The Hermit's Journey. To arms, prequel defenders, to arms!

[Admiral X]

I kinda liked the fan video I saw once that described Jar-Jar as a secret Jedi and even had some evidence in way of clips from the movies to back it up.

[Asvarduil]

So, on the subject of "elected" rulers, and the Monty Python cut:

Historically speaking, in the norse countries, "King" was in fact an elected position. The Thing - uppercase-T Thing, that is - was a moot of various Jarls, or chiefs, who each represented their local thing (little case t, but still an assembly).

Is this well-known in America? Doubtful. Nonetheless, it does make a nice genius bonus that makes 'elected royalty' make a little more sense...because it was already a thing (pardon the pun) in antiquity.

[Dînadan]

It wasn’t just Norse, it was the Anglo-Saxons too. But the thing is it wasn’t like modern presidency/premiership with fixed terms (which is what the Naboo crown appears to be); you were pretty much king until either you died or your jarls/thegns decided to boot you out. And child kings usually didn’t get in on their own merits (which Amedalia is supposed to have done).

[Madner Kami]

Pretty much the entirety of Europe started out with that kind of elected, temporary royalty. It goes back at least to the Celts, probably even further. And it makes sense as an early form of government. You got basically tribes that are barely larger than a village, usually extended family-based, who have a common thing to do, so obviously you are going to elect someone.

[TGLS]

Here's 3 ideas I came up with instead of an elected Queen with term limits:
1) There's a king/queen of Naboo, but they're in prison or otherwise indisposed for the whole movie.
2) Naboo isn't part of the Republic, but joins up before the second movie. Queen Amidala serves as temporary Senator until Naboo elects a Senator.
3) The Queen of Naboo is like the Queen of England; a figurehead. They elect her as Senator for what she did during the first movie.

[Darth Wedgius]

Here's 3 ideas I came up with instead of an elected Queen with term limits:
1) There's a king/queen of Naboo, but they're in prison or otherwise indisposed for the whole movie.
2) Naboo isn't part of the Republic, but joins up before the second movie. Queen Amidala serves as temporary Senator until Naboo elects a Senator.
3) The Queen of Naboo is like the Queen of England; a figurehead. They elect her as Senator for what she did during the first movie.

Or make her queen because her parents were recently killed. The Council of Royal Smart People have a process for peacefully deposing her, but it'll take a while; meanwhile her importance is largely ceremonial, but that can include letting the Senate know her former parents' wishes. Make her agree with being deposed -- it'll add to her character to put her people first. After that's done, time skip, and she's a Senator.

In general, I think Lucas's strength is world-building, exciting action, and interesting characters. Plot coherency... eh.

[Independent George]

How old is Padme in E1? Because I also feel like making Anakin so young to start with was a bad decision; age him up to 12-14, and then (from a Doylist perspective) he can do things in the film other than look cute and mug for the camera while also making the fact we know he's Padme's future husband less squicky.

[Madner Kami]

How old is Padme in E1? Because I also feel like making Anakin so young to start with was a bad decision; age him up to 12-14, and then (from a Doylist perspective) he can do things in the film other than look cute and mug for the camera while also making the fact we know he's Padme's future husband less squicky.

She was supposed to be 14. Natalie Portman was 16 at the time of filiming, but turned 18 the year Phantom Menace was released. The age gap isn't really as big as people make it out to be, because Anakin was 9 or 10 at the time Phantom Menace. It's the visual ages that are really off.

How they got the idea of casting a female of teenage-age and a pre-pubescent boy is just not understandable, as boys take a lot longer to physically and visually mature, while girls get there far faster.

[Dînadan]

Here's 3 ideas I came up with instead of an elected Queen with term limits:
1) There's a king/queen of Naboo, but they're in prison or otherwise indisposed for the whole movie.
2) Naboo isn't part of the Republic, but joins up before the second movie. Queen Amidala serves as temporary Senator until Naboo elects a Senator.
3) The Queen of Naboo is like the Queen of England; a figurehead. They elect her as Senator for what she did during the first movie.

Another idea, make her second or third in line to the throne (either as the king/queen’s younger child or as their younger sister). In real life historically third and so forth sons would do things such as enter the priesthood to avoid them challenging their older brothers for their lands and titles, so updating it to a sci-fi setting it would be reasonable for a younger sibling to serve as the planet’s representative on the Senate.

Actually, that reminds me of an idea I had years ago for how I would have done the PT, except in that case it was Palpatine; the idea I had was that his brother was emperor of one of the member states of the Republic and Palpatine, as the younger brother served as his representative on the Senate. Then as part of his rise to power, Palpatine would have (secretly) had his brother assassinated and as his heir taken up the mantle of emperor.

[TGLS]

Well, I only put up those 3 ideas for a simple reason: I can come up with multiple ideas while I am (theoretically) busy working. If I can do that, how the actual author fail to come up with a less stupid alternative?