6 changes that could’ve made The Phantom Menace Great

Anakin

The Prequel Trilogy is all about Anakin Skywalker and his eventual fall to the Dark Side. So it is baffling how badly George Lucas handled this character from the start of the Prequels to the very end. There were many questionable decisions made about Anakin and we’ll briefly touch on a few of them.

The decision to have Anakin Skywalker be 10 years old in the movie was not a good one. It creates many problems that are evident not just in Episode I but throughout the remainder of the trilogy. With Anakin being 10 and Padme 14 when they first meet, it pushes the start of their romance into the second film. This makes their whole love story feel rushed, forced, and unbelievable which it all was.

The way he is actually used in the Phantom Menace also feels like a wasted opportunity. First of all, he’s a slave but really seems to have an easy life. Sure he has to work all day long, but he lives in a decent home with his mother and clearly has plenty of free time to hang out with his buds Kittster and Wald. It would’ve been better to see Anakin have a much harder upbringing and truly be treated like a slave.

The other issue with how Anakin is used is at the end of the film. Anakin gets separated from the Jedi and gets into a Naboo Starfighter. He then finds himself being an unknowing participant in the battle against the forces of the Trade Federation. This part of the movie is filled with cringy moments and it would’ve been better to see Anakin stick with the Jedi. How cool would it have been to see Anakin stick the lightsaber through Darth Maul as Obi-Wan is hanging there? It would’ve given him a mystical and powerful aura and truly convinced Obi-Wan that Anakin was the chosen one. Instead, Lucas had him bumble about in a starfighter and accidentally destroy the Droid Control Ship.