A Brief Retrospective | Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (Part 3)

Welcome to Part 3 of The Bread  Circus’ Phantom Menace retrospective. In the last part, we covered topics of  interest up until the escape from Naboo. We also examined the internal  conflict between the main villains. Having recaptured the queen's starship,  our heroes escape the royal hangar. Their plan is to leave the planet and  find help elsewhere in the galaxy. Over the course of this video, they will  make no progress toward this goal whatsoever. Today is about all the obstacles along the

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video. YouTube Members get access to Imperial  Rank Insignia in the comments section. In the Star Wars universe, it is impossible  to activate a hyperdrive near a planet. Planet, moon, star, black hole,  or any other source of gravity. The only way to get anywhere is to climb well  above the atmosphere, up into deep space. Unfortunately, there is a Trade  Federation blockade sitting in orbit. The harbour ships were intended to  prevent any traffic to or from the planet. We only see one ship att

empting  to pass by, which succeeds. The same ship comes back the  other way later, without incident. If you do the maths, that works  out to 0% blockade effectiveness. Trade Federation weaponry is  actually quite good for this purpose. Remember the Empire's problem  with Alliance starfighters? When the Death Star was attacked,  turbolasers could barely hit anything. That's because the cannons are so large and heavy. Aiming a turbolaser turret needs heavy  duty motors to traverse and elevate. A

starfighter can dodge by a certain  number of degrees per second. Turbolasers just can't aim at  a high enough speed to keep up. The Imperial Navy is well aware of this problem. There are two main solutions to this. If you happen to have your own  fighter squadron, launch those. Starfighters are the best way  to fight other starfighters. This was how the Death Star  responded to the Rebel trench runs. At that point, numbers tend  to be the deciding factor. The side with 144 TIE Fighters  will us

ually beat 30 X-Wings. As it happens, the Trade Federation  has a lot of good starfighters. The "vulture" droid starfighter  can be extraordinarily effective. For quantity, each Lucrehulk can  carry 1500 droid starfighters. That could be anywhere from 15-60,000  starfighters chasing one target. Failing to launch these was the biggest  mistake the Neimoidians ever made. There is one other solution to  the turbolaser tracking problem. Install something lighter than a  turbolaser, with a faster tur

ret motor. This solution was extremely common. Stepping a turbolaser down in  size, you get a laser cannon. The Death Star included several deck guns,  firing out through forcefield windows. These were definitely a reference to  20th century anti-aircraft flak guns. That was also the role the turbolaser  towers filled during the trench run. You can see these roots every once in a while,  when laser bolts explode in empty space. Almost like an 8.8 cm shell  with a timed airburst fuse. Many anti-a

ircraft guns are made  from 4 machine guns bolted together. This approach is common in Star Wars  as well, in the quadlaser cannon. We first saw these aboard the Millennium  Falcon: a pair of quadlaser turrets. These fire in pairs, a balance between  rate of fire and number of bolts. Being well aware of how effective starfighters  are, the Empire designed new ships. The Lancer frigate has 20 of the Corellian  quadlaser turrets as used on the Falcon. Luke's new hand was installed aboard a  Nebulo

n-B frigate, captured from the Empire. A standard Nebulon-B comes with 12  turbolasers and 12 laser cannons. Both ships were created to fill an  anti-starfighter role in the Imperial Navy. Now, let's get back to the Trade Federation ships. They have quite an unusual set of weaponry. There are 42 quadlaser turrets scattered  across the hull of a Lucrehulk. That's it, a complete list of  every weapons system on the ship. Going all-in on a single weapon type is  a risky idea, no matter what you pic

k. Quadlasers are the best possible  choice for the vTrade Federation. They don't expect to get into a  broadside battle with other large ships. Turbolasers would generally be  overkill, though you may want a couple. I'd have put them on a spinal mount,  facing out through the gap in the ring. Some kind of heavy weapon, like a missile  launcher or railgun might also work. Another choice would have been blaster cannons. This would have been a terrible choice. Very few starships use blaster  canno

ns as a primary weapon. They're just too small and low-power, any  decently large vehicle will want a laser cannon. Blasters could be used on large  ships, as point-defence guns. Used to shoot down incoming  torpedoes or starfighters. Even so, laser cannons would  be better for most cases. Quadlasers are a perfect compromise  between speed and firepower. They can swivel fast enough to hit starfighters, and they’re still strong enough  to threaten a capital ship. Despite all their firepower, the 

blockade cannot shoot down the queen. Several shots hit the shields,  a few even cause damage. R2-D2 is sent up to repair the  shield generator, which he does. All we can really tell from this  is that something was bypassed. Most likely, the power supply to  the shields had been destroyed. Artoo connected a power lead from  some other system running nearby. That was enough to restore  the shields for a moment. Alas, there was considerably more damage  than just to the shield power supply. The

hyperdrive has also been damaged. This works out a bit differently from previous  hyperdrive failures we've seen in Star Wars. In Empire Strikes Back, a faulty  hyperdrive takes you nowhere. Any time the hyperdrive isn't in  perfect working order, it has no effect. There is also the potential for a  navigation failure, making a bad jump. None of these are the case for the Naboo starship. Its hyperdrive is "leaking",  rather an unusual term. One explanation would be that it's  a radiation leak of

some kind. The hyperdrive is described as not  having enough power for a long trip. Electrical failures would generally  not be described as "leaking". There is one that would count, in Disney Wars 8. It features a scene from the  perspective of an astromech droid. That's great, except that RJ  is here for a bit of comedy. Sparks start to appear all  over a bank of resistors. The droid "fixes" this by sticking  a finger into each "leak". A transparent reskin of a standard jape. One step removed

from drilling a hole  in your boat to let the water out. The veneer is sci-fi electronics, but the joke  is really about holes in a container of fluid. This gag is mostly there to  foreshadow the leaky suit joke. We'll assume electricity works  about the same as in reality. This could be a fuel leak instead, a  limit on how much power can be generated. Qui-Gon does mention the ship  will need to be refuelled. An alternative explanation  would be a coolant leak. Malfunctions in cooling would put

a limit  on how long the hyperdrive can operate. Pushing this to the limit may leave liquid  metal where the hyperdrive used to be. Whatever the cause, the result is a  limit to the range of hyperspace travel. A direct route to Coruscant will be impossible. Young Obi-Wan had already been  looking for new landing sites. He picks Tatooine, a  relatively unremarkable planet. A scorching desert world that orbits twin suns. The only reason this planet has any significance  is that we know Luke Skywa

lker will grow up here. We could criticise the move for  bringing us back to Tatooine. Personally, I think it works well. Tatooine and Alderaan are the only  worlds that would make sense to show. Every other world was meant to be  obscure, a remote hiding place. Hoth, Dagobah, Yavin 4, Endor,  Cloud city, and Tatooine. They all fit the same description: a place  your enemies would never think to look. The Phantom Menace reveals that the  Skywalker family comes from Tatooine. This is an excellent

choice, it means Luke's ancestors have lived  there as long as we can trace back. That wasn't necessarily the case,  until the prequels came out. A long time ago, Uncle Owen  used to be Obi-Wan's brother. Later in the prequels, it was decided  Owen was biologically Luke's uncle. On this map I have here, Tatooine  is fairly close to Naboo. Coruscant is about three times as far away. Notice how the route curves  around the centre of the galaxy. Travel into the deep core is challenging,  there are

many obstructions to navigate around. Hyperspace lanes are corridors where the  paths of all relevant hazards are known. If they fall into disuse, deep core  hyperlanes can decay quite rapidly. Taxation of trade routes  exists for a reason, after all. Captain Panaka objects to the idea  of visiting the world of poor people. This is because he buys into harmful stereotypes. As soon as he hears the planet is ruled  by Hutts, he says some very un-PC things. He starts ranting about Hutts being gang

sters. If allowed to continue, he would have accused them  of being greedy, slimy, dishonest, and greedy. Qui-Gon attempts to defuse the situation. He suggests Captain Panaka should stay on  the ship, so as to avoid offending any Hutts. This same conversation is reiterated in the  throne room, where Panaka advises against landing. His motivation is to protect the queen. The queen isn't helping, since she will  immediately decide to walk into town. Here's another odd change the prequels made. Qui

-Gon tells us that Tatooine  is under Hutt control. That's quite interesting, because there  was no mention of this in old lore. We knew that there was an area called Hutt Space. At the time of the Empire,  Hutt Space is this shape. Hutts are one of the more  influential races in the galaxy. They have maintained their own territory  as far ba ck as history records. The shape may change, it will expand and contract. Before the Clone Wars, the  galaxy looked quite different. Hutt Space extended ac

ross a  large part of the galactic rim. Tatooine just barely falls  into its most distant tendril. Our Jedi friends persuade the Naboo  that Tatooine is a good choice. In theory, nobody should be  able to follow the queen. It starts getting interesting after  the Naboo ship arrives in orbit. Obi-Wan starts scanning for a place to land. At this point, the movie  subverts your expectations. Fans interpret "a settlement"  to mean a familiar location. Two of the three Star Wars  movies take place on

Tatooine. We've heard of several places  mentioned, so this could be any of them. Mos Eisley, Anchorhead, Tosche Station. Jabba's palace, Beggar's  Canyon, the Pit of Carkoon. The Jundland Wastes and the Dune Sea. The Lars Homestead and Old Ben's hut. Star Wars fans could have  expected any of these locations. That's not the entire list, though. We also knew about Bestine, Motesta, and Arnthout. Perhaps the most interesting  place was Fort Tusken. The Sand People attacked this fort, the  first

act of violence in a long history. Ever since, we have referred to  these creatures as Tusken Raiders. That was a story the prequels could have told. The Phantom Menace shows us none of these places. The queen's ship lands  outside a town named Mos Espa. This is a relatively large town,  yet one we've never heard of before. Creating a new town is sensible, it's  safer than using a name from the lore. With the kind of story that needs to happen,  only Bestine would have been large enough. Qui-Gon

, Jar-Jar, and the queen walk into town. Top priority is to repair their hyperdrive,  allowing them to continue their journey. Other repairs, such as to the  shields, are likely to be simple. Fuel, even less of an issue. The West End books describe  fuel in terms of "fuel cells". A ship like the Falcon  carries about 50 fuel cells. At a starport, these can be recharged  by plugging into the mains power. This is extremely cheap, it might cost 100  credits for the fuel needed by the ship. There al

so exist fuel converters and solar panels. With a solid fuel converter, they could  turn sand or seawater into rocket fuel. It takes about 5 tons to charge a single  fuel cell, so 25-50 tons should do the trick. The solar option is slower, it  needs a day to charge a few cells. All that really matters is  a replacement hyperdrive. Qui-Gon directs the party  into a relatively small shop. As he is trying to avoid being detected,  the larger buildings are risky. The Hutts would be likely to have  t

heir eye on the major locations. While Jabba the Hutt is not actively  searching for the queen, he's still bad news. Avoiding notice is the wise course of action. As it happens, Qui-Gon selects Watto's Shop. Depending how you look at it, this  could be a tremendous coincidence. Watto has two things that  can't be found anywhere else. One of these is exactly the  hyperdrive Qui-Gon needs. If Watto is to be believed, he has the  only T-14 hyperdrive on the planet. The other coincidence is that Ana

kin  Skywalker happens to be at the same shop. Really, our only option is  to say the Force did it. The mystical energy field that controls  destiny sent Qui-Gon to the right place. We already know the Force can give  you telekinesis and lightning powers. It can handle a little bit of coincidence. Qui-Gon describes the parts he needs. Let's go over each word of this jargon. Oddly, he does not say "Naboo" for the ship type. The ship was made on Naboo,  yet he calls the ship Nubian. It's possible

that George Lucas intended  "Nubian" and "Naboo" to mean the same thing. That wouldn't explain why Watto would  have any of those parts, though. The cross-sections book  has another answer in mind. Nubian spaceship parts are very  common throughout the galaxy. The Naboo engineers made the hull  themselves, to their own high standards. For the drive systems, they purchased  a set from a proper factory. An encyclopaedia from 2008 mentions Nubia. Information on it is very sparse. Nubia is located o

n the outer  edge of the galactic core region. As a natural consequence, civilisation  got there a long time ago. 22,000 years ago, give or  take a millennium or few. The world appears to be an inhospitable desert. Water is actually a lot more  plentiful below the surface. Nubia has enormous aquifers,  very helpful for agriculture. Nubia also proved to be a good site for  mining, the mountains in particular. Mining led to refining, then on to manufacturing. Over the myriad years, the Nubians  be

came quite good at building ship parts. That covers the term "Nubian". It turns out "J-type" also means something. The cross-sections say J-type  means twin radial sublight engines. Radial isn't a normal bit of engine terminology. Naboo ships tend to have their engine  exhaust in a ring around the engine. Standard engines have a large  2-dimensional area for the engine exhaust. That entire part glows so hot it's  the colour of a lightsabre blade. That is to say, white in the  middle with a colou

red halo. For these radial engines, the exhaust  area might as well be 1-dimensional. To get any performance out of such an engine,  they must have incredible exhaust velocity. A wide exhaust nozzle can expel a lot  of particles at relatively low speed. This isn't an option for radial engines,  there are only two alternatives. Very fast exhaust and ultra fast exhaust. A radial engine could be tuned  for relativistic exhaust velocity. Every particle that comes out the back  is moving at nearly th

e speed of light. We'll call this the high-power radial engine. From a certain point of view, this is efficient. The propellant is consumed as slowly as  possible, so those fuel tanks last ages. The trade-off is that it uses  an incredible amount of power. Or we can build another engine  with lower exhaust speeds. High-volume radial engines  use much more propellant. Despite the narrow exhaust ring, they attempt  to pass more matter through the narrow area. The same amount of electrical power is

applied  to a far larger amount of reaction mass. Efficiency is a tricky question here. Clearly, it dumps more propellant out the  back than relativ istic engines would. However, I suspect there is a loss of  efficiency as your exhaust reaches lightspeed. Better to keep the exhaust velocity  well below the universal speed limit. Either way, we expect radial engines to  need smaller fuel reserves than normal. Now we know what radial engines  are, we understand J-type. It turns out that J-type is

not very specific. The queen's royal starship is a J-type. It is 76 metres long. The N-1 starfighter is 11 metres  long, but has similar radial engines. Both ships are J-type Nubian vessels. They have two radial sublight  engines, the right type and number. The same goes for a pair of later  ships, Padme's personal ones. The one from episode 3 has twin  radial sublight engines as well. It is named as a J-type Nubian star skiff. Size is right in the middle, 29 metres long. The same should apply

to the ship from Episode 2. Padme's yacht is 48 metres long instead. This one has an entirely different layout:  engines tucked underneath the fuselage. Logically, this ought to be J-type as well. It has the correct type of engines,  and the correct number of them. They aren't extended on struts or  wings, which should make no difference. The cross-sections say this one is an H-type. Unexpected, but let's continue. The last one is Senator Amidala's chrome cruiser. This one has four radial engine

s,  so it should be a different class. The cross-sections say this one is still J-type. Perhaps "twin radial engines" is  broad enough to mean two pairs. That would mean everything is a J-type, so  long as it has an even number of engines. This classification is not the most useful system. That covers almost every term  Qui-Gon uses to describe the ship. All but one set of numbers. Parts for a J-type 327 Nubian. This number, 327, was clearly chosen  because it sounds good in context. Numbers do

all the heavy lifting,  supplying all the missing information. Clearly, the N-1 starfighter has a smaller  set of engines than the queen's ship. 327 is a number from the Nubian parts  catalogue, that is indisputable. I say these have to be the sublight engines. Support for this idea is mixed. The cross-sections book uses  these numbers inconsistently. On the N-1 starfighter, it is  said to have Nubian 221 engines. Other Naboo ships have this number  listed as their hyperdrive model number. The q

ueen's starship has  a Nubian 327 drive system. Quite a respectable speed, it can  outrun a lot of military warships. The successor to this ship, the  senator's barge, has Nubian 288 engines. Padme's personal yacht has Nubian 150 engines. It would make sense for Qui-Gon to say the  model number of the part he needs most. The movie addresses this: it's clear  that the Nubian 327 is a set of parts. Nubia's catalogue offers a set of radial  sublight engines, paired with a hyperdrive. These are the

most important parts,  the ones that can't be made locally. Ship hulls are built on Naboo,  around the engines and hyperdrive. Qui-Gon asked for a Nubian 327, yet Watto is  talking about a T-14 hyperdrive generator. It's only reasonable to assume  that Watto knows his salvage. What is valuable, exactly how much  he can charge to which customers. This interpretation is also  supported by the cross-sections book. All it fails to mention is  the T-14 on the queen's ship. This hyperdrive is class 1.

8, so relatively quick. Faster than many military vessels,  such as the B-Wing starfighter. The N-1 fighter uses a Nubian  Monarc C-4 hyperdrive, class 1. The senator's diplomatic barge has  a pair of S-6 hyperdrive generators. The idea is that even if one is damaged,  the other should still be in working order. These bring the hyperdrive class up to  0.7, very nearly as fast as the Falcon. Padme's personal yacht has  an S-5 hyperdrive, class 0.9. Slightly less exceptional,  granted, but still v

ery impressive. From what we've established so far,  Nubian drive systems are highly advanced. They do things in a way that looks  nice, but is needlessly difficult. We've talked about the extreme exhaust  velocity of the radial sublight engines. The only hyperdrive we see in the  movies is similar, in its own way. Conspicuously elegant, it looks  ornamental instead of mechanical. Remember that this hyperdrive sits  hidden away underneath the floor panels. It may only be seen for a few hours eve

ry  month, and it still looks this good. We can assume that's a selling point, that  there are photos in the Nubian catalogue. The only problem with this style is the cost. Replacement hyperdrives don't come cheap. Watto seems to be doing quite well for himself. He has a large stock of parts, a  shop, and even a damaged podracer. We're particularly interested  in two of Watto's possessions. The Skywalkers, Shmi and Anakin. It's hard to tell exactly what they're  worth, but it's thousands of cred

its. We know that one slave and a  podracer are of similar value. Luke's landspeeder sold  for just over 2000 credits. A podracer must cost at least 5000 credits. If that's so, then a slave must  be about 5-10,000 credits each. That's the price of a hyperdrive: Qui-Gon  can't just go around buying everyone. Slavery is a bit of a heavy topic to bring up. The original trilogy does not use the word itself. Apart from a reference to the spice  mines of Kessel, it's not even implied. Jabba the Hutt h

as several  involuntary visitors, of course. Fans universally refer to this  particular costume as Slave Leia. Boba Fett's ship is named Slave 1. Apart from that, only the Expanded  Universe has anything to say. For example, that Admiral Ackbar had been  the personal slave of Grand Moff Tarkin. The Death Star was mostly constructed by  Wookiee slaves, on a world named Despayre. Depicting slavery was not something  we expected from Episode 1. Most of the time, slavers and pirates  only exist as b

ackground characters. A generic bad guy to attack  your ship in deep space. Making Anakin a slave was a good choice, it's  the only thing keeping him on that planet. The first thing we ever knew about Anakin  was that he spent time aboard spaceships. No matter how young he was, this  would not be a pleasant life. Ani would definitely try to fly away. Watto is the only force that  could keep Little Ani on Tatooine. Even then, it takes extreme measures. The explosive implant prevents his  escape,

and Ani has a plan for that. Anakin first appears 32 minutes into the movie. The story had no place for him until that point. Like with Luke Skywalker, he  dreams of leaving the planet. Like Luke, he does not have a rich upbringing. Like Luke, he is a great  pilot and a decent mechanic. The similarities are intentional,  we always knew they would exist. Even in the first movie, characters  often compare Luke to his father. If you were to recreate both characters  in an RPG, they would have simil

ar stats. In fact, they both use the same exact lightsabre! The two Skywalkers are very similar. Their purpose is to be Jedi. Luke is on the path to become a powerful Jedi. Anakin is going to have once been a powerful Jedi. When we first meet Little Ani, he is 9 years old. Normally this would be an odd choice. When Luke was about 20, he was  constantly referred to as "young boy". Starting with Anakin as a teenager  would seem like a better idea. That would have been good in most  ways, except fo

r one critical function. This boy will become Darth Vader,  the most fearsome man in the galaxy. His youth in Episode 1 is meant  to contrast with his later evil. Had he been a moody teenager, we would  constantly be reminded of Lord Vader. George Lucas starts with the innocence of a child. That's not enough, so this movie also  establishes that Little Ani is a lovely boy. He is skilled at navigating his home town. Anakin is kind and generous. Half the things he repairs are to  make life easier

for his mother. Little Ani even manages to talk a violent  thug into backing down peacefully. These are not the actions  of a Dark Lord of the Sith. People take this contrast for granted. Portraying Anakin this way was  intentional, an excellent choice. When Qui-Gon arrives in Watto's junk shop,  Anakin starts chatting with the customers. Though the characters don't know it, we  know these two are destined for each other. Anakin is Luke's father,  and Padme is Luke's mother. The quality of the r

omance is debatable. What really matters is that  the romance is functional. We know these two have kids, so we  might as well introduce them early. The Phantom Menace spends its time  putting pieces on the game board. Everyone of significance to the  prequel trilogy is introduced here. All this movie needs to do is show  that Ani and Padme like each other. She leaves the shop empty-handed. Despite being queen, she cannot  afford to repair her ship. Taking pity on the poor monarch,  Anakin catch

es up to the party. The slave offers the queen and  her knight shelter in his hovel. At this point, there is one tiny  detail with great significance. Right at the end, Qui-Gon lifts his  poncho and reaches for his belt. He plans to take two things from their pouches. The first, I am sure, is the  food Anakin had bought earlier. The other is the cap from a ballpoint  pen, the ones with the clip. These are meant to contain Jedi food capsules. If you miss this detail, it seems  like a bad day for

Shmi Skywalker. The main problem is that Jar-Jar  is going to eat all her apples. Qui-Gon contributing to the meal  changes the meaning of the scene. Jedi do not function as parasites, in theory. Over lunch, Anakin hears about the plot. Obtaining the expensive  spaceship parts will not be easy. The main challenge is a lack of acceptable money. Qui-Gon has 20,000 Republic credits,  which Watto does not accept. Obviously there is an exchange rate of some kind. That's enough money to buy a  spacesh

ip, it's still worth something. All you need to do is fly closer to Republic  territory before spending the credits. Currency conversion is likely to be  controlled by the Hutt crime lords. Attempting to change such a large number  of credits would bring too much attention. The only way to obtain such a large  sum of money would be to win a race. Conveniently, there is a large prize  pool available the very next morning. Ordinarily, expecting to hit the  jackpot would be a terrible gamble. The o

nly reason Qui-Gon expects  this plan to work is the Force. The Jedi senses that Anakin has  a great deal of Force potential. Not wanting to trust everything to a mere  hunch, Qui-Gon tests the boy's blood. His apprentice analyses the sample. It is clear that Little Ani is unusual. Little Ani will grow up to be one of  the most powerful beings in the galaxy. The movie goes out of its  way to establish this fact. Doing so has made a lot of people unhappy,  and is widely regarded as a bad move. In

order to quantify how powerful Anakin  was, this movie explains the Force. George Lucas probably  figured this was no big deal. Elaborating a little on what  had already been established. The Force is an energy field  that connects all living things. This movie is the first to mention midi-chlorians. Previously, the Force had been mysterious. Nobody really knew anything about how it worked. How is it that Vader can  move objects with his mind? How does Force Lightning  work on an electrical lev

el? These questions have no real answers. All we can say is "the Force did it". Midichlorians are a biological  component to the Force. This caused a minor kerfuffle amongst the fans. Some felt that biology cheapens the  mystical, magical, occult aspect. They had imagined a different  magic system from Lucas's. There may also be some confusion by taking  the Force as more religious than it is. As you may notice, I don't understand  the anti-midi-chlorian position. Perhaps some people don't like

the  idea of putting a number to the Force. From the very first movie, we  know Force strength is variable. Jedi have the ability to sense that  the Force is strong with someone. Numbers are inevitable, they would  have many classification systems. The Jedi have been around  for a thousand generations. An attempt has definitely been made  to quantify one's Force potency. It just happens that midichlorian count  is a very good way to measure the Force. Perhaps some didn't like the idea  that Forc

e strength is genetic. This is implied in the original movie,  and stated outright in the second. Luke's father was a Jedi knight,  therefore Luke can use the Force. Had he been a navigator on a spice freighter,  no Force potential would be expected. We have always known that your  Force affinity can be inherited. As for biology, we always  knew that must be involved. The Force is described as  connecting all living things. We always knew that droids could not become Jedi. All organic life-forms

are  involved in creating the Force. Certain individuals have a hereditary  talent for Force sensitivity. Think about how this would need to work. There cannot be a "Force gland",  some organ that grants Force powers. That would be very obvious: a  Jedi is anyone with 3 kidneys. We can't say the Force is related  to brains and consciousness either. Trees don't have brains, but  they still affect the Force. What about single-cell organisms,  can they interact with the Force? There can be only on

e answer. The only way to explain all these  is for the Force to be sub-cellular. Whatever physical structures are involved in  the Force, they are smaller than a living cell. These organelles live inside all  life in the Star Wars galaxy. This explains why everything that  lives has a presence in the Force. It explains why an entire family  would be strong in the force. Handily, it also explains why  the viewer cannot become a Jedi. Our galaxy has no midichlorians,  so the Force doesn't exist h

ere. It's clear that The Phantom Menace  is getting at one idea in particular. Multiple times throughout the movie,  a character will explain symbiosis. This first appears as a way to describe  the Gungan and human populations of Naboo. Mostly this exists to  foreshadow the midichlorians. The symbiote angle had never really  been part of the Force until now. While I don't think this is a bad change, it  is worth noting that was news to most fans. While a few reacted badly,  midichlorians seemed

to fit in. A few questions even become clearer. When levitating objects,  where does the weight rest? Where does the Force come from, is it the head? Midichlorians tell us: every single  living cell at the same time. The Force is evenly distributed  throughout a Jedi's body. Midichlorians are not a twist. They aren't meant to subvert your expectations. There was no intention to rewrite the universe. Regardless of what ideas George  Lucas had in which year, it works. Midichlorians line up so well

with  the Force in the original movies. If there were no genetic aspect, that  would be an argument against midichlorians. Or if it wasn't tied to biological life, that  would also be evidence against midichlorians. Really, the only flaw is a line from Qui-Gon. This causes a slight problem. If life really can't exist without midichlorians,  then everyone on Earth must have them. Which means the Force exists  here too, and so could the Jedi. This really is inexcusable, but it's easily fixed. We

can say Qui-Gon meant "life  as we know it", then all is well. However, it does give us an interesting idea. Qui-Gon might think this because of  the exact role midichlorians play. Our cells have a microscopic  symbiote as an organelle. Suppose that midichlorians are basically  the same thing as mitochondria. They are an essential part  of breathing and digestion. The difference is that mitochondria  generate adenosine triphosphate. Midichlorians generate the Force,  and some ATP as a byproduct.

It turns out that midichlorians  are what give the Jedi his power, just like they do for everyone else. Given this, it's understandable why  Qui-Gon thinks they're so important. Another function of midichlorians  is that they may be Anakin's father. That's quite a complex topic.. We'll open that can of eels another day.