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Something I just noticed about The Phantom Menace

TheEchosOfTheCyborg

TheEchosOfTheCyborg

Member
Feb 24, 2018
5,237
I was watching The Phantom Menace again and I noticed something; One of the complaints about the movie is that Queen's ship getting past the blockade, all those Trade ship not being able to hit it (sans once on the shield generator and hyperdrive), it being a bad blockade with all the ship cramped up in one place on one side of the planet etc.


I Just realized though, of course their not trying to blow up the ship, they need the Queen alive, that's why they were aiming for the engines and hyperdrive. They need the Queen to sign the treaty still at this point (which is brought up again in the next Trade Federation scene). Blowing her up would be counter intuitive for them so course their not aiming for killing blow and being careful, instead aiming to slow them down and stop their escape. Their is still the problem of the whole blockade being in one area but maybe the all moved to try to block Padme's ship (then again it didn't look like the blockade covered the whole planet in the opening scene).

Not saying it's a perfect movie or anything, I do still think R2 randomly being on that ship is a bit silly (feels like C3PO would have made more sense), but it's just a bit a obvious logic I never noticed before that it seemed a lot of people didn't catch on.

Does make me wonder though, do the Trade Federation ship not have tractor beams? Also you know how the blasters and the handheld laser weapons have stun settings, do the ship equivalents have stun settings?
 
mattynunchucks

mattynunchucks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
561
It's almost like George Lucas had no idea what he was doing. I didn't finish reading the OP. The Phantom Menace is still a hot pile of garbage.
 
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lobdale

lobdale

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,990
I watched this again a few months back and was constantly astounded at just how joyless it was throughout, a tone that 2 and 3 would double and triple down on.
 
SteveWinwood

SteveWinwood

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,681
USA USA USA
lobdale said:
I watched this again a few months back and was constantly astounded at just how joyless it was throughout, a tone that 2 and 3 would double and triple down on.
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the worse sin they commit honestly is that they're boring as all hell

of course the opposite is episode 9 where it feels like you're watching it in fast forward in that first hour
 
Lord Fagan

Lord Fagan

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,367
Qui-gon Jinn sure seemed convinced they were gonna kill Padme.

It was the foundation of his whole argument of getting her off-world.

Panned out, too. Because I don't think Maul went to Tatooine to kidnap her.
 
John Dunbar

John Dunbar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,229
why didn't they just make her sign the treaty instead of sending her to be "processed" in camp 4, whatever that means?
 
Sordid Plebeian

Sordid Plebeian

Member
Oct 26, 2017
17,373
If they need her alive, why would they risk killing her? They could have easily missed and blew them out of the sky
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,904
Huh, that checks out.

I would've thought it's because the ship is so shiny, it just looks like empty space.
 
Jedi2016

Jedi2016

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,647
It's unclear if the Federation knew that she was on that ship. None of the droids in the hangar survived to tell the tale, all they know is one ship got through the blockade and the queen was missing. That's what they reported to Darth Sidious, anyway.

It's more likely that it's the fact that the ship has a very low profile from the front, and it's chrome surface makes it very hard to see against just about any backdrop. Basically, it was just hard to hit.
 
mattynunchucks

mattynunchucks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
561
Now that I've read the whole thing, I think that shooting near the ship that the whole crux of your coup is currently on is a poor decision, regardless of what they were trying to accomplish.

Then again, maybe scaring the crap out of everyone on the ship was part of the nefarious plot.
 
Ruisu

Ruisu

Banned
Aug 1, 2019
5,535
Brasil
I don't think it's dumb the ships are all in one place instead of all around the planet, that's just movie language, Star Wars is not the first sci-fi to treat space ships like water ships/boats in the ocean.
 
El Bombastico

El Bombastico

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
36,039
lobdale said:
I watched this again a few months back and was constantly astounded at just how joyless it was throughout, a tone that 2 and 3 would double and triple down on.
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AotC and RotS achieve that rare feat, replicated only recently in Batman v Superman, of a film that feels not only slow and overlong but also far too short with what its supposed to tell with its plot. Events happen for no compelling reason, characters only do certain actions because the plot needs them to, and in between the whiz-bang action scenes are dialogue scenes that make you want to superglue your ears shut an claw out your eyeballs.
 
Vapelord

Vapelord

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,828
Montreal
simpsons_comic_book_guy.jpg


Well as everyone knows that particular ships frame was covered in chromium, formerly used to shield starships from radiation and some forms of laser attacks. What type of lasers were employed by the blockade?

The rest of the ship's components were provided by the Nubian Design Collective, including the impressive T-14 hyperdrive generator. The T-14 was compact and accessible, unlike most other hyperdrives, and was powerful enough to take the ship from Naboo to Tatooine in a single jump even when damaged. It could also be raised from a compartment in the floor to allow easy checking, repairs and even complete replacement. The T-14 hyperdrive had a 327 core that gave the royal starship an impressive hyperdrive class of 1.8. The ship's Headon-5 sublight engines, which had been modified by the Naboo to be environmentally friendly, could exceed the speed of most starfighters.

Heavily borrowed from: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/J-type_327_Nubian_royal_starship
 
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,119
I don't think those ships are very powerful in terms of offensive weaponry. Probably could have hit the ship center mass and not destroy the ship.
 

shacklecat

Member
Nov 14, 2017
149
The new book Queen's Peril explains that only the queen can sign the treaty, and that if she is killed the trade federation would have to wait for a new queen to be democratically elected before it can be signed. So it's in their interest to keep her alive. It's an excellent book btw, does much to explain why the queen and her handmaidens came across as joyless automatons in the movie, and retroactively improves TPM.
 
WhiteRabbitEXE

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,592
Arizona
Rekubot said:
The new book Queen's Peril explains that only the queen can sign the treaty, and that if she is killed the trade federation would have to wait for a new queen to be democratically elected before it can be signed. So it's in their interest to keep her alive. It's an excellent book btw, does much to explain why the queen and her handmaidens came across as joyless automatons in the movie, and retroactively improves TPM.
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Both it and Queen's Shadow are great reads that do a lot to further flesh out Padmé. I genuinely didn't expect how heavily/directly Peril would connect into TPM either.
 
Ayirek

Ayirek

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,252
This is the irony with George Lucas: he's got fantastic ideas and puts in these little nuances, but when allowed to be in full creative control still manages to turn out bad movies.
 
electroshockwave

electroshockwave

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,483
You see it was all part of Palpatine's plan that they would fire on the ship but narrowly escape so they would be forced to land on tatooine, bump into Anakin, where he would meet Padme who he would develop a childish crush on that he would hold onto for ten years and tempt him into breaking his Jedi vows of celibacy as a young adult, and due to a bet on a pod race he would be separated from his mother whose death would lead him down the path of the dark side. All according to keikaku.

I mean, c'mon. Do you think Palpatine's real plan is to get her to sign a treaty to make the invasion legal? If it's legal how can he sow discord and undermine confidence in the current chancellor?
 
Jegriva

Jegriva

Banned
Sep 23, 2019
5,519
I loved how in a world base on SLAVERY, the issues that caused a war are trade agreements.
 
Fliesen

Fliesen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,254
Wasn't the blockade mostly to block trade / supplies to and from Naboo (i.e. Theed)?
So the blockade is likely set up in a way where any (trade / supply) ship wanting to depart from (or approach) Theed could realistically be shot down.

Can't just land/park on the opposite hemisphere.
Hell, the Jedi had to go through "the planet core" - which is incredibly dangerous / hostile.
 
DixieDean82

DixieDean82

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,837
Another TPM fun fact. When Anakin gets in the fighter ship at the end of the movie why is there a child-size helmet waiting for him to wear?
 
THErest

THErest

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,103
Triggerhappytel said:
This is really cool because when I saw him being an intimidating and iconic villian in Star Wars, Empire and Jedi I always wanted a thorough backstory of him as a nine year old.
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I always knew he'd be a virgin-born 9-yr-old slave mechanic/pilot with maxed-out luck stats who built C-3po and was named Gary Stu.
 
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