Where did the Trade Federation blockade go??

In Episode 1, when Quigon and Obiwan first go to negotiate with the Trade federation leaders, there are dozens of Trade federation battle ships guarding the planet, blockading it. This is also seen when they manage to escape the planet.

However during the space battle over Naboo, the Naboo starfighters only see one and focus their attack on it (the droid control ship for obvious reasons)

But where were the other trade federation battle ships? None of them were in sight to even aid in defending it.

Where did these ships go???

 

In the revised rough draft, there was a line by Kenobi where he addresses this. He simply says there's no need for the blockade now the planet is under complete control.

Of course this is not in the film. But one can infer the blocakde is lifted once the Viceroy tells Sidious they have complete control of the planet(which is in the film).

 

And the audience is given the idea that the ship that is being attacked is the Control Ship for all droid forces, and thus was the target. As for the rest of the fleet, why blockade when you have achieved "victory"?

 

Because there are fugitives at large that they want to find but have yet to track down?

 

Another question is that Padme and the others did not know that the blockade had been removed. So for all they knew, they would face the same amount of ships as last time, when they barely got through alive. And yet they go back without any thought as to HOW they would get through the blockade. There was every chance that they would get blown to bits and then what would that accomplish? Also it did seem that Palpatine knew that they were going back so he could just have warned the TF and they could have brought more ships and caught Padme before she could land.

And what was Qui-Gon thinking when he brought a little boy into a war zone? A very special boy I might add, the "chosen one". And yet for all Qui-Gon knew their ships could get blown to bits and the chosen one would die.
Even after they landed, why did he bring the boy into a war zone? He says to Anakin that once they are insde he should find a safe place to hide. Why not leave him on Coruscant or back at the Gungan safe place?

Regards
Nordom

 

I hate to drag this out every time but in the revised rough draft, hey no , there was a scene where Anakin demonstrated his skill with the force by coming out of hyperspace between the blockade and Naboo.

But Palpatine wouldn't bother warning the TF. He has what he wants: nomination for the Chancellorship.

 

But even if they "had control" there was still only one ship. Were they not afraid that if the Republic actually DID take action they wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight?

 

First, what matters to me is what is in the films, not the rough drafts. Because I should not have to read the rough draft in order to make sense of the characters and events.
Second, this is a recuring flaw with the PT films, the drafts often make more sense and the characters comes across as being able to think. The Sido-Dyas/Sifo-Dyas thing in AotC made much more sense and was handled better in the script than in the film.

Regards
Nordom

 

Sidious gave the TF all assurances the republic would not take action. And as we see in the film, they did not.


Nordom
I should not have to read the rough draft in order to make sense of the characters and events.


You are 100% right. I bring up the revised rough draft because,IMHO, it reads better with characters and story(for the most part)than the shooting script.

 

Well this brings further question. When the Trade federation began to land ships on the planet, the droids that landed there were designated to the ship they came from right? So if they left, that would mean they took their droids with them, leaving the Trade federation presence smaller than it was during the invasion... Unless one ship can control all of them.

 

It's made clear in the film the ship left is the command ship. So that's the central hub that controls all the droids. There's no way the paranoid Viceroy would allow each ship to control their own forces.

 

Ok... Im gonna weigh in on this.. Many good points have been brought up so im am going to address them in my Understanding... ( i have not seen the rough draft and this is what i took from the actual released movies)

1.) Where did they go? Simple, the ships were there in the beginning to hold the airspace. Once the invasion occurred they wouldnt stay around to keep blocking off the area.. (they have complete control and the republic wont do anything about it) This can be seen historically in many wars. The englished stopped blockading new york when they took over washington. (war of 1812) Further we stopped patrolling around tripoly (marine corps barbary pirates) when we had subdued the barbary pirates

2.) Why wouldnt palps (sideous) let them know about them coming home. Because in his opinnon furthered his bid for chancellor. ( think about it.. i just had my queen come and tell the boss hes dumb and now she went back and took care of business without help... im scary and your not..) This helps for palps alter ego (sideous) to go away and pushes him toward the forefront.

3.) They might die going back with all those ships there.. My idea on this is im sure deep down they thought about it.. but why would they.. the queen decided they were going back.. they had to go back regardless whether they survived or not. She wanted to fight and sure if she never made it back then episodes 2-6 would never happen.. because the skywalker clan died with padme and ani....

4.) The ships there left did they leave them all behind? Yes one ship has control of the entire army. Think about it.. one person had control in the beginning they all come down and they cut to the main ship and say "activate the droid army" and the little wierd looking guy says yes sir and hits a button.. "bang" the droid army is now functioning. The ships on the ground stayed and they were there in support. ( kind of like armored transports that help out our camandoes today.

5.) Attacking one ship was to shut it all down, when they left the ships that were there were to stop flying out and in.. this would require many more ships.. to cover more area.. if they stayed they would be one defenseless ( cause the army is now on the ground) and two wasting resources.. so they return home and wait for orders..


Just my take on it.. feel free to burn away!

 

Good points

 

not the burn i suspected.. but thanks!

 

1) Consider the passage of time, it has only been a few days between the start of the invasion and Padme returning home. What is the rush? There was nothing else that required the TF attention, was it? Also before Padme returned to Coruscant the TF did not know that the republic would do nothing.

2) Palpatine did not think that Padme would succeed, he wanted her caught or dead.
So why not tell the TF and have them catch her before she lands and stirs up trouble?

3) The characters do not know that they are in a film so to argue that they would go back because ep 2 to 6 must happen is flawed. Also Padme did go back in part because Jar Jar told her about the Gungan army. But she for some reason never thought about the blockade or how they would get through it. I think she did have some hope of it working, otherwise it is just suicide. Also why did Qui-Gon bring Anakin?

4) If the treaty is signed, then most of the droids would need to be removed and they would have to bring the ships back again. Why remove the ships only to have them come back a short time later.

5) The control ship is the most important ship, if they have ships to spare, why not leave a few there to help protect it?

On a related note, why did the TF leave the Naboo fighters fuelled and armed?
They did not want them or planed to use them, so why just leave them there?

It very much smacks of plot contrivance.

Regards
Nordom

 

We dont know about the time passed. I took it to be much longer. The reason that we dont know is because we are unaware of the time it took to travel to each place. ( looking at episode 2 it took them a while to travel back by frieghter enough so for a meal and what was taken to be a longer journey)

Two palps could honestly care less as long as he gets what he wants

The characters dont know about 2-6 of course because thats there upcoming time stream.. but they know they have to fight.. so they go back regardless whether they win or not.. they have to.. the knowing of the 2-6 is for our benefit. Quigon brought anakin because well he took responsiblity for him. he can better protect him with him with him than not..

The Treaty makes the invasion legal doesnt mean that the army is leaving.. think rome after they took over the germanic north.. they stayed.. then assumed them into roman culture

Why keep ships there to protect it when they have everything they need to protect there in the first place.. You have to realize this is a trade federation... they are still trading and conducting business as usual while naboo is being taken over.. those ships could have gone back to the workings that they are usually made for.

The fighters are actually plugged in.. they are held in position kind of like electric cars.. they fly in an advanced technology.

burn away!

 

Where did these ships go???


Nute Gunray dispersed the blockade, after his capture by Padme and Anakin's destruction of the droid control ship.

 

It seems as if the blockade was still there when Queen and Co. come back, but we don't see more than one most of the time. Guess we're just supposed to believe that it's (the blockade) still there, just that we aren't really supposed to care about any more than the Control Ship.

 

And let's assume the blockade is still up. Well if the droid control ship is destroyed and the droid army deactivated, what are the rest of the ships going to do? Look mean?

 

They could always paint evil faces on their other ships.

 

hahahahahaha
thanks for that.. i just got really wierd looks and was told to be quiet by my boss because of that..

 

The Trade federation ships are military as well as commercial vessels. It stands to reason that around the time of TPM the TF had just enough ships to provide the galaxy with interstellar trade because anything more would be wasteful to operate. They must have suspended trading operations in some part of the galaxy (probably near the Naboo system) in order to divert enough ships to effect a blockade.

The TF is above all else concerned with maximum profits, so as soon as the planet was seized those surplus ships involved in the blockade likely went back to whatever planetary systems they were moving goods for.

 

This

the Trade federation "Battleships" were just freighters... and the Neimoidian's were profit motivated - every day the fleet was blockading Naboo, more time wasted with no profits...

 

You can just attribute it to lazy writing. Lucas obviously didn't want to get bogged down with a sprawling battle with several command ships. It's kind of like how Lucas dealt with Yoda in ROTJ; he no longer had any use for Yoda- so he had him vanish into thin air.

 

That's basically it, they disappeared because it was convenient for the plot.

Lucas should probably thought up a good excuse for it because as it is in the movie it's a bit jarring for the great formidable blockade to just decide to go home for the final act.