Star Wars: The Force Shall Free Us All

[Fedel]

She's only 5 years older than him. (Anakin was 9, she was 14)

Always thought that was odd; Naboo must have had a fucked up system of government if you are electing a 14 year old girl to be your Queen. Even if Veruna was that bad, was a child the next best choice?

Wookieepedia's explanation on the matter:

[Myrensis]

I know I am like decades late to the party but am Ii the only one who found the idea of an 8 year old Anikin falling for a girl like 3 times his age or something and than following up on that when he grew up creepy?

Wasn't Padme like 14-15 when TPM happened though?

Officially, yes. But "official" age doesn't change the fact that what we see is 9 year old Anakin and 18 year old Padme in TPM, and the whole thing still comes across as 'emotionally unstable guy can't get over a childhood crush, and is enabled by woman who doesn't understand boundaries.'

Child Anakin is still one of the biggest mistakes of the prequels.

[Purpelia]

I know I am like decades late to the party but am Ii the only one who found the idea of an 8 year old Anikin falling for a girl like 3 times his age or something and than following up on that when he grew up creepy?

Wasn't Padme like 14-15 when TPM happened though?

1. Her age was newer stated in the movie leaving us only with the actress to go from. And she did not look 14.
2. It is so completely and utterly unreasonable to have a juvenile as a queen or indeed in any position of power that it newer occurred to anyone unless they read it somewhere. And I still do not know where the 14 comes from.
3. The creepy part really comes into play when he follows up on it much later. Even if you ignore the age thing it still feels like an unhealthy obsession rather than love.

Officially, yes. But "official" age doesn't change the fact that what we see is 9 year old Anakin and 18 year old Padme in TPM, and the whole thing still comes across as 'emotionally unstable guy can't get over a childhood crush, and is enabled by woman who doesn't understand boundaries.'

Child Anakin is still one of the biggest mistakes of the prequels.

This. Only instead of "does not understand boundaries" I frankly feel it is manipulative. She is a skilled political figure by that point used to getting her way and manipulating others to do so. And that's not a negative interpretation either. As a politician and the representative of her planet in the senate that's literally her job description. Anything less would mean she is a failure at her job which she clearly isn't. And he is a starstruck kid with a childhood crush and potentially mother issues. Even if she is not consciously and maliciously manipulating him (which I do not think she is) it is simply in her nature to be manipulative, even if she does not know it. And she is thus openly enabling unhealthy behavior in a guy half her age based on frankly unhealthy emotions on his part.

I mean, just imagine if the genders were reversed. Imagine if you had an up and coming male politician seduce an 8 year old girl and than arrange a meet up with her just as she becomes legal.

[Andsed]

You know so many things could have been prevented if the Jedi just had some therapists and better views on mental health and attachments.

[Dylar]

Wasn't Padme like 14-15 when TPM happened though?

1. Her age was newer stated in the movie leaving us only with the actress to go from. And she did not look 14.
2. It is so completely and utterly unreasonable to have a juvenile as a queen or indeed in any position of power that it newer occurred to anyone unless they read it somewhere. And I still do not know where the 14 comes from.

1. It's stated in her Wookieepedia article
2. Charles XII of Sweden says hi

[North German Realm]

1. Her age was newer stated in the movie leaving us only with the actress to go from. And she did not look 14.
2. It is so completely and utterly unreasonable to have a juvenile as a queen or indeed in any position of power that it newer occurred to anyone unless they read it somewhere. And I still do not know where the 14 comes from.

1. It's stated in her Wookieepedia article
2. Charles XII of Sweden says hi

To be perfectly fair, Naboo's royalty is semi-elective in a "vote for your queen who has term limits" sort of way. So Child-kings irl don't really compare.

[Purpelia]

1. Her age was newer stated in the movie leaving us only with the actress to go from. And she did not look 14.
2. It is so completely and utterly unreasonable to have a juvenile as a queen or indeed in any position of power that it newer occurred to anyone unless they read it somewhere. And I still do not know where the 14 comes from.

1. It's stated in her Wookieepedia article
2. Charles XII of Sweden says hi

Random online wikis are irrelevant. Nobody reads those before or during watching the movie. The only thing that matters is what is stated or shown in the film it self.
And it still does not address the creepy factor of an older politician essentially exploiting an emotionally immature individual.

[Fedel]

And it still does not address the creepy factor of an older politician essentially exploiting an emotionally immature individual.

There was no manipulation on her part in TPM and in AotC she's more trying to comfort Anakin while simultaneously having an attraction to him.

He's the one that is pursuing HER. Not the other way around. I agree it was irresponsible of her to eventually accept those advances but I wouldn't call it manipulative.

[Valrifell]

I know I am like decades late to the party but am Ii the only one who found the idea of an 8 year old Anikin falling for a girl like 3 times his age or something and than following up on that when he grew up creepy?

The problem wasn't that Anakin had a crush on someone older than him at 8/9 (happens all the time). The weird part is that it was lowkey reciprocated by a teenager.

[Valrifell]

You know so many things could have been prevented if the Jedi just had some therapists and better views on mental health and attachments.

Headcanon: There's a group of non-violent light-siders who are literally just space therapists and deal with their enemies like a modern cartoon protagonist, by talking about their feelings and getting the bad guy over their daddy issues or whatever.

Then the Jedi killed them because that sounds about right.

[Andsed]

You know so many things could have been prevented if the Jedi just had some therapists and better views on mental health and attachments.

Headcanon: There's a group of non-violent light-siders who are literally just space therapists and deal with their enemies like a modern cartoon protagonist, by talking about their feelings and getting the bad guy over their daddy issues or whatever.

Then the Jedi killed them because that sounds about right.

Eh. While the Jedi can sometimes be misguided and corrupt that does not sound like them. They(or at least the modern order does) tend to leave groups of force sensitives they do not consider a threat(like the nightsisters) alone.

If something like that happened it would have needed to happen before or around the beginning of the near thousand year peace since the ancient Jedi would be far more militaristic than their modern day counterparts.

[The first Galactic Republic]

I know I am like decades late to the party but am Ii the only one who found the idea of an 8 year old Anikin falling for a girl like 3 times his age or something and than following up on that when he grew up creepy?

The problem wasn't that Anakin had a crush on someone older than him at 8/9 (happens all the time). The weird part is that it was lowkey reciprocated by a teenager.

I think you guys are trying to make this weirder than it is.

Padme was only 14 or 15 when Anakin was 9. That makes her 25 or 26 when he’s 20. I disagree that constitutes an inappropriate age gap.

And I disagree that Padme reciprocated anything in TPM. If anything it was a case of “oh this little boy has a crush on me, how cute”. I know we live in an age of pedophile scandals RL, but Padme is hardly creeping on Anakin there. It’s innocent.

And she doesn’t seem to feel anything for him at the start of AotC either. She doesn’t seem to reciprocate until Naboo, which is after they’ve gotten to know each other as adults.

[Names Are Too Hard]

Headcanon: There's a group of non-violent light-siders who are literally just space therapists and deal with their enemies like a modern cartoon protagonist, by talking about their feelings and getting the bad guy over their daddy issues or whatever.

Then the Jedi killed them because that sounds about right.

Eh. While the Jedi can sometimes be misguided and corrupt that does not sound like them. They(or at least the modern order does) tend to leave groups of force sensitives they do not consider a threat(like the nightsisters) alone.

If something like that happened it would have needed to happen before or around the beginning of the near thousand year peace since the ancient Jedi would be far more militaristic than their modern day counterparts.

I might be wrong about this, but didn’t the night sisters try to assassinate a Jedi? On like, multiple occasions?

[Andsed]

Eh. While the Jedi can sometimes be misguided and corrupt that does not sound like them. They(or at least the modern order does) tend to leave groups of force sensitives they do not consider a threat(like the nightsisters) alone.

If something like that happened it would have needed to happen before or around the beginning of the near thousand year peace since the ancient Jedi would be far more militaristic than their modern day counterparts.

I might be wrong about this, but didn’t the night sisters try to assassinate a Jedi? On like, multiple occasions?

The only assassination attempt I remember was their attempt on Dooku and he was not a Jedi anymore.

[Names Are Too Hard]

I might be wrong about this, but didn’t the night sisters try to assassinate a Jedi? On like, multiple occasions?

The only assassination attempt I remember was their attempt on Dooku and he was not a Jedi anymore.

Ah ok. Just remember from the CW that they weren’t the nicest of space cults.

[Jedi Council]

I might be wrong about this, but didn’t the night sisters try to assassinate a Jedi? On like, multiple occasions?

The only assassination attempt I remember was their attempt on Dooku and he was not a Jedi anymore.

And he kicked the shit out of them. While in his pajamas. While blind.

[Ameriganastan]

The only assassination attempt I remember was their attempt on Dooku and he was not a Jedi anymore.

And he kicked the shit out of them. While in his pajamas. While blind.

Which is either a statement on his badassery or a condemnation on the quality of assassins in Star Wars.

Maybe a combination of the two.

[Jedi Council]

And he kicked the shit out of them. While in his pajamas. While blind.

Which is either a statement on his badassery or a condemnation on the quality of assassins in Star Wars.

Maybe a combination of the two.

Eh, Ventress was the only one of the three who had experience or even training with a lightsaber, so I cant blame the other Nightsisters too much for being ineffective.

[Kathol Rift]

Which is either a statement on his badassery or a condemnation on the quality of assassins in Star Wars.

Maybe a combination of the two.

Eh, Ventress was the only one of the three who had experience or even training with a lightsaber, so I cant blame the other Nightsisters too much for being ineffective.

Yeah, but the other two were force sensitive, as nightsisters, and had been using those swords their whole lives. And besides, Rey had no experience with a lightsaber in TFA.

[Jedi Council]

Eh, Ventress was the only one of the three who had experience or even training with a lightsaber, so I cant blame the other Nightsisters too much for being ineffective.

Yeah, but the other two were force sensitive, as nightsisters, and had been using those swords their whole lives. And besides, Rey had no experience with a lightsaber in TFA.

While that may be true, we have very little canon information on Nightsister swords or what techniques they favour. It's highly unlikely they had formal lightsaber training, and, against a swordsman as skilled as Dooku, you need all the help you can get.

Rey should not have won that fight, the fact she did was tremendously bad writing.

[Aeritai]

To be fair Kylo was injured during his first fight with Rey, so Rey beating him in that lightsaber duel makes sense. Had Kylo not been injured Rey might've lost to him.

[Jedi Council]

To be fair Kylo was injured during his first fight with Rey, so Rey beating him in that lightsaber duel makes sense. Had Kylo not been injured Rey might've lost to him.

He was injured, but he had also recieved training from both Luke, and presumably Snoke, on how to use a lightsaber, a weapon that is notoriously difficult to use. He was always said to be an exceedingly powerful student, but Snoke was entirely right in TLJ when he basically toasted Kylo for being a Vader fanboy who lost to Rey, a scavenger who knew how to hit people with a big stick.

It would have made much more sense, even given the injury, for Kylo to defeat Rey or toy with her, much how Vader did with Luke in ESB, and then to have her escape because of his overconfidence.

As it was, Kylo was not an intimidating villain, and having him lose to Rey really solidified this. I never felt like Kylo was a real threat after that scene.

[North German Realm]

To be fair Kylo was injured during his first fight with Rey, so Rey beating him in that lightsaber duel makes sense. Had Kylo not been injured Rey might've lost to him.

He was injured, but he had also recieved training from both Luke, and presumably Snoke, on how to use a lightsaber, a weapon that is notoriously difficult to use.

Rey was a scavenger who knew how to hit people with a big stick.

It would have made much more sense, even given the injury, for Kylo to defeat Rey or toy with her, much how Vader did with Luke in ESB, and then to have her escape because of his overconfidence.

As it was, Kylo was not an intimidating villain, and having him lose to Rey really solidified this. I never felt like Kylo was a real threat after that scene.

Seriously. Kylo at his most emotional point (he's both hurt and angry, both of which only aid him given his affiliation in the Force), even if he's heavily injured, vs. Rey without even a day of training with a lightsaber? I mean, even Disney canon states that you need years of practice with a lightsaber just to be good enough with the weapon that you don't accidentally mutilate yourself or someone else with it.

[Purpelia]

I know I am like decades late to the party but am Ii the only one who found the idea of an 8 year old Anikin falling for a girl like 3 times his age or something and than following up on that when he grew up creepy?

The problem wasn't that Anakin had a crush on someone older than him at 8/9 (happens all the time). The weird part is that it was lowkey reciprocated by a teenager.

More vitally the creepy part is that YOU KNOW they are going to end up together. You know it. Unlike random information you can only find on a wiki nobody reads anyway you know the fact they will end up together right there and than in the movie. And you know it because the entire cinematography and plot and everything just leads to that in an unmistakable way. And because we watched the 3parter that comes after that where his son saves the galaxy. And when you have a romance you know is going to end in children and an 8 year old in the same scene it just... isn't right.

[Andsed]

He was injured, but he had also recieved training from both Luke, and presumably Snoke, on how to use a lightsaber, a weapon that is notoriously difficult to use.

Rey was a scavenger who knew how to hit people with a big stick.

It would have made much more sense, even given the injury, for Kylo to defeat Rey or toy with her, much how Vader did with Luke in ESB, and then to have her escape because of his overconfidence.

As it was, Kylo was not an intimidating villain, and having him lose to Rey really solidified this. I never felt like Kylo was a real threat after that scene.

Seriously. Kylo at his most emotional point (he's both hurt and angry, both of which only aid him given his affiliation in the Force), even if he's heavily injured, vs. Rey without even a day of training with a lightsaber? I mean, even Disney canon states that you need years of practice with a lightsaber just to be good enough with the weapon that you don't accidentally mutilate yourself or someone else with it.

And I dont think heavily injured is the right word since he beat Finn (a trained soilder) with ease and Rey was injured as well being knocked unconscious by Kylo. Now plot armor has always been a thing in Star Wars, but unlike with Luke or Anakin who we actually see struggle and fail, Rey has nothing that makes that plot armor feel earned. She just can suddenly do it. It just feels contrived.