response 1 of 83:

Jul 15 15:47 UTC 2002

Darth Vader, in the original movies, is not a free agent; he's pretty 
much a mental-dominated slave of the Emperor.  He only throws that off 
when he's fighting Luke in Return of the Jedi.  In Ep II we see the 
influence of Palpatine beginning to take effect.  Anakin is overwhelmed 
by the death of his mother and destroys the Tuscan village as you said; 
doubtless he'll go into a funk (a fugitive, I'd think) and Palpatine 
will take over his mind in the 3rd movie.

The thing about destroying the village wasn't very believable, was it?  
I mean, up until then he's a young arrogant punk with a lot of 
potential.  He's not evil, he's just moving into the range of 
insufferable.  We've all been there, to some extent.  I don't know why 
he had to destroy the village.

How could Padme have anything to do with him after *that*?  I mean, she 
is *clean*.  What kind of person do you have to be, to hang out with a 
guy who destroys innocent people, a whole village, because he's angry?  
Not the kind of person she is, I wouldn't think.  Maybe he kidnaps 
her... but that ought to result in a dynastic scandal, which would 
leave Leia and Luke out of the succession, wouldn't it?

Why are Luke and Leia royalty, anyway?  I thought Padme was a temporary 
queen and got replaced by someone else after a term in office.

I'm so confused.  But then, I'm no student of Star Wars.  I just watch 
the movies, and forget half the stuff from the last movie by the time 
the next one comes out, like you're supposed to do.

response 3 of 83:

Jul 15 20:10 UTC 2002

According to the novelization (tm) of Episode II, Leia's adoptive father is
Senator Organa (Jimmy Smits).

response 5 of 83:

Jul 15 22:20 UTC 2002

It's not like the novelizations and spin-off novels are going to be 100%
canonical.  I recall somebody telling that one of the novel series ended up
with Han Solo being royalty as well.  :P

response 7 of 83:

Jul 17 13:32 UTC 2002

Well, Padme is bright and resourceful and has many fine virtues, but seems
to have a Death-Star-sized blind spot when it comes to judging others.

As queen, she chooses as her Senate representative - Palpatine.

As a senator, she chooses as her stand-in - Jar-Jar Binks.

As a private individual, she chooses as her husband - Anakin Skywalker.

She seems to trust everyone she knows, regardless of what she actually
knows about them.  She'd have done better picking random people off the
street.  I think we can blame the entire fall of the republic on her
disasterously bad judgement.

This is the odd thing about this series of movies - on closer examination,
the heros all turn out to be such complete dopes and dupes.  I wish someone
would put up some kind of decent fight.

response 9 of 83:

Jul 17 23:52 UTC 2002

I think that Mike's version is almost what happened.  Dooku is a Sith 
baddy, but the alliance he organized seems to consist of people who 
think they are opposing the Sith.  The Federation is in it because they 
are pissed off about the way they were used and discarded in Episode I.
Many of the other races are concerned over the way that power is being 
concentrated in the Republic, and believe the rumors that the Dark 
Lords are behind it.  They're the ones who can see that the Republic is 
already turning into the Empire.  I think Obi-wan overhears parts of 
this, but ignores it completely.  The Jedi are fighting on one of the 
wrong sides.  The other side contains most of the people who should be 
their natural allies, but since it is being manipulated by the future 
Emperor too, it's really just another wrong side.

What's interesting is the way this is all down-played, so it can be 
neatly ignored by the casual movie goer who just wants to see action 
and adventure and special effects.  The good guys appear to win.

Reminds me of the premier of some TV series whose name I've forgotten. 
Somebody Tom Selleck-like played a PI.  A client being threatened by 
various badies hires him.  An hour of action and romance goes by.  The 
PI falls in love with the client.  In the end, all the bad guys are 
dead.  So is the client, most of her friends and family, and a large 
number of innocent by-standers.  Lots of real estate and many vehicles 
have been destroyed.  The sole surviver is the heroic PI.  Who should 
obviously be locked up for life, having turned a little problem into a 
national disaster.  But we're expected to be impressed enough by this 
moron to want to watch a whole TV series about his further adventures.
The Star Wars heros make him look like an amature.  He only screwed up 
a county.  These guys are messing up a Galactic Republic.

Personally, if I was forced at gun point to write the thing, I'd want 
at least some of the Jedi to figure out what is going on and who is 
behind it.  This would split the Jedi.  Maybe Anakin is one of the ones 
who figures it out, and in trying to oppose it comes into opposition 
with the other Jedi.  So his betrayal of the Jedi actually preceeds his 
joining to the dark side.  Maybe the other Jedi come to believe he is 
on the Dark Side before he really is, and their betrayal of him is part 
of what actually drives him into the dark.

response 11 of 83:

Jul 24 02:19 UTC 2002

I don't think Master Sideous/The Emperor = Palpatine.

I just got back from seeing the movie for a 2nd time at the cheap 
theater.  I saw it the first time shortly after it came out, and don't 
have a tremendous memory for events.  I was surprised by how much I 
missed, and also by how little really happened.

After Dooku has his battle with Yoda, he returns to the central planet 
(see, I can't even remember it's name), and meets with "Master 
Sideous".  He's the emperor from the first "Star Wars" movies.  There's 
no mistaking it.  He's not Palpatine; there's no mistaking that, 
either.  Palpatine is too tall, and has a different voice.

I'd forgotten that Anakin and Amidala got married; it's at the very end 
of the movie.  So that's where the kids came from; Luke and Leia.

But it's *after* Anakin goes and kills off the Tuskan village that 
Amidala falls in love with him.  She's not dominated; he says he can't 
control the mind of anyone who's not a weak person. She knows exactly 
what he did; he describes it to her in a fair amount of detail.  It's 
right after that that she dashes off "to save Obi Wan", thus forcing 
(permitting) Anakin to go to the rescue.

Why would she do *that*?  Anakin should be in jail at that point.  Yoda 
knew he'd done something awful, Amidala knwe, and Anakin himself has 
quite a bit of character (with some huge gaping holes) so he probably 
wouldn't deny it.  This all happened "a long time ago", so maybe the 
ghost of Anakin Skywalker survived to reincarnate, in milder form, as 
Dirty Harry.  At best, she should have followed him into a life as 
interplanetary fugitive.

How come both Palpatine and Amidala are senators, anyway?  They're from 
the same planet.  There are thousands of planets; surely they don't all 
have two senators.  Naboo didn't seem that important to me, as planets 
go.

I liked it much better the 2nd time.  I liked it quite a lot the 2nd 
time, despite the large areas where nothing whatsoever is happening 
other than meaningless battles that go on for a long time.  And my son 
liked those, so I guess it's all right they're in there.

I think I will, for the sake of having a positive view of the Jedi, 
assume they pushed Anakin and Amidala together in hopes of getting some 
decent offspring.  Yoda foresaw Luke and Leia; it's probably why he and 
all the rest of the Jedi are too busy to notice anything else 
whatsoever.  It's difficult to get from there to Leia being a princess, 
Obi Wan growing old and Luke growing up on the same planet, and Yoda 
off on the other side of the galaxy somewhere, but as Jan pointed out, 
otherwise the Jedi Council is stupid.

Anyway, the Jedi have the prophecy about Anakin becoming the savior of 
the Balance of the Force, so they're probably just hanging around 
waiting for him to do his job.

response 13 of 83:

Jul 24 03:34 UTC 2002

I thought it was obvious, too, but they sure didn't seem like the same 
person when I watched the movie again.

Palpatine is grooming Anakin, whom we *know* is going to be Darth 
Vader.  He's cleverly moving to take control of the Republic.  We can 
see the storm troopers being, uh, grown; they're going to be the 
emperor's military forces.

Maybe Palpatine is getting duped, too.  Maybe he's a shape shifter.  
Maybe I'm misinterpreting what I'm seeing, but I think we're going to 
get a different emperor as some kind of zinger in the next movie.

response 15 of 83:

Jul 25 03:22 UTC 2002

Was it?  Well, there goes my analysis.

response 17 of 83:

Jul 25 08:23 UTC 2002

  Stray observation:

    "A super-powered youngster embarks on a new path after the traumatic
    realization that his inattention contributed to the death of a close
    family member."

    Which summer blockbuster am I talking about?  Episode 2 or "Spiderman"?

response 19 of 83:

Sep 17 23:57 UTC 2002

Actually, just because we have "Emperor Palpatine" in episode 6 and
"Senator Palpatine" in episode 1 doesn't actually mean they are the same
guy.  They could be cousins.  Or father and son, like the Skywalkers. 
But Senator Palpatine does seem well on his way to becoming Emperor.

Actually, from what I've heard of Lucas's plot outline for episode 7-9
(which he apparantly no longer plans to actually make), the dark lord
has passed through a succession of bodies in his lifetime.  Apparantly
the power of the dark side tends to decay the body you are in, but if
you are sufficiently powerful you can jump bodies.  So maybe Senator
Palpatine is only one of the minions of Darth Sideous, and eventually
Darth Sideous takes him over, becoming Emperor Palpatine.  Or something
like that.

response 21 of 83:

Sep 19 04:17 UTC 2002

  I hadn't considered that, but that's probably a reasonably good bet
  as long as the films keep making money.

response 23 of 83:

Sep 25 17:20 UTC 2002

I'd tended to assume that Senator and Emperor Palpatine are the same 
guy because they're played by the same actor.  Though that's obviously 
not proof of anything, especially given that Anakin and Vader are 
supposed to be one guy played, so far, by four actors.