This is Stuff You Like, you can call me Ursa, and the reason actors fall in love on set
so much is because sometimes you really can fake it till you make it.
But only sometimes.
In terms of body language, when we think that people are standing too close to us, we back
off, we take steps back, either physically or we lean back, or we take up a defensive
posture like we cross our arms.
Again, that's what makes the dominatrix dress scene so uncomfortable for me in Attack of
the Clones, because you can see Padme moving away and shifting and leaning and generally
doing things which scream I Am Uncomfortable.
Not cool, Anakin. Red light behaviour Anakin. Back off a little bit Anakin, OK?
Han and Leia, by contrast, are near-constantly moving CLOSER to each other. In A New Hope
Han met Leia THREE MINUTES AGO, and he’s pushing her up above the rubbish before climbing
up himself.
Han in Empire Strikes Back is constantly checking up on Luke and on Leia. Where’s Luke? Is
Leia on her transport yet or is she busy being all noble and self-sacrificing?
But before Anakin and Padme get together, invasions of personal space are met with retreat,
which leads to my feeling of unease.
The fact that Leia is more likely to step further INTO Han’s personal space than out
of it, helps to sell her interest in him.
But this is not a TV show, so you can’t just string the audience along forever with
the promise of sexual tension, you actually have to resolve it at some point.
So how do you change your dynamic?
Well...I wouldn’t do it like that.
So let me instead direct you to SOMETIMES YOU THINK I’M ALL RIGHT.
Because the scene where Han and Leia kiss is absolutely pivotal in terms of their relationship
development and yet if it were slightly different it could have just been so creepy and so very
wrong.
The TONE and the TEMPO of Leia and Han's previous interactions leads you to believe that Han
and Leia fight. Arguing with each other is WHAT THEY DO. Death Star celebrations notwithstanding.
To change that, you change the dynamic. And thus the subtext of the scene goes a little
something like this.
I AM DOING WORK ON A REAL PIECE OF THIS REAL BROKEN SPACESHIP WHICH REALLY EXISTS.
OK DONE, NOW TO TURN THIS LEVER. DAMMIT.
HERE, LET ME HELP I DO NOT WANT YOUR HELP!
OH, OK. UGH WHY ARE YOU NOT SHOUTING BACK? THIS IS
WHERE YOU MAKE A TEASING REMARK AND THEN WALK OFF!
I’M BEING CONCILIATORY FOR A CHANGE, ONE OF US HAS TO DO SOMETHING BEFORE THE UST METER
EXPLODES. BESIDES, SOMETIMES YOU LIKE ME. EH. SOMETIMES.
YOU KNOW, AT SOME POINT WE SHOULD REALLY STOP FLIRTING AND JUST KISS.
DON’T TALK NONSENSE WE ARE NOT FLIRTING! YEAH WE ARE, AND NOW I’M REALLY CLOSE TO
YOUR FACE TOO WE SHOULD KISS WE ARE NOT FLI-AH SCREW IT *SMOOOCH*
BLAH BLAH BLAH
DAMMIT THREEPIO!
This scene itself is...gentle. In spite of the fact that they’re technically crammed
into a small space. It feels cramped but it doesn’t necessarily feel claustrophobic.
There is space for Leia to move away, an entire corridor in fact, but she doesn’t.
CONTEXT! BODY LANGUAGE! AND PEOPLE NOT BEING JERKS!
BUT THEN! It gets better.
Because their relationship AFTER smoochy-smoochy-Falcon-times is just as much fun, but different. They kiss
and touch and hold each other LIKE THEY MEAN IT.
All of that stuff which was so conspicuously absent from Anakin and Padme’s on-screen
movie interactions is there: hand holding, casual touching, hugging, kissing, sidelong
glances...OK, Anakin and Padme have sidelong glances, fine, but all of those other things
are present in Han and Leia’s relationship and it helps to sell it.
But the beginning of Anakin and Padme’s relationship in Attack of the Clones is awkward,
and then by Revenge of the Sith we’re at the end of it, so it’s difficult for your
average movie-goer to feel any sympathy because we’ve skipped any happiness that they might
have had in the middle.
In The Empire Strikes Back, you get at least a little bit of Han and Leia's blossoming
relationship, and then it all goes to hell and there’s that BIG DRAMATIC DECLARATION
SCENE and I love you and I know and then Han’s just GONE.
And so Empire ends on this because it is the dark middle chapter. But then she goes to
rescue him in Return of the Jedi and they pick right back up where they left off with
that casual in-a-relationship kind of dynamic.
I love you - I know - is so important to their because it’s so true to their character
dynamic.
It's not a cocksure declaration that yeah, yeah, everyone finds me irresistible, it's
fine. It's a reassurance that their time hasn't been wasted, and that even if she hadn’t
got around to saying the words yet, he knows how much he means to her.
Because of course she already knows how much she means to him. I mean...it’s blindingly
obvious, right?
He's not worried about himself.
And then of course in Return of the Jedi they reverse it and it’s...kind of adorable.
Empire Strikes Back is my favourite of the Star Wars movies, and that’s for a lot of
reasons, but I remember getting it on VHS in 1995 (in spite of having got the other
two movies in 1994, don’t ask me why) and being ENTRANCED.
Nine-year-old me freaking loved this movie. Twenty nine year old me loves it even more.
Padme and Anakin’s relationship arc in the films is too abrupt and too awkward for me
to feel anything other than mild pity.
I couldn’t get behind them falling in love, and while I was somewhat more convinced when
it DID happen, the fact that Padme spends much of Revenge of the Sith as just... reduced
to a bit-part-player slash emotionally abused woman was just...it’s not fun.
And considering her whole arc in The Phantom Menace is about not being a pawn of other
people's games, not just being an object which they can push around as they like, the fact
that she felt so much like a MacGuffin in Revenge of the Sith was very...unsatisfying
for me.
And also I just like to see people happy, you know?
And so I will be mad as hell if Han and Leia have been broken up in The Force Awakens.
I BELIEVE IN THEIR HAPPILY EVER AFTER RAISING JEDI CHILDREN ENDING, MOVIE. So you should