PT So the Clone Wars were pointless, right?

Pointless? Are you serious?

I would rather say essential..

Palpatine must have an army to kill Jedi, plus thanks to war he gathered more and more power within his grasp so his transision of Republic to Empire was met with 'thunderous applause'. Not to mention people started to questioned Jedi and their role in all of this, so once they have 'betrayed' the Republic, majority of people belived that...

 

I agree with a lot of what has been posted. To summarize:

-The Clone Wars enhance the influence and power of the Dark Side, and weaken the Jedi's connection to the force.

-The Jedi are put into a position where they can be surprised, scattered, and isolated, ready for the Order 66 wipe-out.

-The Jedi themselves turn from peace-keepers to "generals" and warriors, saturating themselves in battle, killing, destruction, and so on.

-The Clone Wars puts the Republic into a state of emergency that Sidious can exploit, leading the senate into giving him more and more power, and eventually becoming Emperor.

(Also, though it isn't really clear in the narrative and not often commented on, The Clone Wars makes the constituents of the Republic and later Empire distrust/despise any one or any system that moves in rebellion against the Republic/Empire. This seems to be the circumstances that Palpatine would exploit as it happened, rather than something he could have planned for or counted on--I'm not of the opinion that Sidous had every element pre-planned (getting the Tuskens to capture Shmi, for example, in order to move Anakin along to the dark side) but rather was very-good at, on the spur of the moment, manipulating events to his advantage).

 

Good summary!

 

Also, the Clone Wars were kind of like a training ground and experience for Sidious' future apprentice, Darth Vader.

Think about it, Anakin got a lot of experience leading troops into battle. Something he would need down the road as Darth Vader. Now Anakin probably already had some leadership experience before the war as a Jedi Padawan. Though that was probably nothing compared to all the experience he got during the Clone Wars.

Anakin would also have to come up with battle strategies and plans to get in and out of impossible situations during the war. Again, something Vader would need years later.

Anakin also learns how to deal with the enemy. Traitors like the Separatists and Dark Jedi, like Ventress. Practice for when Vader deals with traitorous Jedi and members of the Rebel Alliance.

I don't know if Anakin in the AOTC would have been ready or mature enough for such things Vader deals with.

 

And not only that, but participating in the war - killing, and watching people he knows die - puts emotional pressure on Anakin and makes him more vulnerable to the dark side and the emotions that feed it (fear, anger, etc). And he gets to see the Jedi violate their own morals in an attempt to choose the lesser of two evils (become warriors rather than keepers of the peace, or watch the galaxy be overrun by an army led by a Sith), which makes him more likely to believe what Palpatine says about them in RotS.

 

Technically he never asked permission for anything, he did just take everything, but, he made the people think that they wanted him to have it.

There are multiple layers to Sidious's plan that just didn't involve taking over the galaxy. As other have pointed out, part of his plan was getting the Jedi out of the way, thus why order 66 was essential to the clones programming.

However, there is an aspect of Sidious's plan that I haven't seen anyone else point out in this thread yet, and that is that it is no coincidence that Dooku courts the mega-corps to join the Separatists. If Sidious truly wants to have complete control of the galaxy, he of course had to get rid of the Jedi, however, Sidious had to make sure that he got rid of all the economic powerhouses too, if they still remained after the Clone War, they would be in a position to fight him as they would have the economic resources to rebuild armies. Political power doesn't mean anything if you don't control the economic power of the galaxy as well. So a big part of the clone wars was making sure all those economic powerhouses were on the losing side of the war.

So, when it is clear that the clone wars are coming to an end, and Sidious has clearly won, he isn't about to let the leaders of those economic powerhouses go back home. He makes sure that they too are killed so that no one is left to defy him. He controls the political landscape, the military, and the economy of the GFFA by the end of the Clone Wars.

 

And from a much more petty and personal perspective... Palpatine is a manipulative, egotistic sociopath. Having all these armies running around killing each other, all the Jedi unwillingly/unwittingly compromising on so many of their principles, taking the Chosen One from right under Yoda's nose, turning the entire Senate into his own personal puppet show... and none of them realising it probably gives him all sorts of twisted glee. He gets off (for lack of a better term) on how much smarter and more powerful he is than all these stupid masses, simply marching it in and taking it by force wouldn't give him that kind of thrill.

 

Like jakobitis89 said better, the clone wars are essential and showed palpatine was amazing and used the fake war to win the galaxy for him and to get his new apprentice. can't beat that.

 

I wish the movies had put more emphasis on this. I'm glad we got to see more of the relationship between Sidious and Tyranus in TCW.

I think Sidious enjoyed the whole process. He enjoyed pulling the strings of the Separatists and the Republic. He relished the opportunity to mess up the Senate by turning it into this corrupt, docile, defanged entity for himself. He also liked the violence and any scheme he and Tyranus got to put in motion. Plus, he just liked testing Anakin and prepping him to become Vader. He told him that his feelings made him "special." Lol. The man was manipulative and Machiavellian as heck, but that's what defines him as a character. He's patient and practically the devil. He's not unlike a lot of real-world dictators and tyrants who use crises to accumulate more power for themselves. I can't think of an example in history in which a dictator controlled both sides of a war, but I know plenty of instances in which a leader lied to get people into a war. Manufacturing crises or deepening them for one's own benefit happens a lot. It's sad how most people never learn from history.

Anyhow, I think someone once compared Sidious using Order 66 to kill the Jedi was analogous to Hitler killing his own allies during the Knight of Long Knives. Of course, it was a different situation, but Sidious had temporarily corrupted the Jedi Order by default, though certainly not every single Jedi. He couldn't leave them there, and he had to take them out. Plus, ya know, he has fun when he goes crazy and kills people. If I ever met anyone like him, I would stay as far away as possible.

Dang, almost every thread I've replied to this evening has been related to Darth Vader or another Sith Lord. Darkness fetish? Lol.

 

Indeed. Gosh, that's quotable. I'ma use that in the future.

 

It's not that everyone else was dumb. The Jedi were complacent, they weren't challenged in any meaningful way for 1000 years. Yoda and Obi-Wan even talked about how the Jedi had become arrogant and even self motivated. Mace Windu says to Yoda that even their ability to use the Force had diminished. Yoda said that the Dark Side was clouding everything. So no everyone was not "dumb" the senators where weak willed and Palpatine was able to persuade them using the Dark Side and prey on their fears. Jar Jar, thinking he's doing a good thing makes a motion to give the Supreme Chancellor emergency powers at the start of the war. His role is classic in ancient literature. He was the fool. The fools job in the story is to be the catalyst that puts the hero in the biggest problems. Before he makes the motion before the senate he is in a meeting with the power players of the Republic and was easily manipulated into doing exactly what the Sith wanted. So while I agree that Palpatine is probably the best character of the PT, it is not because the other character were dumb, old Sidious is just that awesome.

 

No they are not pointless at all, while there are a few episodes that could be considered filler, many of them plant seeds for what we see about in the movies, others are now being brought to fruition in Rebels. Anakin's fall is that much better and clearer with the Clone Wars. To see the Republic move from a society of freedom and high culture to a galaxy spanning dystopia is really exciting to watch.