Phantom Menace Plot Holes Compilation

So in spirit of classic PT-bashing, here’s a random list I made of stupid shit in the Phantom Menace that doesn’t make any sense. In the aftermath of RLM’s reviews, it’s difficult to critique the prequels without being accused of ripping the site off, but I think most of my contentions here are original.

…and I actually think the Prequels are (marginally) better than most diehard fans give them credit for. 😉 But defending them isn’t as fun.

1. Why are trade federation battleships shaped like doughnuts?
2. Why is the blockade a ring? Does Nute Gunray understand that space is 3D? Does he think nobody on Naboo will be smart enough to just fly away from one of the poles?
3. When they decide to take out the Jedi, why do they fire at the ship first and then slip in the poison gas? Why not just do both simultaneously, given that their original order tipped the Jedi off?
4. The droids speak to one another verbally for some reason, and despite being controlled by a central ship, seem to be horribly coordinated, thus lacking the one advantage of having a single, vulnerable centralized processing center.
5. As Plinkett points out, it’s retarded that Gunray orders the battle droids to move in and “finish what’s left of them” after just a few seconds of waiting for the Jedi to die of the poison gas. Why not wait for, like, six hours? Or toss in a grenade? Or observe them with infared vision to make sure they’re dead? Or surely they have surveillance footage from in the room! On the flipside, what are Qui Gon and Obi Wan waiting for? Are they just counting on Gunray being a retard and opening the door for them?
6. A common issue throughout the film; the droidekas are vulnerable for several seconds as they roll towards the good guys, slowly change positions and then activate their deflectors. Yet neither the Jedi nor any of Naboo’s security guards think of shooting them in this time period.
7. Qui Gon and Obi Wan develop massive invisibility-super-speed that nobody ever uses again.
8. The protagonists arrive in Theed in the middle of open daylight without any pretense of stealth.
9. Nute Gunray sends the most important person in his plan to be “processed” at “camp 8”, sending her along with 8 battle droids to guard against the two missing Jedi that had earlier trashed dozens of battle droids with no apparent effort.
10. They manage to easily escape the blockade on what the decoy-queen describes as “not a warship”…not very effective now, is it?
11. How could the Trade Federation keep the invasion a secret? Couldn’t Padme just whip out a video camera and record the ****ing battle droids rounding up the citizenry? What about any commuting ships that normally come and go from Naboo? What about confused loved ones on other planets?
12. Qui Gon doesn’t find anything wrong with trying to mind control Watto into accepting useless credits, but never thinks to just steal the parts.
13. Watto is apparently the only vendor in Mos Eisley with starship parts…even though we later learn that it has a ****ing spaceport. You’d think there’d be quite a demand for spare ship parts.
14. After Qui Gon escapes from Maul, the protagonists never think about using a laser cannon that the ship presumably possesses to kill Maul, or to set it to stun and capture him. Or just use the massive spaceship to neutralize the dangerous [as Qui Gon knows] sith lord right below you.
15. Neither the two Jedi nor the Queen have the connections or resources to bring any sort of reinforcements or aid back with them to Naboo.
16. The blockade magically disappears. I guess they realized it was useless.
17. The Gungan Grand Army proves to be a successful diversion, because the trade federation has never heard of orbital bombardment.
18. Qui Gon and Obi Wan don’t sense Darth Maul beforehand.
19. Upon taking over the Queen’s palace, the viceroy’s security team never bothers to check the room for any potential weapons or traps, like…say, guns in the armrests.
20. Anakin hides in a starfighter that happens to have a helmet that fits him, and happens to have no security systems whatsoever.
21. The entire space battle.
22. Qui Gon’s body doesn’t disappear.
23. Liam Neeson doesn’t kill anyone.

I’m probably missing a lot.

and to think disney might make this all seem like a sweet memory.

Wait until DDM sees this. He'll die of a heart attack.

I'm not the biggest PT fan, but a lot of these aren't plot holes or are explained in the film.

Seriously, how is the shape of the TF Battleships a plot hole?

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
Wait until DDM sees this. He'll die of a heart attack.

Originally posted by ares834
I'm not the biggest PT fan, but a lot of these aren't plot holes or are explained in the film.

Seriously, how is the shape of the TF Battleships a plot hole?

Regardless, that fella is a sock troll and this is a troll thread.

Lucien, if you're interested in my rebuttal to OPs copy-paste troll post, PM me and I will respond to you. 😄

A few of these are very minor grievances, if they're grievances at all.

1.) Since their name was the Trade Federation, I always just assumed that the doughnut/ring shape was to mimic the shape of a docking bay. To bring in and store cargo?

10.) I don't remember that line from the film.

14.) It's not a warship, right? It didn't even have any weapons to fire running the blockade.

15.) The Queen's resources probably are Naboo. The Jedi have no excuse though.

16.) Well if the droids have control of the planet, and nobody in the rest of the galaxy ever comes to Naboo like you said in 11, then there'd probably be no need to keep all your precious battleships in one place.

17.) The guns on those battleships don't seem especially maneuverable or capable. They couldn't hit a single unarmed ship coming right at them, they'd never be able to target anything on the surface. And given that only the one battleship right in front started shooting, those things seems to have a pretty limited range. So it seemed, anyway.

22.) That's probably a good thing. It means we'll never have to see his useless ghost face in the next two films.

23.) He was drunk the whole time. Probably thought all those battle droids were real people he was killing.

But the rest are solid and mostly all in the RLM reviews.

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
1.) Since their name was the Trade Federation, I always just assumed that the doughnut/ring shape was to mimic the shape of a docking bay. To bring in and store cargo?

They're labeled as trade federation "battleships" in the EU, we see them in combative roles in the RotS space battle, and given that they control the entire droid army, they obviously serve a military purpose.

10.) I don't remember that line from the film.

After Neeson asks if the ship has a cloaking device.

14.) It's not a warship, right? It didn't even have any weapons to fire running the blockade.

Fair enough point.

16.) Well if the droids have control of the planet, and nobody in the rest of the galaxy ever comes to Naboo like you said in 11, then there'd probably be no need to keep all your precious battleships in one place.

Except to protect the control ship that ensures the continued functionality of your entire army. And especially to intercept the Queen and two Jedi that you know have escaped.

17.) The guns on those battleships don't seem especially maneuverable or capable. They couldn't hit a single unarmed ship coming right at them, they'd never be able to target anything on the surface.

It's infinitely simpler to target a large, stationary formation on the ground than it is to target a moving starship (although notice that they are accurate enough to precisely pick off astromech droids while conveniently missing the hull less than a meter away, suggesting that they've recognized that it's the Queen's ship). I mean, if the guns can't even hit a stationary, medieval-esque formation, then they're worthless for doing anything whatsoever.

And given that only the one battleship right in front started shooting, those things seems to have a pretty limited range. So it seemed, anyway.

Actually, the guns demonstrate pretty impressive combat range; it appears that they fire at the Queen's yacht from hundreds of miles away near the beginning and/or end, IIRC.

But the rest are solid and mostly all in the RLM reviews.

RLM actually makes plenty of retarded points throughout his reviews. For example, he thinks that the senate being filled with morons is a mark against the film, rather than an obvious reflection of the republic's corruption. He also doesn't seem to understand that the Jedi High Council's incompetence is intentional.

Originally posted by Master Han
They're labeled as trade federation "battleships" in the EU, we see them in combative roles in the RotS space battle, and given that they control the entire droid army, they obviously serve a military purpose.

Better question is why this obviously rich a powerful military force doesn't have any actual warships, like they do by RotS.

Originally posted by Master Han
After Neeson asks if the ship has a cloaking device.

Originally posted by Master Han
Except to protect the control ship that ensures the continued functionality of your entire army. And especially to intercept the Queen and two Jedi that you know have escaped.

Originally posted by Master Han
It's infinitely simpler to target a large, stationary formation on the ground than it is to target a moving starship (although notice that they are accurate enough to precisely pick off astromech droids while conveniently missing the hull less than a meter away, suggesting that they've recognized that it's the Queen's ship). I mean, if the guns can't even hit a stationary, medieval-esque formation, then they're worthless for doing anything whatsoever.

Originally posted by Master Han
Actually, the guns demonstrate pretty impressive combat range; it appears that they fire at the Queen's yacht from hundreds of miles away near the beginning and/or end, IIRC.

That or those guns just suck in general.

Originally posted by Master Han
RLM actually makes plenty of retarded points throughout his reviews. For example, he thinks that the senate being filled with morons is a mark against the film, rather than an obvious reflection of the republic's corruption. He also doesn't seem to understand that the Jedi High Council's incompetence is intentional.

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
Better question is why this obviously rich a powerful military force doesn't have any actual warships, like they do by RotS.

My point being that, by RotS, you still see TF battleships in the background of the opening space battle. This, combined with its name, make it clear that it's supposed to be a military warship.

Still wouldn't make sense to keep the rest of them if you expect no attack.

Did the Queen not just state quite publicly, in the middle of the Galactic Senate where the TF's own representatives participate, that she intended to free her people herself?

There was nothing indicating that the droids and generator were being hit through anything other chance. Notice R2 skillfully dodging every blast that was targeted at him? Me neither. A ship coming steadily at them from one direction attempting no maneuvers was too much for those guns to handle. Precision strikes with guns those terrible from thousands of miles away is out of the question. They'd likely end up obliterating their own forces like that. And if you're overconfident in your robots' abilities to kill primitives, may as well let 'em. And once the battle started, the guns would be too busy defending the station to intervene once the Gungan shield fell.

They'd only obliterate their own forces if they sent out a droid army into the battlefield. If they'd just point their guns in the general vicinity of the Gungan Grand Army, they'd have won the battle in a matter of seconds. Unless if the guns can't even hit the easiest possible enemy target - a stationary, medieval ground formation, in which case they shouldn't exist at all.

But, to be fair, that can't be true, because the guns, intentionally or not, were scraping the side of the Queen's yacht, a significantly more difficult feat than what would be required to hit the Gungans.

There's intentional incompetence, and there's unintentional retardation. A democratic senate that literally does whatever the f*ck one person tells it to is not corrupt. It's absolutely brain dead. And not in a derogative way--the senators' brains are literally dead. They'd have to be to do all the stuff they do in those film--cheering the death of the Republic just being one of them. "Incompetence and corruption" would be a poignant statement. "Fantastically retarded beyond all sense of belief or feasibility" is something else entirely. Ditto for the Council. I really think Lucas sees the world through the eyes of a child. [/B]

Hitler and various dictators ascended to power in democracies with thunderous applause, and they did so without

a) A millennium of planning
b) a greater command of the Force than any previous sith lord

Originally posted by Master Han
My point being that, by RotS, you still see TF battleships in the background of the opening space battle. This, combined with its name, make it clear that it's supposed to be a military warship.

Originally posted by Master Han
Did the Queen not just state quite publicly, in the middle of the Galactic Senate where the TF's own representatives participate, that she intended to free her people herself?

Originally posted by Master Han
They'd only obliterate their own forces if they sent out a droid army into the battlefield. If they'd just point their guns in the general vicinity of the Gungan Grand Army, they'd have won the battle in a matter of seconds. Unless if the guns can't even hit the easiest possible enemy target - a stationary, medieval ground formation, in which case they shouldn't exist at all.

But, to be fair, that can't be true, because the guns, intentionally or not, were scraping the side of the Queen's yacht, a significantly more difficult feat than what would be required to hit the Gungans.

Originally posted by Master Han
Hitler and various dictators ascended to power in democracies with thunderous applause, and they did so without

a) A millennium of planning
b) a greater command of the Force than any previous sith lord

And Hitler didn't ascend to dictatorship to applause. He was democratically elected with less than half of the popular vote, and gradually altered laws to bestow more power unto himself, locking up or killing any politician or opponent who dared to question it, and putting on show trials to convict his enemies.

That's a big difference from a muti-species senate clapping wildly while one man, who now looks and sounds like a being of pure horror and evil, declares:

a.) the sudden and abrupt end of a long standing republic,

b.) the establishment of a government run exclusively by him, and

c.) the sudden and alleged coup of the Jedi--despite showing no evidence, making no arrests, and giving no trials (not even phony ones),

d.) the swift and immediate execution of said Jedi,--an order of monks who have protected and fought for the republic for countless years--the burning of their temple, and the butchering of their children, all by an army of clones that answer exclusively to him.

All in the same day, the same session of senate, and the same paragraph. And every single member claps wildly at the news, none of them questioning a single thing being said to them. No legislative body in the history of humanity has so readily approved such horrible, vile things so speedily, unanimously. and happily.

Oh and not to mention it's a senate that functions by allowing a non-senatorial head of state to call an election, a senator's proxy representative to call for emergency powers that are granted immediately, and it never, not once, questions where millions upon millions of clone soldiers come from--so quickly too after their now supreme leader declares the Republic Army to be a thing.

There's satirical commentary, and then there's atrocious writing. This is an example of the latter. Lucas is not clever enough for satire. You're the one who wanted to point out flaws in the films. That's a big f*cking one right there.

Closed- no real point.