Debunking anti-PT articles/videos

Too... slowly? He dispatches those poor saps fast!!!

I think the fallacy of the Jedi's arrest/ambush of Palpatine is captured in this line of Obi's to Anakin:

"The fact of the matter is you are too close to the Chancellor."


It's not just the action scenes. Time clearly distorts in Star Wars sometimes. For instance, when Artoo is tailing the others on Tatooine, as they leave the streets of Mos Espa for Anakin's hovel when the sandstorm starts, the shot of Artoo following behind is suddenly sped up. Later on Corsucant, when Yoda delivers his grim pronouncement to Anakin about sensing much fear in him, there's a brief transition scene where the sun appears to go down over the city in a matter of seconds. In the Dagobah cave sequence in TESB, a blatantly dream-like sequence if ever there were one, Luke attacks the apparition of Vader in slow-motion (and in a step-frame effect). But fanboys always take things literally.


Right. A movie's seizing, rhythmic reality must be embraced. But through ignorance/greed/misunderstanding (or rank stupidity), mankind often does the winged life destroy.

They wanted a Emotionally unstable Psychopath which they finally got with Kylo Ren!

Here's a bit of a scene analysis/debunking crossover with this fan edit of the packing scene from Episode II.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=6kopTo6aNA0

The first thing he cuts out is Jar Jar's ramblings and simply goes with,

Padmé: I'm taking an extended leave of absence. It will be your responsibility to take my place in the Senate. Representative Binks, I don't wish to hold you up, I'm sure you have a great deal to do.

Jar Jar: Of course... M'Lady.

Now he may think he's cutting out needless babble, but without Jar Jar's clumsy spiel and going straight to "Of course... M'Lady." he's losing important stuff. This moment here illustrates to us how simplistic and innocent JarJar is, which helps set up the fact that he's not like most people, especially politicians. He has no pride or lofty ambitions for political prestige or power. Later when he proposes for the Chancellor's emergency powers, we know without a doubt he's not worried about committing career suicide or anything.

With just "Of course... M'Lady.", Jar Jar comes off as too normal. Or almost even too mysterious, which is actually quite counterproductive.

I also believe this shot illustrates Anakin looking back on to the last bit of youthful innocence in the galaxy and in his own life, as he is about to embark on his first solo assignment and jump into the waters of romantic pursuit. Not to mention the tragedies that are about to befall. Making it all the more important to have this silly moment with Binks as the youthful music plays. Additionally giving us a nice buffer moment of comic relief to digest the action and info scenes which just preceded it.

I'd also like to point out Jar Jar accepting his new responsibilities with mui, mui humility. Whereas Anakin accepts his new responsibilities with a bit more arrogance. So we see even Jar Jar is capable of adopting important personality traits Anakin has come to struggle with.

So basically he's butchering the character development, the pacing, the symbolic themes and the fun. Nice job...




Then as Padmé begins to pack and Anakin goes into his spiel, this editor first moves the line "I'm ready for the trials." to after Anakin says, "But he thinks I'm too unpredictable. He won't let me move on."

Here's the original dialogue starting from,

Padmé: Anakin, you've grown up.

Anakin: Master Obi-Wan manages not to see it. Don't get me wrong, Obi-Wan is a great mentor. As wise as Master Yoda and as powerful as Master Windu. I am truly thankful to be his apprentice.

In some ways, in a lot of ways, I'm really ahead of him. I'm ready for the trials. But he feels that I'm too unpredictable. He won't let me move on!

Padmé: That must be frustrating.

Anakin: It's worse! He's overly-critical. He never listens! He doesn't understand! It's not fair!!

Padmé: All mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults then we would like. It's the only way we grow.

Anakin: I know.

So he cut out, "That must be frustrating."
"It's worse! He's overly-critical. He never listens! He doesn't understand! It's not fair!!" Probably because it's "too annoying." And moved the "trials" part over a bit to reconnect the dialogue. But it's a mess and looses many things.

For starters, having Anakin vent to Padmé like this accomplishes a number of things. It seems like Anakin hasn't had anybody to vent to since joining the Jedi, so this shows how comfortable he is around Padmé and vice-versa, in that she readily listens to him with sympathy, without judgment. We also see he has a tendency to be a little emotionally volatile, and that his frustration can easily snowball into anger. And that he even tends to think the Jedi are conspiring against him. But most of all, through all of this, we see that Padmé has a knack for soothing him and getting him to center himself. Even being around her is soothing, as we see him realize he's gone too far after his outburst even before Padmé says anything. So, we know he knows what's appropriate and what's not, what's right and what's wrong. He just has a tendency to dip into the wrong when he gets himself worked up. Which is super vital

So this is all helping to establish his mindset, so that when he really vents later in the Lars' garage, it all doesn't come out of nowhere. I mean, this is all very central to why he falls. You can't cut any of this stuff.




Then he keeps,

Padmé: Anakin, don't try to grow up too fast.

Anakin: But I am grown up. You said it yourself.

But then fades to the next scene here.

Which boggles my mind for multiple reasons. Here it's crucial we see Anakin's intentions, which this guy kind of left intact, but we alsoneed to see Padmé's stance on it. Fading out right now without knowing what happens next, her reply, without any closure, is a horrible choice. It leaves everything way too wide open. We need to know right then that she's not going to go there.

I'm guessing he thought the rest was "too creepy". I don't know, I've always seen it more as Anakin being excited to finally get to do what he's always wanted to. He's like a kid in a candy store right now and he can't hide it. And his "Sorry, M'Lady" is important too, showing he respects her wishes. But we also see at the same time he's happy to have the chance to continue being around her, and hopefully to have the chance impress her. That he doesn't give up on what he wants, but may try something more subtle next time.

And once again, it can't be stressed enough that this all needs to be established early so that it doesn't come out of nowhere on Naboo. Cutting this stuff is what will make the romance and the movie bad. Sigh, haha.

The scenes accomplish what they need to accomplish. And though sometimes there may be parts that make people feel uncomfortable, it's all necessary. Film isn't supposed to always be comfortable. Characters aren't always flawless. The lines cut here are the lines that make Jar Jar and Anakin human... and Gungan, you know what I mean. The edited version is what feels wooden, bland and clunky.

One commenter for this video said this edit 'makes Anakin's downfall more impactful because now you're allowed to like him as a character.' But I don't know, I think it makes him just seem like a regular, well-adjusted guy with no major flaws to overcome or any propensity towards impulsiveness, which only makes his fall a perplexing one that... comes out of nowhere. Making the story and characters seem poorly written.

This editor did a good technical job and managed to keep the dialogue connected, but the very lines he cut are the most essential lifeblood lines of the story. The stuff he left is just kind of the bread while the rest is the juicy meats and veggies. I guess people just like to live on bread alone?

And yes, I get the feeling he'd like the whole thing to just be rewritten, with the "annoying" parts ironed out, but that begs the question, why bother making these fan edits? It's a very clumsy and petulant way of making a point.

I rarely contribute to this topic, as my general opinion is that the poisoned, agressive anti PT articles just should be ignored but here it comes the worst type of anti-article: I would say, a Sith type. It doesn't look like this but actually is. These are the most dangerous as they look benevolent while actually they isn't.

collider.com/star-wars-books-after-obi-wan-kenobi/

The first problem that cannot be detected by the general audience is ignorance (I deliberately don't say lack of information, but indeed ignorance). The author pretends that this is a list of 10 books of the Extended Universe a.k.a. Legends that the fans could have a look at, yet in the list there are two "cannon" books, the ones from Claudia Grey. Ok, the author is obvious fan of Claudia Gray but checking facts in Google is matter of 30 sec. (at least I spent such to be sure that I'm not mistaken) and to pretend to be a writer in web magazine whithout making the effort to check simple facts...I don't know, this is total lack of professionalism and in the same time there are grand pretentions for high cinema critics in the same text. Just pathetic.

Also, Claudia Gray is approved author by Disney and her presence in this list doesn't give her an advantage, if I can say so. If the author is so big fan of Grey, she should include the books as bonus to the the prequel era.
At least she included Kenobi novel in the list but the lack of Tattoine Ghost and Dark Lord: the Rise of Darth Vader is inexplicable: they are spot on the topic and especially the latter is very good book as such. Well, actually it is explicable, obviously she doesn't know Legends well, but still, there is something named research in the journalism.

Anyway, here comes my second objection: her critics to Hayden performance. According to her Hayden failed as Anakin in the prequels but shined in the miniseries of Kenobi. I'm not sure if it is necessary to explain how stupid is that, because Hayden played also Vader in the prequels (not only Anakin), not to mention the screentime he had to show up as both personalities. If this is not enough to outshine the five minutes he had for dramatic performance in the miniseries (I'm not criticising the miniseries as such here, I'm just pointing out at the mere facts) then his performance in PT should be regarded as abysmal. Even if she thinks so, then why Kenobi should exists as show at all? It is based on the prequel movies and relies highly on them (indeed the movies and not the Clone Wars animated series). Or she is telling that Hayden was the fail of the prequels?! Then from where originated this love of the fans BEFORE Kenobi?

So in a nutshell, is antiprequel article, very well masked as benevolent towards them. There are more details that show that, as her opinion for the novelization of ROTS (which is also one of my favorite SW books, but here the way she presents it matters) but my point is that these would be the antiprequel articles from now on. The overtly agressive one are already not "a la mode".

Well...let's just put it this way. The Prequels and GOT are two totally different beasts. It is like comparing chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream. Both are excellent in their own way. Sure, you might like one more than the other, but it really is a matter of preference in terms of style and approach.

I can understand why you wouldn't like GOT, but in terms of what GOT is trying to be, it is absolutely nailing it for the first 4 seasons. Afterward, not so much.

That being said, I have grown quite tired of stories about assholes warring for power. Sopranos started the trend and now most TV shows are like that. However, some characters in Game of Thrones (like Tyrion and Jon Snow) are genuinely trying to be good people in a shitty world, and do want to make their world a better place, so I can forgive the series for falling into that trend because it does not lean into it 100 percent. Even though the show declined in the final 4 seasons, it still ended the show with Westeros in a better place than when it started, so it isn't a nihilistic horror show like some would have us believe.

I felt that way about Netflix's Arcane. It is the kind of show where characters are punished for making good decisions, so you do just stop caring haha.