Star Words: Episode III, Part 19

[matril]

Palpatine has stacked up everything like strategically placed dominos -- the defeat of Grievous, the distrust of the Jedi Council, the temptations of Anakin -- and they're about to start toppling.

It's so fascinating to me that the Jedi are fully aware that something is very fishy about the Chancellor's behavior. They've been suspicious of him for some time now, as he's been in office long past his term, gaining more and more emergency powers as he goes. They wouldn't even need Jedi intuition to be wary of him. Mace notes that he senses a plot to destroy the Jedi, that Palpatine is surrounded by darkness. But this very suspicion only ends up serving the Chancellor's purposes! Mace and Ki-Adi Mundi discuss how in order to depose a corrupt leader, they would have to temporarily take control of the Senate "to ensure a peaceful transition." Hmm. That's what you might do to overthrow a tyrant, true. But it's also what you would do to seize tyrannical control of the government for yourself.

And Yoda sees the danger.

"To a dark path this line of thought will carry us."


And so it does. In the eyes of the Senate and the Republic, the Jedi are the villains of the story. They tried to take down the Chancellor. They tried to stage a coup. And if you're not aware of the truly nefarious designs of Palpatine, it's only natural to assume the Jedi are violent usurpers.

They were supposed to be guardians of peace and justice, but not the judge and jury; not the legislators and the governors. They really should have followed this wise advice: Never get involved in politics.

More seriously, I find Yoda's words so haunting. It reminds me of Cassandra, the Greek prophetess whose words of doom fell upon deaf ears. What more could Yoda have done to prevent it? Could any of the Jedi anticipated the complete betrayal of Anakin, or the vast power Palpatine was concealing? Was Yoda fated to watch helplessly as the Jedi Order careened toward their downfall, unable to curb its grim inevitability? Whew. This is dark stuff.

So next time, we'll have fun with a quip from Obi-Wan....

Comments

[krpalmer]

I have to agree that speculating on this can get into troubling waters. In pondering it, though, I did start thinking "what about that 'vote of no confidence' in The Phantom Menace?" It's easy enough, of course, to come up with simple explanations like "the 'emergency powers' would get in the way" or "Palpatine's been much more careful than Valorum to keep a majority of the Senators on his side." (Always capable of imagining counter-arguments, though, it's too easy to see someone snapping off a smug "if it isn't spelled out in dialogue, it's just a 'plot hole,'" even if I can also imagine complaints like "too much political dialogue!")

[matril]

I too have always been irritated by the conflation of "everything isn't spelled out" with "plot holes." There are no glaring gaps or inconsistencies that I've noticed in the prequels, but there are plenty of opportunities for interesting speculation. What exactly is going in Palpatine's head; how much of his success was planned out and how much was lucky circumstance? It's fun to speculate.