What on Earth was Sidious thinking?

Why did Sidious send Maul to Naboo? It makes no sense. By sending him to confront the two Jedi Sidious was letting the Jedi know that the Sith had returned. In what way was that productive to his cause? It would have been much better to keep Maul hidden rather than letting the Jedi in on Sith existing in the Galaxy.

And what was Maul supposed to do? I've seen the movie many times and I just don't get it. The way I see it Sidious wanted Naboo to be blockaded and the Queen to sign the treaty making it legal so that:

a) The republic couldn't do anything about it.
b)Which would show how the republic had grown weak and how it needed a strong leadership.
c)Would generate much sympathy for Palpatine, the senator for Naboo, making it possible for him to become Supreme Chancellor.
d)Which would later facilitate him destroying the Jedi and ruling the Republic as a Sith Emperor.

I may be wrong, the plot is hopelessly convoluted. But what on earth was Maul's role in all this? Was he supposed to kidnap the queen and get her to sign the treaty? Why?

 

maul was supposed to eliminate the queen's protectors, the jedi, something the lowly trade federation couldnt do. nute gunray is an idiot, he lost the queen to the jedi. sidious sent maul to remove the jedi and force the queen to sign the treaty. being a sith, im sure maul had methods that could be very....persuasive.

 

good observation.

Hmm dwell on this I will.

 

But Maul failed in his endeavour, the queen didn't sign the treaty and still palpatine became chancellor!

Seems rather pointless to have Maul there, notwithstanding that Palpatine is a Sith Lord and would not want the Jedi to know that the Sith had returned.

 

but when sidious sent maul to naboo he was not yet chancellor, and therefore didnt know that he would win without the treaty. he was just in the running at that time. and i believe that palpatine sensed his time had come, he doesnt seem to worried that the jedi know the sith are back. i mean look at the scene where maul says at last we will have our revenge. sidious doesnt reply "oh no, we musnt let them know we are around, keep quiet."

 

What on Earth was Sidious thinking?

Earth?

Sith here?

 

He wasn't really. The whole conflict involving Maul was totally irellivant to the story.
Even if he won nothing would have changed. Anakin still would have destroyed the droid army and Nute would have been captured.
He was simply there to occupy the Jedi, but again, to no real purpose other than the obligitory lightsaber fight.

 

Maul was there to keep the TF in line. Also to be a front for the real Master. Sooner or later, the plan also was to reveal to the Jedi that the Sith were back.

 

Maul was there to keep the conflict going for as long as possible, in order to win as many sympathy votes for Palpatine as possible.
It's all about politics.



Palpatine - he's a clever bastard
/LM

 

Maul had already revealed his existence to the Jedi on Tatooine.

 

Maul is important because....

He does that thing on Tatooine and...

Well he's stopping the jedi from....

Um he's got that cool....

Er.. wait.. he...

He...

Hmm...

Palps needed him to stop the jedi and steal the Queen, but he failed because sending one sith after two jedi is stupid...

No that's not it.

He's an essential character to the overall story of the phantom menace because he...

Way to go Palpidious.

 

Sidious sent him to Naboo to make sure he could milk out all he could from the blockade to get Palpatine elected as chancellor.

In reality, sending Maul to Naboo might have been the one mistake Sidious made in Episode I (In a interview GL did around Episode II's release, he said as much).

 

Send Darth Maul to Naboo or Tatooine to get rid of the Jedi was suicide. Maul was an excellent fighter and warrior, but so were Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.

Sending Maul on such a task was definetly a sign of Sidious's overconfidence.

 

I think Sidious wanted the Jedi to- oh, no...
FOEGET THIS!
Ignore me.

 

Kenobi and Qui Gon would've apprehended the Neimodians within a matter of minutes had Maul not stood in their way

- O_F

 

He{Maul} was supposed to confront{And eliminate} Qui Gon and Obi Wan Kenobi,and force Queen Amidala into signing the treaty.

He never intended neither Jedi to live.

His overconfidence is his weakness.

 

If he didnt get killed by Kenobi and destroy both jedi,he would propably go to help viceroy.I dont think he would have problems with Queen and co.

 

Maul was sent there to kill the Jedi, and then subdue the Queen and force her to sign the treaty. Sidious was overconfident (as was Maul), believing that Obi-wan and Qui-gon would be no match for Maul. (And they really weren't; the only reason Maul lost was because he got way too overconfident at the end.) But, had Maul succeeded in killing the Jedi, he would then have captured the queen (unless you really think that Panaka and his guards could protect her from Maul) and forced her to sign the treaty, thus gaining more sympathy for Naboo and Palpatine, and thus more votes for Palpatine. (He managed to win anyway, but I think that's due to improvisational skills on his part.) Also, had this happened, Palpatine might have had an excuse for going to war even earlier than in AOTC; if the Trade Federation hadn't been crushed at Naboo, it could have grown in power until it formed the core of the Separatist movement, instead of just being one of many joiners years later.

That's my take on it.

 

Don't you mean 'what on coruscant was sidious thinking?'

 

I definitely agree with some of the previous posted replies.

Darth Maul intended to kill both Qui-Gon and Obi-Won but failed. I don't believe neither Maul or Sidious intended on the Sith being revealed so early in their plan. I also agree Maul was on Naboo to watch over the Trade Federation and Viceroy Gunray to make sure they followed Sidious' orders since they had allowed the Queen to escape in the first place. Besides, when Maul was destroyed, the Jedi were still confused on whether the Master or Apprentice was destroyed.