The Phantom Menace/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

** Also, why didn't the ''Jedi Council'' take more of a hand? You send two of your people as peace envoys and they're almost killed repeatedly, not only by the people they're meant to be envoys to, but also by a living example of your "extinct" mortal enemies, whilst protecting the legitimate ruler of a conquered planet...and you send the same two envoys back with no backup whatsoever? They didn't even send a memo to the Senate to beef up their envoys' credibility! These are the protectors of peace and justice in the galaxy after all!

*** The EU goes into this in a bit more detail, and even without it you can get a lot of the pertinent info from the canon. But basically: the Jedi have always viewed themselves as peacekeepers rather than soldiers, and have always been stretched thin. The Rise of the Empire era order takes these problems [[Up to Eleven]], both from the dwindling numbers and from the increased impracticality of their military training (take a look at the form they use in the Prequels as opposed to some of those out there), not unlike Picard's protesting against military training being a part of [[Star Fleet]] training in TNG in spite of the obviousobviousobvious threats, and this being played as a *GOOD* thing. Long story short: they probably would have eventually, but they were already committed elsewhere and probably not the best choices to go in if they were able to.

** The analogy comes from the stated fact that the more midi-chlorians one has, the more Force-sensitive they are, and the more powerful they are. It sounds like measuring how many HIV are in your blood before you have AIDS. Part of the frustration comes from the fact that Yoda, a beloved character who spent 800 years honing his skills as a Jedi, is immediately upstaged by a 10-year-old boy because his midi-chlorian count is higher. Training? Action? Discipline, skill? Doesn't matter, because this kid's midi-chlorian count is higher, so it's up to him to rule the fate of the galaxy. If we go meta, midi-chlorians can also be thought as part of the disease that began leaching from the Star Wars franchise with the making of this movie.

** Err, Anakin always had a freakishly high amount of raw power, but training, discipline and skill ''do'' matter, as should be made obvious by the end of Revenge of the Sith, where we see Anakin (who's high on the dark side at the time, making him even more powerful in the arena of general destruction) get beat by Obi-wan- an average-power Jedi who knows how to keep a level head in a fight and is an expert swordsman. Raw ability isn't everything- to use a real world example, just because someone has the highest IQ ever measured, that doesn't automatically mean that they're an expert in, say, theoretical physics. A midi-chlorian count just measures potential, not whether you've ''reached'' said potential.

* Why isn't the Naboo Queen's Cruiser Armed? Yes, the Naboo want to show they're peaceful, but in galaxy full of crooks it seems stupid. Furthermore, why didn't the fighter pilots pilot the fighters in the beginning? Why did they go in the Queen's cruiser?

** "Galaxy full of crooks"? What? The Queen's ship isn't armed because it's not a warship. Same reason Air Force One isn't armed. It's not made for fighting, it's made for transporting the queen. An armed ship is even ''more'' of a target.

** Considering how good Padme was with a blaster plus the fighter pilots this troper has serious doubts on Naboo's alleged pacifism.

** Being able to defend yourself doesn't mean you're not pacifistic. Pacifism means you don't go starting fights, but a nation/planet ''needs'' an army to defend itself.

*** It might very well have had those consequences. Qui-Gon clearly had little to no knowledge of Gungans before he met Jar-Jar, Jar-Jar isn't exactly a source of wisdom and so far all they've seen is that Jar-Jar is native to a very wet environment that includes spending a good deal of time underwater. Considering that Jar-Jar isn't wearing any protective clothing and hasn't had any time to acclimate (which strangely isn't a problem for anyone else either) it wouldn't be out of the question to worry that the heat could be fatal for him.

*** It might not actually be ''that'' hot. You're right, the heat doesn't affect anyone else, and nobody seems to be put out by it at all. "Desert" just refers to the amount of precipitation--there are places on Earth classified as deserts that are frozen most of the year. It might just be that Tatooine's temperature is fairly moderate, it's just really dry.<br />Jar Jar is amphibious, yes, but we're given no indication that he's the kind of amphibian that needs to have his skin wet all the time, like a frog. In fact, in most shots his skin looks reasonably dry, or at least no damper than the humans he's hanging around with.

*** Who's to say that it isn't what he ''wanted'' to happen? Oops...Sorry about the heat.

*** In regards to the temperature of Tatooine, did we see anybody wearing sweat-soaked tank-tops, driving air-conditioned speeders, and drinking lots of water to avoid heat stroke? Or do we see them wandering around in baggy long-sleeved outfits while speeding around in open-topped vehicles? It's dry, it's sandy, it's got twice as many suns as most places do, and the wind is a bit of a killer too. But we never see much indication that it's ''hot.''

** They probably don't want people asking too many questions. A large group of foreigners, most from a very high class background, looking for transport can attract the wrong sort of attention, especially in a system of planets run enitrely by an intergalactic mafia clan. Not to mention that Mos Eisley is a spaceport, but not neccesarily Mos Espa (or whatever Anakins homeplace was called). There doesn't seem to be as much evidence of space travel as there was there, and most of the ships owned are probably private. No, there are no space taxis or buses, at least not in that crime-infested desert planet in the galaxy's Outer Rim, so they would have to barter with some very unsavoury or untrustworthy people, who are probably spied on all the time. Besides all that, thats probably what they would have resorted to, but they have a chance to get away on their own ship, so why not take it?

* Why is the disguised Padme using her real name? In the following movies, she is referred to as "Padme" and "Senator Amidala." But she freely admits while she's supposed to be playing the handmaiden that her name is Padme. Anybody in the United States knows that "Barack" is President Obama's first name; while the Jedi and Jar Jar may or may not have known the queen's first name, it seems really stupid to just go around telling people her name is Padme.

* So the heroes are going to the massive battle, all prepared... and they take Anakin with them... okay... why? Qui-Gon does say "watch me fight" as non-training "training" but then his first command is to hide and therefore not be able to see any of the Jedi skills. They don't send the kid Jedis out to fight do they? They can defend themselves (like in the third one) but that's no reason to bring an untrained kid into a war zone. Then again, Qui-Gon has been making odd choices throughout the whole film... but really? Nobody questioned bringing a child to a war zone!

** As much as I hate to defend anything about this movie, this is probably the one thing that didn't really bother me. Think about it for a moment: What should they have done with the kid? Left him in the Jedi Temple, with a bunch of stodgy old-heads that don't want him there? With Palpatine, who is busy gearing up for his campaign to be elected chancellor (and being secretly evil)? Or on the starship, which was found within minutes of their arrival? Or maybe with the gungans, who are about to make a suicidal charge against an enemy they know full well they can't defeat?

** I think the problem was the amount. 20,000 credits is probably somewhat hard to change, especially with a total lack of noncriminal government. The exchange rates are probably too unpredictable since the local currency is not the Republic credit and there is probably no actual bank to make exchanges. Watto probably knows most people he does business with do not use Republic credits, so he refuses to use them as well. His business is made up of himself, a nine year old, and the nine year old's mother (never mind that the latter two are slaves). It is highly doubtful he goes into Republic space regularly.

*** Put it this way: A store in, say, Texas might be willing to take a handful of Canadian dollars if that's all a patron had to spend on something small, like a meal or a candy bar or something. But a car dealership in Texas probably wouldn't take $20,000 in Canadian cash.

** Just because it's the basis of a WMG doesn't mean it's at all legit. Quite often it means exactly the opposite.<br />Darth Maul exists from a story perspective because ''he'' has to die. If Sidious kills Qui Gon, he clearly can't die, so we're left with Episode I, the most idealistically themed of the prequels, ending with the Jedi's murderer getting off completely scott free. Same with Dooku.<br />And mixing it up physically at this part of the plan is completely out of character for someone who gets into a grand total of two fights in the whole saga, and who only does so when he's attacked--Palpatine's whole thing is catspaws and misdirection. He doesn't want people to know he exists, let alone travel to Naboo (when, you know, he's trying to build power in the senate) to pick a fight with two Jedi just to reveal himself, and short of wearing a full facemask, they're ''going'' to see his face.<br />And yeah, Maul does nothing else in the rest of the movies. Being dead tends to have that effect.<br />For the purposes of the story, they needed a disposable badguy, plain and simple.

* What exactly was Palpatine's original plan? He wasn't expecting Amidala to escape the planet and assumed the Jedi would be killed. What would he gain from his home planet being taken over and his queen eventually being forced to sign an agreement with the Trade Federation making it legal? How would this do anything to increase his power? If anything you would expect anyone who didn't know that he was a Sith to assume that he was much weaker as a result and give him less credibility.

 

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[[Category:Headscratchers]]