Is Naboo Politically Retarded?

Holy crap, Naboo is politically retarded.

They elect monarchs that are in their early teens. Amidala was elected at the age of 13 for god sakes, and not to mention Apailana who was elected at the age of 12. In America, you can't even vote until you are 18, and to even RUN for president, you have to be at least 35 years old.

Next you have the question of Jar Jar Binks. He barely spoke Galactic Basic, and then he was the one to give Palpatine supreme power as chancelor. Out of every Gungan on the planet... I know that he wasn't the best qualified for the job. How... out of a whole race of people... is he sent to give them representation in Congress. What about Boss Nass? He was a Gungan that lead the Gungans to do whatever they do without getting banished.

Senator Palpatine... Don't they check out the candidates they place into office? Even internet dating sites scan for felons. During the Clone Wars, he was the secret de facto leader of the Separatists as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, as well as the de jure leader of the Republic, allowing him to plan and execute the entire war, thus resulting in his ultimate triumph with the rise of his Empire.

Naboo has a serious problem with politics, they elect monarchs that are in training bras, as representatives, they elect Jar Jar, and finally, Palpatine. Instead of invading Naboo to bring it into line after the War, I would have waited a tad longer and tested the Death Star on that rock.

Prequel Trilogy Forum is where this needs to be.

 

True she was young, but did you watch the movie??? She was a good leader

 

I wouldn't trust a fat kid in a cookie factory, no way I'm going to trust a 12 year old to reign over an entire planet.

 

Well don't then.

And this is more suited to the PT forum anyway.

 

Here we go...

Don't judge a planet just because they have different standards of politics than the United States. Naboo was a very peaceful, very artistic, and very civilized planet. Some teenagers were groomed quite well to pursue a life in politics.

Yes, we all know about Jar Jar and no we don't need to open another can of worms about him and his speech. But Gungans are not the only species in the Galactic Senate that have trouble with Galactic Basic. Some didn't even speak that much. And to give Jar Jar just a little credit we don't even see his skills in politics in ATOC or ROTS. There's no telling what he could have learned in ten years. Sure, in a nut-shell Jar Jar gave Palpatine everything responsible for creating the Empire: Emergency powers = clone army. Clone army = Everything responsible for pinning the Jedi as traitors. Everything responsible for pinning the Jedi as traitors = Order 66. Order 66 = Dead Jedi. Dead Jedi = Rise of the Empire.
But to be fair to Jar Jar, Palpatine could have gotten anyone to give him emergency powers. Jar Jar was just doing what he thought was right to safeguard the Republic.

And Palpatine...if they knew what kind of person he was do you really think that the reigning monarch would have appointed him as Senator? No, they wouldn't have.

Naboo may have unorthodox methods for politics in our standards. But they got along pretty well didn't they. If you don't think so just look at their society.

Sorry if I was a bit rough.

 

Think about it for a sec- if you look at the evidence Palpatine is obviously very familiar with Naboo and politics in general. It's not just because of his Sith qualities. This gives a big tipoff that he was involved with politics for a long time before TPM. If this is true, then I'm gonna have to agree with Andy on this one; they have a history of churning out all of the wrong people for the job. Futhermore, by making Jar-Jar give emergency powers to Palpatine he eventually becomes the ***** character. Which, in turn, fuels more hatred for the Lucas bashing. Though I wouldn't go as far as to say they were 'politically retarded', I DO believe that Padme and Jar-Jar really make Palpatine look like a Senate demi-god in comparison.

In my view Naboo's political structure was as defunct as the Galactic Empire. I get this unfortunate feeling every time I hear about the planet that Lucas just made an orbiting rock for the sake of showing the Gungans going at it with the CIS. Most of Naboo's political and environmental structure is flawed, and what's worse is that it effectively gets only one single scene that's good- Padme's funeral. And the irony is that the emotionally gripping moment has NO dialogue. Again, poor fleshing-out coupled with paltry references to the current political undercurrent make a fool of Lucas over and over again.

 

The thing that upsets me the most about Naboo's politics, is that they made Jar Jar a Senator. He isn't even trusted to be in his own home town, yet he is sent to Coruscant to represent his good people that "banished" him. Jar Jar... He wasn't the brightest one of all, but he really isn't the best one for the job.

 

Again, I have no idea what Lucas was shooting for putting Binks on the spot like that. Why anyone could trust bumbling Jar-Jar to represent them on a serious matter of galactic importance is beyond my scope. And it's like the previous poster said; effectively it makes Jar-Jar a very powerful stepping stone for the Emporer's rise to power. Might as well get C3PO to represent Alderaan for no particular reason (Lucas frequently forgets the order of things in his own films, so it should be natural for this to work out).