What Was The Point Of TPM?

[Sionnach Glic]

A thought occurred to me last night. The Phantom Menace is a completely unnecessary component of the prequal trilogy. It's a story that, bar the presence of certain characters, is completely seperate from the series-long tale. If someone watched the series starting at AotC, they'd miss practicaly nothing. All of the characters and their relationship to one another is all re-established or different in AotC, and there are no vital plot points in TPM. Indeed, it's only in AotC that the story itself really starts up, with Palpatine beginning his plan to become Emperor. The CIS is established in AotC, as is the romance between Anakin and Padme.

So...what was the point of the whole movie?

[Captain Seafort]

No point in terms of the actual story, but it did serve to to establish some of the background - the fact that the Republic was impotent at best and corrupt at worse, the ivory-tower nature of the old Jedi Order, the Sith threat, the fact that various large companies were unhappy with the central government and prepared to invade planets to make their point, etc. It showed the start of Palpatine's rise, with his election as Chancellor, and showed the first meetings of the key characters - Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Palpatine and Windu. Mostly foreshadowing but, given RotS, establishing that Windu instinctively distrusted Anakin Skywalker from the start, and made no effort to hide that distrust, was very important. It was also useful to be able to compare and contrast Anakin's character in TPM and AotC, although how much of the change could be attributed to a stroppy teenager rather than a slide to the dark side is debatable.

Overall, however, 90% of that could have been done in AotC. The biggest problem in terms of associating TPM with the other two was the change from Jake Lloyd to Hayden Christensen - it not only effectively introduced a completely new character, but radically changed the dynamic of Anakin's relationships with the other characters. Overall, I think it would have been better if the films had been compressed into a much shorter in-universe time span, and establish the main cast, as well as all the characters, in the first one.

[Tyyr]

It's got the same relationship as the Hobbit does to the Lord of the Rings. They share the same universe, many similar characters, but in the end you can read either one without the other and miss next to nothing. it's background.

And George Lucas stroking off his own ego into the faces of Star Wars fans everywhere.

[Nutso]

I suppose in TPM, George Lucas wanted us to see Anakin as a boy and realize that he is special. There is a cut scene where Anakin beats up a Rodian, knocks him out cold I might add, that I surmise to be a representation of Anakin's hidden darkness.
From http://www.darthsanddroids.net/

[Aaron]

Money was the point.

[Monroe]

I agree that the movies should have been done in a shorter time frame. Yeah we all get Palpatine plans ahead but if it was done several years later it wouldn't be that bad. And at least the Queen wouldn't be freaking 14! Who elects a 14 year old Queen? Hell who elects a Queen anyway?

[stitch626]

A queen who was only a figurehead would fit perfectly (with the whole, being 14, elected etc). But as we saw, she wasn't just a figurehead. Hence, terrible.

[Captain Seafort]

Hell who elects a Queen anyway?

Elected monarchies aren't that unusual - that was the case in the Holy Roman Empire, and it remains the case in the Vatican.

[McAvoy]

I can see it the point of the movie in 1999 but 11 years later, I see no point.

I honestly think Lucas could have gotten away with just making Anakin fully grown by this point mirroring Luke's own age in New Hope. Perhaps see him unknowingly on the brink of the Dark Side. Maybe having Padme the only one that was preventing him from doing so. Obi-Wan openly chooses to train Anakin as his Padawan hoping to tame him. Keeping the rest of the movie, and just changing that would tie Episode 1 in a little bit better.

[Captain Seafort]

I can see it the point of the movie in 1999 but 11 years later, I see no point.

I honestly think Lucas could have gotten away with just making Anakin fully grown by this point mirroring Luke's own age in New Hope. Perhaps see him unknowingly on the brink of the Dark Side. Maybe having Padme the only one that was preventing him from doing so. Obi-Wan openly chooses to train Anakin as his Padawan hoping to tame him. Keeping the rest of the movie, and just changing that would tie Episode 1 in a little bit better.

A suggestion I read once, and which I think makes great sense, was to make Anakin one of the Naboo pilots who escaped with the Jedi and the Queen, and completely cut out Tatooine. It would solve the problems of the largely irrelevant pod race, Anakin's age (and the related problems of the change in actor between TPM and AotC and the fact that they couldn't start developing Anakin and Padme's relationship until Ep II) and give a much better justification for and demonstration of Obi-Wan's statement that Anakin was a "great pilot" when they first met.

[kostmayer]

Very good suggestion. If the Queen was still posing as one of her own aides at that point, then she and Anakin might have had a brief flirtation until he found out the truth.

[Tyyr]

That would actually work incredibly well. Why go back to Tatooine anyways? There's no reason to aside from a very weak possible rationale for Obi-Wan to choose it to hide Luke on later.

[Captain Seafort]

If the Queen was still posing as one of her own aides at that point, then she and Anakin might have had a brief flirtation until he found out the truth.

That was the proposition. I don't recall the whole thing, but it was part of an outline for an alternative Episode I - virtually identical to the original except for Anakin, and a radically improved Jar Jar Binks.

That would actually work incredibly well. Why go back to Tatooine anyways? There's no reason to aside from a very weak possible rationale for Obi-Wan to choose it to hide Luke on later.

Tatooine would be a bit trickier, as you'd have to explain not only what Obi-Wan was doing taking Luke there, but what the Lars were doing there in the first place. The best solution would be to make them major characters in the PT, have them (or possibly just Owen) thoroughly sickened by the Clone Wars and/or Palpatine's antics, and head there to get as far away from the centre of galactic politics as possible. Giving them a major role would also add to the impact of their deaths directly, rather than just indirectly through the effect on Luke.

[Tyyr]

Improved? What happened, one of the droids learned how to aimed and popped his head like a zit the second he appears on screen?

[Captain Seafort]

Improved? What happened, one of the droids learned how to aimed and popped his head like a zit the second he appears on screen?

As I said, I can't remember details. I do remember him being useful during the battle, rather than just continuing to clown around.