Star Wars Confirmed The Only Thing Anakin Skywalker Hates More Than Sand

One of the most (in)famous pieces of dialogue from the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy is the rant Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) gives about sand. "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere," he says, in what is still somehow one of his better attempts to flirt with Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman). Fans generally hate Anakin and Padmé's romantic subplot in "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones," and lines like this are a big part of the reason why. 

Over 20 years later, however, the franchise has called back to Anakin's sand rant in the animated streaming series "LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy: Pieces of the Past." In the episode "Part 4," we see an alternate-reality version of Darth Vader (Matt Sloan) attempting to apologize to an alternate version of Padmé (Catherine Taber). "Padmé, I want to say I'm sorry. You know the thing I hate most in this galaxy is sand," as Vader tells her. "But there is one thing rougher than sand: regret. And I've been living with regret for a long time."

Does this conversation count as "Star Wars" canon? Kind of, but only in the sense that it sheds some extra light on what the characters from the movies may have believed somewhere deep down. Maybe the Darth Vader from the films has thought similar things, but with Padmé no longer around in the original trilogy, he had nobody to say them too. 

It's easy to read the "LEGO Star Wars" callback as a joke poking fun at the prequels, but it's even easier to read it as a celebration of them. Anakin's sand line may have been originally mocked for its awkward delivery and stilted writing, but through many years of prequel memes, fans have come around to the scene. Is it an example of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' notoriously cheesy dialogue? Or is there more to it than first met the eye?

Some fans have argued that the sand line makes for a fine metaphor for the ideological battle the entire franchise is based around. Sand is a collective force of thousands of individuals working together; like the Rebels in the original trilogy, each individual grain of sand is seen as worthless by Anakin/Vader, but when the grains band together, they can cause great irritation for him indeed. The Rebel-focused prequel series "Andor" even embraces this idea, yielding riveting results. 

Others have noted that Anakin's hatred of sand highlights his controlling nature. His fall to the dark side is defined by his fear of not being able to control the fates of the ones he loves; he hates chaos, and what is more chaotic than those annoying bits of sand clinging to your clothes and bags after a trip to the beach? As "Family Guy" once observed, you can bring your backpack to the beach once and you'll still be finding sand in it years later. For a man like Anakin, who wants things clean and orderly, a hatred of sand makes perfect sense.

"LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy: Pieces of the Past" is now streaming on Disney+.