Saga What would Anakin's 'Empire' have been like if he succeeded in usurping Palpatine in ROTS?

I agree with the point many have made here. Killing Palpatine doesn't get Anakin anything but arrested and executed. How often do politcal assassins take over the position of the person they killed? Anakin in ROTS is naive to the point of delusion. By the OrigTrig he seems to have wised up, and has started to build the sort of military and political support he'd need to seize control of the government. Incidentally, THAT is the key to understanding his relationship with Tarkin. There are endless debates about whether or not Tarkin "outranks" Vader. I've never seen it as Vader obeying Tarkin's orders, but instead deferring to a potentially extremely valuable ally/asset. When Tarkin says "Vader, release him" there's a world of difference between "Yes, sir" and "As you wish."

 

Would Anakin even have been able to usurp power from Palpatine? I don't think so - Anakin may have had more strength than Palpatine physically, but Palpatine was psychologically more shrewd, more clever...

But if we were to assume that Anakin could establish his own Empire, I agree with other posters that it would have been short and sweet. Palpatine's power lay in the fact that he could charm those beneath him. Certainly there was a fear of Palpatine, but I would also think that there was a sort of want to be liked and respected by him (but we all know Palpatine would have liked and respected little). I believe we see this in the hierarchy set by Palpatine and how those Palpatine ruled wanted to rise in rank. Anakin, on the other hand, wouldn't have time for setting up intricate politics in 'his' Empire. Ruling with pure strength and fear, Anakin's rule would have faced an explosive rebellion much sooner than Palpatine did.

 

I can see Anakin being quite popular with the more militant crowd and ruling through force of arms alone, a sort of space Junta but with the same lack of political stability those face in real life and the need to constantly start new wars to give his cronies in the military something to do to keep them busy. Palpatine was smart enough that he had all the Moffs and Grand Admirals and anyone else who could (theoretically) assume enough power to depose him in a position where they fought and politicked against each other instead. Anakin wouldn't have the patience or the skill to do likewise, probably he'd keep an iron fist around a small segment of the galaxy whilst the rest spirals into a mess.

 

What would Anakin's Empire have been like? Nasty, brutish, violent, and short.

 

One thing that I think is interesting is that Anakin never tries to take over the Empire on his own.

In RotS, he wants to rule with Padme. After she rejects that offer (and dies), he apparently makes no real attempt to usurp Palpatine until ESB. And after Luke rejects his offer to co-rule in ESB, he's back to serving Palpatine in RotJ. So I don't think he would have taken over the Empire just by himself.

If he had managed to get Padme on his side, I think she would have ended up as the Empress with him still as a military leader. So he wouldn't have been responsible for the political maneuvering - thankfully, because as others in this thread have already mentioned, he wasn't very good at it.

 

Short but certainly not sweet.

I think he would have both the military types and the clones on his side. However, because he's not as diplomat as the Emperor and rather just smash his opposition, he would create more rebellions then what he knows what to do with. He would likely be ousted by the Senate or by a rebel force likely led by a surviving jedi.

 

Hmm - reading these comments again - I then came to wondering even if Anakin had Padme 'safe and by his side' - would he have grown more and more and more delusional even if Padme was there to be his queen and council? Given the fact in ROTS he was already in a mad moment of passionate delusions when Padme revealed how horrified she was and yet Anakin would not hear any of that and claimed how the Empire was as good as his now practically and how he could defeat Palpatine - but where Padme had the belief that there was still some 'good in Anakin' - but suppose Anakin hadn't 'killed Padme' and had him as his queen - gradually would she have left him despite her love and dedication to him? Would she have gradually raised a 'rebellion' or even sent Luke and Leia off to safe places away from him? Would she have realized even some like Anakin - had he reached his full potential - would he have been 'beyond help' like Palpatine? Could Anakin have killed off even those loyal to him in mad delusions? Would he have even killed off Padme just for the whim of it gradually?

 

And could that have turned him even further to the dark side, making him more like Palpatine and therefore, unredeemable?

 

Sand would be wiped out of the Galaxy and Vader would test the DS on Tatooine.

 

That's what I thought then; given he really was in a mad moment of passionate delusion despite Padme's pleas ... and even in AOTC when he recovered Shmi Skywalker's corpse and prepared her for the burial - he was already angry and conflicted and rather arrogantly proclaimed he would be more Powerful than any other Jedi and he would be able to stop Death itself ... and which was not the case as a Jedi is to be compassionate and selfless and free of attachments ... not a mad mindless selfish and always 24/7 angry psychopathic Sith whom doesn't give a Force about anything but just achieving absolute Power and that's it ... the thing being - would he even gradually kill Padme despite the fact how he had a strong emotional attachment to her and that's what was exploited at times ... given sometimes I wondered why Padme would get herself into these situations ...

 

If possible there'd be a lot of Padme clones running about. That way he'd never lose her.

 

The thing is - would Anakin have bothered? And the problem is if you clone someone or something living for the matter - its never going to be 100% like the original eh? Even if it develops more sentience and 'self awareness' and embarks 'self-discovery' and such ... surely then it wouldn't exactly be like the original Padme eh? Given I'm sure for a loved one - no matter how many 'clones' you have in the end the original one will never be truly 100% 'replaced' - given also Padme is not like a droid in a factory to be mass-produced - sent to be used and once scrapped - just reclaimed for spare parts and the process repeats itself ...

Besides - wouldn't Anakin have then also had clones of Shmi Skywalker instead of burying her eh?