Even though I am currently in my “Prequels are alright” phase, there are still a host of (relatively) minor details that bug me. None of these things are ‘deal-breakers’ when it comes to the main storyline of the movie, but they do make a person (or a geek like me at least) wonder. Give some examples, you ask? Well… alright.
Elected Monarch
Okay, I can buy the fact that a head of state is elected and that perhaps even folks call this head of state a monarch. But… a 13 year old? Being elected the monarch of an entire (evidently important) world? Uhhhhh. Yeah. I realize that age is treated differently in the Star Wars universe. For instance, Leia was a 19-year old Senator. But come on. A thirteen year old? It just seems so out of left field. Why couldn’t Padme have just been a monarch- and not an elected one? I don’ t know. Maybe the writers (or Lucas) figured a monarch wouldn’t be sympathetic to the democratic process of the Old Republic. Whatever the reason, the whole concept still bugs me.
Shmi’s Slavery
Speaking of monarchs- even if Padme WAS just elected, it seemed to me that she had access to money. She likely would have had some kind of salary. In other words, she had access to money. You would think that after all the help that Anakin gave her planet (he DID blow up the Droid Control ship after all), Padme could have at least TRIED to purchase Shmi’s freedom- hell, she probably could have even asked for donations from her grateful people.
The Planet Core
To reach Theed City, Boss Nass says, you have to “Go through the planet core”. Now, by me, this was not interpreted literally. I took it to mean that the heroes would have to take subterranean aquatic passages to get past the droid army and into the city unnoticed. But the term ‘planet core’ is taken by many to be the literal path taken- as if the entire planet was a maze of rocky, water-filled tunnels. Not only does this seem to be a physical impossibility for a planet as we know it, it would also imply that the Jedi (and the entire Droid army) set down on the OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE PLANET from the capital- thus requiring them to march all the way across the planet to carry out their attack. While I agree that the Neimoidians weren’t exactly tactically savvy- I think they’d realize that landing so far away would be a ‘bad thing’- hell, it wouldn’t be economical to do that (that’s something they’d get). Also, a voyage THROUGH a seemingly earth-sized planet could be 12,000+ km in distance. Even if the Bongo the Jedi used could travel 200kph (questionable)- and there were no twists, turns or detours, the trip would take 60+ hours. By that time, the whole planet would be subjugated. So yeah. The whole ‘Planet core’ statement is misleading in a lot of different ways.
Those are just the first three that spring to mind. I’ll likely expound/rant about more at a later time, but I wanted to get these off of my chest.
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ReplyDeleteElected Monarch - in-universe reason
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would make more sense to have a 14 year-old queen if it was hereditary and her parents had been killed, so she had to assume power earlier than expected. Real world history has a ton of examples of that. So the real question is, why would Naboo democratically elect a 14 year-old to be their leader?
EU material has indicated that the average age that most human societies consider children to be adults is age 16 in the SW Galaxy. So Padme is only a couple years younger than that in Ep I. IIRC, it is indicated by either the films or the EU that it is traditional for all Naboo children to go into "public service" of some kind as part of their education and indoctrination into their society's values. Most children do not achieve any high office, and when their time is up they go into apprenticeships into whatever career filed they are interested in. A few continue in public service and may eventually work their wany into higher govermental offices in adulthood. But in Padme's case, she may have started a little younger than usual, and exceeded far beyond the expectations of her society's standards. She was a childhood genius when it came to goverment. She became very popular among the people and rapidly rose through the ranks.
Not buying it? Yeah, that's still a bit thin.
In either a prequel novel to Ep I or the Ep I novelization (can't remember which), it is suggested that Palpatine secretly may even had something to do with Padme's election to queen. The previous elected monarch mysteriously gave up his office long before it was over which left an vacancy that immediately needed filled, and then somehow this bright teenager becomes the next ruler of the planet. This is not explicit in Ep I, but it is supported by the dialogue of Darth Sidious describing Padme as "young and naive" and thus easy to control. He also reacted that he return to Naboo was unexpected beause it was too aggressive. It is obvious from the film that Sidious/Palpatine viewed Padme as a pawn in his plot which makes it easy to believe that he could be responsible for her rise to power behind the scenes.
And then according to canon she doesn't become a galactic senator until 8 years after Ep I at age 22. Leia became a seator at age 18, so there are still no known children senators in Star Wars.
So the short answer is: Palpatine did it because he thought Padme could be easily manipulated. That works for me!
Shmi’s Slavery
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question even I never thought of! There are a few possiblities that immediately come to mind.
Perhaps after the celebration at the end of Ep I, Padme mentioned to the Jedi Masters present that she would like to free Anakin's mother. Maybe they told her not to. Some of them (including Yoda) still feared Anakin's current attachment to her may lead to the Dark Side as it was. Maybe they felt strongly that he should remain separate from her to eventually learn to accept their separation. If Shmi was freed she could be out and about in the galaxy and Anakin may run into her. Maybe they felt that her being a slave on Tatooine, which was outside the Republic, would prevent their interaction as long as they made sure that Anakin never went to that panet. Cold? Yes, but the Jedi Order at the time discouranged Jedi having relationships with or any contact at all with family members. I'm not saying it is right or wrong, but that is just the way it was.
I don't see Padme as personally wealthy. Her family are simple folk and maybe the queen job is done for the honor of serving your people and not for the money.
Maybe being a public official Padme felt it was necessary to go through offical governmental channels for this expenditure, especially if there had been recent scandle with another goverment official abusing his power with personal expenditures. Maybe the request was stymied at a bureaucratic level (maybe Palpatine was behind that - I envision Palpatine manipulating the Sand People to capture Shmi to encourage Anakin's walk down the path of the Dark Side, so maybe Palpatine wanted Shmi to stay on Tatooine).
Another possiblity is that maybe Padme did return to Tatooine, without the knowledge or acceptance of the Jedi. Maybe when she got there, Watto refused her offer. Maybe she went as high as she could. But if Watto lost everything as he indicated in Ep I, you'd think he'd be happy to make some quick cash, right? Maybe there other things going on. Maybe Palpatine was manipulating things agai. I may seem to use that excuse a lot, but if he wasn't behind a lot of the stuff than happens then he is just extremely lucky that all these coincidences keep happening that help him get Anakin to betray the Jedi and take over the Republic.
(I do have a specific radical idea about what exactly may have been going on for Watto to keep Shmi at all costs at that time, but I'm not going to reveal that to the public just yet.)
10 years later, maybe Padme didn't tell Anakin that she had tried but failed to free his mother because she thought it might upset him more (espcially if it was the Jedi forbode it reason). Or then again, maybe she did tell him off-screen and he appreciated her trying (and loved her even more for it). Either way, after discussing Anakin's nightmares they go to Tatooine because they have every reason to believe that she would still be there. And maybe Padme has even more sympathy for him after he slaughtered the sand people tribe because she feels guilty that she didn't try harder or keep trying over the years to free Shmi.
The Planet Core
ReplyDeleteGood call. Yeah, you have begun to answer your question there. Being an armchair cosmologist myself, I never took that literally. And no, it wouldn't have made any sense at all for the battle droid invaionary force to land on the other side of the planet. And besides, at the end of the movie they seems to be not to incredibly far from the capital city of the Naboo.
I just envision that the expression "through the planet core" was just a fanciful Gungan description of a underwater path to the capital city on Naboo that did involve going through some underwater cave networks. It wasn't literlally through the planet core. Misleading? Yeah, but only to those that don't have the imagination to at least think that there might be an explanation for whay that expression was used.
IIRC, the EU actually took that literally and stated that unlike every other known terrestrial planet, the planet Naboo has water in the planet's core. Star Wars is fantasy, but come on. That is just plain utterly redicuous!
I originally posted this under the out-of-universe comment but it dissappeared, so posting it again...
ReplyDeleteElected Monarch - in-universe reason
I agree that it would make more sense to have a 14 year-old queen if it was hereditary and her parents had been killed, so she had to assume power earlier than expected. Real world history has a ton of examples of that. So the real question is, why would Naboo democratically elect a 14 year-old to be their leader?
EU material has indicated that the average age that most human societies consider children to be adults is age 16 in the SW Galaxy. So Padme is only a couple years younger than that in Ep I. IIRC, it is indicated by either the films or the EU that it is traditional for all Naboo children to go into "public service" of some kind as part of their education and indoctrination into their society's values. Most children do not achieve any high office, and when their time is up they go into apprenticeships into whatever career filed they are interested in. A few continue in public service and may eventually work their wany into higher govermental offices in adulthood. But in Padme's case, she may have started a little younger than usual, and exceeded far beyond the expectations of her society's standards. She was a childhood genius when it came to goverment. She became very popular among the people and rapidly rose through the ranks.
Not buying it? Yeah, that's still a bit thin.
In either a prequel novel to Ep I or the Ep I novelization (can't remember which), it is suggested that Palpatine secretly may even had something to do with Padme's election to queen. The previous elected monarch mysteriously gave up his office long before it was over which left an vacancy that immediately needed filled, and then somehow this bright teenager becomes the next ruler of the planet. This is not explicit in Ep I, but it is supported by the dialogue of Darth Sidious describing Padme as "young and naive" and thus easy to control. He also reacted that he return to Naboo was unexpected beause it was too aggressive. It is obvious from the film that Sidious/Palpatine viewed Padme as a pawn in his plot which makes it easy to believe that he could be responsible for her rise to power behind the scenes.
And then according to canon she doesn't become a galactic senator until 8 years after Ep I at age 22. Leia became a seator at age 18, so there are still no known children senators in Star Wars.
So the short answer is: Palpatine did it because he thought Padme could be easily manipulated. That works for me!
Elected Monarch - in-universe reason
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would make more sense to have a 14 year-old queen if it was hereditary and her parents had been killed, so she had to assume power earlier than expected. Real world history has a ton of
examples of that. So the real question is, why would Naboo democratically elect a 14 year-old to be their leader?
EU material has indicated that the average age that most human societies consider children to be adults is age 16 in the SW Galaxy. So Padme is only a couple years younger than that in Ep I. IIRC, it is
indicated by either the films or the EU that it is traditional for all Naboo children to go into "public service" of some kind as part of their education and indoctrination into their society's values. Most children do
not achieve any high office, and when their time is up they go into apprenticeships into whatever career filed they are interested in. A few continue in public service and may eventually work their wany into
higher govermental offices in adulthood. But in Padme's case, she may have started a little younger than usual, and exceeded far beyond the expectations of her society's standards. She was a childhood genius
when it came to goverment. She became very popular among the people and rapidly rose through the ranks.
Not buying it? Yeah, that's still a bit thin.
In either a prequel novel to Ep I or the Ep I novelization (can't remember which), it is suggested that Palpatine secretly may even had something to do with Padme's election to queen. The previous elected
monarch mysteriously gave up his office long before it was over which left an vacancy that immediately needed filled, and then somehow this bright teenager becomes the next ruler of the planet. This is not
explicit in Ep I, but it is supported by the dialogue of Darth Sidious describing Padme as "young and naive" and thus easy to control. He also reacted that he return to Naboo was unexpected beause it was too
aggressive. It is obvious from the film that Sidious/Palpatine viewed Padme as a pawn in his plot which makes it easy to believe that he could be responsible for her rise to power behind the scenes.
And then according to canon she doesn't become a galactic senator until 8 years after Ep I at age 22. Leia became a seator at age 18, so there are still no known children senators in Star Wars.
So the short answer is: Palpatine did it because he thought Padme could be easily manipulated. That works for me!