Our gang returns to Naboo looking for help from the Gungans, only to find their city destroyed. Can Jar Jar help?
See the comments section for Our Thoughts.
Script copyright George Lucas
Script excerpted from this site:
http://www.supershadow.com/star_wars/episode_1/the_phantom_menace/script.html
EXT. NABOO SWAMP - DAY
The Naboo spacecraft has landed in the Gungan swamp. TROOPS
unload the ships in the background as OBI-WAN approaches QUI-
GON.
OBI-WAN
Jar Jar is on his way to the Gungan
city, Master.
QUI-GON's thoughts are elsewhere.
QUI-GON
Good.
OBI-WAN and QUI-GON stand silently for a moment.
OBI-WAN
Do you think the Queen's idea will
work?
QUI-GON
The Gungans will not easily be swayed,
and we cannot use our power to help
her.
OBI-WAN
I'm... I'm sorry for my behavior,
Master. It is not my place to disagree
with you about the boy. I am grateful
you think I am ready for the trials.
QUI-GON looks at him for a long moment.
QUI-GON
You have been a good apprentice. You
are much wiser than I am, Obi-Wan.
I foresee you will become a great
Jedi Knight.
EXT. NABOO SWAMP - UNDERWATER - DAY (FX)
JAR JAR swims down into Bubble City.
INT. OTOH GUNGA - CITY SQUARE
JAR JAR enters the main square of the bubble city. He stands,
stunned, in amazement and fear. He is nervous and shaking.
JAR JAR
Ello! Where das everybody?
The plaza is empty. He notices that many of the buildings
are shot up as if there had been a battle of some kind.
EXT. NABOO SWAMP LAKE - DAY
JAR JAR exits the swamp lake and walks over to QUEEN AMIDALA,
Capt. Panaka, OBI-WAN, and QUI-GON. PADME, EIRTAE, RABE,
ANAKIN, and ARTOO, FOUR PILOTS, and EIGHT GUARDS stand in
the background near the starship.
JAR JAR
Dare-sa nobody dare. All gone. Some
kinda fight, I tink. Sorry, no
Gungas...no Gungas.
CAPT. PANAKA
Do you think they have been taken to
camps?
OBI-WAN
More likely they were wiped out.
JAR JAR
No... mesa no tink so. Gungan hiden.
When in trouble, go to sacred place.
Mackineeks no find them dare.
QUI-GON
Do you know where they are?
Always puzzled by the arbitrary restrictions that Lucas conveniently places on the use of Jedi powers. For example:
ReplyDeleteQUI-GON
The Gungans will not easily be swayed,
and we cannot use our power to help
her.
Er, why not? WHY NOT??? Is this not what the Jedi are for? Diplomacy? Aiding the weak against the powerful?
As for the rest of this--and I have no memory of this scene, honestly--I'm actually pretty happy with it given that Jar Jar is now our Gungan rogue. I might spice it up a bit with some actual casualties...something gut wrenching like when Luke finds the smoking bodies of his dad's stepbrother on the steps of some igloo in the middle of the desert.
ReplyDeleteLet's make the Gungans a little more complex, though. There too much the Noble Savage here. How about this: Their main mode of offensive warfare is chemical/biological. They can attack the Nute and Rune gang, but they'll do it with some pathogen that will wipe out a significant portion of some beautiful native species. The Jedi have to decide if it's worth it overall.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have no memory of this scene. "Jar Jar swims down into Bubble City" made me laugh. It's hard enough to read about Jar Jar, but then I had forgotten there is a place called Bubble City. I might spice it up a bit with some time travel.
ReplyDeleteSurely this was never called "Bubble City" out loud? That's preposterous. I'm all for actual casualties to tone down the stupid comedy of the gungans. We touched on the gungan technology dilemma before - we had talked about how this whole "symbiosis" with the Naboo doesn't make any sense. What are they each providing?!? We had floated the idea that the Naboo provided technology and the Gungans provided... underpants? So maybe this is where chemical/biological/pseudoholisticBullshit comes in?
ReplyDeleteAh... so the Gungans have been supplying biological weapons based on sponges only found at the planet core to the Naboo. The Naboo have stockpiled these weapons and the Trade Federation are using that weapons stockpile as their excuse to invade. So they're not all bad, really, considering that similar biological weapons, sold by the Naboo to the Trade Federation's eternal enemies the (say) Corellians, were used to wipe out the Trade Federation colony world of Ankarat. The Naboo, of course only made the sale out of desperation, because they needed the Galactic Credits in order to pay for the last ditch medical treatment necessary to save their then-monarch, Queen Maselia. Despite their high cost, the treatments were ultimately ineffective and Maselia died. In the ensuing election...no wait, we got rid of the "elected queen" crap, right? Okay, in the struggle for the succession, Amidala's branch of the family managed to sieze the throne. These plucky liberals had opposed the manufacture, use, and sale of the biological weapons, and upon Amidala's mom taking the throne, all the stockpiles were destroyed. This fact gives Amidala's please to the Galactic Senate some credence, but also puts her in a rather awkward position when asking the Gungans for help at the present scene (or rather, the next scene), because her family's decision to no longer support the biological weapons has sent the Gungans into economic recession. Not only that, she is now asking the Gungans, against her own feelings regarding biological weapons, to use those very weapons against the Naboo enemies! Oh, what a tangle web we weave when making things up as we go along!
ReplyDeleteWe also make typos.
ReplyDeleteThis bears repeating:
ReplyDeleteMackineeks no find them dare.
You may have misread Qui-gon's statement. Maybe He means that the Jedi powers have been neutralized by some Gungan Mojo - maybe the Gungans are related to Jabba? What if the sponges provide immunity to the Force?
ReplyDeleteA re-imagined Jar Jar with resistance to Jedi mind tricks could be interesting.
ReplyDelete