Quote:
Originally Posted by AcGold
He was definitely the strong point in the prequels, the way he manipulated Anakin carried the movies.
Those few scenes redeemed the movies imo, it actually added a lot of pretext and undertones because a lot of what was going on wasn't said and it added to the themes of the story. When Palpatine was sitting with the Jedi and Obi-Wan was the only one picking up on his slippery politician nature, that was some really good stuff.
I'll watch the prequels again just for those scenes where Palpatine was exercising his dark side manipulation. The way every action he took was slowly diminishing the force powers of the Jedi gave the movies a very dense atmosphere and actually quite a lot of context to every scene.
I think people were too hard on the prequels, there was a decent amount of depth to certain aspects of the movies especially in regards to Palpatine and his influence on the entire universe. One scene he would do something and the next those actions would create a ripple like effect that many people missed. His influence was everywhere like a hidden hand and Ian played it perfectly. A lot of people ripped on Darth Maul for being silent but in the context of Palpatines hitman he actually fit the bill very well, a dark lord would have a silent henchman as he is pulling the strings.
|
Palpatine's rise was the best part of the sequels and it wasn't close. and Ian played it so well, he said it was like playing Iago.
The worst part of Disney throwing away the EU was that three books, Labyrinth of evil, Darth Plagueis and Dark Lord the Rise of Darth Vader were stricken from existence, even the ROTS was outstanding in terms of filling out Sideous/ Palpatine.
There was one scene in ROTS where Dooku was preparing to fight Anakin and Kenobi and not realizing how badly he'd been used where he looked at Anakin and Kenobi through the force.
In Obi-wan he saw a calm bright meadow, in Anakin he saw a storm cloud with lightning. With Palpatine he saw a perfectly black event horizon.
He also thought that Palpatine was the perfect opportunist, if a door was locked, you'd find Palpatine looking through windows to find his way in.
I believe that Palpatine escaped detection as a Sith Lord not because he was so powerful that he could shield himself from detection, but because he didn't really use his dark powers all that often. Every thing he did was a political manipulation.
He manipulated the trade federation into blockading Naboo not through force intimidation, or even blackmail, but by convincing senators that trade routes needed to be taxed, then he convinced the Trade Federation that the best way to break the tax was to blockade a peaeful world in Naboo, which happened to be Palpatine's home world.
Then when the Trade federation invaded he managed to create a strong wave of sympathy for himself while convincing everyone including the queen that the senate was hopelessly corrupt and weak and used Padme to get a vote on non confidence.
Even when the trade federation lost, he manipulated the courts to make them look weak and corrupt.
At the same time he manipulated Syfo-Dias that trouble was coming in the form of a civil war and convinced him that the Jedi were in peril and an army was needed, and then once the army was started he hid it from view.
With Dooku he didn't corrupt him with Sith power, he played on a disgruntled Jedi who saw the corruption of the Jedi and the darkening of the Force and decided that the galaxy and the Jedi needed to be fixed. In his mind he thought that the Jedi would bow to his master and form a Sith army that would bring order to the galaxy and put the power in the hands of the people that would greatly benefit the galaxy.
He also let Dooku slip that a Sith was behind the scenes running the government which created more fear and paranoia in the Jedi.
At the same time he was doing this, he and Dooku were fighting a war against each other and drawing it out, and forcing the Jedi into a fight that they should have never been involved in.
At the same time we saw his greatest manipulation in hiring a bounty hunter to kill Padme, because whether she died or not it got her out of the way and let him manipulate the senate to extend his term and give him emergency powers for the duration of the emergency.
On the Anakin side he knew that Anakin had attachment issues so he forced him and Padme into closer quarters because he knew that they would fall in love.
Then in the third movie you saw a lot of things come to a head.
But he wasn't using the force to do it.
The Jedi lost their ability to see through the force (The dark side of the force shrouds everything) not because of something that Palpatine did to the Jedi. But because the Jedi in becoming generals and becoming consumed by the fear of their loss of power lost their way.
At the same time, Palpatine manipulated more and more powers and this caused the Senate to slightly rebel, with the petition that Padme signed on behalf of 2000 senators. Now he had the ability to really show the corruption of the Senate. Here I am trying to win a war against evil and I'm being stabbed in the back.
On top of that he knew that Anakin would turn him in once he revealed himself. so he did, and he converted Anakin not with the Darkside but with words and playing on his fear and his paranoia and his desire not to be shackled by the Jedi. And Anakin did exactly what Palpatine wanted he did the right thing and went to the Jedi.
And then the Jedi foolishly attacked, which fell right into Palpatines jedi trap, the Jedi attacked democracy itself or what was left of it. And then Mace decided to do the very un-jedi thing and Anakin reacted in a very jedi way. He stopped Mace from murdering a man and disarmed him. And then finally we saw the darkside of Palpatine who closed the deal by showing Anakin the true power of the Dark Side.
But up until then, this was all Palaptine the politician who manipulated everything with guile and ruthlessness, all while appearing to be a kindly public servant.
If you look at what Palpatine did.
Manipulated the trade federation
Created an army that would serve him in killing the Jedi and becoming the imperial military
Making the Senate look corrupt
Making the Jedi look like they wanted to destroy democracy
Killing the Jedi and justifying it as a defense of democracy.
Corrupting Anakin and turning him to the darkside.
That was all Palpatine not Sidious that was all political will and strategy and not the force.
The death of Qui-gon and Maul. The manipulation of Dooku and his death
Taking the most powerful Jedi and probably force user and breaking him and making him subservient. you could argue that that was Sidious.
The Jedi couldn't see or detect the Sith, because Palpatine didn't need to be a Sith to take over the Galaxy.
That's what made him different then the Darth Banes, and Revans and Plageous's of the world in that tey were to dependant on the darkside and the Jedi eventually found them.