Is Padme and Anakin's relationship believable?

"If her feelings are meant to be concealed to the audience, then how are we supposed to relate to the character and empathise. Her attitude towards Anakin is consistent with that of a girl who is NOT interested in a guy and wants to get rid of him, or in some cases, a girl who is playing hard-to-get."

Leia had the same attitude towards Han Solo during their time together in ESB and yet, everyone automatically believed their love story so it's easy to believe that Anakin and Padme are in love.

 

But the way Leia was directed, we could see that she was full of crap, we knew that she has feelings for Han. With Padme, we get blindsided.

 

I agree about Leia, but remember what Jar Jar said about Padme: "Shesa happier than meesa seen her in a longo time." I think she just hides her feelings towards Anakin cuz she doesn`t want to ruin Anakin`s future.

 

considering they eventually make jedi babies together...

I dont think 'blindsided' is really accurate

 

I didn't get blindsided:

- Please don't look at me like that.
- Why not?
- It makes me feel uncomfortable!

The moment I'd heard those lines and saw Anakin's look, I knew that Padmé had feelings for him and that Anakin also knew that. I don't understand how anyone can miss this.



Star Wars is six, two and one
/LM

 

Lars_Muul - In response to your previous post, the reason that people can miss the subtext of the Anakin-Padme relationship is because they have difficulty "reading between the lines". Remember, not everything needs to be explicitly stated in an obvious manner for it to be a prevelant emotional thread throughout the film.

 

I agree with you. That's why, when it's so obviously stated that Padmé does have feelings for Anakin, I find it hard to understand how anyone can miss it.



Star Wars is a saga
Watch and believe
/LM

 

Seriously how could miss her feelings. Look at Portman's eyes . She does a great job of showing her feelings through them, especially at the lars home. Right than and there . You knew she was in love with him(if you didn't already)

 

Its not always that we are missing it guys, it is that we dont BUY it. Even when she is trying to be emotional (truly, deeply), she is not emoting. Dont give me this crap that those of us who hate this relationship cant read between the lines.

I keep hearing that GL intentionally made it so that the relationship is uncomfortable and awkward. So it amazes me when people think its weird that I think the relationship is uncomfortable and awkward. Just because he did it on purpose doesnt mean that it is more enjoyable and easier to watch.

 

Go watch Titanic and tell me what romance is more belivable. Rose is dumping her fiance , falling in love with jack , and jack does for her in a matter of less than a week, but since that won oscars , that makes it more real than aotc, give me a break.

 

Actually Titanic IS more believable cuz she wasn't in love with her fiancee in the first place and found a new and exciting person in her life that showed her how to feel love again...and you know what, we actually don't have to gaze into her eyes and open up our copy of the "eve movement symbols dictionary" to understand that she was falling in love because it was OBVIOUS, thus making it more believable.

I hate talking about Titanic, but u forced me man.

 

So you think its possible to be engaged, to dump the finance, and fall in love with a total stranger in a matter of three days? and the stranger than dies for you? Listen thasts more of a fantasy that star wars. Anakin/ Padme no matter how som will diminish it at the very least have history going for them when they meet again.

 

I'm probably in the minority to here inkswamp but I throughly enjoyed the Anakin and Padme love story, its' my favorite part of Attack of the Clones. Now it is believable? Well first of all real life and movies differentiate quiet a bit. Let me give you an example, in all the action movies when people start shooting bullets people always fall backward and blood squirts everywhere. In real life that doesn't happen. When someone is shot they slump over and usually don't bleed rivers like in movies. Now, on to Anakin and Padme. Anakin and Padme met when she was fourteen and he was nine. I don't think there was any romantic love then, what we saw in this movie was a friendship developing and Padme acting as a motherly figure toward a little boy who's far from his mother. They start caring about each other and loving each other (not in the romantic way but the friend sort of way) here. Now ten years later, Anakin still remembers Padme's kindness and warmth. He remembers how she comforted him when he was frightened and uncertain of his future. He remembers her as being there for him in a desperate time. As he matures, so do his feelings. These feelings turn into love. He may not see her directly, but he can still in ways view her day-to-day through the Jedi Counsel (you don't think they keep tabs on some of these things? After the fiasco with the Trade Federation I think they would wise up a bit.) Padme has not forgotten Anakin, she just hasn't had an oppurtinity to see Annie in a long time. She's been to busy being a Senator. The boy she kissed was just an innocent childhood flirtation. As to not remebering someone older than you, I can personally testify it is indeed possible. In fouth grade I liked a guy who was older than me by two grades. In high schoo I started dating him and we dated on and off for two years. YOu all also seem to forget Anakin is no ordinary 9 year old in TPM. He's advanced far beyond his age, has mental capacities and powers not even some skilled Jedi posses. So is their story believable? I say yes. From the extreme situation Padme and Anakin are faced with their love blossums fromt he underlying feelings already dormant in both of them. Padme only finally acknowledges this when it looks as if death is immenint. I thought Padme and Anakin's love story was well-developed, sincere and heart warming. I still love watching it! I am proud to be one of the few to call Attack of the Clones my favortie movie!

 

Even when she is trying to be emotional (truly, deeply), she is not emoting.

She is to me. The problem you have with this must simply be that you have a hard time connecting with the emotions of Padmé. To me, they're readily apparent.
I don't believe that it was meant to be awkward or uncomfortable to watch, I just believe that some people think that it is because for some reason, they don't believe what they see. I don't know what that reason is, though. May have to do with different experiences with love. Or different experiences with fiction.
Or, perhaps some of them just don't like the personality of Anakin or Padmé and can't see why the other one would fall in love with him/her. In that case, one must realise that you can't discuss taste. One man's whore is another man's princess.



Star Wars is six, two and one
/LM

 

lots of the dialoge is what truly destorys the relaity of the relationship. like i said when there not talking you can really see it. the small stuff like the smiles and the look in there eyes is what makes you belive it.

 

I agree on the small stuffs, but not on the dialogue. Some people in this thred complained earlier that there was already to few scenes in which A/P are talking, and that brought questions like *how come they married and they spend just a few days together?*
The dialogue is necessary.

 

Laars, you are the one who disagrees with me but I respect you the most on this thread, so I will talk to you.

I watched AOTC last night, and I think you have made a dent. I completely disagree with you on whether the romace was portrayed well, or on the right pace, but I can see where a lot of it is coming from, trying to look at it with someone else's eyes.

However, I got to the fireplace scene, and I couldnt help but cringe. Its too fast with too little. Some of the dialogue is ok, but some of the lines were terrible ( I dont have a problem with the "wishing" line, or the "I cant breathe" line, but the rest is awfu). There simply isnt enought to get to this point. I know that the deleted scenes would help, but there just doesnt seem enought from Padme to get here.

I was listening the cadence of the speech and what not, and I have come to the conclusion that Natalie Portman was not right for this part. I love her in other movies, but those other movies she is conversational and quirky and everyday, yet smart. I really think that someone a little more regal could have maybe pulled it off a little better.

 

Yes, well, I don't necessarily think myself that Padme's the kind of person who would actually, for example, wear those elaborate and constrictive dresses when she doesn't have to... even to try to impress Anakin (because I'm sure she could find something less constrictive that looks just as pretty). She seems more down to earth and practical than that, to me. And some have commented on Natalie's voice being a bit high to have enough presence, which I can somewhat see the merit of. But even being a queen and a senator, I see nothing that precludes or should proclude her from being a bit quirky. Padme's a very human woman who happens to be into politics and is quite good at it, is all, and I find it beleivable that, her gift for politics separating her from most of those her age, she would be a little quirky as you put it.

 

SJ, you missed my point entirely.

 

Well, I wasn't trying to comment on your entire post, just parts of it... in what way do you think I was misinterpriting you?

 

I respect you the most on this thread

After all I've done in the past...
Thanks, Ididit!

I'm glad I could make you see things a little differently.
I know what you mean. I've thought about this myself: Was Natalie Portman the wrong person to play Padmé? Compared to the others, who fall into the style of Star Wars and tend to overact accordingly, she seems very reserved. It's like she doesn't belong there. She gives a great performance, but it's a bit underacted and that's not very Star Wars.
However, she could be viewed as kind of a counterweight to Anakin, who's walking around throwing emotions in all directions. In the first kissing scene, there's a very funny moment when she slips away and says "I shouldn't have done that." She doesn't make anything special out of it, she just does it in her own, reserved way. It throws the overacting Anakin off balance. That's a kind of comedy that you can't find anywhere else in Star Wars and I like it.
Also, this reservedness of her's makes it feel a bit like she is outside these events. An observer of sorts. I don't know if that's intentional, but it feels like it to me. A nice touch that makes me feel sorry for her in a way.

Or, Natalie is just the wrong lady for the job



Six episodes
Two trilogies
One Saga
/LM

 

In the first kissing scene, there's a very funny moment when she slips away and says "I shouldn't have done that." She doesn't make anything special out of it, she just does it in her own, reserved way.

Yeah that is one of the scenes I watched the other night. It just seems that she is regurgitating lines in that scene. Its what you would expect to hear from a character in that scene, but almost like its a skit of that scene.

Like Ive said before, she seems like a young woman who thinks this guy is hot, but it really ends there. She is lowering her guard a little, but it still doesnt translate as fast as it needs to with the line "truly, deeply." I really feel that the romance would be light years better than it is without that line.

 

SJ what I meant was that I connect NATALIE PORTMAN with some of the characteristics that I think were weak and out of place. You seem to think that I was commmenting on Padme.

The difference is that I think that another actress with a little more ostentatious presence could have pulled the dialogue off a lot better. GL made the mistake of going for someone who could portray emotional dialogue (which I think NP does VERY well) decently instead of someone who can act larger than life.

Think Natalie Portman v. Catherine Zeta Jones (not that I think that CZJ should have played Padme, but she is an example of someone who can project a character beyond the realistic version of that person. Another example is Amanda whatever her name is from Identity. I am not making a comment about acting skills, I am making a comment about the type of actress that is needed for an epic saga, instead of an actress great at playing a real person).

I hear a lot of people say that HC did a great job of portraying Anakin, which I disagree with, but it compounded the problem by pairing him with an actress like Natalie Portman.

 

It seems to me that Padmé, like Anakin, is a bit handicapped emotionally. Not that they don't have emotions, because they do have lots of them, but when it gets down to it, Anakin has no experience with love whatsoever(the only one he's ever been in love with was Padmé and he's been thinking about her for ten years), while Padmé has been suppressing her emotions for years and years. And years
Portman portrays this in a realistic way. She doesn't let Padmé be too emotional, because Padmé is somewhat stiff. I'm sure by the time of ROTS, though, when they've been married for a couple of years, she'll be more openly emotional. Maybe I'm wrong, we'll see.
Either way, it seems like Portman is playing this as a serious drama. Not really appropriate for the genre, but interesting.



"RE: the sith" rules
/LM

 

Okay, IDIAFTW, I get what you're saying there.

...But what I was essentially trying to say, was that I thought showing some human frailty and quirkiness, and not being the woman on a pedestal Anakin idealizes her to be, was not out of character for Padme. And this way, it's much easier to identify with her-- and Anakin-- than if they had been played in a more stylized way. The dialogue spouting from their lips might have sounded more natural, but the characters wouldn't have, and to their detriment, I think.