[CaptainCrunch]

So . . . I loved these two episodes and I'm going to tell you why

Spoiler!

This was a great political thriller, that had Palpatines hands all over if from the start. It brilliantly linked to both a discussion in ANH and back to the Clone Wars.

But lets look at some things overall.

The animation and music and production values are so good. The whole scene with the Assasin especially trying to kill Chuchi was so well done. And at first I thought the Assasin was Crosshair in a fancy new piece of armor.

Realitically it was cool to have an episode of the show without the Bad Batch in it, as we set the stage for some real reveals involving them in Episode 8. But the first episode is all about how the Empire works.

So the first question, if Palpatine is in charge why does he need the Senate to vote on funding? I mean what Palpatine wants, Palpatine gets right?

Because its political theater, Palpatine first of all going back to ROTS is the Senate, he controls it, he's corrupted it. While he might let some small victories happen, like Chuchi and Organa delaying the recruitment program and talking about the rights of the Clones, they no matter what werent going to win.

But right now, with the republic transferring to the Empire, with brush fires springing up all over the place, and Palpatine not having the Military that he wants he needs the Senate to control the bureaucracy. Remember that very question was asked in ANH on the Death Star, and Palpatine when he had his pieces in place, the system of Moffs and a true terror weapon, he needed the senate to give legitimacy to his rule.

So if he has to give in on minor points and then assert himself and his control on the Senate on the stuff that he wants, he appears to the galaxy to be a benevolent and fair dictator who got the republic through a horrible war.

The second episode is where we really see how good Palpatine really is as a political master mind. We see the Batch swooping in to steal the evidence of the slaughter of Kamino, and the Batch and Organa and Chuchi while doing the right thing literally slit the throats of every clone out there.

Especially when Palpatine who hasn't bothered with the Senate and makes a extremely reasonable and sympathetic speech about Rampart going rogue, and that the Clones are perhaps too good at obeying orders blindly and thats why we need to get rid of the Clones and bring in the Stormtroopers.

Back in the Clone Wars series Palpatine miscalculated when he tried to originally grow more clone troopers and deregulate the banks and took a loss in the Senate. Later when he talked to Mas Amedda (sp?) about it Palpatine stated that sometimes you have to let the wheels of democracy turn. This is what he literally did here, and with one speech he won his major victory and got his storm troopers. And what will happen with Clone rights, and a pension. While we saw what probably happened to most Clones in Kenobi. Because frankly after the news reports the slaughter and atrocities of the Clones at Kamino. Any sympathy for Clone rights and supports are gone. People won't support a brutal army.

Simply put, Palpatine again was incredibly far ahead, and what makes him so brilliant is he's ever so able to dispose of chess pieces to win the board. Grievous, Dooku, Maul, Rampart.

So what happens next. We're about to see the decommissioning of the Grand Army of the Republic. We're likely to see a Clone uprising and it will probably be Rex that causes that to happen as he and Echo are it feels like creating a underground railroad to smuggle clones to safety. And Rex will again play right into Palpatine's hands. Think of it, A clone uprising put down by the heroic StormTroopers, and at the same time, he'll be able to discredit his enemies in the Senate who supported the Clones and Clone rights.

There's a reason we don't see Echo with Rex and Wolfe and Gregor in Rebels, or a hole lot of Clones with him.

Because Order 66 will look like nothing compared to what happens with the Clone Troopers.

This episode feels like a key episode for the direction of the show. My feeling is that yeah, we got dark moments in Rebels and we got dark moments in Clone Wars. But that's going to be nothing as a dark times truly arrive in a GFFA.