT
The droid factory is a miniature Coruscant and displays the changing nature of that world in Episode II. Coruscant has just gone from a serene city in the clouds to a murky, foggy underworld of assassination attempts and explosions. While also mirroring Mustafar, the droid factory signifies Coruscant's turn for the worse in Episode II and especially Episode III. Droids are assembled on conveyer belts and move in rows that twist, turn and converge, much like the traffic on Coruscant. Robotic assembly line production, going through the motions.   The two people who become trapped in this droid version of Coruscant, Anakin and Padmé, have their droid counterparts or avatars, C-3PO and R2-D2 with them. Despite the later associations, 3PO represents Anakin and R2 Padmé. 3PO goes through some of Anakin trials by fire to then being remade as an evil droid.     While Anakin and 3PO fumble and become entangled with the machines, Padmé and R2 avoid danger with similar grace. Padmé did walk away unscathed from two assassination attempts, and R2 was present during both.    They are safe, that is, until Padmé gets trapped. When R2 releases Padmé from her prison, she is "birthed" anew. Like R2 here, there is a droid assisting while Padmé is actually giving birth.   A nightmarish vision of a mechanical world, populated with artificial men. The assembly line production of the droids also mirrors the clones, who are to find Coruscant their new home.   |
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 2, 2021 22:42:16 GMT
Bedroom TriptychEver noticed there's an over-the-shoulder shot of Anakin gazing on Padme in bedroom/changing area settings on Coruscant in each PT movie? Also notice that Padme is implicitly linked with her costumes and her myriad of guises. In TPM and AOTC, she has retainers who are sorting her clothes out. In ROTS, she is doing it herself.   
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Post by Seeker of the Whills on Oct 7, 2021 19:21:02 GMT
Bedroom TriptychEver noticed there's an over-the-shoulder shot of Anakin gazing on Padme in bedroom/changing area settings on Coruscant in each PT movie? Also notice that Padme is implicitly linked with her costumes and her myriad of guises. In TPM and AOTC, she has retainers who are sorting her clothes out. In ROTS, she is doing it herself. I'm fascinated by all that red in the TPM shot. RotS is thought of as the "Sith film", but TPM might secretly be the most "Sith" film of the saga. Padmé in a white death mask and red from the neck down. Very evocative of Mustafar. |
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 7, 2021 19:36:23 GMT
Bedroom TriptychEver noticed there's an over-the-shoulder shot of Anakin gazing on Padme in bedroom/changing area settings on Coruscant in each PT movie? Also notice that Padme is implicitly linked with her costumes and her myriad of guises. In TPM and AOTC, she has retainers who are sorting her clothes out. In ROTS, she is doing it herself. I'm fascinated by all that red in the TPM shot. RotS is thought of as the "Sith film", but TPM might secretly be the most "Sith" film of the saga. Padmé in a white death mask and red from the neck down. Very evocative of Mustafar. Yep. She's the other face-painted protagonist along with sideshow Darth Maul. And her "Queen" identity, like a Sith name, is an assumed title. Even the two cylindrical hair extensions she wears evoke Maul's double-bladed lightsaber. I also think the TPM and AOTC frames are more colourful. In the ROTS shot, notice that the lights are turned off and the whole image feels cold and bleak and drained of vivacity, with a harsh white light coming in through the window. The galaxy has become a more constrained, oppressive, and accusatory place. |
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Post by Ingram on Oct 7, 2021 20:21:21 GMT
The Venetian blinds with magic-hour light streaming through in tandem with the overall art deco connotations is boderline 1940s Southern California. That could almost be a suite at the Roosevelt Hotel. Padme's room has a classic 'grandma's chair'. Like, who sits in that chair? ...deskless, and a mile a way from the bed. It's probably what Padme uses when trying on her 2k collection of shoes.
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 9, 2021 21:28:23 GMT
The Venetian blinds with magic-hour light streaming through in tandem with the overall art deco connotations is boderline 1940s Southern California. That could almost be a suite at the Roosevelt Hotel. Huh. It does have a very picturesque and slightly noir-ish feel -- anticipating this moment from AOTC? What I find interesting is how Anakin kinda surprises Padme in both instances, and in a way, catches her in a state of "undress":   Take a seat, Young Skywalker:     |
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Post by Somny on Oct 11, 2021 14:03:41 GMT
Padme's room has a classic 'grandma's chair'. Like, who sits in that chair? ...deskless, and a mile a way from the bed. It's probably what Padme uses when trying on her 2k collection of shoes.
I love that chair. Its presence may have a more filmmaking-practical reason for being as it's an object Artoo scans during the night of Padme's assassination attempt in AOTC. I guess he has to look and see something in that room.  The chair also lends a wonderful vertical quality to this shot of other very tall and upright elements.  |
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 18, 2021 11:12:06 GMT
I just used this image in another thread. Some more interesting symbolism from the same scene/location in AOTC:  She says as the robed Jar Jar slinks out of frame... All three of these characters -- the Holy Trinity of the PT? -- will be in hiding (so to speak) by the end of the PT. |
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Post by Seeker of the Whills on Oct 25, 2021 19:07:49 GMT
I just used this image in another thread. Some more interesting symbolism from the same scene/location in AOTC: She says as the robed Jar Jar slinks out of frame... All three of these characters -- the Holy Trinity of the PT? -- will be in hiding (so to speak) by the end of the PT. This reminded me that Padmé has to hide and disguise herself in each prequel film. First on Tatooine as a handmaiden.  Then on Naboo as a refugee.  And lastly on Coruscant she has to hide and disguise the fact that she's pregnant.  --- There's also this dialogue link with Padmé: When she has first met Anakin: "Are you sure about this? Trusting our fate to a boy we hardly know?"  After she has trusted her fate to Anakin: "I don't know you anymore."  |
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 26, 2021 0:11:38 GMT
I just used this image in another thread. Some more interesting symbolism from the same scene/location in AOTC: She says as the robed Jar Jar slinks out of frame... All three of these characters -- the Holy Trinity of the PT? -- will be in hiding (so to speak) by the end of the PT. This reminded me that Padmé has to hide and disguise herself in each prequel film. First on Tatooine as a handmaiden. Then on Naboo as a refugee. And lastly on Coruscant she has to hide and disguise the fact that she's pregnant. Fascinating. There's a lot of things being hidden or concealed in Star Wars. In that top shot, for instance, only Jar Jar is really "himself" -- though, one assumes, even Jar Jar knows enough to keep relatively shtum about their exact purpose for being on Tatooine (well, until Anakin busts Qui-Gon's disguise at the dinner table). Padme has so many guises, it's hard to tell who is the "real" her. Maybe even she doesn't know. Which brings me onto something... Nice. I see that resonance and raise you the following -- something I just chanced across this evening: This is Lucas talking about "American Graffiti" -- the "bridge", of sorts, between THX and Star Wars: "For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her. We don't know why. She has lost the will to live."  |
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Post by jppiper on Oct 26, 2021 1:32:17 GMT
CryogenicAren't Anakin Obi-Wan and Padme The Holy Trinity of the PT?
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Post by Seeker of the Whills on Oct 26, 2021 10:35:12 GMT
Fascinating. There's a lot of things being hidden or concealed in Star Wars. In that top shot, for instance, only Jar Jar is really "himself" -- though, one assumes, even Jar Jar knows enough to keep relatively shtum about their exact purpose for being on Tatooine (well, until Anakin busts Qui-Gon's disguise at the dinner table).
Padme has so many guises, it's hard to tell who is the "real" her. Maybe even she doesn't know. Which brings me onto something...Nice. I see that resonance and raise you the following -- something I just chanced across this evening:
This is Lucas talking about "American Graffiti" -- the "bridge", of sorts, between THX and Star Wars:"For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her. We don't know why. She has lost the will to live."
What I find most interesting about Star Wars is the idea of transformation. All the major characters go through massive changes, and often disguise their true forms.
Anakin goes from racing slave boy to Jedi hero to Sith cyborg.
Padmé goes from queen to senator to mother
But these changes are perhaps just disguises of their true selves. Padmé says of Anakin that "You'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine." Even though she meant it jokingly, I think there's some truth to that. Anakin continues to be a "slave" to the Jedi and later the Sith. Inside, he may still be just an angry little boy.
Padmé too is young at heart. You get the feeling that she missed out on a normal adolescence being a queen at such a young age. The way she reminisces about her school days and being on the Legislative Youth Program make it sound like she's yearning for those days. So both characters are somewhat broken and stuck in the past. I love how the PT introduces these conundrums and intricacies. These characters are very complex when you scratch beneath the surface. |
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Post by smittysgelato on Oct 26, 2021 16:35:32 GMT
And thus, the Japor Snippet to re-member him by. However, the little boy on Tatooine isn't merely angry, he is also compassionate. That's why Padme still sees good in him when no one else does. He's always that little boy on Tatooine, in her eyes.
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 26, 2021 23:36:06 GMT
Cryogenic Aren't Anakin Obi-Wan and Padme The Holy Trinity of the PT? A good question. It depends on the context. Or as a wise man once said: Your focus determines your reality. I say it's Jar Jar, Anakin, and Padme, in a way, because they are the "children" of the PT. Each is also manipulated by Palpatine in a prequel film into giving him greater power: Amidala in TPM, Jar Jar in AOTC, and Anakin in ROTS. The demiurge gaining control of the juvenile energy of the universe by deceiving a queen, an outcast, and a slave boy, respectively. Then again, if you look at TPM in isolation, you might argue it's really Qui-Gon, Amidala, and Jar Jar. Here we have a strange mixing of forces: the warm mystic, the detached queen, and a naive fool who may not be quite as naive as he seems (somehow he manages to get into the good graces of the leaders of two estranged societies, in addition to becoming the companion of a Jedi Master and getting to see the galactic capital). Going by AOTC and ROTS, yeah, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Amidala are the best fit, echoing Han, Luke, and Leia in the OT. Here is where the classic "two men, one woman" paradigm of the Saga emerges (even the Sequel Trilogy didn't subvert this). The Saga is kind of about male jealousy and male insecurity? The film that really mucks up the structure of the PT -- in a good way -- is TPM. Without that film (and one can hardly do without it), things are much flatter and normal, and the prequels obey a more simplistic schema. This is probably why that film was attacked so viciously in the first place. Fans turned into Darth Maul, thinking they were smart, like Obi-Wan, derogating Lucas (Qui-Gon) for his odd ways and faith in his own offbeat storytelling abilities (Jar Jar). They didn't realise Lucas was beginning the story on the outskirts and exploring a tension between the core and its outer regions, with multiple possible meanings ("Better dead here than dead in da core"). |
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 27, 2021 0:05:18 GMT
Very interesting quotes. Anakin was a "cruiser" and the perfect "angel" happened to appear before him. Padmé is indeed a dream for Anakin, literally and figuratively. And by the end at least, Anakin was more in love with the fantasy of Padmé than the real person. So just as Padmé never really knew Anakin, Anakin might have never known Padmé. It's an interestingly flawed relationship. What I find most interesting about Star Wars is the idea of transformation. All the major characters go through massive changes, and often disguise their true forms. Anakin goes from racing slave boy to Jedi hero to Sith cyborg. Padmé goes from queen to senator to mother But these changes are perhaps just disguises of their true selves. Padmé says of Anakin that "You'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine." Even though she meant it jokingly, I think there's some truth to that. Anakin continues to be a "slave" to the Jedi and later the Sith. Inside, he may still be just an angry little boy. Those are quite the pair of transitions. In a way, I think the prequels are about things undergoing phase-transition. George Lucas, like any good storyteller, shows us it's the journey/process that matters (i.e., the PT), not merely the end destination (i.e., the OT). As Qui-Gon says at the start of the Prequel Trilogy: "Be mindful of the Living Force." It's certainly ambitious to pack so much into a mere three movies. Of course, there is a good metaphor in Episode I: Podracing. Like Threepio says: "He has to complete two more circuits? Oh, dear." Although the podrace is more of a metaphor for his entire Saga journey: "It's Skywalker!" The Rise Of. Yep. And don't you like how she refers to a three-word "program?" A hidden-in-plain-sight triad: The Phantom Menace. Legislative Youth Program. Military Creation Act. It's like all the characters are stuck on three-part conveyor belts. Or they're all in a three-lap podrace against their will. Even that is three words: Boonta Eve Classic. Triads and trinities everywhere! And thus, the Japor Snippet to re-member him by. However, the little boy on Tatooine isn't merely angry, he is also compassionate. That's why Padme still sees good in him when no one else does. He's always that little boy on Tatooine, in her eyes. Basically, yeah. Pade's naivete is her undoing. It may also -- paradoxically -- be her salvation. The drop of compassion that quenches Anakin's soul and restores the world to balance. I've seen it said many years ago that the japor snippet bares something in common with a symbol found in several Eastern spiritual traditions called the Endless Knot: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_knotIn Buddhism, there are many interpretations (from the above link): A little more about it on the following page: symbolsage.com/endless-knot-meaning/Anakin calls Padme an "angel" in TPM (and gives her the snippet as a token of friendship), their love theme in AOTC is called "Across The Stars", and in ROTS, their tragic fates are intercut, with Padme dying in the light as Vader is born. Seems Lucas really wanted to push the idea that they are soulmates or avatars of the masculine and the feminine, and that their bond is mystical and cyclical (in defiance of the temporal and corporeal aims of the Sith) with no beginning and no end. WARNING: Disney link! Complement and contrast this with TROS, where Rey and Kylo are bonded through a Force Dyad, and instead of Kylo giving Rey a snippet to wear around her neck, he steals one from her. A lot of imagery and plot detail in the film again invokes cyclicality. Quite the foundation laid by the prequels. |
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Post by smittysgelato on Oct 27, 2021 0:12:21 GMT
Damnit, Cryo. You're tempting me to get started on that Super Padme Post/Essay/Maybe Book I have in mind. But I don't start because I feel like nothing I could write could be worthy of her.
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Post by Cryogenic on Oct 27, 2021 0:16:10 GMT
Damnit, Cryo. You're tempting me to get started on that Super Padme Post/Essay/Maybe Book I have in mind. But I don't start because I feel like nothing I could write could be worthy of her. Don't we all have that feeling? Things beginning she/her are very hard to talk about. Padme, in many ways, is the most sublime and trickiest of all the characters in Star Wars. She is almost the Force personified. Or... dare I say it? The Force Is Female. |
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Post by smittysgelato on Oct 27, 2021 0:20:51 GMT
Damnit, Cryo. You're tempting me to get started on that Super Padme Post/Essay/Maybe Book I have in mind. But I don't start because I feel like nothing I could write could be worthy of her. Don't we all have that feeling? Things beginning she/her are very hard to talk about. Padme, in many ways, is the most sublime and trickiest of all the characters in Star Wars. She is almost the Force personified. Or... dare I say it? The Force Is Female. That is why I associated Padme with the anima mundi in my Pinocchio post. Of course, Anakin is the other half of the Force personified. I'm pretty sure the Force is a hermaphrodite. |
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