A Brief Retrospective | Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (Part 2)
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- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
- In this video, we’re returning to firm ground. And then going a few hundred metres deeper. We join Qui-Gon, Obi-wan and Jar-Jar Binks as they descend toward their next destination.
#starwars #starwarslegends #prequel
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Narration recorded in partnership with THE WARDROBE (IG: @wardobestudionz).
#00:00 INTRO
#01:26 Thee Plaaaanett Coaarr
#27:35 The Occupation and the Treaty
#31:36 Darth Sinister
#38:55 Shield Generator's Been Hit
#47:43 OUTRO - Розваги
Through the lore, things you will see. Other timelines. The sequels, the prequels. Old canon, long gone.
p poo
@@AdrienMitchell69 trueee
@@neonthunder3261 I am happy you agree,but if we're being honest, that was pocket comment and I have no idea what I was trying to say!🤣
Regarding the plot by "Darth Sinister", we can divide it into 2 major objectives that will ensure the creation of the Empire: Palpatine becoming Chancellor, and making the Trade Federation being the bedrock of the Separatist Movement. If Amidala signed the treaty the Trade Federation becomes more powerful and can create the Separatist Movement earlier, and Darth Sinister can become Chancellor when the incumbent fails to take the threat seriously. As seen in the film, Amidala's escape makes "Creamy Sheev" swap objectives so he can become Chancellor now, and will rebuild the Trade Federation slowly and secretly (while also giving them a reason to want to break away from the Republic). So why give the orders to capture Amidala when she tries to liberate the planet? Because he'd get both objectives at once.
One day when you are chancellor, please give us the sequels we deserve.
Why are sequels even necessary? Even if well done, which I don't think is even possible anymore, the story was done after episode 6.
@@newsbender George has had a full outline for a sequel trilogy for years now. He even offered it to disney to base their version off of, but of course JJ Abrams thought he could do better himself, so they rejected them entirely. But knowing they exist, i can understand why a lot of fans would want to see what Lucas’ version of the sequels would look like, although I’m sure they would be controversial.
@@Sir_TophamHatt I very much doubt even Lucas’ input could produce decent new SW content. It’s done, along with film in general. The stone has been turned over, there’s nothing new to be told. Now all they can do is tear down what came before.
Somewhere, well out of the way on the figurative back burner, there exists an unfinished script for a video. A rewrite of TROS, trying to preserve as much of the basic outline as possible. Obviously some parts needed to be completely replaced, it has a different ending from the one in the TROS compilation video. There's some potential there in the rewrite: a lot of evocative imagery, character work, and jokes that I'd like to record and release. That would make for a gargantuan video, though, multiple hours. The rewrite is only complete up to "they fly now" at the moment.
Another similar idea was going over the alternative TROS script. We have a copy of that, and let me tell you it's ripe for analysis. All of those are based on re-implementing ideas from the reboot trilogy, though. Doing a video on how I would've made a sequel trilogy, that was never firmly planned like the others I've mentioned. We'll keep that idea in mind for the future. -DZ
@@newsbender Unfortunately, I’m inclined to agree with you given the current state of things. But let’s recall that the disney acquisition of star wars happened nearly ten years ago, a time when it was much less clear that the film industry at large (and star wars in particular) were completely irredeemable.
So it’s still tempting to entertain the possibility of how things could have gone differently, for example, had disney actually respected the property and it’s creator when producing the sequels. Or, better yet, had Lucas never sold it in the first place, and had instead somehow produced the sequels he was planning his way.
But, like all historical counterfactuals, all we can really do is imagine.
I actually quite like the Phantom Menace. Mainly because I adore the political aspects of prequel trilogy (yes, I am that gal). To get a non overly sarcastic review of it is indeed very refreshing. Thank you for that!
If you like the political aspects research medieval european history and you gonna realize the Phantom Menace politics is bad.
YES! It was my first star wars movie, and while I didn't understand it at first, I could gather the general plot of needing to save Naboo and all that. Now that I'm older, it's aged honestly way better than I anticipated.
@@neonthunder3261 It was my first Star Wars movie as well! And, honestly, I don’t think I would have liked SW as much as I do, if I started with any other.
The string of jokes from Doctor Bob to Steve Irwin had me in stitches! Excellent video as always.
I don't know how many people got all those jokes. At least someone, somewhere, appreciates the tireless efforts of the G.A.S.P. to keep an eyestalk out for mechanical fish. -DZ
I always thought that the Gungans used the term "Planets Core" as a way of discussing landmasses steming from the planet's core. This seemed to makes sense in context of traveling from a lake to the waterfront city of Theed. One would travel through underwater caves woven throughout the crust, planet's core.
Im just reading the Hitchhiker books. Love the magrathea reference. I think if they had shown fjords, it wouldn't be a question if naboo was manufactured
Oh man, these are scratching an itch I didn’t even know I had. Superb work as always!
The Disney Star Wars writers/producers/directors all should watch these as mandatory viewing. If for no other reason than the detailed reasoning and lore used before that would allow pitfalls of modern movie making to be avoided.
That deflector angling system would've been cool to see in a Rogue Squadron-esque game.
It was there since '93. Whole X-wing series as well as recent squadrons had it. For some reason Rouge Sqadron did not. Probably to simplify controlls for consoles.
@@antonisauren8998 oh wow, I didn't know that.
I'm initially interested in Squadrons, but it uses space flight model (as would be expected for a space game) where you can turn through the yaw axis on a dime and stop in place, instead of the WW2 dogfighter style of the movies that I think looks cooler.
The "bigger fish" is repeated because it is thematic. The Jedi are chasing a phantom menace and think that Maul might be it, but the truth is that there is a "bigger fish;" Sidious.
Still a bad writing.
@@Zodroo_Tintsure, that's kind of tne beauty of the prequels. Very clunky dialog telling a big operatic story. I like to call them the most expensive B-movies ever made.
Even before those clips came up, it struck me how much these videos feel like entries from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Also, if these videos are "very brief", I very much look forward to a "long" video someday.
The core thing just seemed like George homaging old Hollow Earth type pulp stories.
Or it's like the Kessel Run Parsec mistake.
The Gungans don't exactly seem like a species of devoted geologists, so maybe Boss Nass was either just wrong or his Galactic Basic isn't so good. Also, on the subject of Palpatine's plan, Qui-Gon says that "his feelings" tell him that Amidala will be killed if she stays behind and signs the treaty, so she was most likely to be used by Palpatine as a sacrifice to garner an even stronger sympathy vote and a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum, as invading the planet, getting the invasion ratified via a corrupt treaty, then killing the person you used to sign it would look... really, really bad in the eyes of the senate.
The Phantom Menace really is a good movie, so it's nice to see it finally getting the analysis it deserves.
I wouldn't call it a really good movie. It's passing for okay, especially from an acting standpoint. But it does suck you have to read and watch all sorts of secondary materials and write all manner of fan fiction just to appreciate it.
Right on, I think you've hit the nail on the head with that plan analysis. The original goal may have even been to send Maul to assassinate the queen. While the TradeFed was intending to keep her imprisoned, Palpatine has Amidala killed. If he do it sneakily enough, the Feds might not even notice the Sith had already betrayed them.
As for how good TPM is as a movie, I've never given the question much thought. Perhaps there is some movie out there, something that is far more "good" as a movie than TPM is. But I may never watch that particular "good movie", I'm going to be too busy watching TPM for the dozenth time.
What matters to me is that it's a Star Wars movie, which it is. Besides a few gripes, there is no conflict between TPM and the OT. It barely even contradicts the pre-prequel Expanded Universe. -DZ
@@thebreadcircus I think I'll be watching your career with great interest.
@@highjumpstudios2384 I find that if you empty your mind of preconceived notions and just watch the movie on its own terms, you'll find that it's actually a pretty good film for the most part. I still don't think it's as strong as the OT or Revenge of the Sith, but it's still a good Star Wars movie.
@@FriendlyDarkwraith I did. Quite recently in fact. And while you're correct about the state of my brain, you are not correct about any preconceptions I had on the movie. Its competently written, as I'd expect nothing less from Georgi lucas, but I find as a director he leaves a lot to be desired in his ability to convey how his actors are supposed to emote.
Thats my problem with the phantom menace. It felt like watching an hour long version of the worst episode of star trek TOS.
If you want to enjoy all the star wars movies barring the sequels (ew) then don't let me stop you. But please don't call me retarded because I want to be able to see the subtle hollowness in Queen Amidala's eyes as she receives news that her people are suffering.
I want to be able honestly say that young Anakin acts well.
But they don't. A film, no matter who made it, or what series its from should be able to stand on its own as a piece of media first. That's really it, and as I said in the beginning, you shouldn't have to write fanfiction about a film you like so you can justify your enjoyment of it.
However, you're right, folks have been sleeping on the Prequel trilogy for too damn long. And The Bread Circus is here to bring us to a new golden age of video essay nirvana.
It’s incredible how much interesting diatribe has been wrought from these films by this fine channel.
taking me back to under the mountain on tape here fellas, loving the stuff
Man the level of detail is superb
i'm pretty certain most planets in the Star Wars universe were created by the Infinite Empire, along with most of the sapient races.
"A Brief Retrospective" Ahhh.... I see what you did there. By the way, I love the insane deep-dives into the most minuscule aspects of this film. This is the OCD version analysis for us die hards and I hope you continue this for all the OT and PT Star Wars films.
I always hated that Boss Nass' line about going through the planet core was taken so literally. There was no need to make it part of the official canon that Naboo didn't have a normal core, just have the cave system get close to it so Boss Nass was paraphrasing/exaggerating.
Like maybe if you take a few wrong turns you get too close to the core & heat up or something, that's why you need a navigator as they'll know which tunnels to avoid.
The point was that the fastest way to Theed was going through the planet rather than traveling above land, but either George Lucas or the people interpreting things for the books decided to take things too literally.
Anyways, great video as usual, been enjoying the TPM retrospective and eagerly wait for the next part.
Great editing man. Great breakdown, very thought out and mostly concise.
What we see from all these shield examples is that they affect weapon fire, but a slow object can pass through.
So one could assume that they have a certain threshold in the upper and lower range. Something weaker will just pass through (like a droid walking through a shield or a spaceship exiting a pressurised hangar) But something stronger will bounce off. Like a non-newtonian fluid that becomes harder the stronger you hit it.
One could assume that there is an upper limit at which point the hit is simply strong enough to brute force it's way through. Multiple layers of shields would help with that. Each layer would reduce the impact, and enough layers would stop it.
The film clips look so crisp and clean
It's the fps.
Yes! Palpatine planned beforehand for like 1/3 of what happens in the movie. He’s terrifying because so much happens that he didn’t plan, and he still lands on top.
The amazingly illustrated Star Wars Ecology book actually has the Sando beach itself occassionally. And sometimes leap out of the water to capture monstrous Kaiju sized birds. Naboo is a terrifying place.
I think the fighter pilots still being in the hanger makes sense as it was likely recently captured and relatively low priority compared to say army or navy infastructre as the pilots are a lot less likely to be armed, the pilots would like be moved a few minutes or hours later and the rescue of the queen likely threw the trade federation in to chaos
I did not expect to see a Neverhood clip at 27:01. I thought only like twenty people besides me and my dad knew about that game
WHY ARE THESE VIDEOS SO GOOD?
I think the SSD destruction scene could be improved with a little rearrangement of the scene:
- focus fire on it
- report that the shields are gone
- A-wings destroy the ball thingie resembling some sort of radar system (which people wouldn't think is a shield generator if you show the events in this order)
- the destroyed ball thingies prevent the defensive weapons from functioning properly, so the A-wing can crash into the bridge
It doesn't really need a technical explanation, it's perfect as it is :)
Steve Irwin jokes and references back to old YTP's and memes (morshu)? Another banger TBC! my favourite galactic-scale conflict youtube channel.
I've been waiting to Morshu since we started this channel, and you better believe a certain type of Bagel is going to be in a video one day. -ED-1TA
the mic quality has noticeably increased? love the vids guys keep it up.
Good ear. You are correct. We switched mics at the recording studio. -ED-1TA
I will argue that the people that use melee in 40k have an decided advantage over the people who perfer guns.
Wow what a detailed video. Thanks
Long have I waited... You never seem to deliver Mr. Circus!
Don't worry, you're going to love the next four weeks. -ED-1TA
47:19 Mind you in Star Trek you ALSO see serious damage start to accrue on a ship right down to bridge screens exploding while shields are still as high as 30 or 50%
I think you'd get more views if you isolated the Naboo planetary problems into a single video and called it something like "The Naboo Problem" or something of the like. Great video, keep up the good work
We're going to discuss this when we get a chance. And yes, it is because of your suggestion. I'll let you know what we decide to do. -ED-1TA
30:08
I blame you entirely for causing me to derail from this video and back down an extremely catchy rabbit hole for half an hour.
I love these videos! Excellent work!
“Tub goats” (a tangent itself)
-2 second tangent within a tangent, a goat in a tub-
aaaand back to analysis
Wonderful stuff, gave me one of those strange chuckles where you don’t expect to laugh but are suddenly laughing pretty vivaciously without much air to spend, so you have to take an early breath
And now I’m the one on a tangent of a tangent
We both contributed to that particular joke. We're glad you enjoyed it. -ED-1TA
Reviewing EU novels would be interesting videos too
Several videos ago, I made a passing reference to the Jedi Academy series of YA books. People seemed to like that, and someone suggested a review of those books. Besides that particular series, there are decades of novels and comics to cover. We don't have any book reviews planned... yet. The idea is compelling, so we'll definitely keep it in mind for the future. -DZ
Just recently discovered this channel, and these retrospective analyses are so great. Awesome work you’re doing
Great video
40:23 Chewie HAD just been taking the Falcon apart and had only started putting it back together the day before.
"Angle the deflector" shield just means focusing the shields in one direction or another. Ie if you're on a frontal assault at a capitol ship, you might redirect your rear shields to reinforce the front. And if you're running away from a wing of fighters you might do the opposite.
Shields in Star Wars have never been invincible. They can be overwhelmed with fire, but larger/more powerful the generator the stronger the shield. Planetary shields can usually withstand the long range weapons of capitol ships without any issue, except against exceptionally strong weaponry. Ie a single reactor blast from the Death Star would likely have been enough to blast thru the Hoth shield, but they wouldn't have been able to position enough Star Destroyers in range of orbital bombardment of the shield to equal that kind of power, so had to use the ground assault first.
Ship board shields are far less able to take sustained damage. The smaller the ship the less damage the shield can take. Shielded X wings can usually take more hits than a Tie fighter, with glancing blows reflecting off but direct hits can still overwhelm the shield and damage components.
Capitol ships tend to need capital ships to have turbo laser firepower to overwhelm shields. But swarms of fighters pouring smaller lasercanons into the shields will also eventually overwhelm them. Strategic attacks against vital components can also aid in more quickly bringing down shields.
The rebels also mitigate this disadvantage of having a smaller navy by arming their fighters with missile and torpedo launchers to give them a better chance against the Imperial Navy's larger ships.
Excellent analysis. It's more interesting to analyze both the triumphs and failures of the prequels. Lucas is such an odd fellow, a genius at times and an utter hack at others.
The prequels are both fantastic and worse than I remember. I still feel like George needed someone to rein him in but still at least he had an artistic vision unlike Disney which are just product and nothing more
The planet core could easily be a location name rather than a scientific description. I could see it being used to describe the center of the most extensively mapped out of the network of tunnels.
Maybe it's a gay bar.
@@Zodroo_Tint That joke was bad, and you should feel bad.
They do the sheild proportioning in the x-wing and tie fighter games.
I know that it might be a stupid question, but I can't find the 1st part. Or is it called differently?
It's called 'The Phantom Menace | Jar-Jar: Virtuous and Admirable'. You can find it in our The Phantom Menace playlist. -ED-1TA
@@thebreadcircus Ahhh, i see. Thank you very much, kind sir!
30:06 So you're telling me no one else is gonna mention this?
Yay red alert 2 clip
The molten core thing isn't as big of an issue as you might think, as -- believe it or not -- not every planet has a molten core or mantle. Most of the heat that makes the mantle and core hot is either residual heat from planetary formation, radioactive decay of elements in the core, or, if the planet has a proper inner and outer core like our planet, generated heat with the interactions between the inner and outer core solidifying and liquifying over time. A planet's age, size and overall composition can lead to an old, small planet with too small of an amount of heavy elements to sink to the center and form a substantial or molten core at all. Depending on the way that the planet's geology formed, erosion over time could lead to tunnels through some sections of rock if they were susceptible to high pH levels causing them to break down. I think with the water going all the way through the planet's core, Naboo would actually have an interesting history, as it was likely at one point an ocean planet with the water inside it being on its surface the whole way around the planet, and over a long, long period of corrosion and erosion, enough space was eventually made within the planet that the liquid surface was able to slowly be sucked into it's solid interior. What we see as the surface of the planet was once the planet's interior, which cooled and eroded over time to allow the true surface of the planet, the liquid water oceans, to sink down and fill the planet almost entirely. Now, that is a stretch, and I don't think that the geology would legitimately allow for there to be snaking tubes of stone throughout the planet that are susceptible to corrosion from high acidity in the water, not even mentioning that it would necessitate the water itself being of significantly higher or lower pH than anything normal, making it very difficult for something like that to happen. Technically, its physically possible, but its just insanely unlikely and it would be a planet that stands out about as much as Naboo legitimately does against every other planet in the galaxy.
Honestly, for the whole planet core thing, I just assumed that was an induction that not everyone calls everything the same thing. The language might be basic, but that doesn’t mean everyone thinks of everything a the same. Tho I suppose that kinda destroys the purpose of words.
the biggest fallacy in star wars is how this channel doesn't have a million subscribers by now
All hail the biotic god
I see what you did there, nice callback. -DZ
@The Bread Circus heard u make a reapers reference as I was typing this lol. Was too perfect.
Its pretty common for less advanced peoples to adopt parts of more advanced peoples around them. like Native Americans using guns and horses. It would t surprise me if they traded for some of the things they found most useful to their lifestyle.
Who premieres a video at 1 pm?
idk, not sure if i agree about palpatines plan. i think your idea might be better maybe, because it means the jedi and the gungans had a real effect on things, but i just think in the actual movie everything went to plan, more or less, and he got exactly what he wanted when he wanted with acceptable sacrifices.
[libationes deis algorithmi]
Praise the algorithm
I thought the pilots wanted to stay behind to be the core of resistance/guerilla fighters. It's ideal having officers or really any personnel from the defeated military to act as legitimate resistance. And in our world every actually pilot, and definitely fighter pilots, are all officers.
Bro, you got money invested in an Aqua-lung company? You have litterally mentioned them more times that Lucas films ever did.
Lightsabers need to be charged? It’s not far fetched, but it feels wrong.
super thanks
Super you're welcome! -ED-1TA
What is the name of the song in the intro?
Sci-fi is all about technology thus trek is sci-fi. Fantasy usually includes some sort of fantastical element such as magic or the force. Star wars can be considered sci-fi. But I think it technically a space fantasy.
The Enterprise produces about as much electricity at all times as the entire real world earth right now uses in an entire year. The numbers in star trek are so out of scale they may as well be magic.
@@karatos but it's not. it's stretched science. The force is literally mystical. But yeah. Star trek does have a little fantasy sometimes.
@@natetete1379 the force is a microscopic lifeform with limits. In star trek there are timeless beings that can snap a new universe into existence for a gag. Star Trek is plenty fantasy and star wars is plenty sci-fi.
I believe the term is "Science-Fantasy".
At least half of Trek episodes resolve arround alien of the week with godly powers. Just the resolution is to use the force of crew minds to subvert them somehow.
Part 2 is so epic that he skipped Part 1.
No he didn't, you must've missed it
@@Hotchpotchsoup You are hereby awarded extra credits for not typing "must of". A grateful Republic thanks you.
To be fair, it used a completely different style of thumbnail when this comment was made. The video title was also reversed. We went back to make the series look more consistent, and to create a playlist for it. -DZ
@@Hotchpotchsoup Yeah, immediately once I subbed, it showed up. Jätte weird.
Gotta say, the certain shots that are at 60fps are freaking WEIRD as hell looking... there is just something about film being upted to 60fps when it wasnt filmed at anymore than 25 as almost every film is shot on. Even the digital cameras record at the standard of 25fps. So when ive only ever seen that standard, to see the shots in 60fps is weird and unnerving. Makes it look cheap too, even cheaper than the old cgi looks already. Super weird. Also curious why you used some shots like that when the movies are at 25fps.
So just curious cause i loved your video and your editing style but why the random 60fps shots?? 🤔
P.S. i really hope you start getting pushed in the algorithym as well cause youve got so much great content. So really hope you start to gain more subs! I just did myself! ❤
What was the catchphrase? Casome???
Why does the brief retrospective has a part 2? How long is the not brief one?
ffs tubgoats 😂😂
So the Sando Aqua Monster is actually a response to the advertising campaign for 1998's Godzilla directed by Roland Emmerich. The tagline for that film was size does matter, which is directly a dig at Yoda saying that size matters not. I think the philosophy of the Jedi can believe that both size matters not and also there's always a bigger fish.
It's honestly an example of two directors and how respecting cultures yields better results than thats a lot of fish.
Hello there
The Prequel setting could be somewhat compelling hadn’t it been utterly ruined by the questionable B1 droid design, and the even more questionable voice over line “Roger Roger!”. Whereas one could ignore the child Anakin storyline, the presence of the B1 is like a flake of dog feces on your dinner plate - it makes it impossible to ignore and “enjoy everything else” around it.
It puzzles me to this day what Lucas was thinking. They work in a kid’s cartoon, but don’t gel at all with his politics drama. Cartoon and pulpy OT Star Wars already don’t gel well (creating ongoing frustrations with Filoni’s stuff), but these droids ALSO don’t work as adventure adversaries, because they are just too cartoonish cannonfodder and pose no hint of a threat, and no Jedi ever plausibly lost a droplet of sweat over them.
Agreed, the voices are overtly comedic. That was already the case right from their first appearance, and every time something new features a B1 they get even worse. By Episode III, they only exist for comedy. Any threat they once might have presented was forgotten. I get the impression TCW was much of the same, existing only for jokes and family-friendly dismemberments.
On the other hand, Episode 1 still has some level of threat from them. With that off-white colour to them and the slender build, they look like a bunch of skeleton warriors. I can accept the ones from TPM, mostly because of what we're supposed to learn from them. They're meant to be cheap and nasty, useful only in large numbers. It makes sense that your ultra-low-cost bulk order of droids have grating voices and personalities. Especially given that in this movie, only the OOM-9 command variant actually has a fully functional droid brain.
I'd say it's fine for these droids to exist, fine for them to be terrible and yet still mass-produced. They'd be entirely sufficient to work as police, keeping the civilians in line. Even more terrifying for your average Joe because B1s have an IQ of 6, and also they have blasters. They can serve as vehicle crew if you have nothing better. What makes no sense is sending them into combat on the front lines, especially against clones or Jedi. All of which would still be excusable if the movie took the B1s seriously at all.
You can either use your bad guys for comedy, or you can have them present any kind of credible threat. Doing both just doesn't seem to work. -DZ
I edited them to remove most of the bad dialog, and it improved the prequels massively. They are well made, poorly edited. Lucas had the same issue with A New Hope. Luckily, his ex wife was a better editor.
Rerouting the shields doesn't really work in the way that you explain. The shields have two possible layers both in front and back. They can toggle to be forward center and rearward.. most of the time, the toggling is used to redistribute the shield charge. If one of the rear layers gets used up, the energy from the front can be cycled back to restore the thickness of the rear shields at the expensive. Some of the front shields. Further cycling can also evenly distribute all remaining shield, energy front and back equally two front and back. Fully cycling 100% of the shields to front or back and leaving it there is very situational. Maybe somebody would do that if they think there's absolutely no chance from taking fire from one direction, and they don't want to have to think about cycling the shield charge, because any additional shield recharge appears on the back when the rear shields are toggled. That is mainly what the toggle does. It does redistribute the charge if you to toggle it twice, but if you simply taggle it once, it will just prioritize those shields for recharging and ignore the other shields. If somebody already has full rear shields, it would be pointless to keep the rear tangled and set, because there's nothing to charge and it would start draining the front shields to nowhere. I could go on and on. If someone plays the X-Wing games all becomes pretty clear and it works just like it shows in the movies
X-wing games would work better with charge locked to 100% so redirecting them would be usefull even in full charge. Didn't Sqadrons went this way? I don't remember. ANH clearly talks about setting them to double-front in initial assault, likely to deflect glacing turbolasers from the surface.
I don't really understand why you're taking the Neimoidians' statement about the Gungans being "primitive" as canon, they're clearly supposed to be wrong about that. Everybody underestimates the Gungans and yet they're the ones who liberate Naboo, that's a big theme of the film.
It's also hardly the first time this theme has been explored in Star Wars. The Ewoks are a clear example of this, as are the Jawas, Tuskens, and arguably the Wookies and even the Rebellion itself. It's no secret that George Lucas made Star Wars in part as a criticism of the Vietnam War, and the big, evil, apparently technologically advanced baddy underestimating and ultimately being defeated by the little guy is a core theme throughout the series. The Gungans aren't primitives, they are as equally advanced as the Naboo, but because of their isolationism they are underestimated by everyone else.
All of the species you mention are less social and/or technological advanced than the rest of the galaxy, thus they are rightfully percieved as primitve.
I would also call them primitive when im on Naboo as the head of a galaxy wide operating trade business, having recently invaded said planet with an army of robots and a plethora of levitating vehicles.
Well that's perplexing. I don't understand how someone could come to that conclusion. The Neimoidians are impolite for saying so: if any Gungans had been within earshot, they might have been very offended. Even when dealing with primitives, the tactful thing to do would be not to mention it. Threepio only gets away with calling the Ewoks' dialect primitive to their faces, because he knows they don't understand a word he's saying. However, I don't understand how you get from "the Neimoidians phrased that in a rude way" to "Gungans are not primitives".
Describing Gungans as primitive is factually correct. It doesn't matter if they're very friendly, or if some people underestimate them, or if they once did something important. None of that is relevant to the matter at hand. Friendly primitives, underestimated primitives, and primitives of some significance can all exist. You bring up examples yourself: Ewoks and Sand People. These are also primitives.
Ewoks are about as primitive as it is possible to be. The little forest fuzzballs are literally a Stone Age society. They have flint-tipped spears as a primary weapon. Some of their other equipment includes various ways to throw stones and sticks. Ewoks have access to fire, and are clearly experienced at crafting things out of wood. The cutting edge of Ewok technology is as primitive as it gets. Rope, leather, slings, catapults, and even a glider.
Since you classify the Gungans as "not primitives, equally advanced as the Naboo", does the same apply here? Are Ewoks disqualified from being primitives, just because they fought in an important skirmish against stormtroopers? Surely, by the same logic, the Ewoks are just as advanced as the Corellians!
Tusken Raiders are also primitives. They appear to have less technology and ingenuity than Ewoks. They use metal in their gaffi sticks, and use either projectile or blaster rifles. I don't believe they are capable of smelting their own metal or building rifles. These implements were stolen from Tatooine settlers, they aren't Tusken Raider technology.
Jawas, on the other hand, are NOT primitive. Nearly every time we see Jawas, they have complex machinery with them. They drive giant tanks, they "salvage" droids and other advanced technology, and they craft their own ion weapons. Even if all Jawa tech was stolen, they understand it well enough to make repairs. In fact, they're so good at repairs, they can sell barely-working droids back to the humans who originally built them. Threepio also thinks Jawas understand that droids can be melted down for scrap metal. Wookiees are similar, in that they have few advanced native technologies, but are very competent with advanced machinery.
Gungans are much more like Tusken Raiders and Ewoks than Jawas. Gungans have exactly two advanced technologies, the shields and plasma grenades. Besides that, they have sticks of both the pointy and non-pointy variety. They have rope, leather, slings, catapults, and boats. This is a list of primitive technologies. The pinnacle of Gungan tech is an oil-filled binocular telescope. That is the most sophisticated machine they have developed on their own, beyond the plasma/shields. I have no idea what gave you the impression Gungans were anything other than primitive.
Boss Nass is completely wrong to suggest that the Naboo don't know of their existence. Gungans maintain trade with the Naboo, that's why Obi-Wan calls them symbiotic. The bongo has repulsorlifts and electronics in it because they could be traded for. Opening a panel reveals insulated wires, just like you'd see on Earth: that is to say, Human electrical technology. These are not native Gungan components: with trade, they could just about build a moon rocket. Without offworld trade and components, the Gungans are anywhere from centuries to 20,000 years away from developing antigravity tech.
The fact that the Gungans and Ewoks are primitive doesn't make them any less valuable. Episodes 1 and 6 involve finding that the natives have a large, useful army. That they know how to defend their home. They just can't leave their home planet, because they're primitives. They need to interact with a spacefaring species, as Jar-Jar does to get offworld. -DZ
Star wars is fantasy not science fiction.
It is.
Science-Fantasy. Fantasy where sci-fi is the background.
Love that bit with the Kakapo.