A meaning of "The Phantom Menace" that hasn't been mentioned before

The Phantom Menace =

Shmi gives birth to Anakin Skywalker, even though there was no father!

 

"Sidious is NOT a phantom menace. He is a very, very real memace, despite the fact that no one knows he exists. The phantom menace is the TF, since it is not a real menace but rather a contrived one"

I beg to differ. In all but one of his scenes, Sidious appears as a hologram. We (almost) never see him in the flesh, and we certainly don't discover his identity in this film. Thus, the phantom menace.

The Trade Federation is indeed a phantom menace, as it isn't the real threat. Palpatine uses it as the means to an end.

But, of course, the title works on many levels. At its base level, it refers to Sidious. It can be applied to the main bad guys, and even a few of the good guys. It could also be applied to Darth Vader - we hear his ominious breathing at the end of the credits: the shadow of the Dark Lord hangs over the events of TPM.