How did Maul track them to Tatooine

Am I missing something? We are told that the main characters can only be traced if they send a transmission, and they don't. Then we get the dialogue "Tatooine is sparsely populated. If the trace is correct I will find them quickly Master."
Thoughts?

 

"Not for a Sith!"

The Sith appear to have technology that is superior to what is available in the Republic before Palpatine takes it over. Apparently, a trace can be established just by a craft merely receiving the message. This technology is on the fringes in TPM, but has been absorbed by the body politik in AOTC. To wit, Obi-Wan appears to trace Anakin on Tatooine despite the fact that neither he nor Padme are there to pick up the phone, so to speak.

Another possibility is that it is some kind of clairvoyance. Or a mixture of technology and Force ability. The same thing happens in ANH when Tarkin admonishes Vader: "You better be right about this. I'm taking an awful risk..." Seems that Lucas was rhyming TPM up with this equally mysterious tracking procedure in the original film; which I can't help feel was deliberate, since this has been a point of contention in ANH for decades.

At least... that is my limited understanding of things.

 

I see. I hadn't speculated on a combination of the force and technology actually, that's an interesting possibility.
Vader's clairvoyance is in all the movies, I can see why you make that connection to ANH. I hadn't thought of that specific example that way actually, it seemed more about a tracking device, rather than the force, but I agree with you.

And yes, Obi-Wan does indeed track Anakin in AOTC, I'd forgotten about that. The way I saw that scene though, I thought they had something on them issued by the Jedi, that sends out a signal. I don't know why I thought that though...

 

A lot less mystical is that with no hyperdrive tatooine was the nearest set down point.

 

I thought the Jedi had tracking devices - like a cat's chip Or maybe there's a chip in the comlinks?

 

A better question is: How does Sidious know the Jedi were alive?

 

True, but did anyone outside of those on the ship know about the busted hyperdrive?

 

But the fact that the Sith had to trace it at all probably implies that there were other nearby planets they could have possibly been on. "If the trace is correct", meaning it wasn't definitely Tatooine.

That's a good question... that would broaden the possibilites obviously.

That I can't explain.

 

As a precaution, Maul (or his master) could simply have had tracking devices put on all Naboo craft used by the Queen "just in case" she broke the TF blockade.

The Sith master was a galactic chess master who planned many, many moves ahead. He seemed always at the ready for any possible contingency.

 

Simply being a plot device, Lucas doesn't really explain, and I don't think he even really cares. So, unless the EU covers it, I don't think there is a "correct" answer.

Given that Maul was the one doing the tracing, I can't imagine Palpatine had anything to do with finding the ship.

I know in Star Trek, when there's a point in the story in which a ship that has gone to warp speed needs to be tracked, there is a "warp signature" of particles that can be followed.

Maybe Star Wars has some kind of hyperspeed equivalent in which a ship's trajectory can be calculated. For instance, in ESB Boba Fett somehow realized that Han was going to go to Bespin even before the latter got there. He somehow deduced where Han was going and sent word to the Empire so that they were able to arrive before the Millennium Falcon did.

Maybe there's some kind of high tech navigation equipment on the Sith Infiltrator that allowed Maul to track the Naboo Cruiser's heading and estimate likely destinations. Who knows.

 

Good point, but perhaps a fair assumption seeing as they didnt show up anywhere else, namely coruscant?

 

They didn't have "no hyperdrive." Their hyperdrive was leaking, and they only had a limited amount of time before it shut down completely. Tatooine was the nearest planet that was not occupied by the Trade Federation.

 

Maybe it was possible that this leak was tracked, as Maul's ship could have been near Naboo and would have known when the queen took off.

 

Quite possibly. I dont have my geek library with me in the big sand box here but I know theres took in source materials and novels about hyperdrive trails and ion drive signatures etc that can be tracked.

 

Somebody on the ship checked on on Foursquare.

--MissPadme

 

Maul had a great deal of Sith toys at his disposal, plus the ability to feel for his quarry through the force

 

Thats what I thought to


On the message:

 

We see Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon remind the passengers multiple times not to reply, implying that not replying will keep their location hidden. The movie seems to indicate that everybody heeds that warning and doesn't reply, but it leaves it open to the possibility that someone sneaks and does in fact reply off-screen.

If they really don't reply, then I'm also under the impression that Maul had better technology, and he used it in conjunction with the Force... as Cryogenic said, "not for a Sith".

 

Padme secretly watching the message, at least to me, conveys that she was communicating with Naboo for information or updates.

 

I always took "not for a Sith" to be more about the Force than technology. Maul's use of the Force to search for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan may be the disturbance they sensed on Tatooine.

 

Perhaps we are missing the big reason they were found...Anakin. It could have happened a couple of ways due to Anakin..

1) If Maul was reaching out in the force to try to sense the two Jedi, he could have picked up a huge presence in the Force due to Anakin being there. A stretch, but you never know.

2) There is speculation that Darth Plagueis (or perhaps Palpatine) had something to do with Anakin's conception. Palpatine had everything planned out pretty well...he could have set it up so that they ended up on Tatooine to find him. Also a stretch, but we're just spitballin' and having fun here.

Realistically, it was probably the messages to/from Bibble.

 

That wasn't Palpatine's intention, going by the film: Move against the Jedi first. You will then have no difficulty in taking the Queen back to Naboo to sign the treaty.

Palpatine intended Maul to kill the Jedi, and from what we see in the film Maul certainly wasn't concerned for Anakin's safety.

 

The simplest answer is sometimes the most satisfying. My take on it is that someone did indeed reply in secret to Sio Bibble's message. Whoever that might be is really not important - there are so many non-characters on there to choose from. Maul would probably have found them sooner or later through methods reliant on The Force etc. as Sidious implied he would, but the editing seems to make it clear to us what has happened (message -> talk of bait to establish a trace -> talk of a recent trace). And remember what Qui-Gon says also - "either way, we're running out of time." This implies to me that even if it is merely bait and the Naboo people aren't in such urgent danger, he certainly believes from what Obi-Wan has told him that a trace will soon be established / that most likely someone (regardless of Obi-Wan's instructions) will be fooled enough to reply.

It seems certain that The Neimodians (either under instruction from Maul or not) have informed Sio Bibble to contact Amidala's ship, hoping it will force a response and thus give them the location. While Obi-Wan instructs those on board to not reply, perhaps crucially, he fails to pinpoint the specific reason why. Qui-Gon informs him its likely "bait to establish a trace" and we immediately cut to Maul and Sidious discussing "the trace". As has been said, if a trace could be established simply by sending the outgoing communication towards the ship, that would surely have been known and expressed by Obi-Wan. Such urgency in his instruction to send no reply implies that this would be the only way such a trace could be established. Just because we see no reply being sent doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

Whether or not Bibble's message was sincere or not we don't know. Perhaps people were dying and his concern was genuine. If a droid or one of the Neimodians themselves have a gun to your head and tell you request contact or else more people will die (people conceivably dying already as a result of any dissent), the transmission could still be genuine and work to The Neimodians advantage all at the same time. Either that or Bibble is lying about the death toll, knowing he or others will die if he fails to relay a convincing message. Either scenario makes sense to me. Its feasible people would suffer at the hands of The Neimodians as a result of Amidala's escape. If Sio Bibble was informed that The Queen's return or The Queen making contact would put a halt to any suffering, it wouldn't be the least noble thing for Sio Bibble to give in and comply. After all, there's no certainty The Queen's trip to Coruscant will resolve anything.