Lit A Bright Center: The Official Core Worlds Discussion Thread (Aftermath & Shattered Empire Spoilers)

Curses! You're right!

Damn those treasonous Imperial Moffs!

 

And don't forget Trioculus, the alleged son of Palpatine. After all the retcons it's hard to say what really happened behind the scenes but the Mofference rode on Palpatine genes, and were worried of Triclops', the "real" son's claim.

 

Democratically elected? She named Leia as her successor and there was no vote that I know of to ratify her position let alone choose her from amongst alternatives. Ponc Gavrisom seems to have been an appointed temporary President, as well. We have no evidence of any election of him either. Borsk Fey'lya is the only New Republic Chief of State who presumably got the position through a free election. Cal Omas was elected through means that would have gotten himself and others indicted for corruption if all the details came to light.

Palpatine was given his position as Head of State of the Republic and its successor Imperial government by constitutional appointment from the other democratically elected Senators. By my count, the Empire and New Republic are all square 1-1 in the freely elected leader department.

 

In The New Rebellion, it's specifically noted of Leia that "Chosen or not - her position was ratified with a vote."

Right after Wedge complains when Leia's close to being indicted by the Council "They can't do that - she's Mon Mothma's chosen successor."

 

I stand corrected. Nonetheless, it seems that there was likely a subversion of the ideal democratic process wherein several candidates are proposed with a prolonged period to get there message out, campaign, and debate the issues of the day.

 

Was it not so that she was chosen by Mothma as her interim-successor untill there was time for a new election?

 

At first I thought to make a pun about this in the diversity thread but I couldn't come up with one. So instead I'll ask a Gamiel-esque question:

Have we seen finlandization in the GFFA?

For those too lazy to Google the term it means a superpower affecting politics in a nearby sovereign country. There are many examples of the Republic and the Empire doing so using military force (Vader on Bespin) but they have usually resulted in the planet joining the big galactic family. How much do the galaxy-spanned governments, mainly led from the Core, affect neutral planets during peace-time? The Hutt Space hasn't stopped using slaves even though the Republic has forbidden it and they have strong financial ties. Is it just too big? Could the Empire say to a small planet "Unless you don't allow law X to pass we won't buy your wheat"?

 

No he wouldn't. Because once he ascended the throne he was kept isolated and ignorant by "those he had elevated to high office. The cries of the people didn't reach him anymore." Opening of the ANH-novelisation.

 

Truly, nothing brings one more joy than being eaten by piranha beetles.

 

Well him, and whoever was foolish enough to be out and about on the newly invented holiday, "running of the beetles."

 

No, he was killed because he was responsible for the death of more than a million of the Empire's finest, when he overlooked that exhaust port.

Come to think of it, Palpatine should have cloned Lemelisk a dozen times (or more), each one with a flash-imprint of the original and when they failed at their assigned task killed with no return from the dead. Instead we have the original Lemelisk hoping from body to body, his mind and spirit getting more and more damaged by the process.

 

You know how many systems there are on a station that big? One oversight isn't so bad really...especially since the exhaust port did have ray shielding, missile jammers, and a lot of guns around it, and since the death star did need a way to vent heat so that it wouldn't blow itself up.

 

Palpatine is honest to a fault of course.

(Personally, I would have "leaked" a fake shield generator location, complete with well guarded fake base, and have the real generator be as camouflaged as possible)

 

Palpatine invented a holiday? He's so prolific!

 

Ha. If I remember right, that's exactly how Matt Stover characterized him - there was some interview where Stover described Palpatine as a honest person who never tells actual lies, but rather behaves in ways that let others see him as whatever they want to see.

Sheev is a bit of a human Rorschach blot, in that sense. It sorta connects with the Revenge of the Sith description of him as a "perfect darkness" and a "black hole in the Force" - there's nothing there to see in an inkblot, just blackness, but people look at a Rorschach test and see whatever shapes they imagine they're seeing.

 

Zahn says something similar - about him presenting himself differently to different people:

http://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/timothyzahn.asp

Your characterization of Palpatine seems a lot more cerebral and self-controlled than some other authors’ interpretations.
Is this a reflection of your view of the character, or does it tell us more about the people through whose perceptions these opinions are being mediated—Mara, Kinman Doriana, and (although he’s never directly a point-of-view character) Grand Admiral Thrawn?

It’s more the latter, combined with what I assume would be Palpatine’s natural craftiness in trying to make himself All Things to All People. Mara, Doriana, and certainly Thrawn are themselves cerebral types who value self-control and would be rather disconcerted by someone who appears as either a wild-eyed maniac or a vicious control freak. Ergo, for them Palpatine casts himself as someone they can respect and work with.

 

I didn't know about that Zahn quote, interesting. Here's the one by Stover that I was referring to:

 

I was wondering, how do people image Corellia and corellian culture? We know that Han is corellian and he is a bit cowboy and a bit Humphrey Bogart but is he really a good example of how an ordinary corellian is?

 

Obi-Wan seems to think so in the ANH novel:

Leaning close, Kenobi gestured toward the far end of the bar. A small knot of rough-looking humans lounged there, drinking laughing, and trading stories of dubious origin.
"Corellians - pirates, most likely."
"I thought we were looking for an independent freighter captain with his own ship for hire," Luke whispered back.
"So we are, young Luke, so we are," agreed Kenobi. "And there's bound to be one or two adequate for our needs among that group. It's just that in Corellian terminology the distinction between who owns what cargo tends to get a little muddled from time to time. Wait here."