Lasers can't penetrate their shields but an entire starship can saunter through.
Kind of like how the base in the Hoth system had a force field that needed the ATATs to walk up and destroy the generator. Or better still the Death Star's exhaust port was ray shielded but was vulnerable to proton torpedoes.
OR the Gungan shields generated by the Fambaa lizards on Naboo. They can repel laser and blaster fire, but Battle Droids can just slowly walk through them and open fire on the Gungans inside. Gotta love Lucasworld technology sometimes.
Eh,
Star Wars isn't the only universe that operates on this principle. Remember
Dune? "The slow blade penetrates the shield."
Actually, though, I've known a STAR WARS fan who thinks that Padme was the youngest monarch in Naboo history because their logic was: "She was only fourteen. Why elect anybody younger than that if you're going to endow them with any real power? No fourteen year old is competent enough to govern even a small town or city, much less the civilization of an entire planet." What the guy seems to forget is that in real life here on Earth painfully young monarchs have been and continue to be guided by regents, ministers and advisors who wield the real power behind the throne. Any monarch younger than Padme would have clearly been advised and guided by grown adults in his or her government who would have made most if not all of the major decisions for the people. He or she would still have been king or queen, only a figurehead instead of a ruler who wielded any real power.
yes but in those cases of very young monarchs they wouldn't be elected to the position. The idea of electing teenagers and preteens to be heads of government is just silly. They should have just had her as a traditional monarch or as an older senator right off the bat.
Which is one of the reasons the fictional elected monarchy of Naboo is a fairly ludicrous concept. If Padme wasn't the youngest ruler in her planet's history then that calls into question the judgment of the Naboo people when it comes to governing themselves. If they want a damn kid to represent them on the throne and their society to actually be ruled by a coterie of advisors and bureaucrats then...what's the point? For show? And what image did it send to the Gungans(at that time in history on poor terms with if not outright enemies of the Naboo)? And outsiders in the Republic and on Coruscant? That such an idyllic world rich in art and culture would elect as its ruler a child who's completely in over his or her head and has to rely on the bureaucracy or sycophants to govern their people? It might as well be nothing more than a purely symbolic position without any power, but as Episode I clearly showed it isn't. Queen Amidala had tremendous power and the Trade Federation desperately needed her in order to legitimize their invasion and occupation. It's one of the George Lucas concepts that doesn't hold a lot of water upon closer scrutiny, but...meh. Whaddya gonna do.
Perhaps Queen Amidala was a more competant teenage queen than most, therefore had an inordinate amount of involvement in Naboo's affairs of state. Perhaps, prior to the invasion by the Trade Federation, Naboo hadn't needed their monarch for anything more than ceremonial affairs of state. The fact that she was needed to sign the treaty was a fluke of a legal loophole (much like the loophole that allowed the Trade Federation to blockade the planet in the first place).
Considering the kind of dog & pony show our electoral process has become here in the U.S., I can imagine a talented pre-teen charming her way into being elected to the highest office in the land. How many American politicians have been elected for purely superficial reasons? How often do we seem to be looking for a handsome face rather than scrutinizing their platform?
Yeah, having Anakin be only 9 in Episode I certainly doesn't jibe with Sebastian Shaw's age and appearance at the end of the original version of ROTJ. Shaw in real life was in his seventies by the time Lucas and Marquand hired him to play the unmasked Vader/Anakin Skywalker and even with significant makeup as the Force-ghost of Anakin he looked WAY older than the 45 or 46 that Anakin is supposed to be when he dies. I know you can always say that Anakin's horrific injuries on Mustafar and quarter-century inside the Vader outfit resulted in him looking so old and haggard, but it's just one of the nitpicks I've always had when it came to casting a little kid as Anakin in the first prequel. But Lucas wanted him to be a kid when we first meet him so we have to live with it and try to make everything else tie together.
Maybe he could have changed it by putting a larger gap between Episodes I & III, so that he's still a kid when we first meet him but is older than 22 when he fathered Luke & Leia.
Personally, I don't have such a fundamental problem with Anakin only being 9 years old in
The Phantom Menace. However, I do think some of his "Yipee!"s are very badly acted. And I don't like how it seemed to be a complete accident that he destroyed the droid control ship once he was inside.
But more importantly, I think they should have made Anakin & Padme closer to the same age, regardless of whether that means making Anakin older or Padme younger. Ideally, they probably should have had the same actor play Anakin in all 3 films. Alternately, I would have felt more continuity had both Anakin & Padme been recast with older actors at the same time. It's weird having to be reintroduced to a new Anakin in
Attack of the Clones while Padme is still the same.
But you know what Lucas would have said: "Jedi wouldn't act like that. They wouldn't seek vengeance and set out to deliberately hurt somebody else."
