The Phantom Menace. It just dawned on me that the story it tells is nothing more than the backstory to the backstory. We did not need it at all. In fact we don’t need AOTC either; we could have started the PT with the opening scene of ROTS and gone from there.
That’s why i always rank AOTC higher than TPM, at least it gave us the start of the Clone Wars. The Naboo conflict is wholly insignificant to the rest of the galaxy, other than Palpatine abusing Queen Amidala and Nute Gunray to become Supreme Chancellor. I don’t care if droids slaughter Gungans in the swamp or what Anakin did with 9. Sorry Lucas, Jar Jar is not my favourite character either.