[Giff]

It's been a long time since I've seen TPM, but I seem to recall that after meeting Anakin, Qui-Gon's objective was *also* to free Anakin, not just to get off the planet. He wasn't interested in other ways of getting away from Tatooine, because he felt the child was important enough to spend time rescuing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All of this happened before Anakin came into the picture.

[Gerhard]

Now, if memory serves me correctly, in the OT doesn't Ben secure transport with Han Solo for 17,000 credits to Alderaan from the same planet?  I think he only had 7,000 up front even. 

It was 2,000 upfront, which was out of the profit of selling Luke's Speeder, The remaining 15,000 whould have been paid by the rebellion or Organa.

My question is this, if Ben could pull this off all these years after the PT, why couldn't Qui-gon, or whoever else, pull it off years before the OT with 20,000 credits?  I know there's more people to transport, but my God, is it absolutely important that everyone is transported at this time?  Just take the Queen, Qui-gon, Ben, maybe a couple more?

Lucass....idiot.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What do you mean? Quin Gon could have find transportation out of there for 20,000 credits?

Maybe QuinGon did not think of that, after all the Queen's ship looked fairly new!
But personally does not bother me, I would not leave my car if it had some sort of problem in a city and instead of spending my money on repairing it, use the money to get ou of there. Well I don't know

Regards

[ernesttomlinson]

I think the real point is that the situation of Episode I, where the only way Qui-Gon and the others can get off Tatooine is to bet on a pod race, is hopelessly contrived.

OK, Watto won't sell them the parts and he says something like, "Nobody else will have them, I promise you that!" Are we really supposed to take him at his word? If he *is* telling the truth then Lucas should have added at least one small scene or few lines of dialogue to inform us that Qui-Gon had in fact hit up every mechanic or junkyard in town.

Now let us assume that Watto is the only guy with the parts. But he won't take their money and can't be duped into it. So why couldn't Qui-Gon find someone gullible who would change his money for him? Or perhaps Qui-Gon could bet his credits or the ship on some other game? (You'll not convince me that a place like Tatooine wouldn't have a million games to bet on.) We know that Qui-Gon is not above using the Force to manipulate physical objects so it's not a question of immoral use of the Force.

But we all know the real answer to these questions: George the overgrown child wanted his neato-keen pod race and he was willing to twist the plot into fantastic contortions to accommodate it.

Oh, and another thing just occurred to me. Anakin is "the only human" who can compete in pod-racing. Qui-Gon attributes this to Jedi reflexes. Now, supposedly, Anakin is the most powerful Jedi ever (not that the movies give much evidence of this). His tremendous ability, then, only brings him level with persons of other species who have no Force ability. So...what's so wonderful about the Force again?

[Despondent]

Funny. Maybe with his super reflex abilities he'll be able to stagger with Real dexterity soon.

The Queen's ship stuck in the desert begs the question, can't the Jedi just fix the hyperdrive by using the force?


I'm sure the QS was just acting like herbie the love bug. "I'm not leaving until you pick up the force-child I've found. After all, I used to be the ship of Darth Plagieus."