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The importance of the "melting pot" sequence

Discussion in 'Archive: Attack of the Clones' started by Gry Sarth, Jul 15, 2002.

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  1. Gry Sarth

    Gry Sarth Ex 2x Banhammer Wielding Besalisk Mod star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 1999
    Sorry if this has been discussed before, I'm brazilian and Ep2 only opened here this month. :-(

    Up to my 4th viewing of Ep2 I always thought that the scene with Padmé trapped in that melting pot about to be, well, melted, and R2 rescuing her at the last second was a bit forced and unnecessary. Also I thought her sudden change of mind right before the arena, when she says she loves Anakin no matter the consequences was a bit out of the blue.

    But in my 4th viewing I finally connected these two scenes and it all fit together perfectly. All you have to consider is what must have gone through her mind while she was inside that iron pot, facing certain death. Her situation was pretty hopeless, she couldn't escape, Anakin was nowhere near. So at a certain point she accepted the fact the she would die there and then (which goes with her later saying "I'm not afraid of dying"), note that when the melted metal is about to be poured on her, she doesn't try to escape it. So, after accepting death, there's only one regret going through her mind, that she didn't let herself be with the man she loved because it might destroy their lives, and now her life was going to be destroyed anyway.
    But she manages to escape that, only to be faced with another "certain death" situation in the arena (altough not a situation as hopeless as the last one). Anyway, she faces death again, but now she has the chance to at least let her feelings free before she dies, and she takes it.

    What do you guys thing?
     
  2. Import_Jedi

    Import_Jedi Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 20, 2001
    Makes sense. Great post. :)
     
  3. alottoni

    alottoni Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 9, 2002
    Saudações brazucas, Gry!

    I agree, but don´t think even George thought about that. :)
     
  4. ObiWanKenobi-Jedi

    ObiWanKenobi-Jedi Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 2001
    Yea it makes total sense! :D
     
  5. PadmeLeiaJaina

    PadmeLeiaJaina Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    That is a fabulous insight Gry Sarth! Even the ladies who tend to gush over the love story failed to note that connection.

    You might find this thread interesting if you would like to read some deep analysis in a lot of the scenes in AOTC: Five Great Scenes Directed by George Lucas We would appreciate your fresh perspective on things.
     
  6. T_C_1_4

    T_C_1_4 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jul 14, 2002
    Yo te quero el de la se ti biem!!
     
  7. Tho Yor

    Tho Yor Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 27, 2001
    When I first saw the thread title I thought you were going to say that the scene foreshadows Anakin's fall into a melting pit in Ep3 (if that actually happens).

    But what you've presented here is much better. I totally agree with you.
     
  8. IamZam

    IamZam Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Wow!! I never even thought of that, but you are so right. I'm impressed. That makes alot of sense.

    It would also explain better why she was so willing to marry him so quickly.
     
  9. MachinatingMachiavel

    MachinatingMachiavel Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 1, 2002
    oh! nice connection. I like that!

    also, you just made me think of the symbolism of the melting-pot near death scene #1. The pot she's in, being subjected to high temperatures, is like a crucible. 'Crucibal' has two meanings it can be a container which holds a metal and is passed through heat which causes the metal to change state. Or, it is an obstacle that changes you.

    Well literally she's in a sort of crucible because of the melting metal and all that. And also symbolically she's going through her own crucible which, by it's second definition, is any sort of hardship that you never pass through unchanged.

    So by passing through her crucible (both literally and figuritively), she's a changed woman and knows her commitment to Anakin. And this is also the point where she accepts him for his characer flaws - ie, slaughtering those tuskens.

    good analysis, Gry Sarth! By the way, congrats on the cup.
     
  10. Jake_Barnes

    Jake_Barnes Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2002
    I have a somewhat oddball theory that goes hand-in-hand with this:

    I wondered why, after Padme (infamously) falls out of the ship, GL made that part of Geonosis sandy and dune-filled. After all, we've seen lots of sand before, and Geonosis seems more rocky than desert. Well, behold!

    We know that Anakin doesn't much care for sand. Symbolically and literally, it is invasive and irritating. We recall that during his mother's funeral, as he's promising never to fail again, he reaches down and clutches the sand. His personal dislike for the stuff adds insult to injury, because not only does he want to get away from the stuff (and everything associated with it -- slavery, quashed dreams, anger, destruction, unimaginable loss) but he leaves his mother buried in it.

    Cut forward to the Dooku chase. Padme and Anakin have declared their love, and Anakin is starting to covet the things he cares about most. They've survived the droid foundry and the arena and are on the verge of great success. Suddenly, Padme falls -- onto sand, no less -- and the chase must continue. Like the bittersweet success of the pod race (--victory and freedom while being taken from the person he cares about most), he is told that they cannot go back for her. And this, a short while after promising his mother that he would not fail, he again abandons a loved one in the sandy wastes...

     
  11. DarthNut

    DarthNut Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 1, 1999
    Good Points!

    :) DarthNut,
    the nuttiest guy around.
     
  12. Obi-Wan2001

    Obi-Wan2001 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 6, 2001
    Very interesting thoughts, guys. :)
     
  13. Pooja

    Pooja Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    *peeps around the corner*

    Hmm...no bashers...

    *peeps again*

    YIKES! Here they come!

    Gushers to station 12, bridge 7. Prepare for immediate impact.
     
  14. RogueTrader

    RogueTrader Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2002
    Imperial bashers on the north ridge!
     
  15. Pooja

    Pooja Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 25, 2002
    I like your sig, RT.
    :)
     
  16. alottoni

    alottoni Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 9, 2002
    Thanks for mentioning the cup, MachinatingMachiavel :D
     
  17. MachinatingMachiavel

    MachinatingMachiavel Jedi Youngling star 2

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    Jun 1, 2002
    That's good stuff, Jake!

    no prob, alottoni.

    BRrrrRRRRaaaAAAhHHHHHSssssIIIL
     
  18. Gry Sarth

    Gry Sarth Ex 2x Banhammer Wielding Besalisk Mod star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 1999
    Wow, this thread is going places!

    Thanks on all the insights guys, I'm glad you liked my point and that it wasn't redundant.

    Also thanks about the world cup, that was fun! hehe


    Now, about Padmé's sudden wedding to Anakin, I can't say my theory explains it very much, it's still pretty strange. I can only really understand it as "love makes us do some pretty strange and stupid things"...
     
  19. SHAD0W-JEDI

    SHAD0W-JEDI Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    May 20, 2002

    Very good insight! If one assumes Padme already has deep feelings for Anakin at that point (and as some may know from reading my posts on other threads, my problem is with how GL has chosen to "convince" us of this!), then it makes great sense that Padme's experience in the melting pot would likely lead her to rethink her outlook on many things... among them, perhaps, her devotion to duty over desire.

    I think a lot of us, as viewers, more or less "knowing" that certain characters either will not die or are supremely unlikely to die, do not really believe the characters themselves think they may die when in perilous situations. And yet, in the melting pot scene in AOTC, one would have to think that Padme almost certainly HAD to believe she was about to be killed. This has nothing to do with "giving up", but with a simple lack of options at that point.

    Very good observation!

    Shadow
     
  20. Scruffy-looking

    Scruffy-looking Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 26, 2002
    Very interesting idea!

    The scenes cut from the movie between their being captured and her confession to Anakin, where they are talking with Dooku and sentenced to death by the Geonosians, attempt to convey the same ideas you noted; Padme realizes they're going to die, and is accepting of her fate (according to the novel, since we obviously didn't see them! :)) In addition to keeping the movie's runtime down, perhaps GL felt that the intensity of her feelings cooled down through those scenes.
     
  21. Gry Sarth

    Gry Sarth Ex 2x Banhammer Wielding Besalisk Mod star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 1999
    Yes, exactly! For us it's a given point that this and that WILL NOT die, so they are never really in danger, or that they WILL fall in love, so there's not much room for doubts. But we have to remember that the character themselves don't know that, as far as Padmé knew, she could stay away from Anakin all her life, and she would die on that melting pot.
     
  22. IamZam

    IamZam Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Now, about Padmé's sudden wedding to Anakin, I can't say my theory explains it very much, it's still pretty strange. I can only really understand it as "love makes us to some pretty strange and stupid things"...

    Actually it fits and strengthens my idea. She realizes that things are never going to be like they were. Either one of them could die at any moment.

    "Before we die, I want you to know" She isn't going to give in to dieying right now, but she means before one of them does die. With all she believes in crumbling before her, it makes perfect sense that she would say, screw it, I'm thinking of my needs for once.

    It also only adds on more to the fact that she didn't know if he would be back after he went out to his mother (40 went out, 4 came back). She didn't know if he would be back or what he would find or deal with.

    They got married quickly, becaue the future is very very uncertain. They know they may not have a tommorrow. With the Clone Wars and everything else, nothing is for sure any more.

    The future is foggy and cloudy, just like the sky they are looking off into after the wedding.

    Now I have to go back and rethink the fact that I am actually in agreement with Shadow Jedi on something. Wierd adn wild world we are in.
    :D :)
     
  23. Gry Sarth

    Gry Sarth Ex 2x Banhammer Wielding Besalisk Mod star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 1999
    I think we can draw a paralel between Anakin & Padmé sudden marriage at the beginning of the Clone Wars, to how a lot of soldiers get married right before being shipped to combat in a war, such as WW2...
     
  24. alottoni

    alottoni Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 9, 2002
    Excellent point. All I wonder now is what will happen when the Council finds out about that.
     
  25. citrika

    citrika Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jun 6, 2002
    Wow, that is a really great point. I really needed a good explanation for that rushed love story, excellent observations :)

    c i t r i k a

     
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