how did Palpatine Justify Killing Jedi Younglings?

If there is already a thread that deal with this, direct me there.

I was thinking about this the other day. we all know Palpatine had a heck of a lot of covering up to in order to Justify the Killing of the jedi. but how did he say it that the Younglings had to be killed. What could they have done against him? they are only like 5 years old.

 

I just took it as - he doesn't have to answer to anyone. As he says, "I *am* the Senate!" He could pretty much do what he wanted. By killing off each and every Force-user, he was pretty much ensuring a lifetime of insurrection-free rule. His arrogance was his undoing as he couldn't keep a grip on the Rebellion. But, with no future Jedi (unbeknownst to him), he would hold all the power and Vader would be his lackey - with no one to team up with to overthrow the Emperor (as Sith are wont to do). Then, Luke pops up.

 

But the thing is, they were just Children! five years old! did he really have to have them killed?

 

Yes. Nip 'em in the bud before they become any kind of a future threat, whether real or imagined. Palps is like Hitler or Himmler in that regard. Just cleanse them all out and remove all opposition immediately. Helps show that Palps is really REALLY evil and will stop at nothing. It also shows just how far Anakin has been suckered into the Dark Side.

 

this is why i don't understand the whole order 66 deal a great too much.

 

Palpatine was not short on the actual authority to do so as he could literally legitimize nearly anything before the Senate by this point.

But more importantly, Palpatine knew that it was imperative that the Younglings be killed in that it is as he told Anakin after Mace's death, "...the Jedi are relentless...". Had the Younglings been allowed to live, they would have grown stronger, older, more capable of fighting and of teaching others. This was not acceptable in the Galactic Empire.

Little did Palpatine know that with Anakin's fall to the darkside, Luke and Leia would be the last force cognizant beings born to the galaxy (thus making the decision to kill the Younglings even that much more important...from a Sith point of view of course).

 

Sideous says it himself: "The Jedi are relentless; if they are not all destroyed, it will be civil war without end."

And in a way, he's right. Sidious fails to destroy Luke and Leia, and they are responsible (along with Anakin) with his downfall.


EDIT: Oops, JediCleric beat me to it.

 

While he did justify each Jedi death as an act of terrorism, he has Sate Pestage glaze over the fact that the Younglings were killed. My guess is that if anyone talked about it, Pestage probably said something about the children being killed by the Jedi. Or that the children attacked the 501st and they had no choice but to kill them. That they were too brainwashed by the Jedi, so they had to be put out of their misery.

 

"It's such a shame that the Jedi used the children as shields when the storm troopers came to arrest them."

 

He needed justification?

 

I'd buy that for a dollar.

 

I understand what you're saying. I felt the same way when even female Jedi were killed in the film. But the real picture that we have to look at is the women and the younglings are JEDI, and Jedi would do the same thing to the Sith if the situation was reversed. Palpatine had to do what an ideal Sith would do. No Sith would have let a Jedi youngling live. It was a full round of revenge so to speak----Revenge of the Sith!!!

 

No, I don't think so.





Jedi don't kill defenseless children
/Flames

 

I've mentioned this before and will all the horrible things the empire did do, this is not high on my list. For shock value it's pretty powerful, but when you really think about it, what else was to be done? Here are the facts.

1. During the Clone Wars, the Jedi Temple became more of a war room. There were mental and physical battles being planned, espionage activities arranged, combat training increased, etc. I feel that Anakin walked into a military base and killed soldier in training rather than walking into the nearest church and killing the alter boys. The Jedi KNEW it was a dangerous period in time. In the NJO books, Luke et. al HIDE the younglings far from any potential military targets. In the PT, the Jedi kept the children in the barracks.

2. These children had no connection to their parents or past lives. I wonder if records of their home planets and families were even kept. What do you do with them?

3. Where do you draw the line? 16 year olds? 14 year olds? 10 year olds? 8 Year olds? 4 year olds? We saw one Padawan fight pretty effectively against some of the five-oh-first. What was he? 12? We all know that a 1 year old is not going to take up arms against you, but what about an 8 year old?

4. These children were not your normal class of first graders, the child that spoke was very young but obviously more savvy than an average child. "Master Skywalker, there are too many of them, what are we going to do?" Although this seems like an innocent statement, it shows that the child had rudimentry knowledge of battle tactics and abilities of the two sides of the fight. He also mentioned "We" as if it came down to it, the younglings would join the fight.

That said, if you simply released these children into the outside world, no doubt they would band together and attempt to continue their training. A decade later, when they were coming into their later teens, you could have a pack of poorly trained force-sensitives running around. They could end up A. Staying true and serving the light. B. Be full of hate and anger directing attacks on the empire, possibly falling to the dark side. C. Turn into an effective bounty hunting/spice smuggling group. D. Stay exiled somewhere. Basically, they could have eventually grown to be a threat to anyone from Sidious to random people.

Carnage

 

If a child is being trained as a Sith Lord then a Jedi risk being offed. If a Sith child was half of a fraction powerful as most Jedi then that Sith child pose a serious threat. You're making the claim first that the Sith is a child. Nay, but their Sith affiliation comes first and thus a Jedi must deal with it and they can't uphold the Republic being nice about it.

 

If the Jedi would act like Sith, they would be Sith.
The Jedi would probably try to train the Sith kids as Jedi. Children that young are easily influenced.





Killing is the very last resort
/Flames

 

It's all part of his "Go to the Jedi temple. Do what must be done" speech to Vader. Leave no Jedi alive. Because they could either tell someone or grow to knock him out of power.

 

Carnage summed it up well. The Younglings are a threat, no matter how you look at it, no matter how old they are. They are little Jedi which will grow up to be big Jedi, or at least Jedi sympathizers, with Force training. I doubt most could be converted to Sith, after all they've been through and seen. If Palpatine has been able to manipulate the general public into beliveing the entire Jedi Order is so dangerous they must all be completely wiped out, then it doesn't seem much of an extra stretch to get away with killing the Jedi children also.

 

I think you are thinking in compassionate terms rather than in military terms. The children were a threat to the Sith as people above have already mentioned. If you remember in Africa a few years back, there was such tribal warfare that they killed everyone, women, children, babies - everyone. When asked, they said that the children wouldn't be able to fend for themselves so they did them a favor. Some favor.

I think that Palpatine sees everyone as a threat so a few younglings and babies are nothing to him. Anakin, on the other hand, was insane at that point, imo, and was killing a part of himself when he struck down the kids. I don't think Lucas had a blond, blue-eyed kid there in the Council chamber for no reason. He looked like a young Anakin to me.

 

^ Never thought of that!
I'll keep that in mind next time I see the movie.





Anakin - he doesn't like himself vey much
/Flames

 

how did Palpatine Justify Killing Jedi Younglings?

I believe the data bank has some examples of the press releases Palps put out.

 

Hitler didn't justify killing woman & children. Which makes him even more disliked in the eye's of most everyone.



Also, if people who weren't around (or who haven't) watched the OT then Sidious & Anakin/Vader. Mostly Vader come off as unredeemable.

 

God that's cold.

 

does the Galaxy even care?

 

Yeah, they did. That's how Dooku knew about his inheritence and where to go claim his family dynasty. Yoda even knew about Xanatos' father and that is why he and Qui-gon were sent back to Telos. The Jedi even had knowledge of Whie's family life in the Archives. So I think everyone's homelife is kept on file.

Only those who were like Bail Organa. But it took a long time to think like he does. As to it being cold, yeah it is. Palpatine is pure evil. He would use that to damage the Jedi's reputation. This isn't just an eye for an eye situation. This is revenge served ice cold. It's not enough to just kill the Jedi, but he has to do as much damage to their legacy as possible. Palpatine wanted to be sure that no one saw the Jedi as heroes, years from now.