PT Your favorite little moment or detail in the PT? (image heavy)

This scene in particular is very well-executed. The way the tense disagreement between Anakin and Obi-Wan is intercut with the awkward reactions from Jar Jar and Typho. The editing puts you right in the moment with the characters. It kind of puts the lie to the notion that every dialogue scene in the prequels is just lazy shot reverse shot.

 

In ROTS, when Anakin is attempting to land (the operative word is ‘attempting’) the Invisible Hand which is currently on fire, you can see Palpatine give a sideways worried look as if he’s thinking all his plans, all his work for the past 13 years could be outdone if Anakin fails and they all die.

 

Speaking of, I just love these shots:





I don't know what it is, but there's something so wonderfully bizarre about seeing these two characters paired together like this in a shot. Artoo and the Emperor, just chilling.

 

Or when he makes that concerned look when Dooku sends the walkway down on Obi-Wan as if thinking, ‘Sheesh, Tyranus, little brutal there don’t you think?’

 

I actually thought he looked relatively calm, considering the situation. He was probably thinking something like, "Okay I knew it was going to be bad but not this bad..."

Two badass characters from opposing sides, peacefully sitting together doing nothing, it's quite hilarious

 

The greatest hero in the universe and the greatest villain in the universe.

 

I just love this scene:

 

I loved seeing Boss Nass at Padme's funeral. Clearly he has a lot of respect for Padme.

 

The beginning scenes of Ep. 2 were some of my favorites. The Battle of Geonosis with all those Jedi was also up there. Both of those scenes were in Ep. 2.

 

I came to the Prequel form to try and find a place like in the Classic Trilogy forum to list my favorite scene from each ep 1-3.

TPM: Obi-Wan meditating, waiting for the doors to open so he can face Maul.
AotC: Yoda reaching for his lightsaber, and proving that he doesn't need that cane.
RotS: Obi-Wan/Anakin duel

 

That would be Qui-Gon

 

Gah, shoot. I was remembering the scene, but got the character wrong.
Alright, fine, how about the foreshadowing of "there's always a bigger fish"

 

Not a visual detail but I always found a mysteries beauty to the track that plays when Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Jar Jar first swim to the Gungan city in TPM. Which also perfectly matches the strange and beautiful city itself when you first see it.

 

I think JW got some more Holst inspiration from Neptune on that one.

 

I feel like I’ve answered this question before but I’m going to give it a go again.

episode I — padme and jar jar — first meeting
Episode II — Padme consoling anakin after his confession
Episode iii — padme and c3po on her balcony — when he offers her something and then says he feels so helpless

 

AOTC really tried some rather unique things, didn't it?
Not only this scene, which is just awesome, but also the lightsaber-fight in the dark, focusing just on Anakin's and Dooku's faces / upper bodies. The latter could have done with a bit more interaction between the two, because by now it feels like they are mostly swinging around against air, but conceptually it was an excellent sccene.

 

I think the lack of interaction is actually the point. It's an abstraction of lightsaber dueling. The focus is on the mental contest between the individuals, not on the physical contact being made with their weapons. When I was younger I didn't really get it, but now it's one of my favorite parts of any lightsaber duel.

 

Especially taking into consideration how dialogue-heavy the duels were with Obi-Wan and with Yoda. It's contrasts nicely in there as the middle of the three.

 

Another interesting thing about the Anakin/Dooku duel is the way the two combatants' movements so directly mirror each other:





In this way Anakin and Dooku are presented as equals, two sides of the same coin. It's not only that they are comparable in skill. The idea is that Dooku was once Anakin, and Anakin could someday become Dooku. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way the actual duel in the dark is shot:



In the first segment, we are presented with close-ups of Anakin and Dooku's faces, illuminated only by the light of their lightsabers. Anakin is on the left and Dooku is on the right. At the end, they switch positions, leading to the second segment:



Now Dooku is on the left and Anakin is on the right. Yet, in the very last pair of close-up shots in this segment, Lucas intentionally violates the 180-degree rule and swaps the positions of the combatants, again placing Anakin on the left and Dooku on the right. It's so quick and so subtle that might not consciously notice it, but what Lucas is doing is even more subliminally conflating Anakin with Dooku and Dooku with Anakin.

 

A PT detail that will also show up in Return of the Jedi:

When Vader arrives at Mustafar, Gunray says, "Welcome, Lord Vader, we've been expecting you." Vader immediately starts killing them after blocking their escape.
In ROTJ, Palpatine greets Luke by saying, "Welcome, young Skywalker. I have been expecting you." A short time later, Vader turns on him, and throws him down the shaft.

Note to future Star Wars characters: don't say I've been expecting you.

 

the sound of appo aiming his blaster at bail organa in ROTS

 

One thing I love about that scene is that Padme opens by saying "Something wonderful has happened. Ani, I'm pregnant."

Then Anakin, flustered, simply replies "Well that's wonderful." He's so blindsided by the shock that he can't think of any other words and just parrots Padme. There's a keen sense that he's overwhelmed and terrified of the implications of that moment and how it will affect both their lives. Far from wonderful, it could jeopardise his entire life in the Jedi and Padme's senatorial career.

Despite outwardly seeming like a weak reuse of the same word, 'wonderful' instead reveals so much about Anakin's reactions.