“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft, and smooth.”
This bit of dialogue is about as infamous as any our favorite galaxy far, far away has ever seen, and let’s be honest — it ain’t Shakespeare. Uttered by Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones, for more than two decades, Star Wars fans have been collectively palming their foreheads at this one.
It’s true that The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith have surprisingly aged line fine wine over the years, and although they were ripe for criticism in their time — following a slew of less-than-stellar Lucasfilm projects, George Lucas’s continuation of his sci-fi saga is seem pretty darn good in comparison. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Discussion surrounding the topic never seems to stop, and finally, one fan has had the guts to speak their mind. In a wild turn of events, someone out there is actually defending Anakin’s “I hate sand” remark. Settle in, their analysis is about as long as an Imperial Star Destroyer.
We won’t even try to argue. Honestly, the attention to detail and depth present in a hot take like this is enough to sway us — even if the line is kind of irredeemable. Taking a more cerebral approach means that we all can at least recognize what George Lucas was going for, right? We can almost hear the prequel haters disagreeing. “As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”
As mentioned above, Anakin’s dislike can be entirely attributed to his childhood on Tatooine, and exists in symbolic contrast to Padme’s experience with sand. When viewed through a narrative lens, this clunky line becomes a pretty genius comparison — all things considered.
Another fan decides that, honestly, can anyone ever determine what’s good or what’s bad in the first place?
Piling on, someone else picks an entirely different line to critique.
Regardless of how you personally feel about sand, forbidden kisses, or Star Wars at large — be thankful that there’s a fandom out there passions enough to dig this deep with each other. There’s something for everybody out there amongst the stars, and as long as Disney is willing to tell a great story, we’ll always be excited to take a trip back to one of our favorite franchises.