PT The Phantom Menace - misunderstood for almost 25 years, now know the real story.

After almost 25 years, the Phantom Menace is still probably the most missunstood Star Wars movie of them all. After discussions with other fans I think I have finally figured out, why many fans miss the point of the movie.

The movie presents Palpatine with two objectives, the 1st is to get the Queen of Naboo to sign a treaty to legitimize the Trade Federation's invasion/occupation of Naboo. What advantages does Sith Lord/Senator Palpatine get from such a treaty? He is already the Senator for Naboo, which already makes him a very important and powerful person on Naboo. Having the Trade Federation occupying Naboo, would actually lessen the power of his public persona, as the Senator would appear to also be under Federation control. No one knows that Palpatine is behind the scenes of the Trade Federation, so having the illusion of the Trade Federation above him is an unnecessary and possibly damaging illusion. So what would Palpatine gain from this treaty if it was signed, nothing, absolutely nothing.

This is where fans make their mistake, they think that this objective is Palpatine's main goal, what he hopes to accomplish in the movie, get this peace treaty signed.
The second objective, is to become Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. Fans for some reason think that the Chancellorship was a runner up prize, that he was able to salvage. But why? If you were a Sith you would rather being trying to take over as ruler of the Galaxy, or trying to get a treaty signed that would give you power you don't need over your home world?
Your focus determines your reality. So shift your focus from thinking Palpatine's main objective is to get the treaty signed to his main objective being, becoming the Supreme Chancellor. If you make this small shift in priority it changes the whole complexion of the movie.

Look at it now as though everything that Palpatine is doing is to get the Queen to Coruscant. Quigon even catches on a little, he says this move makes no sense for the Trade Federation, there is something else driving it. Which is correct, the invasion is a ruse to get the Queen to Coruscant, via Tatooine.

Let's look at that escape from Naboo, if the ships shields are up, how is it that the panel breaks away in the 1st place? How is it that the Trade Federation gunner can pick off 7 asteomec driods off the hull, but not hit the ship to damage it to prevent their escape or even destroy it? How is it the other droids didn't know how to fix the issue, but Artoo goes right over to it and fixes it right away, with no witnesses. Wouldn't Palpatine have had the hyperdrive sabotaged before the start of the blockade? I certainly would have. I think what ever R2 does, unmasks the hyperdrive sabotage and makes it look like it was damaged in the attack.

Let's jump ahead, if Palpatine's focus is getting the Queen to Coruscant, this means Darth Maul wasn't sent to retrieve the Queen and return her to Naboo. No Palpatine sends Maul to reveal the Sith to the Jedi, why because the Jedi wouldn't consider training a possible Chosen One, if the Sith are believed to be non-existent. Yes Palpatine knows Anakin is on Tatooine before Anakin arrives on Coruscant.

Palpatine needs Quigon to survive the encounter on Tatooine, because if Maul has managed to kill Quigon on Tatooine, who would argue for Anakin's training? Padawon Obi-Wan? Obi-Wan agrees with the Council's assessment before they go back to Naboo. Palpatine even chides Maul in the novelization, One dead Jedi in the desert will not further our cause.
But if really think about it after that Maul pretty much has to die in order for the Jedi to identify him as Sith Lord. If Maul kills every Jedi hunting him, they will never identify Maul as a Sith. If Maul has killed Obi-Wan, would the Jedi be any closer to identifying Maul as a Sith?
So Obi-Wan, who has the low ground wins, because Palpatine needs him too. Palpatine has just won the Chancellorship and has no time to train or attend to 9 year old Anakin, having the Jedi train Anakin, is the perfect solution to this problem.
The novelization admits that Maul was arrogant by taunting Obi-Wan by slashing the floor above Obi-Wan, but in the movie we see this, but then we see that Maul's face changes from arrogance to something else, Obi-Wan ignites Quigon's lightsaber and brings it to himself, in the most obvious fashion, that gives the force the most time to warn Maul he is in danger. If you slow the scene down to better understand what is happening, Obi-Wan is not even too quick for Maul, because Maul tracks him the entire way as Obi-Wan goes over his head. Obi-Wan lands they exchange a look and Maul makes no move to defend himself, as Obi-Wan cuts him in half. If you slow the scene down, note Maul's arms, do not move, even a little a bit. Palpatine immobilizes Maul's arms so Maul can't defend himself and Obi-Wan cuts him in half. As per the novelization, Sith treachery is the last thing that goes through his mind before he falls down the shaft. Palpatine has already moved on, Maul's killing of Quigon gets Dooku to fully commit to the dark side and become Palpatine's apprentice. Dooku is exactly the apprentice that Palpatine needs for the next step in his plan, creating the Separatist movement and setting up the Galactic Civil War, while corrupting Anakin as Anakin trains to be a Jedi.

As for the treaty, getting the Queen to go back to Naboo to deal with the Trade Federation, is the best thing that could have happened for Palpatine, now as Supreme Chancellor he doesn't have to deal with the issue, or pick a side and can maintain his credibility with both the Trade Federation and Padme, both become important allies for him later. Nute Gunray becomes a Separatist leader, while remaining in Padme's good graces keeps her from interfering in Palpatine and Anakin's relationship in the future.

That's what Lucas intended the story to be, but the treaty signing, was just too good of a distraction for most fans to see what was actually going on.

 

Yes. Most people agree with this though. It’s not really misunderstood.

Palpatine does what he does to move pieces to get to his real objective. Of course his real objective was to become Chancellor and that treaty getting signed was just another tool or distraction as you say.

Just like in Episode 2 …his endgame was to be Chancellor with emergency powers and for the Senate to see the need for a Clone Army. The rest are just distractions.

And of course his masterpiece in Episode 3…the only people that think that his main objective was to defeat Mace in a duel is either didn’t watch the whole series or just want to blindly follow their Mace fanboyism to the end.

His main goal is to become the Emperor and to have the Jedi’s Chosen One as his apprentice. Mace is just another tool. It’s funny how some people really think Palpatine’s objective is to kill Mace before Anakin shows up where all dialogues, plot progression and “story set up”says otherwise.

Your theory on Maul’s death is interesting though..I have to think about that one.

 

Casual viewers may have missed the entire plot but they really do not care. I think most Star Wars fans have understood it.

I would add that Palpatine’s evil genious was not only to have a long term master plan, but also to have multiple contingency plans to achieve his ultimate goal of exterminating the Jedi and achieving galactic domination.

And because of this multiple contingency planning he devised, I do not subscribe to your theory that Maul had to die, nor that he was immobilized by Sidious during battle. Even before that final duel Maul’s role has been already played. His one single role was to reveal to the Jedi that the Sith were back. And that was accomplished in Tatooine. After that, any outcome of the duel in Naboo was irrelevant. If Maul killed both Qui Gon and Obi Wan, the Jedi would already knew of the sith. And even if that reveal had not happened in Tattoine, they would have found the bodies cut by a lightsaber in Naboo. Only a sith would be able to kill two Jedi.

Anakin was already detected, he ran the race, and had been freed. Force powers were also detected.

Had Maul survived, agree that the plan was to have him replaced, but that was something Sidious could take care of later, no big deal.

So Maul’s role was very specific, and he was indeed expendable. But even if he had survived and killed the two Jedi, Palpatine’s plan was going to work out. Because he always has a contingency plan.


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I agree that Palpatine had a lot of contingency plans, but the Jedi didn't exactly take Quigon's word for it in the Council chambers. I don't know what finally proved Maul was Sith, but it was going to take more than lightsaber burns to convince them. I think Palpatine lead the the Jedi to Anakin the same way he lead Jedi to the Clone Army. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

@Love SW2012

He cared about Anakin because as The Chosen One created by the Force to balance the rising power of the Dark Lord…he’s potentially the only one that can defeat him.

Just like Luke, as a Jedi they would be a threat to him. But as a Sith, the Dark Side wins. It is the Sith Master’s job to train his apprentice to one time defeat him. That’s the Sith way, it’s survival of the fittest. If Palpatine loses to his more powerful and more cunning Sith Apprentice then he doesn’t deserve to be the Sith Master and on and on. While pitting his apprentices with other potential apprentices. That’s why his main goal in all trilogies is to turn that special someone to be his apprentice. Your Apprentice to Master transference could also be viable.

As for him and Yoda, Sidious never thought of losing to Yoda..he was actually laughing his arse off throughout the duel. He literally knocked him out with his first lightning and waited for Yoda to wake up so he can gloat instead of instantly lightsabering Yoda’s unconscious body. If he feared Yoda he would have chose the latter with that big advantage.

Sure they were evenly match but at the end he end up edging him out at the end.

Since you brought up the novel, it does states that Yoda had lost even before the fight. The Sith has grown from the shadows while the Jedi has become complacent. Yoda even told Qui-Gonn he is not strong enough to defeat the Emperor.

 

in your version Palpatine has incredible powers to affect events gazillion miles away.

 

He does undo Ezra's handcuffs in Rebels from a great distance. According to a comic, he could of been watching the battle live on a security holo, would that be that different from Vader force choking someone on another bridge? Do we know the timing for sure that Palpatine isn't on a ship near by? How long after the battle does he actually show up on Naboo?
And regarding Yoda, do you think Palpatine planned on Yoda running during there battle in excile, never to return? It is what Palpatine was planning for. What is the only thing special about Anakin, his potential to become more powerful than Yoda, why else do think Palpatine wanted Anakin? After he has killed all the Jedi, is there really a need for a most powerful apprentice? If you plan on living for ever, why would want an apprentice that would become more powerful than you, and Order's rule is that the Apprentice is supposed to kill you. Essence transfer and becoming more powerful than Yoda or anyone, is Palpatine's only reason for wanting Anakin as his apprentice.

 

Your distance telekinesis is an interesting point. Because it was shown that Vader and Snoke (Sidious) has been choking and bashing people light years away.

And a strong apprentice means a strong future. Even if it’s an essence transfer relationship.

He doesn’t want a weak apprentice. So if anyone can beat Vader then that anyone will be his new apprentice. It just happens to be the Skywalker blood line and then the Palpatine blood line ala Rey that is meant to be his top candidates.

Edit: As for him planning Yoda running never to return….ummm no his plan was to kill Yoda and he thought he did until his Clone Troopers told him there was no body. But at that point he was more concerned on his premonition on Vader losing and knew Yoda wouldn’t return after losing like that because at most Yoda could do to him is a stalemate.

Sidious however did not foresee that Yoda will train a new threat to him.

 

TPM's story is much easier to follow compared to AOTC.

 

More likely he meant people misunderstood Palpatine’s goals and objectives.

Actually more people misunderstood his goals in AOTC and especially ROTS than TPM but ROTS is more of a bias part on their part.

 

Yeah this really is pretty obvious to most people.

 

For Sidious, becoming Chancellor was always the main goal of the Invasion of Naboo. All he did with the treaty was put himself in a no-lose scenario; either he acquires the sympathy of the Senate over a long period of time due to Padme being forced to sign the document, or he acquires it literally overnight via Padme's strong-willed deposing of Chancellor Valorum. Masterfully played and one of the reasons TPM is NOT a "turn your brain off" popcorn movie.

 

lol

 

I’ve been thinking about this lately based on some Naboo lore from TCW that I’ll mention in more detail below, but the main thing is that I do think Naboo was a big part of Sidious’s original plan. And I don’t think Maul would’ve necessarily been eliminated. That could certainly have happened at some later point, but I disagree that his only role was to reveal the Sith to the Jedi and nothing else. Hear me out.

“At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have our revenge.”

These words were some of the few spoken by Darth Maul in TPM, but they encapsulate the Sith’s whole plan for the prequels without revealing exactly how any of that will be happening.

Maul succeeds in leading the charge on the first of these objectives over the course of the movie. He’s the standard-bearer for the returning Sith Lords, making their presence known to the Jedi after a thousand years of secrecy.

But it would take another two successor Sith Lords and more than a decade to enact the second objective, the revenge of the Sith. So clearly TPM depicts the failure of one Sith plan and its replacement with another, even though Darth Sidious was still able to maneuver himself into a position of greater power.

So what was that original plan?

What we do know is that Naboo played a central role in it. After the crisis was resolved in TPM, the planet became inconsequential to the Sith. But the presence of an old Sith base in Naboo, seen briefly in TCW, was meant to suggest this planet would’ve originally been a key location in the galactic war the Sith had been planning.

And the Sith were most certainly planning a galactic war. Also in TCW, when Savage Oppress finds a surviving Darth Maul and informs him of the war going on, Maul comments on how the war started even without him, which indicates that he knew about the war as being part of the original Sith plan. But it was not necessarily going to be the version of the clone wars we’re familiar with.

The timeline of the clone war’s origins is muddled and much material has been written about it. But what we see in the movies and TCW suggests that the Sith did not directly order the creation of the clone army from Kamino until after their plans failed in TPM. Similarly, Maul’s successor, Darth Tyranus, was part of the new plan hatched by Darth Sidious after his plans for Naboo fell apart.

Still, a war was planned, and it’s likely the other side of the war did not need to be altered as much, the corporate-led Separatist Alliance.

In TPM, the Sith Lords order the Trade Federation to protest against the Republic’s taxation of trade routes in the outer regions of the galaxy by invading Naboo. Their plan is to have Naboo legitimize the invasion, weakening the political authority of the Republic and perhaps even setting up the beginning of an alternative, rebellious government.

The Sith at this stage control the Senate to some degree and the Trade Federation, so they would have been able to continue escalating the conflict after the successful invasion of Naboo. Sidious likely expected to be able to eventually rally the Senate to support him as Palpatine and oust Valorum, giving him full control of both sides of the coming war. And on the other side of things, with an increase in the Senate’s authoritative responses to the Trade Federation’s excesses, more corporation-run systems would start turning against the Republic, beginning to form a Separatist faction.

All throughout this period following up a successful invasion of Naboo, the Jedi would be aware that the Sith were in control of the Trade Federation and its growing alliance. At the time of TPM, the Trade Federation had one of the biggest private armies in the galaxy, and post-invasion, as the Republic penalized them further at Palpatine’s insistence, this army would have grown. The Senate and the Jedi would know that a growing army at the hands of a Sith Lord could only mean a war, and the creation of an army for the Republic would inevitably become necessary.

Without the events of TPM transpiring as they did, it’s likely the Senate would have approved the motion to create an army much earlier and with less opposition. It’s possible the Sith wouldn’t have even had to involve themselves directly, getting the Jedi to order the creation of a clone army from the Kaminoans via a command from the Senate. Sidious and his apprentices had clearly already scoped out Kamino as a good candidate for an army, so that is likely what Sidious had in mind originally.

And from then on, events would transpire quite similarly to how they did in the movies. Perhaps they would only have happened earlier, with the Jedi even less aware of a Sith infiltration of the Republic and focused instead on the very visible Sith Lord, Maul, leading the Separatists (possibly from Naboo) until Sidious played out his final moves and eliminated the Jedi. The other difference is that chosen one would not have been a factor. His involvement in the final story was, after all, the will of the Force. And that’s why the Sith’s original plan in TPM mostly failed.

 

I'm not going to lie, in 1999 I really only understood the broad strokes.

Trade Federation is bad. I wasn't sure what a Trade Federation was, I didn't know why they had an army. I didn't know why their blockade was legal (or even why there was a debate about the legality of it). I didn't know why they targeted Naboo aside from Sidious told them to, when some of Padme's dialogue suggests a previous history that wasn't elaborated on. I'm not sure why they didn't blockade several planets.

But I understood it in simple terms. Bad guys with army invade peaceful planet. Jedi are good guys that save Queen and her entourage. Tatooine was pretty straight forward. The film lost me a little bit on Coruscant, as I didn't understand why Valorum, the guy that sent the Jedi in secret to Naboo, was suddenly willing to differ to an investigation. Palpatine says something about the bureaucrats on the payroll of the Trade Federation, which I don't think I caught in 1999. So, the answer was there but I missed it.

And the return to Naboo was a pretty straight forward.

I would say I was one of the kids that zonked out during all the politics, and back then I would say I really didn't care. I knew who the good guys and bad guys were and that was enough, and the Pod Race and Darth Maul were cool.

As I got older and actually started to take an interest in things like history and politics, I think I started to go in the completely opposite direction that the politics weren't developed enough. That for all the criticism of TPM being too political, it is only superficially so.

I reached out to Pablo on Twitter at some point in the past 10 years asking about clarification as to why the blockade was even arguably legal, and he said that it was because the Trade Federation owned all of the trade routes and so they could shut down their own routes in protest, which is something I could kind of deduce, but was never officially stated to my knowledge.

When it comes to the militancy of the Trade Federation, Free Trade Zone taxation, Chancellor Valorum being involved in scandals and being an impotent Chancellor, Naboo plasma, the formation of Naboo's space force, a lot of that gets fleshed out in the Darth Plagueis Legends novel. And at my age now, I'll eat that up, whereas as an eleven year old, my eyes would have glazed over had anyone tried to explain that to me.

 

GL and Dave Filoni understand TPM perfectly like most fans do.....

 

Wait, shouldn't everyone who watched the entire PT know that Palpatine's plan was to become chancellor, then engineer the Clone Wars and wipe out the Jedi? And you get this just from the movies...don't need to read any EU materials to know this.

 

That’s the general plan, and I think it comes across simply enough to most audiences. What’s not as obvious is what his original plan was, because it’s simply not revealed in full in the movie. But it’s hinted that Naboo and Maul would’ve played a bigger role in the coming war had TPM not happened as it did.

 

Nope. Maul's death was not planned by Palpatine.

"After Darth Sidious' first apprentice is killed, he has to come up with a new apprentice, and rather than coming up with some baby that he trains from birth, which is what he should have done--well, he shouldn't have gotten himself in a position of getting his apprentice killed anyways--he's decided to make his move, so he needs somebody that was already trained. The point is to set up that he turned this one Jedi, so that he could turn another Jedi. It has to be set up that way."

--George Lucas, AOTC DVD Commentary.

Lucas admits that Maul's demise was not intended. The change in expression is the puzzlement of what Obi-Wan is trying to do, because he forgot about Qui-Gon's Lightsaber. He didn't mind his surroundings.

This is why neither character says anything about this in TCW.

Anyway, Maul wasn't going to be replaced. Dooku was going to be replaced because he was the face of the Separatist movement. That's why in TCW allowed an amendment to the origin of Dooku's turn, placing it before Maul's apparent demise, so that the idea was that Dooku would be the scapegoat and Maul would continue on. But then he was removed from the equation, Dooku is promoted in his place and Palpatine begins recruiting Anakin.

 

As someone that has been around a while and has seen or taken part in a number of discussions about this.
I would say that a majority of people, both that liked TPM and those that had issues with it, got that Palpatine's plan was to become Chancellor.
And the treaty was Plan A to accomplish that. How has been discussed a fair bit as the film does not make that clear. But the most common explanation is that Padme will be made to sign the treaty, it will be presented to the senate and Valorum, maybe not liking it but having to option but to agree to it. Then Palpatine or one of his cronies, could say "What are you doing? This treaty was obviously signed under duress, how can you admit it?" And call for the vote against Valorum, he is out and Palpatine becomes chancellor.

What happens IN the film is events did not go according to plan so he switches to plan B. Use Padme.

I have come across some that argue that Palpatine's plan from the start was to get Padme to Coruscant but in my experience, they are in the minority.

But what you are arguing here is that Palpatine made a plan that Valorum would send two Jedi, the TF would fail to kill them, they would get to Naboo, find Padme on the PLANET of Naboo, free her and escape. And the ship would be damaged just enough that they could jump but not all the way to Coruscant and of all the planets they could pick, they would go to Tatooine. And on the whole PLANET of Tatooine, they would run across Anakin.
This plan only makes sense if Palpatine has read the script of he has God-level foresight and knows EVERYTHING that will happen. Which is not good writing, because for one, it saps all tension from the story. All events have been mapped out and planned by the villain, he foresaw it all. Nothing is a surprise to him, he never suffers any setbacks, he never changes his plans. This is a dull story. To me.

This makes little sense. Palpatine knows that Anakin is on Tatooine and yet is content with leaving him there? The same Anakin that has a bomb inside of him and regularly takes part in quite dangerous races?
Anakin could be killed quite easily and Palaptine would loose him.
If he wants him, why let the Jedi have him and run the risk that Anakin would turn against him?
Far simpler to just grab him and train him himself. He could do so years before TPM.

Again, why is it Palaptine's interest in having the Jedi train Anakin and run the risk of him not being evil?
And what did Obi-Wan learn about Maul on Naboo that they did not know beforehand?
Nothing, he did not even get Maul's name. Before, Maul fought Qui-Gon to the point where Qui-Gon had to get away. And now Maul managed to kill Qui-Gon. Hardly much evidence there.
Qui-Gon was convinced that Maul was a Sith just from facing him once. The JC could just have accepted that.

Did Palaptine plan that Padme would go back? Against pretty foolhardy odds?
If so then we are back to Palpatine being omniscient or he read the script.

I think the simpler explanation is that Maul just gets an Idiot Ball to hold and that is how Obi-Wan wins.

Palaptine, in that role, is already against the TF. He speaks out against them in the senate.
So the TF would not look upon him as an ally. They have no idea that he and Sidious are one and the same.
Why does Padme matter to Palpatine after the vote? He got what he wanted, she could die as far as her cared. He even gives the order to wipe out the Gungan army, possibly figuring that Padme was with them.
If she is dead, then she can not interfere can she?

Doubt it, Lucas likely had the treaty as plan A but did not go into detail as he knew that Padme would escape and get to Coruscant. So no point in elaborating on that. He wrote Palaptine as a clever villain, that has a plan but is able to change it on the fly if events do not go as he thought. This is an interesting and competent villain
If Lucas intended that Palpatine had this over-complicated plan that you suggest, then this is a less interesting and less clever villain. He knows everything that will happen, so very easy to win then.

And most fans were able to see what was going on, but not everyone thought it was good.
You can understand a thing and still find it subpar.
Or do you argue that all those that dislike the ST only do so because they do not understand it?

Bye.
Old Stoneface

 

Distraction? I found the whole taxation of trade routes / blockade / treaty thing to be a very bad story decision. Too convoluted and too uninteresting to keep you hooked from the beginning.