17 minutes ago, mazz0 said:So basically, peace loving Naboo with its democratically elected teenage queens, had a ruler training regime reminiscent of a militaristic Ancient Greek city state. That place is messed up .
Well, to preserve peace, you must (be able to) protect it.
Makes perfect sense to me.
2 minutes ago, Captain Lackwit said:Well, to preserve peace, you must (be able to) protect it.
Makes perfect sense to me.
Not physically yourself though! Use specialists, or robots! Only, you know, don't give expendable robots obvious sentience and personalities. That would be a di*k move.
36 minutes ago, mazz0 said:So basically, peace loving Naboo with its democratically elected teenage queens, had a ruler training regime reminiscent of a militaristic Ancient Greek city state. That place is messed up .
Gets even sillier than that, IMO.
There have been some great posts earlier in the thread of people explaining that for the Handmaiden decoy thing to work, Padme has to know what she's doing. And that makes perfect sense. When she's young, she has to know how to play the part of a Handmaiden. When she's older and working on Coruscant, her decoy roles get more demanding and she needs to know how to fly a fighter. Okay. All well and good.
But then you start to think about the purpose of this deep, complex rigmarole. It's all in service of a convincing decoy plan to protect the queen. But.... from what?
What dangers is the Queen of Naboo exposed to on such a regular basis that a 14 year old girl has to start learning combat and how to disguise herself just to stay alive? Naboo is supposed to be a peaceful planet. Sure, relations with the Gungans aren't great but it's hardly suggested they could go to war at any moment. The greater galaxy is also pretty peaceful prior to TPM. Sure, Naboo is out on the Mid Rim where the Republic's reach isn't quite as strong, but they're a member world under their protection.
And yeah, their rulers are democratically elected and serve a maximum of two four year terms. Is it even the worst thing ever if one does get assassinated? Wouldn't they just... elect a new one?
Why all the secrecy and subterfuge?
Why does this continue even when Padme is Senator, not Queen?
Maybe the Naboo aren't really that peaceful. The Jedi were pretty quick to jump to Padme's potential assassins being disgruntled spice miners on the moons of Naboo. They must have some reason behind that assumption. Also, we all know what spice gets used for. Do we really think Naboo is mining it for medical purposes ?
Why did the Trade Federation blockade Naboo specifically? Yes, we know it was because Sidious ordered it specifically to get his Palpatine persona sympathy and a platform in the Senate, but they must have had a logical basis to present to the outside world. What if everyone were to assume it was the Trade Fed moving in on Naboo's spice operation?
My conclusion to all this is that Naboo is a banana republic. A thin sham over a sector wide drug cartel. The people of Theed grow rich off the illicit profit, while the proletariat are forced to labour away in the spice mines, like the cocaine field labs of Colombia. The Queen who presides over this is obviously complicit, and requires extensive protection not only from the oppressed lower class drug mules, but also from rival spice syndicates and overzealous Republic judiciaries.
Therefore, Padme being an I4 is totally fine. She's the head honcho of a government backed drug cartel. Clearly she knows her way around weapons and ships to protect that trade from all the unsavoury competition.
Padme. Pablo. Coincidence? I think we all know the answer....
1 hour ago, GuacCousteau said:<quote truncation>
Padme . Pablo. Coincidence? I think we all know th e answer....
That's a very good theory. I am convinced. That's definitely my head canon now. And at the end Padmé's pissed off that Anakin started an empire with someone else, cos that's what *she* wanted to do.
Edited by mazz04*
*This ability works better if the pilot can re-position after these other pilots who also happen to have 1, 2, 3 or 4 printed in orange on their card have moved.
On 5/20/2019 at 9:58 PM, mazz0 said:She's higher than Ahsoka! What's going on there?! For one thing Ahsoka's a Jedi while Padmé's a politician (and has been since a young age, and she's top level so I'd guess she didn't have a lot of free time to learn fighter piloting) but more importantly, Ahskoka is the one who taught Padmé combat flying in the first place !
Meesa no lika dis. Meesa gonna seek revenge on Padmé by giving her Handmaids to Ahsoka!
Well, now I hope they make an all silver N1....
3 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:And yeah, their rulers are democratically elected and serve a maximum of two four year terms.
Two two year terms as of the new Queen's Shadow novel. It's not clear if this is an absolute limit or a consecutive limit. A person who'd served as queen for one term, before Padme, runs for office after Padme leaves office, and wins.
43 minutes ago, Ironlord said:Two two year terms as of the new Queen's Shadow novel. It's not clear if this is an absolute limit or a consecutive limit. A person who'd served as queen for one term, before Padme, runs for office after Padme leaves office, and wins.
Hardly seems worth the effort does it?
If piloting seems an odd skill for a monarch/politician, recall that in the Geonosian arena in Episode 2 she avoid being eaten by the creatures by picking the lock on the shackles to climb the pillar.
She knows how to pick locks . Piloting a small craft is downright ordinary next to that.
7 minutes ago, Dasharr said:If piloting seems an odd skill for a monarch/politician, recall that in the Geonosian arena in Episode 2 she avoid being eaten by the creatures by picking the lock on the shackles to climb the pillar.
She knows how to pick locks . Piloting a small craft is downright ordinary next to that.
Is it? I reckon you could probably learn to pick (primitive physical) locks easily in a week. To become an *above average* fighter pilot though? That surely takes somewhat longer. But who knows, this is the land of Star Wars where nothing really makes sense when you think about it too much.
Luke could fly a t-65 with no training purely from being able to drive his landspeeder. I suspect the astromech takes up a fair amount of the slack
I’ve never driven a formula one car. But I’m sure that within a minute or two I’d at least be able to go, if poorly.
Spaceships are like cars in our universe. Ubiquitous. Basically anyone can hop in some form of repulsive craft or basic spaceship and go. Maybe not well, but with no specific training.
26 minutes ago, Estarriol said:Luke could fly a t-65 with no training purely from being able to drive his landspeeder. I suspect the astromech takes up a fair amount of the slack
🤨 Airspeeder. Specifically an Incom T-16 Skyhopper...
"I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home."
Also note the scene in the Episode 4 special edition where Red Leader meets Luke in the hangar bay in the Rebel base. He gives only mild reservations that Luke can transition from flying a farmhand's speeder to an X-Wing fighter, and he withdraws even that after a word of reassurance from Biggs.
2 hours ago, mazz0 said:Is it? I reckon you could probably learn to pick (primitive physical) locks easily in a week. To become an *above average* fighter pilot though? That surely takes somewhat longer. But who knows, this is the land of Star Wars where nothing really makes sense when you think about it too much.
I was reacting less about the relative difficulty of fighter piloting and lockpicking, than to the likelihood of training in either skill at all. If playing the role of a bodyguard is part of training, then handling spacecraft is a conventional enough thing to learn. Lockpicking is a skill that seems much more narrow in usefulness for candidates for the monarchy.
43 minutes ago, millertime059 said:I’ve never driven a formula one car. But I’m sure that within a minute or two I’d at least be able to go, if poorly.
Spaceships are like cars in our universe. Ubiquitous. Basically anyone can hop in some form of repulsive craft or basic spaceship and go. Maybe not well, but with no specific training.
Still, what we see Padme do in an N1 is be in the cockpit flying escort.
This doesn't imply she's a combat pilot any more than a photo of me in a race car after driving a lap at 80 mph proves I'm a professional racer.
Heck, I've even spent an hour in a Marchetti SF-260 chasing another guy around pretending to shoot him down. It makes me neither a combat veteran nor even a pilot!!
Edited by Darth MeanieThe idea is that escort duty is more than just flying. If pirates attack the ship, the escorts will need to defend it.
The handmaidens aren't just decoys. They're bodyguards. And this bodyguarding can include bodyguarding a ship that's under attack. With the queen needing to be able to do what the handmaidens do, when she happens to be in "handmaiden disguise".
I was reacting less about the relative difficulty of fighter piloting and lockpicking, than to the likelihood of training in either skill at all. If playing the role of a bodyguard is part of training, then handling spacecraft is a conventional enough thing to learn. Lockpicking is a skill that seems much more narrow in usefulness for candidates for the monarchy.
It can come in handy if one is captured.
Edited by Ironlord7 minutes ago, Ironlord said:The idea is that escort duty is more than just flying. If pirates attack the ship, the escorts will need to defend it.
The handmaidens aren't just decoys. They're bodyguards. And this bodyguarding can include bodyguarding a ship that's under attack. With the queen needing to be able to do what the handmaidens do, when she happens to be in "handmaiden disguise".
Unless Padme's standing orders are "bug out if attacked."
3 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:Unless Padme's standing orders are "bug out if attacked."
That's not always going to be a practical possibility.
3 hours ago, mazz0 said:this is the land of Star Wars where nothing really makes sense when you think about it too much.
End of thread.
Full stop. 🤣
4 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:Unless Padme's standing orders are "bug out if attacked."
And put an immediate bullseye on her ship? Normally VIPs flee. For the ruse to work consistently Padme has to engage along side the defending ships. The moment she runs the attackers know who to focus on.
4 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:Normally VIPs flee.
And every Scot with a horse.
2 hours ago, millertime059 said:I’ve never driven a formula one car. But I’m sure that within a minute or two I’d at least be able to go, if poorly.
Spaceships are like cars in our universe. Ubiquitous. Basically anyone can hop in some form of repulsive craft or basic spaceship and go. Maybe not well, but with no specific training.
You wouldn't be a level 4 out of 6 F1 driver though would you?
13 minutes ago, mazz0 said:You wouldn't be a level 4 out of 6 F1 driver though would you?
Put me on the track and we’ll see. It’ll certainly leave other drivers guessing what I’m about to do, much like the higher I ships do!
If you have access to an F1 car I’m more than willing to put this to the test for you. 😆
This seems like a weird argument IMO. These games stats are all abstractions of a bunch of different things. Others have pointed out that Initiative isn't necessarily a comment on the pilots abilities as a whole, but rather just another stat that goes into their overall efficacy.
Think of it like stats in DnD. The Wizard might be a lot smarter than the Ranger, but the group is gonna trust the Ranger when it comes to Knowledge: Nature rolls because he put more points into that skill or training for a less gamey term. Initiative is an abstraction just like anything else in these kinds of games, not a hard and fast measurement of how good someone is as a pilot in general.
Maybe Snips has better reflexes on the ground and in the cockpit, but Padme is more comfortable with this one ship because she's used to it what with it being likely the only fighter she's piloted frequently. Snips isn't a worse pilot because Padme has slightly higher Initiative. If you've played the SW RPG produced by West End Games, it's entirely possible for someone to be the best pilot in the galaxy as long as they're in their favorite ship, but a total novice in anything they haven't specialized into. There are plenty of reasons to argue any characters I values in either direction, so really what's even the point of this? The fluff isn't being disrespected because of a perceived discrepancy between Padme and Ashoka's initiative values.
Edited by Hippie Moosen