Question: Is it true that Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced Darth Maul, is furious with George Lucas?
Question: Had Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan been able to both survive and defeat Maul, would this mean Sidious would not be able to manipulate Anakin anymore? Or would the Sith Lord have simply tried a different plan, besides emotional manipulation, to try to trick an Anakin trained under Qui-Gon into the dark side?
Answer: I don't think his plans would change. Qui-Gon is just another Jedi Master training Anakin, nothing much different because Obi-Wan was trained by him as well, after all. Plus, Qui-Gon much more believes Anakin is the chosen one, so he would probably allow Anakin a lot more than Obi-Wan would, including his relationships with Palpatine and Padme, which both are more important for Anakin's switch to the dark side.
I (not who submitted the question) wonder if Palpatine actually wanted Darth Maul to be killed by Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, or both. It seems like he mostly trained Maul to fight. Maul seemed to know little about the plotting, scheming, and political dealings. Dooku was capable in those areas, and was skilled at fighting. He was probably more useful while Palpatine waited to turn Anakin.
Not sure about that. I think he genuinely thought Darth Maul was properly trained to defeat Jedi. I don't think Palpatine planned ahead in terms of apprentices, except Anakin. But Darth Maul was before he knew Anakin. I don't think Sith are easy to find either, so Palpatine needed Maul for a lot of things more than just kill Jedi. It is too convenient however that every apprentice he had served his plans perfectly. Because I don't see Maul lead the separatists.
I was under the impression that Palpatine knew about Anakin ever since Shmi was chosen to be Anakin's mother. I might be wrong. This is an interesting discussion, though - I appreciate your response. Some think that Maul had limited use of the Force and was more of a trained assassin. But, if that were true, why call him a Sith apprentice? As you say, it's hard to imagine him being a Separatist leader.
I do not have any knowledge regarding any books written or other sources that might be considered canon, as have been mentioned in other comments here recently. My knowledge is purely the movies. As per the movies, Palpatine only learned of Anakin after the Battle of Naboo.
Question: Why does Darth Maul just stand there and watch Obi-Wan flip over him and then bisect him? As a Sith, Maul had plenty of time to react to what Obi-Wan was doing, and his training means he shouldn't have been surprised by it either.
Answer: It was meant to be very fast. It couldn't be so fast that the audience would have no idea what was happening, so we wind up with an awkward scene where Darth Maul literally watches Obi-Wan flip over his head. He never even notices that Obi-Wan has Qui-Gonn's lightsaber. He seems quite shocked that Obi-Wan was even able to get above him at all.
Answer: In the book, The Life and Legacy of Obi-wan Kenobi, it actually talks about this a little bit. Darth Maul wasn't expecting this move, and it caught him by surprise. Obi-wan was hanging on for life down below, and to Maul's mind there wasn't a way he could really get back up, much less armed. One thing to consider is the fact that Darth Maul is actually pretty weak in using the Force compared to most other notable Force users. He's mostly a martial artists, and a damn good one to, having extraordinary combat ability to the point he can fend off a Jedi Knight and a Padawan at at the same time. But his actual strength in the force is weak, where he's only able to lift/push small objects or do a Force jump. He didn't predict, or "foresee" Obi-wan's move. Nor could he sense that Obi-wan was moving the light saber on the ground next to him, and would never have guessed that not only Obi-wan would Force jump out like that so suddenly, but also grab a saber at the same time and go for a swing.
I remember at least two books - which may not be canon now - describing Maul as prideful. It seems like he was quite skilled in fighting, as you say, but he underestimated opponents.
Answer: I always saw it as Maul didn't realise Kenobi was going for the lightsaber at the same time and the whole move was suicidal from Maul's point of view. His lack of reaction is him being stunned by what he sees as Obi-Wan just jumping in front of him to be attacked.
Question: I realise this has been brought up many times, but can it be considered a definite continuity error in the whole series that Obiwan Kenobi is trained by Qui Gon Jinn in this film, despite saying in Empire Strikes Back that it was Yoda who trained him? Some have argued that Qui was working under Yoda, but in Empire, Obiwan said to Yoda, "Was I any different when you taught me?" which to me pretty much says that Yoda was his direct teacher. I'm guessing that Lucas changed the background stories a bit, but I would like to know for sure.
Chosen answer: No, it can't. As we see in Attack of the Clones, Yoda is in charge of training the younglings, the Jedi hopefuls, the ones too young to have been selected as a Padawan. Yoda trained Obi-Wan when he was a child, then Qui-Gon selected him as a Padawan as he reached the proper age. They both trained him, taking responsibility for different stages of his education. It is entirely possible, of course, that Lucas did originally intend Yoda to have been Obi-Wan's sole master when he made The Empire Strikes Back and thus your guess that he changed the background stories may well be accurate, however, if this is the case, then he made the alterations in such a fashion that no continuity error exists, because it all fits together.
Also, most Jedi probably had friendships with older Jedi who were not their masters. They could think of any Knight/Master as a teacher, despite not being the official apprentice of that Jedi.
Question: According to Captain Panaka and Qui-Gon, if the Hutts discover Queen Amidala on Tattooine, it will be just like landing on a planet controlled by the Federation. Why would they care about her? What would they do?
So the Federation was probably offering a bounty/reward for her capture?
Question: What did Anakin's torpedoes hit that caused the droid control ship to explode?
Answer: It was the main reactor of the ship, according to wookieepedia.
I have a problem with that because realistically would destroying a reactor be enough to cause whatever it powers to explode?
Not sure why you have a problem with that notion. It's a common sci-fi convention/trope that destroying the main reactor of a ship usually causes a chain-reaction that destroys the entire vessel. That's also what destroyed both Death Stars in the original trilogy. (Luke fires a missile into the reactor through an exhaust port/Lando and the others fly into the core and destroy the main reactor.) This is not a documentary... it can operate by nebulous sci-fi rules. Not to mention, none of these things actually exist, so who's to say destroying the main reactor WOULDN'T destroy the ship?
It destroyed the main reactor of the droid control ship itself, not what it powers. Anakin was inside the ship and blew it up from the inside.
If you go by official books put out you see lots of ships in Star Wars are powered by a gas type fuel source. Taking out a reactor could cause that fuel to explode as well. As you see in the movie it not one big boom but a lot of little ones at 1st. But once that fire gets to the main tanks it's all over.
Question: Why would the Trade Federation need the queen to sign a treaty to make their invasion legal if they've already invaded the place and taken over anyway?
Question: Anakin's mom says the Republic doesn't exist on Tatooine. Why not?
Answer: It's in the Outer Rim territories. It's far enough away from the central government that they can't really have an effective government. In addition, it's in Hutt-controlled space.
Why not send people to take control of Tatooine, and the outer rim territories away from the hutts?
The Republic has the task of running an entire galaxy, which is billions and billions of planets and solar systems. Sending troops into the Outer Rim, against heavily armed gangsters and with little to no communication, enough resources or backup, would be a terrible plan. At least the Hutts keep things running smoothly and don't let the planets go into anarchy.
Answer: In addition to the other answers: It's simply not worth it. There is nothing strategic about the system other than maybe as a waypoint. It is resource-poor, which added together means very little presence by any side.
Answer: There are places like Tatooine on Earth, like Afghanistan. Superpowers have attempted and failed to take over the indigenous population many times. Here, the Hutt organisation is too powerful and entrenched to defeat, and the Republic probably doesn't have unlimited resources to fight such a war.
Question: After R2-D2 helps fix the escaping ship, Queen Amidala thanks the droid in front of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and her handmaidens, but Amidala's decoy refers to her handmaiden as Padme. Why doesn't she refer to her as Sabe? Doesn't everyone know that Queen Amidala's first name is Padme?
Answer: Padme was impersonating a handmaid, using her real name. Sabe was playing her role of Queen Amidala. This was unknown to Qui-Gon.
But the point is that using the queen's real name seems like it's giving the game away a bit.
Answer: Serafinowicz apparently hated working on "Phantom Menace" because it paid poorly, he was given limited direction, and he felt Jar Jar Binks was a racist caricature upon watching the film on release.
TedStixon
Also, Serafinowicz was annoyed that he wasn't invited to the film's premiere and had to pay for his own tickets and travel expenses.