Rant of the Day (Star Wars flavor)

[extrapenguin]

You know when you see a factoid repeated often enough that you actually go check it and it turns out it's flat-out wrong and then it bugs you forever, but since it's a small thing, pointing it out would be a major dick move and you can only stew in your sense of Someone Is Wrong On The Internet because it's so damn omnipresent? That.

Brought to you by me checking out how tall Shmi Skywalker actually is, and. Guys. She's 172cm. She's taller than the average woman in the Netherlands. She's taller than Luke (170cm). She's much, much closer to Obi-Wan (177cm) than Padmé (160cm) in height. Hell, she's closer to Anakin (182cm) in height than she is to Padmé! The only reason she doesn't get pinged as tall is because she's standing next to Qui-Gon Jinn, who is an absurd 192cm, but even then, you'd think people would realize she's taller than Padmé! Shmi is by any objective measure tall. She is the source of Anakin's tall genes. Yet people describe her in fic as if she were about as short as Leia (155cm) and I just want to scream.

Comments

[annathecrow]

oh my GOD, I'm absolutely Someone Who Was Wrong On The Internet, and now it's going to BUG ME!

This is all freaking Liam Neeson's fault. It never occurred to me to check, I just keep seeing the podrace scene from Episode I: she stands between Padmé and Qui-Gon, she looks almost the same height as Padmé, and Padmé is obviously Short (TM)...

Oh no. Oh nooooo.

Fuck, I hate when I get things wrong. On my favorite character, no less.

[annathecrow]

It bugs me enough to dig through my ref folders to find the scene:

Like. WTF? I am being lied to by my own two eyes.

[extrapenguin]

I think Shmi's got worse posture than Padmé in that? Like, trying to make herself seem small and unthreatening would definitely be a valid survival strategy. And looking at a livefeed of her son defying death would make her curl up on herself. She also looks to be a bit further away from the camera and still looks taller than Padmé. (I also think the height difference is much clearer in some other scenes where you can see them standing.) Or you could say Padmé is enough of a fashionista to wear heels to a podrace; I haven't checked her footwear.

[annathecrow]

I'm not trying to prove you wrong, I'm just whinging! :D

They might very well have Natalie Portman standing on a step stool in this shot, actually, to get the shot composition right.

[extrapenguin]

Methinks they should've just dug Liam Neeson a hole. :P And yeah, I think Natalie Portman ended up spending a lot of time in heels and on step stools. Pernilla August just looks like she's drawn in on herself rather than standing straight so I wanted to note that.