Welcome to Fandom Shmandom, the fandom podcast
that covers everything you love and more. I'm
Sierra Obermark. And I'm Sam Williams. Today's
episode, we will be acrimoniously articulating
about Star Wars, Episode 1, The Phantom Menace.
Without further ado, we will, as Roger Smith
from American Dad says, dive on in, to our story
recap. Two Jedi, Master Qui -Gon Jinn and his
apprentice, is that Ben Kenobi, are sent secretly
by the Supreme Chancellor to create a diplomatic
solution to the Trade Federation's total blockade
of the planet Naboo. But enter our pal, Pateen,
and it's off with their heads for Qui -Gon Jinn
and Obi -Wan Kenobi. After carefully escaping
with the Trade Federation's invasion forces,
the two Jedi meet one of the two local sentient
species, Gungan Jar Jar Binks, beloved by 90s
kids and my father and hated by all else. After
saving his life, Qui -Gon and Obi -Wan convince
Binks to take them to his home city. There, they
get a transport, use Binx as a navigator, and
pilot through the watery planet Kor and several
fish to end up in Italy. I mean, the capital
of Naboo. The Queen of Naboo, a 14 -year -old
kid, has been captured, and the two Jedi spring
her loose. Future Grand Moff Tanaka gets our
whole little D &D party to a hangar of spaceships,
and the gang busts out of there. But the Trade
Federation isn't having it. Their blockade may
be perfectly legal, but it's not perfectly working.
Enter R2 -D2. The only surviving astromech droid
watches his fellow R2 units scream out in terror
as they're blasted to smithereens. Coming in
clutch, R2 fixes the ship, but the ship needs
further repairs, and the closest planet is Tatooine.
Play his wrestler intro music, it's Darth Maul!
Sent to track down the Queen, and that's all
we get of him for ages. On Tatooine, Qui -Gon
takes a party of Jar Jar, a Queen's handmaiden
named Padme, and R2, you know, the typical crew
there, to buy parts for their ship. They meet
a small, blonde boy named Anakin Skywalker, who
is owned by a Toydarian named Watto. After a
little flirting between this 14 -year -old girl
and 9 -year -old boy, Anakin saves Jar Jar from
a bully named Sebulba and gives shelter to Qui
-Gon's crew in his home with unnamed mother number
one. Give this man a towel, his parts are showing.
It's the droid C -3PO and the beginning of a
relationship with R2 that will last at least
60 years. But oops, the gang's been found and
Maul is after them with his only lines of the
movie. Anakin comes up with a brilliant plan
to deceive Wado. Gamble with the Tordarian to
get the ship parts they need, and bet on him,
the only human in the galaxy that can pod race.
Qui -Gon is becoming more enamored with this
selfless, talented boy, and for good reason.
It turns out unnamed Mother Number One conceived
the boy on her own. In the most obvious biblical
illusion, Anakin Skywalker was created solely
by the Force. Qui -Gon then steals some of his
blood to check the midichlorian count, a suddenly
important aspect of the Force, and explains eventually
to Anakin that midichlorians are microscopic
organisms that connect everyone to the Force.
Maul has arrived on Tatooine with droids on the
lookout for... It's unclear how Maul knows exactly
who to look for, but it's time for the pod race.
And while Qui -Gon tries to free the boy and
his mother, he can only free Anakin if Anakin
wins the race. Anakin proves he's worth listening
to with incredible calm under pressure. With
a huge disadvantage to start the race, he ends
up in a neck -and -neck final lap with arch -nemesis
Sebulba, and ends up not only finishing the race
for the first time, but winning it all, getting
the parts for Qui -Gon and company, but also
freeing himself. After delivering the horrible
news that C -3PO might be sold, Anakin promises
his mother to come back and free her. Dismounting
his Vespa and flying directly to kill a small
child, Maul attacks, using what appears to be
an unusually long lightsaber to battle it out.
Anakin and Qui -Gon just manage to escape and
head to Coruscant with the rest of the crew.
And Qui -Gon is certain this black -cloaked figure
is a member of the Ancient Sith Order. The Trade
Federation hasn't stopped being jerks. They are
now going after Jar Jar's people, the Gungans,
in their underwater city. But that doesn't matter,
because we've got more Padme -Anakin burgeoning
romance time before meeting Senator Palpatine
and the Supreme Chancellor Valorum. Cue politics.
Palpatine convinces the Queen to call for a vote
of no confidence in Valorum, and Palpatine comes
out on top as the new Supreme Chancellor. Meanwhile,
we finally meet more than two Jedi at one time
in a Star Wars movie. The Jedi Council, it turns
out, is just as stodgy and risk -averse as any
council ever. They both don't believe that Maul
is a Sith, nor that Anakin is the Chosen One,
or that he should be trained. With no time to
lose, the Queen goes back to Naboo to liberate
her people. The Queen tries to convince Bosnas
- head of all Gungans to sacrifice all his people
to give them a shot at wresting back power from
the Trade Federation, and it doesn't go well.
In a desperate attempt to salvage the situation,
Padme reveals she's actually the queen and begs
on her knees for the Gungans to join. Basnas
appreciates this show of respect and agrees,
and doesn't waver when they realize the Trade
Federation is way stronger than anyone thought.
And thus begins the still super fun to watch
climax of the movie. The party is broken up into
four sections. The Gungans draw away the Trade
Federation from the capital and into open combat.
Padme and Tanaka lead a team through the palace
to capture Trade Federation head Newt Gunray
to force him to end his blockade. Anakin gets
told to stay in a ship for his safety and instead
launches into the space battle. And Qui -Gon
Jinn and Obi -Wan Kenobi get into a battle to
the death with Sith Apprentice. Darth Maul and
his two -sided lightsaber. Y 'all know how it
ends. The Gungans die a lot and somehow provide
comic relief. Anakin does a lot of damage in
space and blows up the control ship. The droids
all deactivate, but not before Padme and her
team capture Gunray. And Qui -Gon and Obi -Wan
battle Maul, with Maul killing Qui -Gon, but
Obi -Wan overcoming the high ground and slicing
Maul in half to fall down a shaft to his, as
far as we know, death. Obi -Wan promises Qui
-Gon that he'll train the boy, and then it's
big celebration time with an eerie line from
our Palpatine. And of course, no series is quite
perfect without a cliffhanger. We know that Palpatine,
the Sith Master, is alive, but the Jedi don't.
Mace Windu and Yoda speculate on if the Master,
or the Student Sith, is still alive, only to
have the Sith Master sitting three feet away
and then preside over a peace ceremony the next
day. So good job, Jedi, and honestly... Good
job, George Lucas. End of movie summary. And
now it's time for a reality check. So how did
this movie get off the ground? Essentially, George
Lucas wanted to explore more of Vader's story
and expand the world. that he had given us in
the original trilogy. When he wrote the original
Star Wars, it was intended to be one film about
Vader's downfall, but then it turned into three,
and by the end of the three, he realized he hadn't
really told the backstory of Anakin how he originally
wanted to. He also came back as writer and director,
leading to much anticipation from the fans, as
this was Lucas' first time back in the director's
chair since the original Star Wars. Unlike the
original trilogy, which were intended to be made
very cheaply, remember, they didn't know if New
Hope was going to be remotely popular, The Phantom
Menace relied heavily on digital effects to tell
a wide -ranging story that dove into the Republic,
the politics, etc. Lucas decided 1999 was a pretty
good time to bring it back because there had
been major updates in the world of digital effects,
and he felt the film would finally appear as
he wished it. Hence, fully CG characters like
Jar Jar, who was the first fully CG character
on screen, and the first mo -cap motion capture
performance ever, which makes sense and honestly
just blows my mind that that was the first one.
Yeah, really, really blows my mind. really crazy
so apparently periodically during company meetings
other people um would ask george if he would
return to star wars having done jurassic park
having done all these other projects and finally
in 1994 he said yes he was going he was starting
to write again and he wanted to return to the
character who had started it all and flesh out
how he'd become one of the world's greatest villains
This was also in part because Lucas didn't like
the fan theories surrounding Vader's history
and he wanted to set everyone straight, which
is valid if it's your baby and you really want
to get into what you had to put on the page and
what you thought would come out on screen. Obviously,
that makes sense. Once the project was underway,
it was really up to the artists at that point.
They'd be given this small snippet or description
in the script and just have to go to work. They
started bringing the world to life on the page
and began creating things that were honestly
impossible and yet beautiful. Battle droids,
pod racers, even Maul's appearance all came from
nothing more than a spark of an idea. and grew
into all the iconic things that we know and mostly
love. Then it was time for technology to continue
catching up because they were still really pushing
boundaries. As Rob Coleman, the animation director,
explained, part of my problem was for months
there was no crowd system. which meant there
was no Gungan battle, no ability for my team
to animate hundreds of characters back then.
It just didn't exist. I remember there was one
line in the script that said something along
the lines of, the Gungan army walks out to battle.
That was six months of work, that one sentence.
You were like, holy, enter expletive here. How
do we do that? And that was one sentence out
of a hundred page script. So they had to go about
using the most current software systems they
could find. They had to develop all these new
techniques, find all the possible tools to make
this dream come to life. From a technological
standpoint, this film is an incredible marvel.
It's seriously mind -blowing. Diving into all
of the nitty -gritty of what they had to do and
develop and create to make this movie happen
is honestly shocking. Just incredible. I'm going
to say incredible like a million times because
it is. The most important thing, kind of in my
opinion, about this film and how it came to be
is that everything is Lucas's brainchild. This
film, how it was designed, how it was shot, how
it was written, edited, everything is exactly
what George Lucas wanted. And in a world where
films are often made with too many cooks in the
kitchen, or a studio can squash a writer's script
intentions, or the design elements in the story
are at war with each other, honestly, I think
that's a really beautiful thing. So that's kind
of how this film in particular came to be, which
is really interesting. There's several points
here. First one about Jar Jar Binks. Everybody
was so... excited on the during the production
of star wars about jar jar binks character they
thought he was going to kill like they thought
he was just going to be the most amazing thing
there was uh i think it was ahmed best hit uh
jar jar binks's character that was like hey can
i keep such and such part from jar jar and they
were like no this is going to be in the smithsonian
that's how like That's how much they believed
in that character, that this is going to end
up in the Smithsonian. And it actually still
could, because it was the first CGI character,
but it didn't... Obviously, we'll get to Jar
Jar in a bit in terms of how he works in the
story, but not super well received, it turns
out. Second, it's really... It's clear from reading
a lot of histories on George Lucas and Star Wars
and, you know, the... The previous trilogy, the
original trilogy, is a lot of like, okay, Lucas
directs, but Fox doesn't really believe in him
as a director, so they bring in directors for
the next two movies. He turns in the script,
and they like the overall story, but they get
script editors. Specifically, his wife at the
time also handles a lot of the scripts. So it's
like George Lucas' idea is then taken and then
turned into something else for most of those
movies. So it's really interesting to see him
here. doing what he's most interested in. Because
what he's most interested in is the technological
side of moviemaking, pushing the boundaries.
And it's awesome. He brings a ton, a ton of different
technologies to life. And that was true of the
original. ILM, Industrial Lights and Magic, is
one of the premier CGI special effects companies.
Movies... are made because of those guys that
came together in the 1970s to put together a
new hope and then empire and return and they
branch out and they do all these amazing things
and you still see ilm all over the place for
all sorts of different movies so he's just like
he's it seems like lucas is more interested in
like what can i bring to life through the technology
standpoint and less so like the story components
um which i think is why that turns out the way
it does fascinating great research Why, thank
you. I thank you. So what was the critics' reaction?
Mixed, at best. So 54 % on Rotten Tomatoes. And
that includes a couple of different bring -back
-to -movie theaters. So there's just a new release
of critics who've done it since they put Phantom
Menace back in, I think, a year ago or something
of that nature, around 2024. So 54 % on Rotten
Tomatoes. And even at the time when it first
was released, it was... Uh, not super beloved.
Here's some of the negative reactions. NPR's
Tom Shales said that, quote, the new Star Wars
movie is a menace. It's not about storytelling.
It's not about people. It's about effects and
technology. It's a computer movie through and
through. By computers and maybe for computers.
Which is... Quite devastating. But also, it's
really interesting reviewing Phantom Menace now.
We're recording in 2025. It's really interesting
reviewing now with all of his AI questions about
what should technology do versus George Lucas
is out here going, here's what technology can
do. Kind of suck at critics. Fellow NPR critic
Bob Mondolo said, what could he as in George
Lucas? have been thinking. You say to yourself
as he introduces a race of idol -worshipping
primitives who speak in Caribbean accents and
behave like refugees from Amos and Andy. Again,
like, really direct call -out of some of the
problematic aspects. But he called it out in,
like, 1999, in 2000. Yeah. It was called out
then. Peter Travers of the Rolling Stones says,
the actors are wallpaper. The jokes are juvenile.
There's no romance. Well, there might be. be
a little romance that makes everybody uncomfortable
um and back to his quote and the dialogue lands
with a thud of computer instruction manuals and
he says and as of lucas's directing skills his
uh he says quote his work with actors still belongs
to the don't demote just stand there school jay
hoberman of the village voice wrote star wars
episode one the phantom menace may be the first
movie to peak before its opening The movie requires
scarcely more than six minutes to wear thin.
There is nothing in this noisy, over -designed
bore to equal the excitement generated by the
mere idea of the trailer, which is kind of scorched
earth. Yikes. And if you remember, Sierra, do
you remember the poster? The poster is still
my favorite thing out of Phantom Menace. Yes,
I do mention the poster. We're going to get to
the poster. The poster was so iconic. It was
so good. The poster, we're going to get there,
but just to explain to everybody, the poster
was Anakin Skywalker standing with his little,
like, tattooing home behind him. Like, Luke's
tattooing home, really. It didn't end up being
his. With his shadow being Vader. And it was
like... Yeah. the like the chills that you would
get at i still like really remember this and
i was seven we were seven like i remember walking
by the movie theater and it beat like i remember
exactly what the wall looked like outside where
that poster was hanging like that's how vivid
this this is and i think i think my brother even
wanted to take a picture in front of it or something
yeah on like you know i think we were running
around with little little point and snap uh disposable
cameras he wanted to take a picture i'm sure
i could i don't know maybe i could find it somewhere
but i i feel like that was it was so big In my
family. That's like one of the movie posters.
I have several movie posters that I would like
to own over my life. That's one of them that
I just... It's... Ugh. Anyways. There was some
positivity, however, with the critics. Janet
Maslin of the New York Times wrote, Just as Star
Wars became one of the most widely imitated pop
phenomenon of its time, The Phantom Menace looks
like a template for a new generation of computer
-generated science fiction. And unlike The Matrix,
which, by the way, viewers or listeners had just
come out, Back to the quote, another film liable
to spawn imitations, it is sweetly, unfashionably
benign. Whether dreaming up blow -dryer -headed
soldiers who move in lifelike formation, or a
planet made entirely of skyscrapers, Mr. Lucas
still champions wondrous visions over bleak ones,
and sustains his love of escapist fun. There's
no better tour guide for a trip to other worlds.
Bon voyage. Michael Deed Reed of the Victoria
Times Colonist wrote, What The Phantom Menace
lacks in compelling dialogue, and it's a lot,
and character development, it makes up for in
industrial lights and magic's technical wizardry,
as our heroes undergo a series of alternately
humorous and hair -raising adventures. And most
wildly was this critic's positive review of the
movie that has not aged well. This is from Andrew
O 'Hagan from The Telegraph. He says, Jar Jar
Binks is the new star. He raps like a Jamaican
gangster and walks like one of the kids from
the fame. He is already limbering up in his computer
-generated way to be a long -serving Jedi chum
in the manner of the howling, hairy Chewbacca.
Also, pause for a second. How dare he! Jar Jar
is pretty useless as a mate. He can't fix stuff
and he's always getting into bother, but he lends
a load of schlepping good humor. Wild. A wild
take. Which, to be fair, I think all of us that
were around that age, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, did love
Jar Jar, and were kind of crushed at the, like...
Wait, it's not cool to like Jar Jar? What do
you mean, older sibling, older cousin, like church
friend? What are you talking about? Jar Jar's
great. It's so, so true. He will soon be as loved
as Winnie the Pooh. Oh boy, are you wrong? Yes.
But that brings us to the fan reaction. A little
bit different, but a lot the same. As much as
people will deny it now, fans were so excited
about the movie leading up to its coming out
and when it came out, especially those of us
who were not alive to see the original trilogy
in theaters. This was our Star Wars. Kids were
thrilled about the pod racing, excited by lightsaber
dueling, enthralled with the idea of Darth Maul,
the duel of the fates. I mean, come on, a double
bladed saber. Like, could you get more exciting
than that? No. I personally remember playing
pod racing with my brother around the house,
gasping with shock in the theater when Maul's
second blade was revealed. I still get goosebumps
to this day when I was watching it the other
day. Goosebumps still. And we fought over who
got to be who during the paper towel roll lightsaber
fights. The months before the film came out.
Absolutely filled with promotional material that
hyped everybody up. We knew Qui -Gon's lightsaber
was green. We knew Obi -Wan was this other Jedi.
Oh my gosh, is it the same Kenobi? That excitement.
The same Obi -Wan that we knew. Darth Maul obviously
was going to be so awesome. We knew who Anakin
was. The plot of the film was going to center
around him. Seriously, think about that poster
again. Iconic poster. Jake Lloyd with the Darth
Vader shadow. Just amazing. There was so much
merch already out. People were already listening
to Duel of the Fates. The initial viewing of
the film in theaters was greeted with enthusiasm
and it absolutely shattered box office records.
Shortly after the release, though, the excitement
was tainted. Fans in general liked the film.
However, older fans felt maybe it had been made
a little too childishly. Possibly it was geared
towards the wrong audience. George Lucas has
commented on this, stating, The films were designed
for 12 -year -olds. I said this right from the
very, very beginning and the very first interviews
I did for A New Hope. It's just that they were
so popular with everybody that everybody forgot
that. So... You know, there's also concern that
Ahmed Best's performance was problematic. A lot
of that was also picked up by the critic reception.
Older fans kind of hated Jar Jar in general,
which, as George Lucas has mentioned, people
also hated 3PO when he first came out on the
scene so much so that in the second one, they...
purposefully make fun of him uh to show how annoying
he is and you know nobody liked the ewoks either
unless they were unless they were also children
so but younger fans still wish they could pod
race listened to the weird two weird owls the
saga begins on repeat do i still know sections
of it and sing it instead of american pie to
this day yes absolutely Since then, younger fans
want to join in the hate. The internet took over.
One person's opinion became widespread in a way
that didn't exist in the original series, which
is kind of a shame. Internet, not always the
best, but it's great. We, you know, all of us
younger fans, we kind of watched it again. We
noticed potentially weird things like Padme.
Remember, she's supposed to be 14. Flirting with
a nine -year -old? It's not as bad as it does
appear. But, eh. Trade Federation, stereotype
-leaning, the Gungans in general, problematic.
We decided that all of these things made the
film bad. However, I do find that recently, maybe
the last five, ten years or so, fans are coming
back around. There are bad things, but overall,
Star Wars is weird. Like, when you really get
down to it, Star Wars is weird. this film is
weird and that's kind of okay. We can take it
at face value. We can acknowledge its faults.
We can still love the whole in spite of some
of its parts. And as Ahmed Best, you know, Jar
Jar Binks himself said, as soon as the movie
came out and all of that started coming down,
all the critic reactions and whatnot, George
called me and we talked about it. Ironically,
he said, 20 years from now, this is all going
to go away. Nobody's going to remember or think
about it this way. And he was right. He was right.
Great foresight. You know, it's interesting.
Ewan McGregor also talked about this when the
Obi -Wan show was coming out. And he was like,
it's just great. Because, you know, we kind of,
all these actors sort of started shying away
from being like, yeah, I'm in Star Wars. And
then 20 years later, it's just the kids grew
up. You and I grew up having loved this movie.
And it was the kids in 1977 that had grown up
and decided. Oh, this stinks. And to be fair,
A New Hope is much more for the everybody as
compared to Phantom Menace, which has a literal
child in it. And got some of the same flack that
the Ewoks got in Return of the Jedi, but you
didn't have the internet back then fanning flames.
Thank you for the internet overlords for allowing
our podcast to be here, but to your point, B.
The Internet is not a great place for echo chambers
of people, you know, zerping up their own opinions
because because I kind of don't think this is
great. And now somebody else has said it. And
now somebody has said it really emphatically.
And now I'm armed to the teeth with their argument
and I can go to battle and we can have vicious
wars over this. So, yeah, great. All great points.
So what aged the worst and what aged the best?
All right, so best, I think we both have as our
number one option, it's the Duel of Fates sequence.
It's that climax. 100%. That song does so much
heavy lifting. In fact, I was just talking to
my wife the other day about how much the music,
like, does Star Wars take off? Does the original
Star Wars A New Hope take off without the music?
And it's like, I don't, kind of like with Pirates
of the Caribbean, I don't think it's as good.
I don't think it's as received as well. Especially
that, da -da -da -da -da, the end. which gives
the audience such a feeling of power as you leave.
The Duel of Fate sequence is just so delicious
as you're breaking into the four different parts.
Very reminiscent of how Return of the Jedi, you
split into three different battles and it just
is a really nice, lovely. And then moment, you
get this very sort of like adult battle with
Obi and Qui -Gon and Maul. And then you get this
comic relief with the Gungans, which, whatever.
And then you get Anakin's, which as a seven -year
-old kid, I was like, yeah, I want to be in the
Starfighter pilot blowing things up. Are you
kidding? So, yeah, we're both agreed on that.
100%. Yes, definitely. Awesome. Worse, I have
here the use of aliens to depict non -white cultures.
When Sierra and I ever discuss... Whether or
not something is racist or there's racism or
there's some sort of prejudice behind something,
we're never going to delve into their intention.
So we're not going to speculate on George Lucas's
intentions or even address if he intended it
or not. What matters is somebody's impact. And
the impact felt by Asian and Caribbean and black
communities and Jewish communities is that George
Lucas sort of oversteps what appears to be a
use of. Alien species represent the non -powerful.
Alien species represent the non -white. And so
you have East Asian stereotypes with the Trade
Federation. You've got Jewish stereotypes with
Watto. You've got, as Sierra and I already talked
about, the Caribbean effects with Jar Jar Binks
and the Gungans. So that has certainly not aged
well, but an honorable mention you have here
as well. Yes, honorable mention of not aging
well goes to the CGI on Jabba the Hutt. He just,
he looks like they just created him and then
just kind of dropped him in there and he's not
as big as he should be. And it just. It feels
very out of place. It does. And it's not quite
the same as the extended special editions when
he's put in A New Hope. And he's definitely not
his Return of the Jedi sort of gross, oozing,
nasty self. Which, that topic's for another day.
Yes, it is. All right. So that ends the reality
check. And keep your fingers on the pause button
and rewind that tape. It's time for The Prestige.
For those of you, if you are tuning in for the
first time, Sierra and I have done a mini pod
that you can look under the title categories
explained. So that's why we have them named the
way we do. So the prestige category is all about
what did we notice this time watching? First
and foremost, on my mind. Why are the droids,
the astrobot droids, shrieking in terror? Who
would code them like that? Well, I get, like,
you know, you have to have something. You want
to feel a little bit of empathy. You're trying
to make sure that you're connecting with R2.
But yeah, honestly. Why would anybody make a
droid, like, sound like they feel pain? And it
made more sense in A New Hope to me when Vader
shoots R2, because all of his stuff gets haywire,
right? Like, he kind of, like, busts the system,
but he's still alive. And so he's just, like,
making mechanical noises. Exactly. But, like...
these droids are just completely smashed and
their vocal boxes can still work they just are
like shrieking and it's kind of like i think
it's in i think it's in the next film one of
the droids in space goes uh -oh and like i just
i can't who would who's coding these droids to
say uh -oh in space Like, why are you coding
astromech droids who are just these helpful little
house keepers that just go about being, like,
little Roombas, but for mechanical stuff? Who's
coding them to, like, at the end of its life,
it gets blasted. Make sure it screams. Jeez.
Horrible. Horrible. Oh, gosh. Oh. On a little
bit of a lighter note than that, also in preparation
for this podcast, we read Master and Apprentice
by Claudia Gray, which is kind of a prequel with
Qui -Gon Jinn and Obi -Wan Kenobi. Getting to
know a little bit more about their relationship.
And I just have to say, it's a good thing Qui
-Gon taught Obi -Wan how to swim. Because in
that book, he does not know how to swim. I should
teach you. Literally Qui -Gon says. I should
teach you. Yes. I should teach you to swim. Very,
very good point, because they would not have
reached the Gungan city. No, no, we would be,
Obi -Wan would be dead. He would be exactly what
he said to Jar Jar Binks. He would be blasted
into smithereens. And if none of you have read
Master and Apprentice, it's a really fun novel.
I think it's one of our favorite Star Wars novels,
period. It's a great sort of look into Obi -Wan's
relationship with Qui -Gon and how their inner
workings as Master and Apprentice work. Go figure,
it's the name of the book. But it also has these
little lovely sort of nods to Phantom Menace,
which ends up, if you're just reading the story
chronologically, sort of, you know, coming back.
Oh, hey, I should teach you how to swim. oh,
Qui -Gon's really into prophecy. He actually
believes in these Jedi prophets and what they
said, and he takes them literally, and so he
can actually look for a chosen one. And so that's
something that I noticed throughout this, is
how much that novel does a lot of heavy lifting
to provide rationale as to why Qui -Gon is the
way he is, which is just great. Yeah. And why
Obi -Wan is the way he is as well, and why he
does eventually agree to. take anakin on yeah
um yeah just it's phenomenal yeah it really is
definitely a good read if you want to dive deeper
into them uh another noticing here karen knightley
aka the uncredited decoy queen she's her character
is power hungry so as soon as as soon as there's
like a really hard job to do which is Okay, so
R2 -D2 is covered in the remnants of his screaming
astromech droids, plus some of the ship's grease
and oil and stuff. And he gets brought back in,
and at the very end of when they've commended
the droid, which also, cool that you are aware
enough to commend a droid, that's awesome. Right.
Keira Knightley as the Queen is like, Padme,
clean him up! Padme! Padme! Keira Knightley's
character knows that Padme's the actual queen.
Like, it's just, it's so delicious. It's so good.
And I noticed this time the other handmaidens
1000 % smirk at each other when this happens.
And I'm honestly here for it. Little details
that are just so great. Yes. Yes. The first time
watching, I was totally fooled. Like, as a kid,
I was fooled. I thought... I did not realize
that there was a decoy queen and Padme and the
whole thing. Watching it again, it's so obvious.
Like, I cannot. The voice. Yeah. Maybe if I closed
my eyes, I could be fooled again. Yeah. But it's
so obvious to me that it's Kira and not Natalie.
It's the brow for me. It's the way that the brow
settles into the cheeks. It's the face shape
for me. Yeah. It's just the general face shape.
Keira Knightley's face is just a little bit rounder
in the bottom half. And she looks a little bit
younger, too. She is. I can't remember. I'm pretty
sure she was a few years younger. Because she's
17 when Pirates comes out. Right. So, yeah, that's
interesting. You know, their parents couldn't
tell them apart during the movies. Both Keira
Knightley and Natalie Portman said. that they
they literally could not tell who is who on like
the first watch i think obviously if they were
looking yeah they would they would probably be
able to know yeah yeah okay also fun fact uh
if you guys are all like who's karen knightley
again karen knightley is from pride and prejudice
and pirates of the caribbean so if you're like
what she's in that movie i why didn't i know
that she's uncredited yeah so that would be why
you don't know um which is wild Yeah, I... Because
she has a lot of lines. I know! I believe...
Okay, so this is entirely just off my memory,
so if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I believe it
was because she was trying to be protective of
what type of things she was credited on, so that
producers wouldn't be like, oh, she's like a
genre person, like she only does sci -fi. um
instead of and so that way she was up from and
then she went and does a pirate movie so i'm
not really sure uh maybe i'm wrong on that maybe
they wouldn't credit her she went and did pirates
and then like almost immediately did pride and
prejudice well i think it was the second pirates
and then pride and prejudice came out and love
actually right but but specifically with pride
and prejudice and pirates which one day we'll
we'll dive into pirates and it'll be great and
i'll bring this up again but I was reading an
interview where she was saying that it was a
very confusing time in her life because everybody
was critiquing her acting ability in Pirates
of the Caribbean, the second one, and was saying
that she was just so horrible and it was really
bad acting and all that. And at the exact same
time, she was being nominated for an Oscar for
Pride and Prejudice. So it's like, wait, hold
on. Am I really good or am I really bad? And
Natalie Portman gets lambasted for Attack of
the Clones, but love for V for Vendetta. So people
are just stupid. Yeah. It turns out probably
with actors. You both are great ladies. With
actors, it's because it's a movie, right? It's
all down to director, cinematographer, music.
Like it's the whole package every time. Denzel
Washington gives this just, just so that we,
I know we're. We're already sort of sidestepping.
But Denzel Washington gives this great point.
Movies are a filmmaker's medium, not an acting
medium. Because he's like, you can be giving
the best speech of your life. And the director,
he says in a different way, the director can
be zooming in on your foot. It's a filmmaker's
medium, not an acting medium. Anyways, moving
forward. It is a fun dynamic that we get Naboo,
which has two different sentient species that
don't get along but are in a permanent peace.
And as always with world building, I will always
want more. But I still think that there's room
in this film for a little bit more of the humanity
aspect of these two things. But the movie's really
not about human aspects. It's more about... exploring
the past of Anakin and getting there as quickly
as possible. So it would have been cool to explore
that much. And speaking of Anakin, another thing
I just always think about with this movie, and
I think about this in general with the prequels,
because at the end of the day, with all the big
beats of the story, I actually have no problem.
I actually really like the big beats of the whole
prequel. right it's when we get down to the exploration
of how those beats are delivered to us that this
kind of the the movies have a lot more faults
but like yeah you take vader as a nine -year
-old kid and make him super innocent and super
trusting and really wanted to be a good guy to
show the juxtaposition as to what he becomes
when we first meet him choking people out in
conference rooms and killing you know uh political
prisoners like captain antilles and That's awesome.
It's just very frustrating to see the way in
which the points are delivered are not manifested
in the best way possible. But moving back to
Anakin, I find it just so interesting that he
was like, you know what? It's not that Vader
was at a low point and therefore was a low character
person. Right? It's that he was at the lowest
point you could be, and he still has the love
and optimism of the light side. And I find that
just a wonderful idea for this movie. Yeah. A
random thought that I had. Mind tricks don't
work on Toydarians, which got me in a whole tailspin
of, well, who else do they not work on? Why Toydari
- Hoidarians in particular, a list would probably
be helpful so that Jedi don't get embarrassed
when trying to mind trick a species that can't
be. I think that the Jedi probably know in general
which species do or do not are amenable to. I
think every species, there are definitely people
that can or cannot though. And I think it's just
Watto is just being like self -important and...
And egotistical and stuff. I think you could
probably find a Tordarian that you could Jedi
mind trick. Probably. But kind of on that note,
like, it's a really great intro to so many different
species that all live in kind of these outer
rim planets. And I do wish that we got a little
bit more non -human main characters. Yeah. Because
it's really just Jar Jar. Jar Jar. And then Anakin's
Rodian friend. Yeah. Yay! Woohoo! Yeah. So I
do wish we got a little bit more of that, which
would be great. Okay, so I love in this, just
knowing the reveal of that Padme is the queen,
it's just so fun to see Qui -Gon and the way
that Liam Neeson acts this up. The way he leans
over her and will be like, the queen trusts my
judgment. You should too. It's so delicious knowing
that this is the queen. And then it's so satisfying
to see the way that him and Obi -Wan interact
when the reveal happens on Naboo. Yes, because
I'm just saying Qui -Gon and Obi -Wan 100 % knew
that she was the queen. And had a bet on how
long it was going to take for her to reveal herself.
Nothing can change my mind on this. They're satisfied
little smirks when she reveals and them trying
to hide their laughter. Very clear. I'm going
to try and change your mind a bit. I'm with you
on 50 % of it. Qui -Gon Jinn absolutely does
this little, like, look over at Obi -Wan. And
Obi -Wan, you can tell from his facial expression,
he's going, oh, shoot. And it's Obi -Wan doesn't
know and Qui -Gon knows. And that's what makes
Qui -Gon's treatment of Padme so delicious on
another rewatch. It's because it's just like,
he's just like goading Padme into revealing it.
He's just playing with his food, basically. No,
because what it is, is they made a bet on when
it was going to happen. And he wanted to win
the bet. And he won. He won, which is why Obi's
like, oh, no, because he lost the bet. I don't
believe it. I don't believe it. I don't believe
it. No, I do. So, as you know, Star Wars likes
to meddle with their movies, especially during
George Lucas from the 90s and 2000s and up to
when he sells Disney. And so the Disney Plus
version of Phantom Menace is not the original
theatrical cut. And my big qualm. It's the pod
racing scene is too long. Now it's the, when
it's, when it's the cinematic version, it's perfect.
And then they go and add all of this extra stuff.
And like little Sam was like, yeah, give me more
star Wars. And me rewatching for the, every,
every time I've rewatched sense of being an adult
is like, dude, I don't really need to see him
magnet. his hose back into his pod. And I don't
need to see all the different little poorly CGI
thing. Cause it's not quite up to snuff as the
same CGI. It's like, I'm, I I'm good. I'm good
on the pod racing scenes too long. I'm fine with
it. Also Warwick Davis and Greg proof makeup
for it. I should have known everybody. Sierra
loves Warwick Davis with all of her heart and
soul. I do. Like, if it could have been Warwick
Davis at the altar, she would have married him
instead, for sure. Okay, no. But that's also
because he has a very amazing marriage and children
and life, and I'm not going to mess with that.
Because, so, yeah. We'll go into the lore on
partial reason why I love Warwick Davis so much
on another time. That'll be a great little tangent
someday. I did find it interesting that the Republic
still doesn't really exist in the Outer Rim,
despite kind of all the effort that has been
made since the High Republic, which is another
time frame that we'll get into one of these days.
Not terribly far in the future, but the High
Republic was kind of this golden age of the Jedi
and of the Republic and everything was going
so well and they were doing such amazing things
and they were. sending a bunch of settlers out
to the outer rim and, you know, really getting
people on these planets to start developing them
and all this trade. And I do, I just find it
interesting because the high Republic and the
Jedi and the Republic itself were very involved
in all of that. And it just seems like nothing
has changed from the very, very beginning of
them trying to settle these outer rim planets.
I know I'm. I'm still kind of just starting on
this whole High Republic journey, so potentially
it's explained by the time we kind of get through.
New books are still coming out. But it doesn't
seem like it. It seems like maybe there should
be more of a presence. Yeah. Slavery shouldn't
exist by now. It's definitely still messy exactly
how the Republic is enforced, for sure. Yeah.
And talking about slavery, Anakin is... twice
the man luke is when he's 18 like luke is is
is as we know whiny and kind of like does the
force exist like i'm ready to learn but anakin
is a better mechanic he built c -3po he built
his own pod he's a better person he's like willing
to help instantly luke's like i can't do anything
obi -wan and Anakin's like, nope, I'm ready to
help. Here, you want to come to my home? How
do I get you guys to get your parts and everything
like that? And he's better with the Force early
on. The whole pod racing scene only happens because
he's got Force Jedi -like instincts going on.
Just an amazing note about Anakin. Oh, yeah.
Definitely. I do know, like, you know, it's set
up that he's the only human who can do pod racing
and therefore all of the instincts and the ability
to... swerve and know when to go certain places
and to maneuver around the other racers and you
know all the fixing that he does to his pod during
you know during the whole situation I do wish
like I don't know maybe I'm thinking too much
of kind of like a magic user instead of a force
user but like if there was something that's a
little bit more clear about his using the force
specifically during the pod racing other than
just like He couldn't do any of this if he wasn't
so strong in the force, because I think especially
as a kid watching it, it's like, yeah, he's the
only human. But then it's like, but he's doing
all these things. And so are all the other like
you kind of forget that as the pod racing goes
on. So I just wish there was like maybe a little
bit of a moment of like instead of him grabbing
the thing with a magnet, he uses the force to
pull it towards him. Something simple. It is
interesting. I, one of my main complaints about
the prequels is that the force in it often feels
weightless. Like there's not enough. dramatic
weight behind it. Versus in the first original
trilogies, they do a really good job of like,
oh, this is the Force. And whether it's a swell
in music while Luke is looking out at the two
suns being called by the Force out into the universe,
or it's Luke literally closing his eyes to make
C -3PO float in return, you can still feel the
weight behind it. And I actually think this is
something that Disney does better. Because Rey
in Force Awakens, the moments of like, Her turning
the Force on Kylo is such a brilliant scene during
her interrogation that you feel that weight of
the Force being used and her using it. And also,
earlier, when Poe is being interrogated by Kylo,
that's a really important moment. And also, I
really wish that we got to see that Anakin's
star pilot moments at the end during the Duel
of Fates sequence was more... force than it was
accident intentional like yeah like he feels
the call to it um we'll talk a little bit about
later when i have different ideas but uh on to
your part yes oscar worthy performance moment
goes to the tiny corner of our pal patine's mouth
yes when he says that uh maybe We will be able
to sway them to our side. And then she says,
well, I hope so, and walks away. And then it's
just this tiny little smirk. It's great. Right
at the cut. And I literally rewound it and watched
it about five times because I was like, he does
smirk right there, doesn't he? And it's, yeah,
it's a split second, but it's perfect. The camera
loves him. Yes. Something noticed on the rewatch?
Padme's plan? To get back Naboo is super ruthless.
Let's go to the Gungans and let's get them to
sacrifice everybody that they have. Your whole
army, kill them all so that we have a chance
to go get Newt Gunray. Like, it's really, like,
it's tactical. It works, but it's ruthless. Like,
let's have an alliance for the first time ever.
And also, you guys die. You guys be the decoy.
Keira Knightley's like, yeah, you have no idea.
This is why I made her do the droid. So good.
Yeah, last two things that really stuck out to
me, specifically after watching this, after reading
Mastered Apprentice. Qui -Gon holding on to prophecy
with his dying breath, super impactful. And also
Yoda again being the one against Qui -Gon, which
no spoilers or anything for Master and Apprentice.
But go read it. Yes, but go read it. But honestly,
like those two things just really like hit me
the significance of it after having a little
bit more of that backstory. very cool it's just
it's fascinating to have yoda grandmaster sort
of in charge of the council be so force averse
to prophecy and qui -gon being like no i'm actually
i'm against the council often and i'm willing
to receive this message from the force it's brilliant
you know you don't always have to face down a
horde of angry soldiers by yourself Buckle up,
Schmissners, because it's time for our Sansa
is smarter than John category for what is the
most important character moment of this movie.
For me, that is a tie between Anakin stating
twice that to him, being a Jedi means he can
come back and free the slaves, specifically his
mom. And, secondly, Obi -Wan's following through
on Qui -Gon's wishes to train Anakin, despite
his not believing in the prophecy. Yeah, yeah.
I also have Obi, and then closely related, Anakin
promising his mom that he will come back, and
that his thoughts dwell on his mother, which
set up so much of the rest of the prequels. Mm
-hmm. Just lost a hand! sierra but listen up
it's the i am your father category for most iconic
character moment and are we sure just i know
it isn't this isn't it but are we sure it's not
quite gone grabbing jar jar's tongue It's so
iconic. Don't do that again. I think it's probably
Obi -Wan cutting Maul in half, beating the high
ground, especially now that we know more about
the high ground later. But you have different
thoughts. It's still Maul related, but it's him
lighting the second half of his saber. Yeah,
I take it back. You're 100 % right. It's that
one, and I'm sorry I ever said anything different.
Yep, exactly. Come to my side. everybody sit
down it's time for our i am iron man most iconic
and most important scene category uh most important
for me uh we will watch your career with great
interest yeah i think we've got uh two sides
of the same coin it still has to do with like
you're doing the dark side and i'm doing the
light side i've got trained the boy obi -wan
as qui -gon you know pleads with obi to train
him and he's like of course i will master so
yeah most important we got two sides of the same
coin exactly yeah most iconic though duel of
the fates it's gotta be It's easy. Even with
the pacing that includes Anakin accidentally
destroying the control tower and creating the
term phantom menacing an enemy. It's incredible.
Yes, exactly. All right, crack open an encyclopedia.
It's time for our, as Elijah Wood once said,
no, how could we have known? category where we
discuss the most important information disseminated
to the fandom in this movie and i think we both
have the same thing for number one it's you got
it midichlorians which uh we never heard about
before and uh we continued to hear more about
later and it still mostly makes sense it's it's
interesting i once read a quote of a guy who
was like You know, I watched Star Wars in 1977
as a kid. For 25 years, I never wondered how
the Force worked. I don't know why we decided
to explain how the Force worked. The way I work
personally, I like the mystery of like a spiritual,
mythical, metaphorical power that is not explained.
But then figuring out later down the line that
George Lucas, like... for his sequel, wanted
to explore the wills, which are like beings that
control the force. So he wanted to get into what
the system is and everything. And I'm like, alright,
so it's not my cup of tea, but it's fine. I accept
it. I'm not like most Star Wars fans who don't
accept it. I will. Not that most don't. But it's
just, you know, it was an incredible piece of
information that was just given. However, there
is an honorable mention for me and for you. My
honorable mention is He can see things before
they happen. It's a Jedi reflex. Now, this is
interesting because seeing the future in the
Force, whether it's small or big, is a huge theme
throughout the sequels. Like, it's what gets
Anakin's sort of character movement going in
the second one. And it's what inevitably is used
to manipulate him into the dark side in the third.
And Master and Apprentice is all about Qui -Gon's
relationship with the future and how we see the
future. And is it the dark side that lets you
see the future? Or is it the light side? How
do you see the future without wanting to know
the future and to control the future? And it's
just this huge theme throughout these trilogies.
So that little sentence there, I thought, opened...
It was your first step into a much larger world.
Yeah, my honorable mention is honestly just the
vast world of the Jedi. It really just creates
a sense of dread, for me at least, for the next
films until we end up at New Hope where we go,
hold on, Obi -Wan and Yoda are the only Jedi
left. something terrible happened here um and
i i think it just really sets up that like wait
hold on they have a council and they have all
these people and we're training new people training
new jedi and then how do we get here oh no yeah
absolutely well it's time to keep your horses
safe it's the I'm going to make him an offer
he can't refuse. Category four, best lines. All
right. Here's my quickfire. I have a bad feeling
about this. You can't use it until A New Hope.
You can't use it as a best line until A New Hope.
It doesn't count. Yes, I can. It's like the first
line in the movie. The ability to speak does
not make you intelligent. I also had that. Yep,
100%. I have a threefer from Jar Jar, just because
these are ones that my dad and I quoted to each
other constantly throughout my childhood. Exqueeze
me. Yeah. Okie day and how rude. Next we have,
I don't care what universe you're from, that's
gotta hurt. That's the announcer of the pod racing.
That's Greg Proops. Greg Proops? Whose line is
it anyway? Greg Proops. Then, now this is pod
racing. Now this is pod racing. Yeah, I have
There's Always a Bigger Fish, which is, I think,
quoted by even not Star Wars fans at this point.
Honorable mentions for me go to The Ability to
Speak Does Not Make You Intelligent, same as
you. A very good -hearted one. Mom, you say the
biggest problem in this universe is no one helps
each other. Thank you, Anakin. I can't wait for
you to kill lots of people as Darth Vader. And
then this one is just one that our expert Garrett
Fielding and I quote all the time to each other
when we're, you know, sanding a table down or
fixing a computer or getting the N64 to work
back so we can play Super Smash Bros. It's working!
It's working! That's gonna do it for best lines.
And it's time to board the TARDIS, because we're
going to explore what -ifs with our Get Out category.
What if Qui -Gon had lived to train Anakin? I
think that's the only what -if really worth talking
about. I mean, there's a bunch of, like, what
if Boss Nass doesn't... join them. And all of
the what -ifs are like, they die. This one is
like, it's so... Anakin needs a father figure,
not a brother figure, which is what Obi -Wan
ends up becoming. And I think with... You are
my brother, Anakin! No! He needed a father! And
Qui -Gon is, you know, he's able to push against.
the council in old canon, which we'll talk about
in, in our Qui -Gon lore galore. He had a wife,
he was married. He had a relationship outside
of what the Jedi council technically approved
of, which is the reason why they wouldn't put
them on the council for the legends canon. He
knew all of this things that he could help Anakin
breathe through and understand and see how you
can have a universal sense of love without an
attachment, how you can have a marriage. without
being exclusionary. And it's just like, he is...
What's the Dark Knight line? He's the master
that Anakin deserved but never got. And Obi -Wan
is the... Oh. No, it's... He's the master that
he needed but didn't deserve. Yeah, he's the
master he needed but didn't deserve. And Obi
is the master that he deserved but didn't need.
Mm. Mm -hmm. Yeah, I think Anakin turns out quite
differently. If Qui -Gon is there to train them.
Because I think they're a little bit more similar.
Whereas Obi -Wan is a force to be rebelled against.
Instead of Qui -Gon, who they could kind of rebel
together. And have someone to lead him through
everything. Yeah. Alas. Earwax. Next category,
everyone off the stage. Cue Gandalf. Questions.
Questions that need answering. I love that. Questions.
Questions that need answering. Okay, should the
movies have started with an older Anakin? That's
nothing against Anakin's actor, Jake Lloyd, who
was treated exceptionally poorly and has dealt
with severe mental illnesses ever since the movie
came out and he was just lambasted and people...
did terrible things, said terrible things about
a minor. We are not a fan of that at Fandom to
Random. But in terms of story, is it stronger
if he's Luke's age? That's my main question.
Not that I'm George Lucas or deserve to be in
charge of Star Wars, but I would start with an
older Anakin for sure. I don't know. I think
finding him where he is and... Getting to see
him as a child with a childlike wonder and all
that, I think it just makes the juxtaposition
of who he turns into that much stronger. Because
I find that with Luke, I mean, obviously, you
know, characters, the actors aren't necessarily
the same age as the characters are portraying
Padme concerns. But I think that with Luke's.
In experience, he comes across too kiddy for
how old he's supposed to be. You know, we talk
about how he's whiny and things like that. I
think that being able to see Anakin not being
that whiny as a child helps us understand who
he becomes. And I think it really solidifies
the relationship with his mom. Because I think
that if he's taken from his mom as a teenager
instead of as a kid, he might not have the same
attachment. Because you tend to grow away from
your parents and then potentially come back towards
your parents as you get older. I still think
there's a way to write in a big mama's boy as
a 20 -year -old, 19 -year -old kid. Yeah, but
I don't think it has the same impact. I agree
that you lose the juxtaposition of adult Vader
versus nine -year -old, like, angel child. But
I do wonder if, and now we've seen several movies,
like Logan comes to mind, where you've seen young
kids. in dramatic roles that really hit in a
big fandom movie. Obviously there's been like
artificial intelligence. There's a young kid
that, and that's a very dramatic movie and stuff,
but I mean like big fandom movies, they've started
to like do a little bit more serious stuff. And
I wonder if it was made today, if they'd make
it a Anakin, a little less accident goofness
and a little bit more serious. But I just, I
still wonder if, if as a teenager, he'd be better.
Your question. I just had kind of some maybe
continuity questions. So they, Qui -Gon tells
the people on the ship, don't respond to the
plea for help because it's clearly a trick to
get them to, you know, broadcast their location.
But then literally the next scene they're found
anyway. Despite not broadcasting back. So Qui
-Gon tells Obi -Wan. Don't let them transmit
anything. They get a transmission. Obi -Wan's
like, don't send any transmission. And then he
radios Qui -Gon and Qui -Gon's like, seems like
bait to establish a trace connection. And then
the very next scene is Maul with one of his like
two lines being like, Tatooine is sparsely populated.
It won't be hard to find them. I was like, yeah,
but did they respond? I think it was clearly
a cut. out of the movie like there's some probably
some deleted scenes there seems like a cut in
the movie to save some time that they were like
the audience won't question this too much sierra
questions on like the 40th rewatch i think i
remembered it before but yeah no definitely um
i i also had this you know they have the the
initial fight with maul and then they're like
who was that i don't know i don't know what kind
of a person and there's Yeah, well, there's like
a pause and then there's another scene and then
it goes back and they're explaining and they
go, oh, I think it's a Sith. But in that little
moment, I'm like, is the red saber not kind of
a tip off as to who he is? It's a good question.
A lot of Star Wars fans have that question as
well. He's clearly a Sith. He's got a red lightsaber.
So in old canon and legends. There were people,
there were dark Jedis, because all you need to
create a red lightsaber is to infuse your kyber
crystal with dark force energy. It turns red.
Yeah. There are no naturally occurring red kyber
crystals. So then the answer is he's a dark Jedi.
Correct. Either way, there shouldn't be a question.
I know. I'm with you on that. But in terms of
why they don't immediately say, is he a Sith?
Yeah. And why these other people are like, I
don't know. the Sith could come back without
us knowing. Thanks, Mace. Like, that's egotistical.
Also, you're like, what? 60 and Yoda's right
there? 600 times your age? Maybe let him take
that one? He's not even 60. Samuel L. Jackson's
not that old in that movie, but I digress. I
had questions around, like, who designed Anakin's
flag? Because, like, it matches his pod exactly.
Like, did they also make a flag? Was that, like...
unnamed mother number one doing that in the background
and also why is c -3po newly awakened being to
the world his flag bearer like he could have
gone with anybody could have gone with his mom
well i think he's gone with padme who he's clearly
crushing on yeah i i mean i don't think c -3po
is necessarily newly awakened to the world because
he's been Testing him. Yeah, sure. So he's been
awake. He's still a baby for a droid. Oh, yeah,
for sure. And also, he's unstable. I mean, it's
a child. He can't walk on a regular stone floor.
Why are they putting him in the sand to walk
around with a flag? This is very true. Questions.
Okay, so my next question is during the Duel
of the Fates. When Qui -Gon is waiting between
the barriers, he begins to meditate. My question
is kind of esoteric a little bit. Did he know
potentially that he was going to die? And that's
part of why he was kind of meditating in that
moment. You know, I know battle meditation is
a thing. He tries to teach Obi -Wan. He's a big
proponent of it. But I just... Is that a part
of, like, do we think that that is part of kind
of what he's dealing with and maybe why he wants
to center himself? Because he's kind of preparing
himself for what's about to come? Because it
did, for whatever reason on this last rewatch,
I just, that moment of him just settling down
just felt so impactful for me. And I don't know
if maybe I was just reading too much into it,
but. I think, so there's several. several things
that i think about this so that moment certainly
from a film perspective is supposed to be making
you apprehensive as a viewer oh this calm i'm
now worried it does an effective job of making
you go oh no and that's what it's like that's
what it's there it's this eerie calm before and
and you know that obi and qui -gon are separated
and you're hoping that obi can get to him now
you are also seeing the difference between Qui
-Gon and Obi. Obi -Wan is mad. He's angry. He's
impatient. Right? He's waiting there, sort of
huffing and puffing in anticipation. Maul is
stalking his prey. Yeah, and taunting his prey.
Yeah, and Qui -Gon goes into this meditative
state. So I think, I don't think that he's thinking
he's going to die because I still think he's
fighting for Anakin's future. And I think he's
fighting to be able to train. That boy. Also,
battle meditation is like an even more zerped
up thing than what we read in Master and Apprentice
in the old canon. So when all of this stuff is
still canon in the 90s, battle meditation is
like a specific Jedi trait that helps everyone
around you coordinate better. and for you to
be better attuned to the force so it might be
that he's attempting to do that and he's very
good at like sort of that battle meditation versus
just like meditating in battle which is different
um and more of what master and apprentice covers
it's not the old battle meditation um got it
so for anybody who's played kotor bastilla the
main character is like she's really good at battle
meditation that like that coordination of getting
everybody to fight together And so she takes
out Darth Revan at the beginning of that game.
That's not a spoiler. That's the literal premise
of the game. Yeah. Anyways, so I think he's fighting
for Anakin's future. I think he's still trying
to live. And I think that he is calming himself
to juxtapose what Obi -Wan's doing, Anakin's
eventual master, which is more aggressive. And
then we see Obi -Wan, as soon as Qui -Gon Jinn
dies. tap into the dark side, become extra aggressive,
no longer do defensive fighting, and go for the
kill. Mm -hmm. Yeah, for sure. Speaking of Qui
-Gon, do Qui -Gon and Shmi kind of have a thing
for each other? Oh my gosh, that's such a theory.
First of all, we don't actually get Shmi's name
until the second movie. That's why I keep calling
her unnamed mother number one. Because it's just
your mom and mom is her name. But like, okay,
so there's all sorts of like speculation about
this online because Qui -Gon is like, they have
a joint connection. But then he also goes up
to her. Right before the pod race, right after
Chance Cube with Watto, before actual pod race.
And Anakin's riding with Padme and Shmi's riding
with Anakin's friend. And Qui -Gon makes a beeline
for Shmi and he says, good morning and helps.
helps her down from her little like camel like
thing and that has set everybody's head including
myself like i was i was even more convinced on
this walk on this watch by the way he goes over
and says good morning and helps her off and i
was like oh oh oh there's one there's another
moment where he puts his hand on her shoulder
as well absolutely like it's a very close gesture
yes um for two people who don't know each other
Yes, definitely. That's a good one. That will
fan flames for forever. Yeah, there's no answer
on that one. It's just a question. It's a question
that needs answering, but it won't get answered.
Just like this one, why do I kind of not like
Yoda? Because he's stodgy! Because he's exemplifies
exactly what's wrong with the Jedi Order at this
point, which is they're sort of cutting themselves
off from the possibilities of the Force, right?
They are unbalanced. They are not... exploring
or, and, and looking at the dark side, everything
that has to do with the dark side, if it even
leads to it, like prophecy, like future watching
is off limits instead of being explored in how
can we interact with this in a way that's, that's
balanced. And he's just so skewed one direction.
Yeah. It's just, it's very frustrating how much
he just is like, well, that will lead to the
dark side. Well, that is the, and I'm like, I
know. I know. It kills me. Just a little bit.
It's fine. I want my Muppet back. Next category.
Rip open that candy wrapper and show us your
golden ticket. It's time for the Veruca Salt
Award for a piece of memorabilia we really, really
need. Queen Amidala's throne room headdress.
I do need that for you. I need you to wear that
on this pod. I'm totally kidding. Although I
did. Try to make that with towels at one point,
and I definitely attempted the face paint and
whatnot. For real, though, it is Maul's lightsaber.
I have other lightsabers. I have Windu's. I have
Qui -Gon's. I've got some other ones. I need
Maul's. I want it. I need it. Gimme. Gimme. Gimme.
Gimme. In other words, please join our Patreon
so that Sierra can buy both lightsabers. Can
I have a functioning R2 -D2? Because that's the
memorabilia I would want. The house maintenance
would be so easy. Car maintenance would be non
-existent. They fix themselves sometimes. Like,
I need a functioning R2. Although, getting him
to go upstairs with his little fuel injectors
from... attack on the clones i don't want to
pay that might be a problem uh and he can kind
of go downstairs i was concerned about you know
burning this oh i suppose burning down my house
would be a concern but anyways uh i can just
buy a ranch house at some point in my 50s uh
any any who i really want that I'd probably also
go for Maul's lightsaber in this one. But if
you had a big enough yard, I think a full -sized
replica of Anakin's pod racer with a glass tabletop
on going the whole length would be super dope
as like a garden party thing to do, which is
very 30 -year -old of me. But I think that'd
be super sweet. And to finish it up... Oh, gosh,
that would be amazing. Dust off that card deck
and get ready to shuffle. It's our Joker category
for who is the MVP of this movie. So there's
a clear unassailable number one for me. People
could make an argument that Padme does some work
here, that Shmi could be considered the MVP,
like pound per pound in scene. You could obviously
make a good argument for Anakin. I don't think
you can actually make an MVP argument for Obi
-Wan because he's just so not present for all
of the tattooing stuff. Because Qui -Gon's like,
stay on the ship. I'm going to take this Gungan
and a droid with me. And Obi's like, do you not
value me? I honestly forgot how much he's just
not in this movie. Yeah. But I'm going to, before
I get to my number one unassailable pick, I'm
going to make a case for this one guy who I think
actually pound for pound for the actions that
he does is super great. And that's going to be
Boss Nass. Yeah. Right. Okay. All right. Sierra's
making some thinking faces. Boss Nass, here's
his actions. I'm waiting for it. Jar Jar Binks
is a menace. He's really the phantom menace of
this whole thing. Whether you want to go for
problematic performances, or you want to go for
Darth Jar Jar jokes, or an actual theory behind
Darth Jar Jar. He was literally so clumsy that
they banished him. What a great call. Get this
guy who might trounce my whole city in water
and drown everybody out of here. Then... Not
only does he get Jar Jar out, when Jar Jar comes
back, he's like, hey, guys, here's a transport.
Here's how you get through it. Please take Binks
with you. I'll eventually be convinced that that's
a good idea. Okay. Then, so he gets Jar Jar Binks
out of there. In both times that Jar Jar Binks
is, like, supposed to be banished in the back,
he still gets rid of him. Then, he gets all of
his Gungans to safety. Without, like... Unlike
the Naboo, who just sit there and are like, I
guess it's invasion time. He gets everybody to
safety. They go to a secret place. And then when
he's in the secret place, he swallows his pride.
And he's like, heck yeah. You can have all my
soldiers. Let's squash these bugs. And then they're
like, you know what? The army's way stronger.
And he's like. Yeah, we're still going to do
it. We still know that the collective good and
the collective peace is only going to be brought
on if we try. And in addition to that, he's a
savvy politician who realizes Jar Jar's popularity
has skyrocketed among his people, and he makes
him a general. And you know what? He does great
things, terrible, but great things as a general.
And at the very end, he proclaims peace. Pound
for pound, that's a pretty good... pretty good
movie moments for him i i legitimately cannot
argue with any of your points i there's no yeah
there's just he he i don't know if i can make
him the mvp of the entire movie because he is
a very um small uh sphere of influence yeah um
however For Naboo, he is the MVP of Naboo. For
sure. For sure. I'll give you that. He's the
only reason why the movie keeps going. Both at
the end of Act 1, beginning Act 2, and at the
end of Act 2, beginning Act 3. Also true. It's
kind of wild. But my real unassailable MVP, mainly
to do with how much more weight this man has
in the movie, is Qui -Gon Jinn, which I don't
even know that you can... argue against he's
the catalyst for all of all the parts of the
movie he has great wisdom he's the one that picks
up on anakin he's the one that tests for midichlorian
levels he's the one that believes in prophecy
uh it is ultimately why a bunch of like zero
to five year olds die in 14 years 13 years time
but uh he he's the mvp Yeah, but he didn't know
that. He didn't know he was going to not be around
to stop that from happening. Yeah, seconded for
that real pick. My honorable mention for this
is our pal, Patin. Yeah, he's great. Because
he accomplishes all of his goals. He is nowhere
near found out, clearly. people having the conversation
three feet away from him about if the master
or the apprentice was killed. And he's there
smirking. He's like listening to them being like,
it's me. Exactly. He's just hanging out. You
know, he becomes Supreme Chancellor. It's a pretty
big step up from just Senator from Naboo. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, he's nailing it. He's really nailing
it. This, unfortunately, will probably be a...
For many of the movies. All right. And that's
going to do it for our categories, y 'all. Today's
public service announcement. When coding your
droids, please refrain from implementing terror
and pain into their experience. Thank you. Thank
you indeed. Signed, the R2 units around the galaxy.
Yes, please make them more like the battle droids.
The battle droids from Attack of the Clones,
not Revenge of the Sith, where they speak in
New York accents. Well, thank you, dear listener
schmissners, for tuning in to this episode of
Fandom Schmandom. If you'd like to discuss this
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out there. And with that, we're out, y 'all.
Don't forget to tip your droids. And very well.
But oops, the gang's been found and Maul is after
them with only his line. With his only lines.
Yep. Thank you. Anakin and how he had originally.
How he. Sorry. Buckle up. Schmissner. Schmiss.
Oh my God. Schmissners. That's going to. Schmissners.
Ba -ba -da -ba -ba -da -ba -ba -da -ba -ba -da
-boop. Oh my God. Ba -ba -da -ba -ba -da -ba
-ba -da -ba -ba -da -boop. Scared the shit out
of me. Ba -ba -da -ba -ba -da -ba -ba -da -ba
-ba -da -boop. Ba -ba -da -boop. And on X, at
fandom underscore. Underscore. Hello, Sean Connery.
How are you? Underscore. And with that, we're
out, y 'all. We outie schmoutie. Fare thee well.