#bell post

Clone Wars Conversations, episode 8: Matt Lanter

THEY HAD LANTER DO A CROSS BETWEEN LUKE AND HAN. FOR ANAKIN. LEIA. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. I FEEL SO BAD FOR HER. ALSKDJFALSDJ. WHY DOES HER DAD HAVE TO BE MODELED IN THE IMAGE OF HER LOVE. 

I ALSO FEEL BAD FOR HAN. I DON’T THINK HE’D WANT TO HAVE MUCH IN COMMON WITH VADER. (WHICH THEN COMES OUT IN BEN, AND THAT’S ANOTHER LAYER OF FUCK YOU FEELINGS. BECAUSE BEN GOT ALL OF ANAKIN’S WANGST AND TANTRUMS BUT NONE OF THE CHARISMATIC SWAGGER. WHICH NO ONE IN THEIR FAMILY DESERVED.)

WHEN YOU SAY GENERATIONALLY, JAT, DO YOU MEAN, INCESTUALLY.

(JUST BECAUSE PEOPLE LOVE HAN SOLO DOESN’T MEAN *EVERYONE* NEEDS TO BE LIKE HIM.)

My question is then: okay, okay, Lucas wanted to reform Anakin’s image so that he was more Guy You Feel For Doing Really Stupid Evil Shit. But... like... did he *always* visualize him as a Han Solo (or, to be less pointed, to have all that bravado/swagger)? Or was it more that he was looking for ways to make Anakin likable, and he looked at his canon for Most Popular Characters, and he settled on Han? How much of this is Filoni’s influence? If it was a question of picking a popular character, why not, say, Leia? IS IT BECAUSE SHE’S A GIRL. Or could you say TCW’s Anakin *is* like Leia? (*Could* you?)

Brain: Cool cool cool. But before they can make out, we need to know what they are feeling!

Brain: And to know what they are feeling, we need to know-- where exactly are they in the war? How does Obi-Wan feel about the Republic? How does Anakin feel about Padme second-guessing the war?

Me: HOW IS ANY OF THIS RELATED TO OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN GROPING EACH OTHER D:

Brain: :D

Brain: Look at this way! The more you know about the *exact* rage burning in Anakin, the better you can describe his desperate kisses! :D

Tell me true: is there anything, anything, dorkier in this Galaxy than a) watching the YouTube series “Clone Wars Conversations” (in which James Arnold Taylor, Obi-Wan’s voice actor in TCW, interviews other series VAs) and then b) transcribing it.

I’m feeling hard-pressed to imagine anything Less Cool than this, BUT FUCK ALL Y’ALL, I’M LIVING MY BEST LIFE :D

Some stray observations first: THESE GUYS ARE SUCH VOICE ACTING NERDS. NEEEERDS. :D!!!! *admires nerds* (You should see JAT and Satine’s VA Anne Graves geek out over Shop Talk ❤) 

Also, HOLY FUCKING CHRIST, IS IT MANDATORY TO ALSO BE BEAUTIFUL TO DO VOICE ACTING. THAT’S SO UNFAIR. THEIR FACES ARE AN AFFRONT TO ME. HOW DARE THEY. 

Anyway!!! Let’s get started on some transcriptions :D!

Clone Wars Conversations, Episode 8 - Matt Lanter (Anakin Skywalker):

LANTER: When I went to the Ranch to talk to George [Lucas], he gave me a couple of specific notes and, I don’t know if I’ve said them before or not, but I’ll keep those notes to myself. But, yeah, it was very much on purpose, to not do what we have traditionally known as Anakin. It was obviously George’s vision, and Dave´s vision, to shape the character a little differently in The Clone Wars and give Anakin a little more depth than what we just got to see on the four hours of the movies. 

TAYLOR: And also, dare I say, a little more heart. And that is not knocking the film version, but we needed to, because on a regular weekly basis he was going to be coming into our living rooms and we need to see those sides of him. LANTER: Storytelling at its core is you have to connect with the characters that you are going to be living with. We have four hours to connect with Anakin, and it’s hard, because, first of all, he goes in this downwards spiral from Good to Worst Villain in the Galaxy in the course of two hours. Prior to that, I’ve heard people say that he’s whiny, so it just wasn’t enough time to take a guy from Teenage Angst into Worst Villain. We needed more. George and Dave understood that we gotta connect with the character, especially if we were gonna sit with him for six seasons.

I really appreciate this insight/background information about how the creators themselves approached shaping Anakin’s character in TCW! I’ve gone on about this before (see: I’M A GIANT DORK :D) but I’ve been mystified at how Anakin went from the Teenage Murdering Mess that he is in Episode II to the Confident General Dude in The Clone Wars. 

It’s neat to see that this was always the intention. My sense from this transcript (including the segments I’ll post later) is that Anakin in TCW is damage-control from the way his image, um.... took a beating with the Prequels. That Lucas saw the fan reaction to this character he’d been working on all these decades and said to himself-- hey, they have it wrong, he’s more than a Whiny Guy Turned Villain (he had a lot of bravado in between!!!). TCW is giving the extra material to show what we’d missed. And this is, I must confess repeatedly, dorky of me, but I do appreciate that they took the time & resources to do so. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s a huuuuge leap between Episode II and TCW Movie, but it’s nice to have the confirmation that the different approach was intentional.