Star Wars prequel questions

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

Sadly, she's still probably the smartest person in most of the franchise.

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She's the smartest meatbag in the franchise. R2-D2 is smarter.

yes i'm cross posting

jian said:

“And do we have any problems with child endangerment?”

“Of course not, master, we’re Jedi, it’s a huge part of our culture.”

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Randomly I also started a Star Wars watch. Im trying to do them in Chronological order starting with Acolyte. Just finished that, Episodes 1 & 2 and the Clone Wars animated series. Really enjoying it - Attack of the Clones aside.

I’m pretty sure Palpatine wants to corrupt the republic not just conquer it. He wants hatred and fear. The war generates that. Neutral systems get dragged into it. The senate runs scared. Even the Jedi order finds itself changing, becoming generals not peace keepers. It’s a bit like 1984. Everyone is continuously at war and that generates the fear that justifies control.

As for Panty Padme… I couldn’t possibly comment.
I do think this video explains it all though.

Morrus said:

3. I still to this day don't really understand Palpatine's plan. If you own both a giant clone army and a giant robot army, instead of making them fight each other in a giant fake war, why not just use them both to just say "hey, I'm in charge now".

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One possible explanation that helps this make a little more sense: Palpatine actually likes/values the Republic and wants it to survive. Not the senate or government, of course. But the actual group of planets, people, and everything in it. His goal is to rule it and rename it, but not to destroy it.

And as we see, his ultimate plan is to gain all of the political control, and destroy the groups that have control outside of the government (the Jedi and the Trade Federation). The way he does this is by starting a war between those two groups. There's a subtle elegance to this in the way that his two rivals both fund the war, and account for almost all the lost troops (remember, the TF builds the droids and the Jedi paid for the clones). Effectively, a minimal number of Republic citizens actually take part in the war, and the cost to the Republic's resources is minimized.

If he used both armies to forcibly take power, he would rule over the warn torn husk of what's left of the Republic after they fought, with a generation of lost soldiers and a pile of depleted resources. This way, when he tricks the government into giving him political power, he effectively wins control of an undamaged Republic at full strength. He gets everything he wanted, and his enemies spent their resources fighting each other instead of him.

Of course, it is still overly complicated. But there's a kind of a logic to it.

Morrus said:

I still to this day don't really understand Palpatine's plan. If you own both a giant clone army and a giant robot army, instead of making them fight each other in a giant fake war, why not just use them both to just say "hey, I'm in charge now". Seems like a lot of effort to get to the same goal. Also why does Jango Fett leave the clone army planet and fly to the robot army planet? Just so Obi Wan can follow him because plot? I assume this means he's in on the whole thing and knows all about the fake war and the two armies and stuff, since he hangs out at both places.

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If the Separatist and the Republic ever found out Palpatine was pulling the strings they probably would have united against him. Palpatine was manipulating from the shadows with the goal of taking complete control of the Republic and destroying the Jedi. Once he took control of the Republic he ended the Separatist threat.

Deset Gled said:

If he used both armies to forcibly take power, he would rule over the warn torn husk of what's left of the Republic after they fought, with a generation of lost soldiers and a pile of depleted resources. This way, when he tricks the government into giving him political power, he effectively wins control of an undamaged Republic at full strength. He gets everything he wanted, and his enemies spent their resources fighting each other instead of him.

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I think the issue with this is that prior to TPM, the Republic doesn't have an army. When Palpatine manufactures the droid army threat, his campaign is to build the Republic an army to defend against it.

The two armies wouldn't be fighting against a Republic army. They'd be fighting a handful of jedi--who would be overwhelmed immediately (day one: Order 66; day two: hey, I'm an emperor!) There wouldn't be a war-torn husk, because there wouldn't be a war. There are only two armies, and Palpatine controls both.

And yeah, sure, that's unrealistic that those would be the only two armies. But that's the galaxy Lucas gave us! There isn't another army until the Rebellion comes along 20 years later.

jian said:

I think it’d have been better to develop some new robes that shout “space Shaolin” that don’t look like desert hermit clothes.

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It's wild that we're going to rip off Akira Kurosawa, but when it would be really useful, everyone just forgets about all of his films.

MGibster said:

If the Separatist and the Republic ever found out Palpatine was pulling the strings they probably would have united against him.

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Both knew that Palpatine was their boss.

The Separatists knows that Palpy is pulling their strings because they are run by Dooku, Palpatine's apprentice, using a droid army commisioned by the Trade Federation, who were under Palpatine's thumb since TPM.

The Republic knows that Palpy is pulling their strings because he is their Chancellor with emergency powers.

There's nobody who doesn't know Palpy is in charge of them. The only difference is that Dooku knows Palpy is a Sith, while the Republic doesn't. But he is in charge of both, and both know it.

Morrus said:

The Separatists knows that Palpy is pulling their strings because they are run by Dooku, Palpatine's apprentice, using a droid army commisioned by the Trade Federation, who were under Palpatine's thumb since TPM.

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Dooku was in on the plan but I don't think the rest of the Separatist knew Sidious was Palpatine.

Morrus said:

The Republic knows that Palpy is pulling their strings because he is their Chancellor with emergency powers.

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Palpatine doesn't become Chancellor until TPM, where we start out with the Separatist already having a droid army and in conflict with the Republic, and he isn't given emergency powers tun RotS. Nobody in the Republic, Jedi included, had any idea Palpatine was pulling the strings until it was too late.

It's been a while since I've seen any of the prequels, but it wouldn't make any sense for both sides to know Palpy was in charge. The plot revolves around neither side knowing.

MGibster said:

Palpatine doesn't become Chancellor until TPM, where we start out with the Separatist already having a droid army and in conflict with the Republic,

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Nah, the Separatists aren’t in that film. It’s just the Trade Federation blockading Naboo. Pretty small scale.

Dooku and the Separatists are introduced in the next film.

Also… Separatists implies a civil war of various systems leaving the Republic but we never really see that. We see a droid army on Geonosis in AotC and on RotS we see a meeting which includes the Trade Federation and the Banking Guild.