PT Doug walkers review of The Phantom Menace

Well that's the consequence of putting a piece of work out. Someone's going to latch onto it and if they don't like it, harp on what they don't like. Blame Lucas for apparently not hiring better writers and assigning someone else to direct the movies. Can it get tiring, sure, sure, but...well...yeah.

 

OK, but don't expect a serious discussion about it.

 

I sort of like Doug , but he's biased in many things ,unfortunately .
BTW I did not agree with his complaints here at all .

 

I love how people act George is racist saying jar jar is a "stereotype" and he gave mace a purple lightsaber but keep in mind.

Samual L Jackson asked FOR THAT COLOR!

and

George is married to a black woman, pretty sure he doesn't hate black people -_-

Nostalgia critic never makes sense, I mean when did Sidious want her to sign the treaty?? He was manipulating the invasion!

Bad acting? Look at his acting.

And episode 4 didn't make sense and full of plot holes? Lol, these internet critics that think they know more about the universe then the maker. Unless this is dragonball, you don't know more then the creator. -_-

 

He said as much to Gunray. Don't you remember it?

SIDIOUS
“I want that treaty signed!”

He wanted that treaty signed so he could make the invasion legal.

It's the job of the creator to make SURE there are no plot holes. If there are, the critics will call them out on it.

 

No critic said he wanted the queen to sign it, which he didn't at all. That's what I was correcting.

 

Why are they even doing it. The last prequel came out more than 10 years ago, if they're really so awful and forgettable why remind us about that? What's the point? They do it for a specific audience (disgruntled OT fanboys) and probably because, unless they're stupid, they know there's still a lot of people who do like the prequels, especially kids and they need to be educated that their opinion is wrong.

 

Its not like George didnt try to get others to direct his films. I cant find the link right now, but he did ask several people to help him direct.

 

Yeah they all said "Just do it George". He did get some help with writing (and, honestly, it's not that bad. I've certainly heard worse in the blockbusters).
There were also disputes with DGA and WGA that limited his options.

 

Meh. I think his points are perfectly valid. Particularly the one about the plot.

Overall I think the PT is OK. Not great, not horrible. Though for me, TPM is the most heavily flawed. All the movies are flawed, I will concede that (and so does this critique). The Star Wars "universe" is what I think is great, and what captures the imagination, for me anyway. But as he says, the OT has some stiff performances and awkward dialogue too. But pointing out a weakness of the OT doesn't mean it isn't a weakness of the PT too, but I think he was at least fair to acknowledge that the OT is flawed too.

As far as racism goes. No I don't think Lucas is racist, but I do think Gunray's voice was very close to a stereotypical Asian accent, this often gets expanded to the Neimoidians as a whole erroneously, as Lott Did and Runs Haako didn't register with me as having the same kind of voice. Jar Jar is often labeled a racial stereotype, but I never understood a stereotype of who. I think Caribbean populations are the ones he is most associated with in critiques. But I dont see it, since he just strikes me as an alien that talks like a child. And I thought Lucas even said some of the words were derived from his child's made up words.

As far as plot though. I feel like he is on the money, and I dont believe "it was easy to understand."

As is stated, in the OT, the Empire was just evil. It wanted to rule through fear with a super weapon. We hear that the Jedi were all killed but don't know why other than just because the Empire was evil. We didn't know whether the Empire conquered the Republic, or if it was a revolution, or if The Clone Wars had anything to do with it, etc.

It was just black and white.

In TPM we are just given this Trade Federation blockading Naboo and that the Senate is debating this and Gunray tells the Jedi it is perfectly legal.

I can regurgitate back to you that the plot is that Palpatine ordered the Trade Federation to blockade the planet and launch an invasion in order to force Amidala to sign a treaty legalizing the occupation so that Palpatine could use the incident to expose Valorum's ineffectiveness and get him removed from office.

But that has so many gaps in it. Whereas I could accept the black/white good and evil, this is a complicated string of relationships between Naboo, Republic, Jedi, Sith and Trade Federation that is never really explained.

OK. Naboo is part of the Republic, and so is the Trade Federation. The Republic is discussing enforcing a tax on trade routes and the Trade Federation doesn't like this and so blockades Naboo... Why? Why Naboo? Because Sidious said so? What does the Trade Federation get out of that? Why is blockading a planet ostensibly legal? Does UPS get to blockade the movement of all goods out of the US if legislation is passed that they don't like? I mean, they can shut down their own services in protest, but can they blockade the USPS? Did the Naboo have an agreement with the Trade Federation such that all trade was conducted through them? That would make the blockade/refusal to freeze Naboo trade legal, but no such arrangement between the TF and Naboo is ever implied. Were other planets being blockaded? Why Naboo?

When the Darth Plagueis novel came out, several reviews praised it for clarifying what TPM was about. And it had something to do with Naboo's plasma. But where the hell was plasma ever mentioned in the movie?

I know Lucas kept extensive notes. Dave Filoni had mentioned it several times during TCW'S run that he would have a notebook filled with notes that he'd bring to story meetings and Pablo Hidalgo had said that Lucas' notes were consulted when making Rebels.

So Plagueis being a Muun, the name Mon Cala, the first Sith being an ex Jedi that fell 2,000 years earlier, the clones being replaced by patriotic enlisted men and women, etc. All came out of such notes.

So I'm sure when Lucas sat down and wrote TPM, he had a more coherent story in mind about why the Trade Federation was interested in Naboo. I mean his whole plot revolved around a trade cartel blockading Naboo without showing how these two parties relate.

Qui-Gon says it doesn't make sense. So then there is the argument that from the outside it would just look entirely random. But this wasn't said until after the Trade Federation had landed troops. That move may not have been seen as making sense, but the opening crawl makes it sound like the blockade has been in place and had been being debated for a while. And there obviously seems to be some gray area where the blockade could be legal, but this glaring detail is never addressed.

If the thing about plasma came from Lucas (I don't know that it did), then it would answer why the TF was interested in Naboo and explain Palpatine's end of the bargain.

If the Trade Federation had exclusive shipping rights to Naboo, then that would make the blockade legal and could result in a moral vs legal debate in the Senate, but how these two groups relate on the central issue is never addressed.

All we are told is that the TF is angry over taxes and blockades this random planet in protest and that the Senate debates what to do. We are never told why this is even up for debate (had Gunray met with the Jedi in the beginning and given some exposition before the plot moved forward with the attempt to kill them, then this would have solved the issue).

And if the TF wanted to control the plasma supply or something, then that could have come up between Gunray and Sidious.

As is, I feel like Lucas gave a brutally incomplete picture of what was going on, despite trying to make a political situation more complex and less black and white as the OT's.

And if the TF was doing something illegal, that's for courts to decide, not the Senate. If the Senate had passed legislature that the TF capitalized on that made their blockade legal (like granting the Trade Federation exclusive rights to handle the logistics of trade in that sector), with the Senate then trying to repeal those laws, then again, that would answer things. But we don't get an answer.

 

Sigh. The TF is clearly a space East Indie Tranding Company, a qusi-govenment corporation, corporation that has become so powerful it has become a qusi-government and can sign treaties, declare war, and outweight rule its trade territories. Naboo was a soft target with only a small security force, very easy to take or so it seemed to the TF. Trade taxes aren't just a way for govenments to make money, they also use trade taxes to control trade and help their GDP, basic knowledge really. This is so because trade taxes always have the side effect of increasing costs while lowering demand, a double whamy for importers.

Basically, these mega qusi-government corporations like the TF are getting out of control, especially with their private armies to force their interests. So the Republic tries to reign in their power by imposing trade taxes. The TF doesn't like the Republic putting their foot down on the TF's power and profits, so they try to strong arm the Republic to lift the taxes by holding Naboo hostage. By invading they either get the taxes lifted, or Naboo and its resources stays under their control. In real history, the British govenment became concerned that the East Indie Company, which pretty much ruled India, was growing too powerful and it took them years to finally contrail the company's power. Some of TPM's plot is also based on how Dole, a businessman overthrew the last queen of Hawail.

As for Lucas notes, it is well know he would jolt all of his ideas on notes, including ones he rejected and would contradict with the final films.

 

That is a non answer as the East India Trading Companies represented the economic interests of countries.

E.G. The Dutch East India Company. Yes, they had military force and yes they would coerce FOREIGN countries into treaties to gain monopolies on resources or gain access to ports. And they were cartels to control prices on goods whose supply could swing wildly due to piracy and changes in supply.

That analogy falls apart when the Trade Federation (a member of the Republic Senate) establishes a blockade against Naboo (a member of the Republic Senate) to resolve a Senate dispute over the taxation of outlying trade routes..

There is no real world analogy I can think of in which the Dutch East India company ever blockaded a Dutch port due to economic decisions made by the Dutch government and in which the Dutch government would be debating the legality of the blockade.

Who is the Trade Federation trying to hurt? The Republic Senate or Naboo?

If they are protesting taxation of trade routes, why punish Naboo? Or if Naboo has some good that is incredibly high in demand, or if it is a major trade port, then blockading Naboo could be intended to hurt the Republic Senate by depriving them of high demand goods. The way the crawl is worded makes it sounds like the goal was to hurt Naboo and that this would somehow resolve the issue of taxation. Was Palpatine the guy spearheading the taxation proposal with the TF wanting to blackmail with the blockade? Apparently not, since Palpatine criticizes the Senate's approval of taxes as the catalyst for his planet's predicament.

Other than being a militarized trade cartel, the comparison with the East India Companies ends there.

You assume that the Trade Federation just was strong and a big bully and blockaded Naboo because it was greedy.

It says right in the opening crawl that the blockade was in response to taxation and Nute Gunray tells Qui-Gon that the blockade is perfectly legal. That's like the Dutch East India Company blockading Amsterdam because the government passed some law they didn't like, but then the government also rules the blockade is legal.

You'd have a better analogy if the Trade Federation was bullying Tatooine and forcing them into a treaty, but the problem there is the rulers of Tatooine wouldn't have a voice in the Republic Senate and the Republic Senate probably wouldn't care. Jabba wouldn't be getting a sympathy vote.

Saying they are analogous to the East India Trading Companies does not account for anything more than the fact that they are armed cartels. It ignores the drastically different political climate of cartels strong arming foreign governments in the real world, while invading a member of the same government with a superficially legal blockade in the Star Wars universe.

Recall that Gunray was hesitant to invade Naboo because it was illegal. He didn't want to do anything that was illegal. The blockade however was legal. Nobody ever said otherwise. Gunray says in the beginning that it's legal. Why is that legal for a member of the Republic to cut off all trade to another member of the Republic in opposition to a decision made by the Republic Senate? That is never answered.

And even going the route of saying that to understand the political climate of Star Wars and recognizing what the Trade Federation is requires basic knowledge of things like the East India Trading Companies, well the juxtaposition of a villain like that with poop and fart jokes I feel validates his argument that the tone in TPM is just awkwardly split between unnecessarily complicated politics that I wouldn't expect any kid to really know anything about (because even with some knowledge of those companies, I am still lost as to what the background of the whole TPM conflict is), and yet a very young kid friendly tone.

Obviously there are people out there that this doesn't bother, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I just find TPM to stick out like a sore thumb compared to the other films in what I consider flaws.

 

The review was fair and in the end, he encouraged everyone who likes the movie to own it and be proud of it.

He also called "childhood raped" on their bull****.

He is a great and fair reviewer and has made a video on the stuff from the prequels he liked.

He didn't like them, but he also says they're not close to the worst thing ever like some people say...He deserves an opinion as much as any of us

Today he criticized the **** out of TFA

 

You are confusing the Dutch east indie trading company with the British one which did attack and took over various kingdoms in India and put down uprisings. All the planets in the Republic are still their own sovereigns, and the TF is a sovereignty in its own right. It is one sovereignty attacking another sovereignty with the Republic much like a UN. People don't complain how in Dune one house could attack and wipe out another house despite being under the same Emperor's government. In Star Wars case it is a trade dispute that escalates.

The TF blockaded Naboo because they only had a small security force, a soft target. They were trying to strong arm the senate to repeal the taxes. Yes they are hurting Naboo to force the senate to respond in the TF ' S favor. What the Naboo exports, or if it a trade hub, etc, is simply a tired red herring. The point is blockading a planet is a crisis in of itself.

I am not assuming anything, the TF is a big greedy bully that wants free trade and no Republic interference in trade or the TF affairs.

You assume the Naboo and the TF are the same sovereignty? That is weird and not what the film presents, they are both members of the Republic and that is it. But they are separate entities and sovereigns.

The blockade was still a trade dispute and still in legal territory, invading and subjecting a planet is an act of out weight war instead of trade disputes.

Just the fact that a militarized mega corporation even exists is a major failing on the Republic's part, as it is a flawed and failing government.

You didn't even address how the Dole company pretty much just took over Hawaii which they wanted anex, to the US.

The politics isn't complex are hard to understand at all. A big trade company is pissed off the senate passed trade taxes so it tries to strong arm the senate to repeal them by holding a lightly defended world hostage. There really isn't a problem here, but some want there to be one and attempt to claim such. But all these attempts to claim TPM politics are too complex to understand always fall apart.

I was 14 when I first saw TPM and fully understood the simple politics after the first viewing. The pt isn't supposed to be the overly simplistic black and white of the OT.

 

Thats why i like him. He´s most of the time fair in his reviews and dont judge you if you like something he doesnt. I still dislike that he called people that enjoyed them delusional, but his review is much better than RLM and other prequel reviews.

 

Yeah it was uncalled for of him to say that. He probably said it to maintain his "nerd cred." As for the politics of TPM, it can be broken down to government overeach vs unchecked corporate powers, both choices aren't good ones, a very grey paradox.

 

So too did the Dutch. But again, you are talking about foreign governments. The British back then weren't really going to care so much about a company going and opening up ports and acquiring resources in Asia. The opening of new resources in trade, and the spread of influence, and establishing monopolies over foreign competitors are completely different than what we see in the PT. Completely.

The comparison to the UN is weak at best. As the Supreme Chancellor has way more authority over the Republic than we see with leaders in the UN. There isn't a centralized UN army for instance, but has a peacekeeping force comprised of individuals of members' armed forces. If members of the UN tried to split, I don't think you'd people scrambling to fight a war over it in the same way that the American Civil War viewed secession as illegal and did result in a war. The members are sovereign, but they do have a collective identity that is far stronger than a UN comparison.

I never stated such. I said they are part of the same galactic government. Which is what is shown in the films. They both hold seats in the same government. And one member went to war over another member, over the passing of legislation and yet this is said to be a legal act or at the very least is in a gray area such that the Senate does not unite in Naboo's aid against the blockade.

A blockade is an act of war. A member of the Republic is essentially declaring war on another member of the Republic, and their casus belli is because they disagree with taxes imposed by the Senate? There is no logic to that. I'm angry with the Senate so I'm going to go to war with Naboo, a member state of the Republic. You would think that the Republic would have some kind of mutual defense system in place to protect its members. I mean, the Republic Army protects its members in The Clone Wars. If Naboo has been invaded as is the victim of an act of war, with the Trade Federation being the aggressor, then you would think that the Republic would flock to Naboo's defense, but instead the blockade is legal and I'm sure the Senate is not ruling that a blockade in protest of the Senate's authority is legal.

There is no way that would ever be considered legal. But it arguably was according to dialogue in the film. There is no reason to think that such a course of action would ever be productive in the real world. If the United Nations passed some resolution that a member didn't like, and said member went and blockaded another member in protest to try to get the UN to reverse its decision, that makes sense to you? And that's assuming that the Republic is like the UN, when the status of its members seems to lay somewhere between independent nations and federated states.

The Senate is said to have been debating over the series of events that had transpired, with Gunray asserting that the blockade is legal. We have no reason to think it isn't. But if the Trade Federation infringed upon the sovereignty of a member of the Republic merely because they disagreed with a policy passed by that governing body, that would never be legal.

On top of this, it is implied that Palpatine is a very influential figure. He wasn't some nobody that gets elected because his planet gets invaded. He would have had to have already been a prominent figure that uses the invasion of his homeworld to put him at the forefront of Republic politics and to discredit Valorum, his main rival. Padme also alludes to Valorum and Naboo having had an amicable past as he had been their strongest supporter. But Palpatine gets Padme to turn her back on him, I'm guessing like the fall out between Julius and Pompey. I can understand that a "sympathy" vote may have given Palpatine the edge over the other front contenders for the Chancellorship, but he had to have been a very influential figure already to even be considered a candidate. Hell, the whole Senate turns on Valorum when Amidala calls for a vote of no confidence against him. The Senate obviously had issues with Valorum and the moment a call against him is made based on Amidala's word alone, the Senate rallies behind Palpatine. They wouldn't rally behind a nobody.

So Naboo may have been weak, but Paplatine was influential. But even that is a conclusion that must be arrived at based on what is implied and safe assumptions, because frankly Palpatine wasn't shown to do much of anything on screen. He merely made an accusation against the TF and whispered in Padme's ear. Then next we see he is a contender for the Chancellorship, and then elected Chancellor.

So no, I don't buy that Naboo was a target because it was weak. You don't hold some unimportant planet hostage and expect results. You blockade strategically significant targets. But what was the value of Naboo? It is never stated to really have any.

Why was the blockade legal? Why was an act of war legal? Why was the Senate's hands tied such that Valorum had to send Jedi in secret? And where were they anyway when it came time to go before the Senate and reveal their findings?

The answer is a very weak one: corruption. But even someone like Lott Dod would have to go before the Senate and defend why the blockade is reasonable. And I would have to assume that he doesn't go before the Senate and say "we are blockading Naboo (an act of war) because a Senate majority voted in favor of taxation of outlying trade routes and we disagree!"

I'd imagine it would have to be something more like the previous king signing an exclusive trade agreement with the Trade Federation, then there is discussion in the Senate about taxing the outlying trade routes and taxes are raised, the Trade Federation ups its price in response, Amidala tries to back out of the agreement, and then the Trade Federation blockades the planet to enforce the legally binding agreement, with the Senate debating over what to do next. That would make sense. That would give a complete picture of a corrupt TF that was still engaging in a legal blockade, why the Senate would be split, why Palpatine could go to the Senate and blame his planet's predicament on events that began in the Senate. And it would have taken like two minutes, if that of additional exposition that Palpatine could have fired off at Lott Dod.

But that is just an idea off the top of my head.

You could have also told the exact same story only replaced Trade Federation with Hutt Cartel. The Hutts are raiding Naboo. The Senate isn't contributing enough resources to do anything about it. Valorum sends Jedi. Naboo gets occupied. The heroes go to Tatooine and there is unease because the Hutts would be looking for them. There is backlash against Valorum. Amidala goes back and frees her planet with the help of the Jedi. Essentially the same plot without the convoluted politics. Planet gets invaded by greedy pillagers, this time OUTSIDE of the Republic, Republic doesn't really do anything about it (think Roman Empire and Germanic invaders instead of weird UN analogy) and it marks the decline of the Republic and fuels the secessionist movement.

There are multiple ways to tell to arrive at the exact same destination, and Lucas IMO chose one filled with awkward politics that weren't even developed fully. And a quick Google search will reveal that I'm not the only one that feels this way.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/223-star-wars/62037563
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120803122309AAh9kIO
https://www.quora.com/In-Star-Wars-...xplain-why-the-Trade-Federation-invades-Naboo

Plus many more

The answers to how the Invasion of Naboo fits into anything varies from Palpatine testing the droid army to explanations from Darth Plagueis (which apparently argues that Palpatine was in favor of the taxes), to shallow answers about Palpatine wanting Amidala to make a vote of confidence against Valorum (which neither addresses how the TF is allowed to do this nor accounts for Sidious sending Maul to stop Amidala), etc.

A recurring theme though is that there are a lot of people confused by the partial picture that Lucas presents. What Palpatine is after and what he hopes to achieve is easier to discern. What isn't is why the Trade Federation commits what in the real world would be an act of war in protest of a legally binding decision. Yet said act of war is said to be legal, which would suggest there is a just cause against Naboo that we never learn about.

Again, one of the high praises of the Plagueis novel was that it actually gave the background info for the conflict that Lucas omitted. His idea could have worked much better if he offered better exposition rather than just moving things along with submarines running from progressively bigger fish.

 

The TF is very much a space indie trade company, you may not like it but that is what they are. The idea is the whole situration is supposed to be very unusual which is why the senate is deadlocked about doing anything, they don't know how to handle it besides whatever string Sids is pulling to keep things deadlocked. Remember at this point the Republic doesn't have its own army yet, only the Jedi who are a peace keeping force. This is why Varlum tries to secertly bypass the senate by standing two Jedi to defuse the matter quickly, but Sids saw that it didn't happen.

You are also wrong about the Brtish not caring abot the ETC, the British government was growing very concerned about the ETC, and passed laws limiting its power over time. This is why there are laws to prevent modern day corporations from reaching a qusi-government level, but it seems the Republic either lacks such laws or doesn't enforce them which is a major failure on their part. Much like the Brtish government and the ETC, the Republic passed trade taxes to control the TF, that is what trade taxes do, they control imports by artifically rasing prices and lowering demand to hurt them. The Republic decided to hurt the TF's power by passing new taxes and the TF was pissed, it is that simple.

It makes sense to me, the TF took its gloves off and was strong arming the senate. This implies the Republic and the mega corporations have been at odds for awhile and things were reaching the boiling point and Sids took advantage of this. In US history, Fed troops were sent into Utah to put down the Mormons know as the Utah war, and the National Guard were almost sent into Chicago to take the city back from the Chicago police force who were owned by the mob during the 20s and 30s. Also with the Hatfield McCoy feud, WV's governor threaten to invade Kentucky despite being the same country! So I don't know how you can claim there is no such president when there is. Lucas is a big history buff.

As for the blockade being legal or not, it could be very well it was just the TF claiming it was and the senate was deadlocked over if it really was or not. Again this was a very unusually situration that the senate didn't know how to handle plus the TF likely had more power in the senate than the Naboo did. The whole senate scene was to show how corrupt, ineffective, and bloated the senate has become, that the Republic was failing. Also I fail to see how corruption is a weak answer. One of the themes of the PT is how a democracy devolves into a dictatorship. Again you may not like it but it isn't weak.

For your agreement idea, the Naboo would be fairly binded to the TF contract and the senate would side with the TF, case closed, there is anything debatable about it. Plus TF would still be hurt and mad at the Republic since trade taxes always drives down demand, forcing the TF to lower prices to sell its goods while stomaching the higher costs from the taxes causing a huge loss of profit margins by two factors. So with this concept both the Naboo and the TF would be pissed at the Republic making things more complex rather than mainly the TF being pissed at the Republic for imposing its will onto free trade. This also makes the Republic less corrupt which goes againt the themes of the PT as the Republic is a failing government. Instead in the film it is two sides not fully in the right with poor Naboo caught in the middle.

As for the Hutts, there would be less debate over that since they would be outside invaders and the Jedi would simply be sent in force to stop them. Personally I find the Hutt idea very weak. The hutts would not have the resources or the armies that the mega corporations have, plus Palps plays the mega corporations against the Jedi since he wants to wipe both out as both are threats to his dream of a Sith Empire that controls everything including trade.

I don't really give a flying turd what EU sources says as they often try to alter the film narrative in strange ways. All the EU explanations cover spurious stuff, it is all red herrings. The film explains enough, it is government overeach onto private enterprise and free trade vs greedy corporations who want to abuse private enterprise and free trade and the failure of the invisible hand (the economic theory, not the CIS flagship). Sids picked Naboo because he was its senetor and wanted the sympathy vote to give him an edge and because it was lightly defended world with who he view had a easy to control leader, Padme who he thought was young and naive.

Valorum already had allegations against him and was unpopular, barely holding onto his seat and no longer had the power to directly confront Lott Dodd to resolve the Naboo matter. This is why he roles over in favor of a commission which Lott pushes to stall for more time, time the Naboo didn't have. In the scene you can see Palps is almost drooling, this is the moment he was waiting for, just use the the young and naive queen who is desprete to save her people to start the voting against Valorum. The thing is there really isn't a problem unless you want there to be a problem. Just because there isn't a problem does not mean you are bound to like it either.

 

Just as a matter of curiosity, there are many instances in history in which kings have been elected, e.g. Hugo Capet. It was usually done due to political unrest, in which the noblemen voted among themselves the crown. Nevertheless, this matters very little, since Naboo is an alien world that operates within a particular culture. I've always assumed it to work as many of the Presidential Parliamentary systems around the world work: you elect both the Head of State (in the real world, the President; in Naboo, the Queen) and the Head of Government (in the real world, the Prime Minister; in Naboo, the Governor). The Governor (Prime-minister) would assemble the government and actively run it, but all executive orders must come from the Queen (the President). You are free to think of another scenario though, if you think the real world comparison is unimaginative.

But it's not downgraded. The Force aren't the Midichlorians, it speaks through the Midichlorians, which is made very clear by Qui-Gon's dialogue. The Force is still as mysterious as ever.

Except many people around the world are as shocked as Anakin when they find out (and they have seen Sidious onscreen). It may be obvious to you, sitting on the audience, but it is certainly implausible for the characters. When you consider Anakin grew up around this very calm, flattering politician, it seems perfectly normal that he wouldn't suspect him.

The Gungans having a representative is perfectly in line with what we saw in the previous movie: Boss Nass' alliance with Padme is implied to have generated peace between the two cultures, and naturally the Gungans would want a representative on the Senate. Considering that Jar Jar is a war hero among his people, I don't see what is so far fetched.

Senator Bail Organa is physically present in AOTC and also present when Palpatine makes the innuendo that only Padme would be so bold to propose Emergency Powers. And he does not volunteer, instead looking kind of uncomfortable to be there. Either way, he can't possibly replace Padme as the Senator of Naboo because he is already the Senator of Alderaan.

Because we know that no one has ever married an unstable individual.

Or you can also see our politician main character as an allegory for democracy itself, which gradually loses agency as the trilogy progresses. TPM Padme is very different than ROTS Padme, because 13 years have elapsed between. I don't see that as a bad thing at all.

Completely agree that nothing is perfect and that these movies have flaws, including plot holes. These reasons you've listed, though, do not strike me as examples of them.

As for Doug's review, which is the main topic of the thread, I generally find to be very much like most of his other reviews: randomly stated opinions with very little explaining of how he came to those conclusions. Nevertheless, I do like his style, his tone of voice, and I do find his videos to be funny from time to time. I just don't take their content all that seriously. This is pretty much how I feel by his TPM/AOTC/ROTS reviews. It's a collection of very broad claims, presented in a somewhat amusing way.

 

Ouch!

But I have to say, I see where you're coming from, G-FETT!

Indeed.

I don't think Doug Walker is a bad person, or even that difficult to listen to, but he does make an amusing mix of claims: ranging from things I agree with, to things I find inaccurate or wrong, to things that are condescending, to bizarre remarks with no basis in scientific fact.

I mean, being a fan of the series, yet disliking pseudoscience, puts me in a bit of a quagmire, but I have to just pass comment on this remark of his:

"I can even make a small argument for the midi-chlorians. It's been proven that a lot of people that seem to have a spiritual essence (sic) or a lot of energy (sic), the water in their blood is affected." (begins 3:30)

Er... what????!!!!!

This is the strangest defence of midi-chlorians I've ever heard. Flat-out ridiculous claim based on undefined/non-sense terms; and pseudoscientific gibberish regarding human blood. Water in the blood affected? How?

I've no idea where Doug Walker pulled that bizarre claim from, but it isn't a scientific claim, at all. Even what Lucas based the midi-chlorians on isn't entirely scientific (the endosymbiotic theory of life/life systems), but it's a heck of a lot more credible -- and more compelling -- than that pitifully clumsy extrapolation of Walker's (and it has the advantage of having reliable evidence and argumentation in its favour). Walker's claim is bunkum on multiple levels. Pure flapdoodle effluvium.

And okay, it's one silly, wayward remark, which doesn't make a lick of sense (so why be angry about it?), but it also reveals the acute lack of intellectual engagement with the very thing he's critiquing (or, in that case, feebly attempting to defend). In sixteen years, he's never bothered to explore Lucas' motives, or develop a critical mindset (critical in the non-populist, intellectual sense of the word). And I find that that typifies detraction against these films, in the main.

On the other hand, it is nice of him to acknowledge that TPM represents an "unfiltered" expression of an artist's vision, and he doesn't go the "money-grubbing *******" route that once characterized almost every broad bash against these movies. He is at least mature enough to point that out and spend a moment explicating his view.

A more surreal moment occurs when he talks about the "Emperor [having] no clothes", during which an image of Amidala in one of her elaborate gowns, spinning round to face Palpatine, is shown. Kind of funny. Then he goes on to say: "For a lot of fans, this was the bursting of the bubble, the ending of the fairy tale, the (sic) having to face real life", which is accompanied by a shot of the TF tanks firing at the Gungan bubble shields (off-screen), then a medium close-up of Padme in the Senate, speaking and in that very moment finding herself stymied by a corrupt political process. It's like some unconscious acknowledgement, on his part, that the film does have a serious, engaging narrative, but instead of talking about it, he mines imagery that undergirds his pontifications, for humour. I'm amused he used that particular moment. And the image that follows is manifestly fantastical: Jedi twisting and slicing droids in a blaze of colour. Also amusing.

No-one can really give a fully conscious accounting of these movies. They're too dense, too strange. But critics of these movies happen to alight on truths regardless.

I'll add that the music he uses is very soothing and a bit unexpected.

Shame he had to be rather insulting about the alleged "racist stereotypes", though. People who enjoy the film aren't intellectual inferiors. And I'm not about to take such an accusation -- real or perceived -- from someone who advances intellectual horse-**** concerning airy topics like spirituality and pithy attempts to find justifications in the human body for empty beliefs.

Anyway, whatever. It's an okay video for what it is. Fun to parse out some of the comments, but it doesn't amount to a hill of beans, personally.

The only thing that is ultimately rather shameful and depressing about it, in my opinion, like all other such rants, is how it neatly fits into and adds to the anti-intellectual tapestry of mainstream Internet culture. The same culture that impelled Lucas to sell to Disney and brought us to the present moment.

 

In fairness he is reviewing it as himself and not as the NC.

 

He has made a few films, all of which are widely panned by everyone outside of his toxic fanbase.

You can read all about the dirt on them from ED, NSFW. https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Tgwtg