DoesThe Phantom Menacehave better worldbuilding thanA New Hope?

The original Star Wars does n’t start out by explaining much . You ’re just discombobulate in the deep last with a infinite battle . Meanwhile , The Phantom Menace tells us about trade difference of opinion and negotiations and revenue . So does this prequel have better worldbuilding than A New Hope ?

This question came up over the weekend , as a issue oflast hebdomad ’s clause about deadly hell of worldbuilding , over onMatt Zoller Seitz ’s Facebook Thomas Nelson Page . And it mirror some of the discussions we were having on the io9 article itself . When we talk about “ worldbuilding , ” are we referring to endless explanations of backstory , or something else ? Is worldbuilding something the reader or viewer ought to notice , because the writer makes a gunpoint of evidence it off ?

https://gizmodo.com/7-deadly-sins-of-worldbuilding-998817537

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If anything , I ’d reason it ’s nigh to being the other manner around — oftentimes , the more you notice the scaffolding , the less skillful the worldbuilding is . And the good worldbuilding oftentimes escapes your posting , unless you ’re pay a lot of attention . And in fact , the original Star Wars follow at worldbuilding for many of the same reason why The Phantom Menace fails .

“ Taxation of Trade Routes ”

So yes , The Phantom Menace does start with a huge infodump about the Trade Federation bar the worldly concern of Naboo because of a dispute over “ taxation of trade route . ” And later , Senator Palpatine anti - explains that the dispute began with this tax dispute and has now “ engulfed our integral planet in the oppression of the Trade Federation . ”

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So there is jargon being thrash about around , sure , and we ’re say that something or other is going on — but we ’re never shown what it is , nor does it in reality count . The actual story is something to do with a lot of droids sprout at the great unwashed .

And meanwhile , we ’re tell that the Galactic Senate is washy , and Palpatine make vague assertion about corruption and the “ bureaucrat ” who actually run thing and are in the pocket of the Trade Federation . Like the tax revenue matter , this is mostly irrelevant , since the factual patch is Palpatine getting himself elect Chancellor . But the literal politics in the Galactic Senate scenes are cartoonishly simple — and no amount of dim but lengthy statements , alluding to complexity that we do n’t actually witness , can make it otherwise .

Also , The Phantom Menace infamously tries to explain the Force , the mystic energy that Jedi draw upon for their power , using microscopic blood particles called Midi - chlorians . But this account does n’t in reality elucidate anything , and meanwhile , there are lots of tantrum in which the Jedi debate about whether Anakin represents a “ vergence ” in the Force , and also whether he carry through a prophecy about “ bringing equilibrium . ” None of this is ever made percipient — or particularly interesting — but there ’s a lot of talking about it .

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Basically , his is on the button what sound worldbuilding should n’t do — barrage you with information without giving you any sense of why this stuff matters , or how this world actually works .

“ It is a time of civil war ”

By dividing line , A New Hopeoffers very little explanationof what ’s going on — the first step school text crawling is evenhandedly sparse and just says there ’s a civil war and the rebels have the plans to a new weapon , the Death Star . We ’re throw away into the center of the fighting , and it ’s passably obvious that the Stormtroopers are bad bozo , while Princess Leia and her droids are adept cat .

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So does A New Hope flush it our worldbuilding criteria , as one person suggested on Facebook , because of the thing of “ why are these events go on now ? ” No . In fact , it ’s very clear what ’s change recently , and what outcome has get this plot to swing into motion — the universe of the Death Star . It ’s an unprecedented arm that can shift the balance of power , and its very existence not only threatens the Rebels but transfer the political situation inside the Empire .

In fact , when we first meet Grand Moff Tarkin , he explain that reverence of the Death Star will keep the local systems in blood , and thus the Emperor has dissolve the Imperial Senate . We do n’t need to see a scene of the Imperial Senate being inform of its dissolution — the important matter is that the Death Star is a powerful enough weapon that it ’s tone the Emperor ’s direct control .

( Tarkin likewise take that the Death Star will keep star systems from slipping through the Emperor ’s fingers , as Princess Leia contends . )

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We see enough bickering and in - fighting between the dissimilar sections of the armed services to know that there are faction within the Empire , and not all of them are as excited about the Death Star as Tarkin is . And the military does n’t seem to have much respect for Darth Vader , who ’s described as “ sad ” in his pointless devotedness to the Force .

Speaking of which , the original Star Wars recount us all we need to know about the Force , when Obi - Wan Kenobi discover it as “ an vitality field of study create by all living things [ that ] surrounds us and penetrates us [ and ] tie up the galaxy together . ”

At the same time , no two people incisively agree about the Force , or about what happened to the Jedi — Han Solo believes the Force is a caboodle of “ round-eyed tricks ” and the Jedi are a “ hokey religion . ” Tarkin believes in the Jedi but says their “ fire has move out . ” Kenobi says the Jedi were the “ guardians of serenity and justice ” until Vader helped the Empire to trace them down .

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And meanwhile , A New Hope shows us how masses use up — thanks to a circuit of the workings of Luke ’s wet farm , with its reliance on “ vaporators ” to pull together moisture in the desert — and also record us where their garbage go . We see where the working folk of the spaceport go to get a drink and hire a starship . I do n’t want to oversell it , but we do glimpse a decent amount of how the human beings actually works , as part of the adventure .

And at last , as often discussed , most of the applied science and sets in the original Star Wars look dingy , weathered and old , as if this is a world where people make do and reprocess stuff , and this has been a spacefaring civilisation for a long time .

So even though at first glance , A New Hope offer less exposition and fewer scenes of political wrangle than The Phantom Menace , the original Star Wars in reality has right smart better worldbuilding — because you get a few glimpses inside the way this universe actually functions , and you see enough of the political reality to understand why the Death Star is a huge , all - of import gamechanger . It ’s good worldbuilding , because it boosts the narration , instead of getting in the way .

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