No amount of work could ever make the abominations that were the Star Wars prequels into good movies. This is obvious from the beginning. I have, however, noticed a way in which at least part of Attack of the Clones (Episode II) could have been enhanced by making a change in The Phantom Menace (Episode I). Of course, the movies would still suck, so there’s really not much point in this discussion, but bear with me.

Not long ago, I tried to read the novelization of The Phantom Menace. I don’t have any idea why I even bothered, so don’t ask. Novelizations of screenplays are always of much lower quality than their movie counterparts, and this movie sucked.

I couldn’t bring myself to finish the book, but that’s hardly a surprise.

There was, though, a scene in the book that was either added by author Terry Brooks or removed from the script sometime between when the novel was written and the movie was made. That’s unfortunate; had it been left in, it would have lent some emotional weight to a scene in Attack of the Clones that is supposed to be highly dramatic but is just, like everything else in this trilogy, stupid.

The scene that didn’t show up in The Phantom Menace was one where young Anakin Skywalker, headed home after a day spent haggling with the Jawas, comes across a critically wounded Tusken Raider.

That’s these guys
Even though Anakin is pretty afraid—the Tusken Raiders (or Sand People) have a reputation for murderous violence—he provides the hurt Tusken with first aid and water. He also provides a heater, defense against the coming desert night on Tatooine, and sits with the wounded man all night, watching for scavenging animals, until more of the Tusken’s people arrive to take him home.Again, this character scene didn’t appear in the finished picture, presumably because more time was needed for the totally awesome and completely important-to-the-story Pod Race.

But remember that scene that actually is in Attack of the Clones where Anakin, now older, goes out into the desert and mercilessly slaughters an entire Tusken encampment because some of them killed his mother? That scene is supposed to be just a big screamin’ deal, a major turning point on Anakin’s path toward the Dark Side and his ultimately becoming Darth Vader.

That’s what George Lucas would have us believe, anyway, but in fact the scene is basically meaningless. So he kills some Tusken Raiders. Big, as they say, whoop. Throughout both Star Wars trilogies, the sand people are portrayed as nothing more than nameless, faceless threats, a terrible menace lurking out there somewhere among the dunes. Prior to this scene, they’d existed only as expendable Threatening Others. Why should we care when Anakin kills some anymore than we care when Luke and Han blast a bunch of Stormtroopers into oblivion? We shouldn’t. They’re not characters, they’re just Bad Guys.

But not so if that scene from the novelization of The Phantom Menace had been in the finished film! We see Anakin, at possibly great risk to himself and in spite of a lifetime of prejudice and not unjustified fear, show compassion to this Tusken Raider, this individual. He helps the fallen man when he’s hurt, even though Anakin has no stake in the matter of the Tusken’s survival. It’s just what he has to do, thanks to the goodness of his heart.

Then, one movie later, he’s so corrupted that he’s chopping off Sand People arms with extreme prejudice.

That sequence of events has weight and gravitas. When you only have the second scene without the first, you might as well have nothing.

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Attack of the Clones
• My Favorite Movie Posters
• The Princess Diaries