Every time I watch these movies, I think to myself that George Lucas takes it upon himself to kill the best two live action characters that appear, and often in a manner that is inappropriate to the awesomeness of the characters involved (Boba Fett being case in point for movies 4-6, showing Lucas' propensity for such behavior).

In this first movie, I agree that Qui Gon Jinn was one of the decent characters, and that his death was a waste because of the loss of potential quality for the later movies...maybe. The second character was Darth Maul. Ray Park (the actor who played Darth Maul, Toad in the first X-Men movie, and Snake Eyes in the upcoming GI Joe movie) has an incredible sense of kinesthetic acting, and I can feel the dark, savage rage that fuels him as he moves, sort of like watching a hungry tiger prowling its cage. When he is allowed to just let go, as he does in the brief fight scene where he first fights Qui Gon Jinn on Tatooine, it is downright frightening to watch, because the speed and ferocity he uses (and the desperation of Qui Gon to escape with his life) is exactly what you would expect in a real fight between a master and a halfway decent amateur.

To me, Darth Maul's death was much the same as the death of Boba Fett (case-in-point) in terms of anticlimax. George Lucas does not believe in letting bad guys die in a dignified manner, and the cooler the bad guys in question, the less dignified the final fate that awaits them.

Funny.
(But Immaculate Conception doesn't mean what you think it means. The Concept of Immaculation is not related to anything biological or babies, so it wouldn't apply here. GIYF.)

Man, when's Protoclown going to do the Episode 3 one?