PT How did Palpatine know Qui-Gon would find Anakin?

It's pretty much implied in Revenge of the Sith that Darth Plagueis created Anakin skywalker:

Chancellor Palpatine: Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith who lived many years ago. He was so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life...

And it is explained in episode 1 Anakin was conceived from midi-chlorians:

Qui-Gon Jinn: A boy. His cells have the highest concentration of midi-chlorians I have seen in a life-form. It was possible he was concieved by the midi-chlorians.

From this, as well as the fact that Darth Plagueis was Palpatine's master, we can assume that either Chancellor Palpatine or Darth Plagueis created Anakin from midichlorians, and intended to have Anakin trained to become a Jedi and eventually a Sith.

But how did Chancellor Palpatine know that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would be forced to land on Tatooine? How did they know that while they were there they would encounter Anakin?

Thanks for any help again.

 

I don't think he could have known. It's hard to say how much of Anakin and his upbringing and such could be attributed to Palpatine. At times it seems like he had it all figured out and knew exactly how to pull everyone's strings, but then there are some things that have to be left to chance as well.

Also, if Palpatine was creating this new apprentice of sorts from scratch for his own, why did he even have people like Maul and Dooku? I guess they were just tools to him? I dunno...you almost have to take it that....Palpatine being able to turn Anakin was just him getting lucky. I'm sure maybe he knew for a while if he could turn anyone it would BE Anakin....but it's hard to say how confident he was it would happen.

 

Palpatine didn't know of Anakin's existence until Anakin arrived on Coruscant. Anakin was the result of Plagueis' manipulations of midi-chlorians, but Palpatine didn't know the details of what those experiments had entailed. When Palpatine spotted Anakin for the first time, he realized that Plagueis' experiments had succeeded.

 

I think Plagueis had nothing to do with Anakin.

Palpatine made up the story to seduce Anakin to the dark side. "Creating" and "Saving life" was exactly the power that Anakin wanted. He watched his mother die and couldn't stop it. He was having dreams about his wife dying. He felt his powers were held back by the Jedi. Palp seized on Anakin's weakness to lead him astray.

 

we don't know for sure if plagueis' experiment created anakin or if the force created anakin itself as a answer to the darkside manipulation.
gl himself has stated that this is left ambiguous on purpose. in short, there is no right answer.

Grand Experiment - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

During the late period of the Galactic Republic, the Sith LordsDarth Plagueis and his apprentice, Darth Sidious, conducted the Grand Experiment on the planetSojourn in 42 BBY. Utilizing Sith alchemy and the dark side of the Force, Plagueis intended to create the living embodiment of the Force. In order to do so, he tried to influence the midi-chlorians in his attempt to create life. But when his efforts bore no success, Plagueis deemed the project a failure. Years later, during the Crisis on Naboo in 32 BBY, Plagueis was surprised to discover the existence of Anakin Skywalker, a young Humanboy born without a father. Plagueis concluded that not only had the midi-chlorians resisted his will, but they had also retaliated by engineering the conception of the Jedi Order's long-awaited Chosen One, a Jedi destined to restore balance to the Force by destroying the Sith

 

Thanks for the help everyone, but I think timmoishere's post is what I'm going to believe.

 

According to the movies, you can pretty much believe what you want, either Mace from TPM or Palpatine from RotS, but in the now non-canon book Darth Plagueis (which is brilliant by the way) it is stated that the Sith tipped the balance of the force in favor of the dark side.
Counterbalancing itself, it was the force that created Anakin.
Both Sith did not understand what has happened just until Anakin arrived on Corruscant.
Plagueis did create life from the midichlorians, but nothing as fancy as a human... and he was well on his way to physical immortality...

 

well it's not correct. it's left ambiguous on purpose like i said.

 

No, it's not. You have the option to make that connection, but it's not implied.

No, we can't.

They didn't. Palpatine never knew about Anakin prior to the battle of Naboo.

 

As others have stated, the idea that Anakin's conception was the work of Plagueis or Palpatine is, at best, there to be entertained in theory, nothing more. The more direct implication is that Anakin's was a virgin birth purely from the Force itself and, frankly, I find this idea to be more thematically interesting. Anakin secretly being the product of Plagueis is a little too 'season 4 of Lost twist' or something—a little too pat and made-up-on-the-spot, whereas a virgin birth addresses even stranger yet more profound ideas about the Force exhibiting some kind of looped fatalism, cosmic sentience or pattern of emergence in metaphysical response to both the rising Sith lords and stagnating Jedi Order. It also seems to have been a very natural process, as later, by definition, compared to the idea of influencing midichlorians to create life or, more specifically, impede death, which was deemed, key word, unnatural ...a perversion, molestation, abhorrence etc.

 

THAT DOESN'T MEAN PLAGUEIS CREATED ANAKIN AT ALL

 

This what Lucas has to say on the subject.

"Ultimately, I would say the Force itself created Anakin. I don't want to get into specific terms of labeling things to make it one religion or another, but basically that's one of the foundations of the hero's journey."

--George Lucas, Feburary 2005 issue of Vanity Fair, page 117.

"There is a hint in the movie that there was a Sith Lord who had the power to create life. But it's left unsaid: Is Anakin a product of a super-Sith who influenced the Midichlorians to create him, or is he simply created by the Midichlorians to bring forth a prophecy, or was he created by the Force through the Midichlorians? It's left up to the audience to decide. How he was born ultimately has no relationship to how he dies, because in the end, the prophecy is true: Balance comes back to the Force."

--George Lucas, Rolling Stone Magazine, 2005.

So you can decide for yourself on who created Anakin, but Palpatine did not know that Qui-gon would find Anakin on Tatooine. If we're to assume that the Sith had no part in Anakin's creation, then what Palpatine did was bend the truth slightly in order to help draw Anakin in. If we assume that it was true, then the Sith unintentionally initiated their own downfall.

Initially, though, this was much more clear as it was originally stated by Palpatine that he created Anakin when he reveals himself to him. Which would then lead to Anakin turning to the dark side then, rather than going back to the Temple to alert Mace. Anakin would then be present when the duel took place.

 

Plagueis succeded to compel the midi-chlorians to do his bidding : first, he was able to kill and revive somoene through manipulations of his midi-chlorians ; then he was able to increase his midi-chlorian rate and that of his apprentice, creating "the disturbance in the Force" and tipping it in favor of the Dark Side ; finally, it was the straw that breaks the camel's back. He wanted to compel the midi-chlorians to create a livig being and he failed (it's not me who say so, but Plagueis himself). And nine years later, he learn from Sidious, who have learned it from Dooku, that the Force have created a force-sensitive boy with enough power to destroy more than one millenia of careful planning by the Sith, and that he ould be trained by the Jedi. Plagueis wanted the boy dead or Qui-Gon dead for he thought that the council would not accept him once Qui-Gon offside. But Sidious had another plan for the boy, a plan where his master could have not interfered. So he killed him and making himself he sole Dark Lord of the Sith.
Thank you for reding me.

 

Plagueis nor Palpatine created Anakin, and there was no way of him knowing that Qui-Gon would discover him. Maul didn't even notice Anakin. The Sith only became aware of him through Dooku.

 

I always assumed Anakin's discovery was beyond the control or predictions of the sith. The sith plot wasn't set in stone. Sidious probably modified his plans when he learned of Anakin. I'm not sure if the force as a whole can cause chance events like Anakin being discovered by Qui-gon, but it would offer some explanation. You have to think how many strong force-sensitives there may have been that were never picked up by the jedi or the sith.

 

Not very many, in the SW EU. In the Darth Plagueis novel, a point is made of how hard it is for him to track them down.

I think in one source, it was said that, because the Jedi have "first claim" on a lot of discoveries, and on force-sensitives, something like 99% of strong force sensitives are Jedi.

 

He didn't. Even when he first saw Anakin, he didn't notice much. It wasn't until after he blew up the Droid Control Ship that Palpatine really took notice of him.

 

I don't think Sidious had to modify his plans at all. He never needed Anakin to destroy the Jedi. He revealed himself to the Jedi on purpose once Dooku and Grievous were dead, and he could have enacted Order 66 at any time. Once he had to overwhelming military might of the clones, he could have tracked down and destroyed any Jedi he wanted. Anakin was a useful tool but was in no way essential to the destruction of the Jedi.

 

Might depend on if Order 66 was designed to be issued by The Supreme Commander, or if it was designed to be issued by Lord Sidious specifically.

RoTS novel:

"Clone Intelligence," Mace said heavily, "reports to us."
"I beg your pardon, Master Windu, but that is no longer the case." Though Anakin's expression was perfectly solemn, Obi-Wan thought he could detect a hint of satisfaction in his young friend's voice. "I thought it had been already made clear. The constitutional amendment bringing the Jedi under the Chancellor's Office naturally includes troops commanded by Jedi. Palpatine is now Supreme Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic."

 

Sith sorcery. Palpatine sees all and knows all by way of Sith sorcery.

 

It's left up to the audience to decide. You can't say definitively one way or the other. In fact it's slightly misleading to act like your opinion is the final word on the matter.

 

Not the entire plan, just parts of it. What I meant was, Palpatine didn't include in his plan seducing the chosen one to be his apprentice when the time came to establish the empire. The main plan was still the same. His original plan probably included keeping Dooku his apprentice (he already had his eyes set on Dooku as his next apprentice by that time) or taking someone else.

 

There was no coincidence. Palpatine revealed himself to the Jedi because he was already The Supreme Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic just after the invasion of Coruscant. All had been implemented for trapping the Jedi Council to go on the offensive and to attack him directly. He had more than to record the conversation between him and the Jedi (Mace & Co.) before the fight, and pass later in the Senate to justify with all order 66. Here is an excerpt of the conversation between Jedi Masters Obi - wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Yoda, after learning the rise of Palpatine to the title of Supreme Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic :
Obi-Wan sat beside Mace Windu while they watched Yoda scan the report. Here in Yoda’s simple living space within the Jedi Temple, every softly curving pod chair and knurled organiform table hummed with gentle, comforting power: the same warm strength that Obi-Wan remembered enfolding him even as an infant. These chambers had been Yoda’s home for more than eight hundred years. Everything within them echoed with the harmonic resonance of Yoda’s calm wisdom, tuned through centuries of his touch. To sit within Yoda’s chambers was to inhale serenity; to Obi-Wan, this was a great gift in these troubled times.

But when Yoda looked at them through the translucent shimmer of the holoprojected report on the contents of the latest amendment to the Security Act, his eyes were anything but calm: they had gone narrow and cold, and his ears had flattened back along his skull.

“This report—from where does it come?”

“The Jedi still have friends in the Senate,” Mace Windu replied in his grim monotone, “for now.”

“When presented this amendment is, passed it will be?”

Mace nodded. “My source expects passage by acclamation. Overwhelming passage. Perhaps as early as this afternoon.”

“The Chancellor’s goal in this—unclear to me it is,” Yoda said slowly. “Though nominally in command of the Council, the Senate may place him, the Jedi he cannot control. Moral, our authority has always been; much more than merely legal. Simply follow orders, Jedi do not!”

“I don’t think he intends to control the Jedi,” Mace said. “By placing the Jedi Council under the control of the Office of the Supreme Chancellor, this amendment will give him the constitutional authority to disband the Order itself.”

“Surely you cannot believe this is his intention.”

“His intention?” Mace said darkly. “Perhaps not. But his intentions are irrelevant; all that matters now is the intent of the Sith Lord who has our government in his grip. And the Jedi Order may be all that stands between him and galactic domination. What do you think he will do?”

“Authority to disband the Jedi, the Senate would never grant.”

“The Senate will vote to grant exactly that. This afternoon.”

“The implications of this, they must not comprehend!”

“It no longer matters what they comprehend,” Mace said. “They know where the power is.”

“But even disbanded, even without legal authority, still Jedi we would be. Jedi Knights served the Force long before there was a Galactic Republic, and serve it we will when this Republic is but dust.”

“Master Yoda, that day may be coming sooner than any of us think. That day may be today.” Mace shot a frustrated look at Obi-Wan, who picked up his cue smoothly.

“We don’t know what the Sith Lord’s plans may be,” Obi-Wan said, “but we can be certain that Palpatine is not to be trusted. Not anymore. This draft resolution is not the product of some overzealous Senator; we may be sure Palpatine wrote it himself and passed it along to someone he controls—to make it look like the Senate is once more ‘forcing him to reluctantly accept extra powers in the name of security.’ We are afraid that they will continue to do so until one day he’s ‘forced to reluctantly accept’ dictatorship for life.”

“I am convinced this is the next step in a plot aimed directly at the heart of the Jedi,” Mace said. “This is a move toward our destruction. The dark side of the Force surrounds the Chancellor.”

Obi-Wan added, “As it has surrounded and cloaked the Separatists since even before the war began. If the Chancellor is being influenced through the dark side, this whole war may have been, from the beginning, a plot by the Sith to destroy the Jedi Order.”

“Speculation!” Yoda thumped the floor with his gimer stick, making his hoverchair bob gently. “On theories such as these we cannot rely. Proof we need. Proof!”

“Proof may be a luxury we cannot afford.” A dangerous light had entered Mace Windu’s eyes. “We must be ready to act.”

“Act?” Obi-Wan asked mildly.

“He cannot be allowed to move against the Order. He cannot be allowed to prolong the war needlessly. Too many Jedi have died already. He is dismantling the Republic itself! I have seen life outside the Republic; so have you, Obi-Wan. Slavery. Torture. Endless war.”

Mace’s face darkened with the same distant, haunted shadow Obi-Wan had seen him wear the day before. “I have seen it in Nar Shaddaa, and I saw it on Haruun Kal. I saw what it did to Depa, and to Sora Bulq. Whatever its flaws, the Republic is our sole hope for justice, and for peace. It is our only defense against the dark. Palpatine may be about to do what the Separatists cannot: bring down the Republic. If he tries, he must be removed from office.”

“Removed?” Obi-Wan said. “You mean, arrested?”

Yoda shook his head. “To a dark place, this line of thought will lead us. Great care, we must take.”

“The Republic is civilization. It’s the only one we have.” Mace looked deeply into Yoda’s eyes, and into Obi-Wan’s, and Obi-Wan could feel the heat in the Korun Master’s gaze. “We must be prepared for radical action. It is our duty.”

“But,” Obi-Wan protested numbly, “you’re talking about treason …”

“I’m not afraid of words, Obi-Wan! If it’s treason, then so be it. I would do this right now, if I had the Council’s support. The real treason,” Mace said, “would be failure to act.”

“Such an act, destroy the Jedi Order it could,” Yoda said. “Lost the trust of the public, we have already—”

“No disrespect, Master Yoda,” Mace interrupted, “but that’s a politician’s argument. We can’t let public opinion stop us from doing what’s right.”

“Convinced it is right, I am not,” Yoda said severely. “Working behind the scenes we should be, to uncover Lord Sidious! To move against Palpatine while the Sith still exist—this may be part of the Sith plan itself, to turn the Senate and the public against the Jedi! So that we are not only disbanded, but outlawed.”

Mace was half out of his pod. “To wait gives the Sith the advantage—”

“Have the advantage already, they do!” Yoda jabbed at him with his gimer stick. “Increase their advantage we will, if in haste we act!”

“Masters, Masters, please,” Obi-Wan said. He looked from one to the other and inclined his head respectfully. “Perhaps there is a middle way.”

“Ah, of course: Kenobi the Negotiator.” Mace Windu settled back into his seating pod. “I should have guessed. That is why you asked for this meeting, isn’t it? To mediate our differences. If you can.”

“So sure of your skills you are?” Yoda folded his fists around the head of his stick. “Easy to negotiate, this matter is not!”

Obi-Wan kept his head down. “It seems to me,” he said carefully, “that Palpatine himself has given us an opening. He has said—both to you, Master Windu, and in the HoloNet address he gave following his rescue—that General Grievous is the true obstacle to peace. Let us forget about the rest of the Separatist leadership, for now. Let Nute Gunray and San Hill and the rest run wherever they like, while we put every available Jedi and all of our agents—the whole of Republic Intelligence, if we can—to work on locating Grievous himself. This will force the hand of the Sith Lord; he will know that Grievous cannot elude our full efforts for long, once we devote ourselves exclusively to his capture. It will draw Sidious out; he will have to make some sort of move, if he wishes the war to continue.”

“If?” Mace said. “The war has been a Sith operation from the beginning, with Dooku on one side and Sidious on the other—it has always been a plot aimed at us. At the Jedi. To bleed us dry of our youngest and best. To make us into something we were never intended to be.”

He shook his head bitterly. “I had the truth in my hands years ago—back on Haruun Kal, in the first months of the war. I had it, but I did not understand how right I was.”

“Seen glimpses of this truth, we all have,” Yoda said sadly. “Our arrogance it is, which has stopped us from fully opening our eyes.”

“Until now,” Obi-Wan put in gently. “We understand now the goal of the Sith Lord, we know his tactics, and we know where to look for him. His actions will reveal him. He cannot escape us. He will not escape us.”

Yoda and Mace frowned at each other for one long moment, then both of them turned to Obi-Wan and inclined their heads in mirrors of his respectful bow.

“Seen to the heart of the matter, young Kenobi has.”

Mace nodded. “Yoda and I will remain on Coruscant, monitoring Palpatine’s advisers and lackeys; we’ll move against Sidious the instant he is revealed. But who will capture Grievous? I have fought him blade-to-blade. He is more than a match for most Jedi.”


“We’ll worry about that once we find him,” Obi-Wan said. A slight, wistful smile crept over his face. “If I listen hard enough, I can almost hear Qui-Gon reminding me that until the possible becomes actual, it is only a distraction.”