PT Who is the main character of The Phantom Menace?

Tax.

 

Definitely Padme. I see her as the Star.

 

TPM has always felt to me like it didn't really have a central protagonist, it sort of jumps back and forth between the perspectives of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Amidala (and Anakin in the later parts of the film).

 

There isn't really a main character because it's more of an ensemble film like The Magnificent Seven or Oceans 11.

 

Lucas also furthered elaborated here too( directly including Maul):

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/1999/02/star-wars

 

I'M THE GREATEST CHARACTER IN THIS FILM! ME! IT'S ALL ABOUT ME!

"The Phantom Menace is all about Deliveranze and how a good poster goes bad"- George Lucas 1999

 

MASH? Hawkeye Pierce.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING? Frodo Baggins. Also in the other two, but especially in FELLOWSHIP.

As for THE PHANTOM MENACE? That’s easy- the Emperor. He and Jar Jar Binks are the only fully-fledged characters in this movie…and I refuse to give such a distinction to Jar Jar, leaving only the Emperor in the running. Besides, everything that happens in the movie is his doing. As the main driver of the plot, and the movie’s only likable character, the role of protagonist clearly falls to him.

 

Padme was the star of TPM.

 

TPM is definitely an ensemble film, but I do feel that Qui-Gon is the captain of the crew.

 

My take is that it alone intentionally does not have a main character
Likewise, AOTC divides attention pretty much evenly between Obi-Wan's investigation and Anakin and Padme's romance
While ROTS focuses almost solely on Anakin

And it's, like I said, intentional. It's a trilogy. I believe it was never the purpose to analyze one piece of it as a whole. Of course, that's what is going to happen, but GL is a man who really doesn't care about the "rules" of moviemaking or standard conventions of them

This could be said of the entire PT

Because what is the difference between "main character" and "main protagonist"?

I can't speak for all fiction, but in my writing class, we were taught that the main character is the one whose development and emotional journey we follow the most. In this case, Anakin
The main protagonist, be they deemed good, evil, or somewhere in between, is the one who drives the plot by moving against (or even creating) conflict. Conflict is what makes a story. Palpatine is, in his dual role, both the source of the conflict and the figurehead who appears to be fighting against that conflict. It's brilliant. A subversion of film in which our main character is an antagonist, by definition, and doesn't know it, while our main protagonist also shares that role

(A bit off topic, but isn't referring to him as emperor prior to the last act of ROTS a bit incorrect? He starts off as senator before becoming chancellor)

 

People are correct in identifying Qui-Gon as the focal character from whose standpoint we experience most of the action unfolding, but the real protagonist, which is what I would consider the "main character" is Queen Amidala. It's really her story and her struggle, and this comes into full bloom in the final act when she finally defies all the older men around her trying to tell her what to do (including Qui-Gon) and takes control of her own destiny.

Amidala's arc in TPM is very feminist and very empowering, but in a way that feels believable and earned. Amidala spends the majority of the movie as a very flawed character who is overly naive and docile, and that's why her hero's journey works so well. She actually has room to have grown by the end of the film.

 

This is a good reading if one takes a more plain-talking, literature-based reading (and ignores the esoteric flights of fancy I might sometimes go off on).

In fact, you can spin a small thesis out of that and say that the PT is really Amidala's story, as much or more than it is Anakin's. This is interesting if you notice that the first and last appearances of Amidala come before and after Anakin (out of the Vader suit). She brackets the narrative. Moreover, she mysteriously loses the will to live, and her first and last appearances are marked by the suggestion of water, as if she resides in a sort of subconscious or subtextual realm (the rippling viewscreen in TPM, the drowning imagery of the casket in ROTS).

You can also view the prequels as a bit of a tussle between Anakin and Amidala; and, in this regard, they both win by losing. If TPM is Amidala's story, AOTC is a shared story space between Amidala and Anakin (though, in some ways, it is even more about her >> the opening scene). In ROTS, Amidala is more in the shadows (her first scene), and Anakin effectively steals her soul. It is like he is trying to keep symbolic pleasures alive, which he only dully comprehends, by grabbing onto them; leading to tragic results.

A final piece of evidence that it is more Amidala's trilogy is that each prequel film is marked by Amidala taking flight (from Tatooine in II, from Coruscant in I and III), and her ominous arrival on the final planet (or back on the final planet in the case of TPM >> notice how Mustafar is a hellish version of Naboo) lights the touchpaper of the climax to each movie. She nudges mayhem to its explosive realization (kind of like Artoo, the secretive "blue" droid, nudging Threepio, Anakin's babbling "yellow" cowardly-man, into the droid foundry). And this is in each instance in a chrome (silver/mirror) ship.

And then, really...

What are all those decoys about?

 

I like this. "Earned" is very right about Padme. She worked up towards everything in those points in her life.

Feminist and empowering isn't what I would describe. It's more than just that. Well, it is much like that but less on the physical level. More so on the Spiritual Cosmic point of view. If you say she is "empowering" I will say otherwise. Because that's not enough for Padme's relevance in the PT(and all of SW)... I will replace those words with "Embodiment and The True Form of Femininity/Passion". Because lets face it, Padme is literally the true center of the movies, while having this "Female dominant appearance that is equal yet complex and different" throughout the films(even Anikan is subjected to this nature!)

Padme is a character who's perspective very apparent despite her "shadowed" absence in ROTS(by Anikan of course). We always see what she and hear what she is thinking. Ho wonderful that Lucas incorporated the motherly and feminine bonds in the PT when he could've done what others did and put her in the back burner(which would have made more sense, as people didn't even care about knowing Padme much at all considering we wanted to see Anikan and Obiwan as young people) but instead, he built this massive towering character. Which reminds me of this:






"Towering Woman that encompasses the entire heart of the country?"

Haaaaa!

Lucas oh Lucas, I see you're subtly right through you. You can't hide this from me you philosophic, symbolic hiding, in-depth subtle nerd!

It's very much like the OT on how it's just the opposite.

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WOAH!

Hold the damn phone Han solo because this just got serious!

Just realized this....

OT-((Father Of All Masculinity))

PT-((Mother Of All Femininity))

Darth Vader=Father

Obi-Wan=Father

Padme=Mother

Shmi=Mother

My god! See? The full connection! I can't believe I never saw this parallel! It's so strange how both Vader and Padme "die" for their children. Extremely haunting.......

It's like....The PT is some Frankenstein Bride! Except in total reverse of the original monster!

Anikan & Padme are a literal subversion of each other, yet they are a simple compliment. Intertwined between time and space!(literally)!




AHHHHHHHHHHH!

I made this parallel before on a post but not like this!

Well, it was very similar to this one but I missed a key point of the missing "Phantom!"

ROTJ and ROTS come around in the most perfect circle I have seen in a saga! The forms, the poetic and interpretative nature really is making my brain hurt!

Ahh....

I need to stop...It's late...I will be sure to make a post about this later

Maybe here....Maybe I'll post there....Who knows!

 

Fantastic post, Ezon/Quantum!

Yes. I agree with you. It wasn't something that just "happened".

Wonderfully articulated. "Dominant... equal yet complex and different".

Sofia Coppola also plays one of Padme's handmaidens in TPM/"The Beginning" >>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(wisdom)

That is fascinating -- and, what's more, I think you're right. I don't think people wanted to see the "mother" of Luke and Leia and the wife of Anakin anywhere near as much, generally speaking, as they anticipated getting to watch "The Adventures of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi". Lucas went in a different direction and surprised everyone. "Towering character". Yes!

There is also a slight perversity at work here. Some people apparently didn't want Padme to be a sad schlub; and they'd rather the wench had died off-screen. But Padme's fate ties into everything. Wanting her to go and die somewhere else, out of sight, and because she was poisoned or suffering a terminal illness, strikes me as wanting to keep the tapestry of Anakin and Padme separate. A denial of the intensely tragic, symbolic nature of the prequel canvas.

"So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause."


Ironically, it seems that many people have applauded the "death" of the PT and Lucas losing (or surrendering) control of his own artistic liberty.

You could argue, in a stranger sense, Obi-Wan and Shmi also die for their children. Obi-Wan sacrifices himself in conscious defiance of Vader and unconscious tribute to the person he once was; a strangely cold admission/apology that Obi-Wan played an inextricable part in turning Anakin into Vader. And he also lets Vader take his life so that Luke, the son/sun, may begin his ascent. Shmi seems to hold on for Anakin's arrival -- does she call to him in his nightmare on Naboo? And her passing marks his descent. Yet another link between ANH and AOTC, making AOTC a sort of "dark and moody" ANH (like Anakin versus Luke; or Threepio, what with his darker coverings and murderous rampage in the arena, in the middle prequel).

Nourishing stuff. I myself just enjoy the parallels between AOTC and ROTJ.

One thing that links them (there are many links!), at least in terms of texture/revelation >>

Anakin/Vader comes to us most fully, in his altered state, in ROTJ; out of any of the OT movies.

I would argue that AOTC is Anakin at his most revealed, or most complex, in the PT (and the saga generally).

And what's it all about? My focus has been a little on Jar Jar and Gungans and "child-like" elements underscoring Anakin's wholeness. And that, I think, is valid. But there's also Padme. We really only get a sense of Vader's pitiable side in ROTJ. And lo and behold, there is a reference, even if just a fleeting and elusive one, to his wife and the mother of the saga, in a dark bridge scene (good one, George), lit by moonlight (moonlight and lunar cycles being the "feminine" aspect of art and religion to the "masculine" sun), in ROTJ. Just as the OT caps out, it begins to disclose the first real hints of a more complex and awesomely poetic backstory: an ethereal soup in which it is suspended. Mother Myth: a complete mythic universe.

But there's always more to say. One thing that underlines how revelatory AOTC is, aside from its dense topography (crazy colours, five environments instead of the usual three, etc.), is the fact that Anakin never appears with a facial covering or mask in this, and only this, installment. Conversely, Padme does, in an echo of Leia's first appearance in ROTJ (I told you there are many links between these movies), and also an echo of Zam, another ambiguous female who is trying to kill her (or enacting the scheme of male superiors). Similarly, you have day waxing to night, and a protracted nighttime chase sequence, as this female bounty hunter -- the dark feminine -- is sought. Yep, one heck of a poetic saga, alright!

 

I see the Prequels as a cop duo trilogy in a sort of way — much like the Lethal Weapon series. And so there are two main characters in each film. Sorry to say it, but Lucas clearly intended on two main roles all along regardless of what anyone thinks.

TPM: Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi
AOTC and ROTS: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker

 

He's on record as saying that the Queen is the protagonist of TPM. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are simply focal characters like the two droids are for the first fifteen minutes of ANH.

Anakin Skywalker is the unambiguous protagonist of AOTC. His choices drive the action more than anyone else's and he has the most fully fleshed-out character arc. In comparison, Obi-Wan is being led on a wild goose chase and doesn't grow at all as a character by the end of the movie. Obi-Wan isn't even the deuteragonist of AOTC. Padme is, since she actually has her own character arc, slightly secondary in importance to Anakin's, but still there.

 

Love this post. Once again, I think you have a really solid take.

I will add, further to an observation in my last post: "One thing that underlines how revelatory AOTC is, aside from its dense topography (crazy colours, five environments instead of the usual three, etc.), is the fact that Anakin never appears with a facial covering or mask in this, and only this, installment."

It is like Anakin, in being so real, so raw, in AOTC, is constantly making this "life statement" about himself: "I'm me. Here is me. Please help me be me in a greater way." There is a great pain and sensitivity he displays, in a lot of ways, in AOTC.

And I can't help but see that as beautifully, blisteringly ironic. Anakin is really put through his paces in AOTC. He is constantly maimed and afflicted. Tormented by the beauty and incomparable kindness of Padme. Frustrated with Obi-Wan. Desperate to have his approval. In fear he might have been tortured and killed on Geonosis. Frantic about his mother. Even more paranoid that Padme might have heard him expressing some of that franticness. Impatient, argumentative, sad, nervous, tragic, desperate, blind, and perfectly seeing. World-weary, disconsolate, angry, hateful, confused, morbid, determined. He loses his mother. He kills some nomads. He reveals his crime to his angel. He falls into a droid factory. His body is pinned down. He frets that Obi-Wan will "kill" him over the destruction of (another) lightsaber. Padme is nearly melted. Padme's heart *is* melted. Anakin's is thrown into turmoil. Padme is literally thrown from that gunship. Anakin is told to let her go. Anakin chases at Dooku, is electrocuted and tossed aside like a piece of garbage. Anakin rouses, but wages war on Dooku too starkly, too wildly, and loses an arm. What doesn't happen to Anakin in AOTC? His constant chastisement is symbolic of the torn-up tapestry of the prequels, of AOTC, of the Republic, of what it means to be human.

And then, fearing the loss of his angel, this rough, raw, spurned, sensitive, ragged, afflicted, tender, sore entity is burned -- burned down to his bones near enough -- and placed inside a robot suit for the rest of his days. And as the various pieces of the exoskeleton close on him, forever, it is like every last piece of tenderized skin, every last pore of Anakin's tattered soul, his sensitive constitution, is pricked with needles, seared with agonizing pain. All that soreness that he never really tamed is suddenly tunnelled into, telescopically triggered, activated en masse; as if every remaining midi-chlorian in his body were the size of Padme in that cup in the droid factory, having lava poured on it, endlessly.

A fragile, weary soul, shut up from the light, forced to bear all his sins and deny his once-ardent stirrings, trapped inside a death image, a moribund prisoner caught like a fly, awaiting annihilation, in the frozen chastity of the universal.

Yes, the prequels and Star Wars itself are about Anakin, alright.

And in just about the most poetic and operatic way imaginable.

 

Qui-Gon Jinn!

 

I think Anakin's the main character, but only because he's the main character in the rest of the prequels. On it's own, The Phantom Menace has no main character.

 

It's ma boy Qui Gon! And it was awesome!

 

An unusual suggestion: innocence is the real protagonist of TPM. For several reasons. Literally, there is no just one main character in TPM (I mean more important than others). But look who are the main characters: Padme, who is almost a child. Innocent and naive. Anakin, who is still a child. Same here. Obi Wan who is not a child literally, but it is still a apprentice, a- kind -of son of Qui Gon. Jar Jar: the clumsy fool with a heart of the child who is the vital force and the real connection between the events in TPM. All they are children: innocent, naive, clumsy, cute and sometimes annoying. And their symbolic father, Qui Gon who protects them and teaches them in different aspects and occasions, but in fact Qui Gon is the teacher or the wise counselor or the strong sentinel of all of them. And also, we have the symbolic figure of the mother. The image of the mother is more complex, I think: we have the character of Shmi: the essence of the mother, but we have also the queen who is like mother for their people, the Republic , etc. So, the metaphor of the family defines what happens in the movie, but I think the focal point is on the children. May people think TPM as only a prologue to the main events of PT. I have to disagree. If this was a theatrical drama, it would be Act I: The Children's Act. AOTC is obviously for me the Feminine Act (as the accent is exactly on the strong feminine side and essence of the Episode) and with ROTS come the Masculine one. By the way, is not surprising for me that Anakin feels so at home in the heart of the feminine Episode. The female characters in Anakin's life define his destiny and also they are the essence of the good in him. I think this is something that his son inherited from him. ( I mean when he was still Anakin ad not Vader).

Back to TPM. I said it is Act I, but in a way it is also the last Act of the Republic history: the last Act when the innocence wins. The small planet wins the battle with the military superior and politically stronger Trade Federation. The queen who is also a handmaiden resolves hard and deadly crisis with the help of one clumsy primitive Gungan. Speaking of that, let's see who is the 'originator' of the crucial events in TPM: of course, Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar appears in the most inappropriate moment on the way of Qui Gon=the Jedi receive the opportunity to enter the capital of Naboo unseen and in the right moment. Jar Jar in a very Jar Jar way challenges Sebulba=Qui Gon and Anakin befriend and the queen and her entourage are saved by the special boy of Tattoine. Not to mention Jar Jar suggestion of the Gungan Army. And Jar Jar does that because he is innocent fool (as he explains because he is clumsy). The innocence of the child, often seen as clumsiness or something ridiculous and stupid is like stamp on all the events of TPM.

The culmination for me is the victory of Anakin in the battle of Naboo: it is like game. Anakin is involved in the battle 'by coincidence’; he is not the hero who volunteers to save the world. Anakin has no control over his starfighter during almost all the way to the control ship, the starfighter is hit and Anakin, tryig to save his life accidentally and in the clumsiest way destroys the droid control ship and saves the day for everyone. Never again no battle will be won in such clumsy childish way, because the world is changing and we see glimpses of that change even in TPM, although the danger is still unseen, unnoticed and is not strong enough yet. And still, the loss of Qui Gon, the Sith Menace, the intrigue around the new chancellor: all this shows that the world is about to change. But still this is the same innocent, pre-imperial, innocent time, that's why the end of TPM is in such parade style of joy and happiness. Very underrated movie, I should say.

 

I think that The Phantom Menace is mostly Padme's movie, the way that Attack of the Clones is Anakin's and Revenge of the Sith is Obi Wan's. I see a pattern, where each of the big three is the main protagonist of one prequel film. I know Padme doesn't confront Darth Maul or attack the droid control ship, but her thoughts and feelings are followed and shown the most in this film, her worry for her people, her dealing with inefficient political systems and the oppression of the people. Let's not forget that she led the attack on Theed Palace, and came up with the battle plan to reconquer her planet. It was her plan to send the pilots to the droid control ship, and to use the gungan army as a diversion.

It's not easy to determine who the protagonist is, but Padme is the closest. Obi Wan doesn't have a big arc in The Phantom Menace, and we aren't presented with Anakin's journey the way were presented with Padme's. In my interpretation, the deceitful Senator Palpatine is the primary antagonist, and Nute Gunray is the immediate, secondary antagonist. As harsh as this sounds, Darth Maul isn't that big of a villain, merely providing muscle just like Jango does in the next film. Padme's defeat of Nute Gunray and Palpatine's failure to manipulate her into losing is her victory.

As for Anakin being the hero of Attack of the Clones, his character development is shown more here, unlike in The Phantom Menace, which emphasizes Padme's arc (sadly her arc ends there and she becomes just a love interest). He struggles with his inner demons, and succumbs to his human urges. We see him as Obi Wan's apprentice, trying and failing to think like a true Jedi, we see him falling for Padme, and lashing out in anger on the Sand People. Attack of the Clones is truly Anakin's tragedy.

Revenge of the Sith, to me, is Obi Wan's film. It could be argued that Anakin is also the protagonist of this film, but I see him as the antagonist. Obi Wan struggles to detach himself from Anakin, and ultimately succeeds. The movie follows his growing difficulty with Anakin, and his inner conflict regarding his loyalties to his friend and the Jedi council. Ultimately, Obi Wan chooses the Jedi path and detached from Anakin. Most see Palpatine as the main villain, but I think his role in this film is much like it is in Return of the Jedi, where the main conflict was beteeen Luke and Vader. Luke succeeded on redeeming Vader, when Obi Wan failed, and had to detach. However, Obi Wan does not succumb to his feeling of anger, and spares Vader's life.

 

I think that it is impossible to point out one character as the main figure in the story. Bases on what is happening and what George Lucas wants to show us it feels more to me that TPM is more of a group story. It would be hard to continue on Anakins´s story without the involvement of Padmé, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. They are all needed for the plot to develope and for the future episodes aswell. You need to know Anakin´s backstory. You need to know how they found Anakin and who it was that found him. You need to know how Obi-Wan became his teacher. You need to know how he met Padmé and how their relationship was formed.

For me this is also why the movie feels so plain in a way. George Lucas had to much that he wanted to tell us that he ended up with to many stories to tell. The reason to why the main character is hard to find could be because there is no one to be found. The movie centers around four different characters with stories that are needed for the future episodes.

 

I think the PT is Anakin Skywalker's story he's the protagonist of the overall trilogy especially Episode II and III.

but since he's too young and these movies follow more active characters and Jedi ones at that.
who is the character that appears throughout the entire movie from beginning until death? Who is the character that we are following? Who is the character who's actions affect the entire story? That's Qui Gon Jinn.

It was his decision to accept Jar Jar, it was he who discovered Anakin and gambled on him. It was he who made Kenobi promise him to train the boy. The people of Naboo would never have won the battle if it wasn't for the Gungans, it was Jinn's acceptance of Binks that allowed them to use Binks as a link to unite the people and defeat the Trade Federation during the 4 way battle. His discovery of Anakin got them out of their jam on Tatooine as well as saving the day by destroying the Federation ship. A good amount of the decision in the film were made by Qui Gon too

anyways that's my 2 cents on the topic.

 

Messa vote Jar Jar. Without mesea you wouldn't have found the boss man.