Star Words: Part XXV
Aug. 31st, 2017 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilEverything has been set in place for the epic final battle of Episode I. The Gungan-Naboo alliance has been finalized, scouts have reported on the situation in the city (and by the way, that "underground resistance movement" Panaka mentions in passing could be the inspiration for some great fan fiction) and Padmé has laid out her intricate, multi-tiered plan of attack. Diversions, distractions and daring gambits. The fighting will occur in the palace, the plains and in space -- and there will be even more side-battles than anticipated once Darth Maul shows up -- but when Padmé says that "everything depends" on the fight to gain the throne room, she's not kidding. There is little chance that the starfighters will be able to take down the droid control ship; they could hardly anticipate that a nine-year-old will stumble (aided unconsciously, no doubt, by the Force) into the trick that gets him through those shields. And if they fail, then the Gungans are almost sure to be outnumbered and outgunned by the massive droid army. The only real hope lies in capturing the Viceroy. And the throne room is the place for it, where the Viceroy will feel smugly safe and unaware of the hidden weapons placed there. Whew. Padmè Amidala may hate war, but she's definitely got a cunning mind for strategy.
It's too bad that none of this will matter in the long run. She does catch Sidious a bit by surprise -- "This is an unexpected move. It's too aggressive" and "She is even more foolish than I thought" -- but ultimately, he will win no matter what. Consider the ominous command he gives to the Viceroy.
"Wipe them out. All of them."
The Viceroy assumes he's talking about the Naboo and Gungans. And maybe he is, in this particular instance. But this could be considered the general mantra of Darth Sidious, and perhaps the Sith in general. Something in the way of your quest for power? Wipe it out. All of it. Show no mercy. Nothing must impede your rise to complete dominion. It doesn't matter which side it's on. There is no such thing as loyalty or gratitude. Sidious uses people as long as they are useful, and then he tosses them aside. Queen Amidala has served her purpose in getting Chancellor Valorum out of the way; now he's perfectly happy to authorize her execution. But later on, when the Viceroy is no longer useful in perpetuating the fabricated war that gave Palpatine more and more power, when he no longer needs the Separatist leaders as scapegoats for the galaxy's problems -- wipe them out. All of them.
On a lighter note, this phrase is endlessly applicable in day-to-day situations, and particularly fun to repeat in Sidious's throaty growl. Cleaning up a mess; weeding a garden; whatever. It's much more satisfying when you're addressing the task with squinty-eyed menace. Just maybe don't try it in a kindergarten classroom, but you probably already knew that.
Next, the words of a defiant queen...
It's too bad that none of this will matter in the long run. She does catch Sidious a bit by surprise -- "This is an unexpected move. It's too aggressive" and "She is even more foolish than I thought" -- but ultimately, he will win no matter what. Consider the ominous command he gives to the Viceroy.
"Wipe them out. All of them."
The Viceroy assumes he's talking about the Naboo and Gungans. And maybe he is, in this particular instance. But this could be considered the general mantra of Darth Sidious, and perhaps the Sith in general. Something in the way of your quest for power? Wipe it out. All of it. Show no mercy. Nothing must impede your rise to complete dominion. It doesn't matter which side it's on. There is no such thing as loyalty or gratitude. Sidious uses people as long as they are useful, and then he tosses them aside. Queen Amidala has served her purpose in getting Chancellor Valorum out of the way; now he's perfectly happy to authorize her execution. But later on, when the Viceroy is no longer useful in perpetuating the fabricated war that gave Palpatine more and more power, when he no longer needs the Separatist leaders as scapegoats for the galaxy's problems -- wipe them out. All of them.
On a lighter note, this phrase is endlessly applicable in day-to-day situations, and particularly fun to repeat in Sidious's throaty growl. Cleaning up a mess; weeding a garden; whatever. It's much more satisfying when you're addressing the task with squinty-eyed menace. Just maybe don't try it in a kindergarten classroom, but you probably already knew that.
Next, the words of a defiant queen...
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Date: 2017-09-02 12:50 am (UTC)That also got me wondering again about something I've been considering throughout this series but never quite got around to bringing up in a comment, namely what would have happened had any one of the previous narrow escapes in this movie gone awry and the Queen been "permanently" captured. I suppose I can never think of any definite, in-story evidence that everything start to finish had gone precisely according to Palpatine's plan, but I still forever want to resist the idea he possesses a diabolical foresight that denies all other characters any free will, if in part because a question winds up being "so why did it finally go awry only at the end of Return of the Jedi?" I have seen theories that Qui-Gon's "they will kill you if you stay" warning was a premonition of Sidious's first plan being to assassinate Amidala before she could sign the treaty (even if this can smack to some extent of "Darth Maul is cool, so he has to do something") and then use that outrage to become Chancellor and start the Jedi-consuming galactic war a decade early. That the heroes (unwittingly) got something (unrealized and unusable) out of their struggles and that Palpatine has to be quick on his feet sometimes is just more engaging for me to contemplate.
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Date: 2017-09-02 01:16 am (UTC)