Rogue One [Speculation] The Senate and Senators in Rogue One

Since we now have a pretty safe confirmation that Jonathan Aris will be playing a Senator named Jebel in Rogue One, is it possible that we will actually see characters talk about the Imperial Senate in Rogue One? I'd say yes, definitely.

However, will we actually see a scene taking place in the Imperial Senate? That's a rather interesting question and I think it deserves its own speculation thread.

If its done right it could be really cool. Imagine the tumult among senators when they find out they're building the Death Star. There could be shots of Senators being arrested by Imperials as they leave the Senate building. Perhaps Jimmy Smits would be interested in reprising his role as Senator Bail Organa.

What do you think?

 

Well I am majoring in political science and I love the PT, so it's a definite yes from me!

 

I am all for Senators, Senate scenes, and Jimmy Smits. Bring it on!

 

I was hoping for a movie that's told from the POV of the ones in the trenches, the ones who take orders, not the ones who give them. I want to spend time in the dirt with soldiers who might occasionally complain about the pudu-for-brains politicians who send them into impossible situations, not rubbing shoulders with the grand high mucky-mucks in their ivory towers.

 

If you look at WWII from just a soldier's point of view or politician's point of view you miss out on a massive amount of stories that made up WWII. Rogue One is going to be about Soldiers but for example it would be really cool to have a scene showing the dissolution of the imperial senate. Maybe the senator is a man who switches sides afterwards and hands off the Rebels intel on the death star. Politics if done right adds to the universe and makes it feel more realistic and gives reason to why certain battles are fought or military actions are done. In short, you can't have D-Day without Churchill, Eisenhower or Roosevelt, or the horrors of Stalingrad without the brutal USSR regime under Stalin.

 

I thought Saving Private Ryan did an amazing job of showing D-Day without politicians. We know that they're out there, but they can just stay in the background out of sight as far as I'm concerned.

 

Political machinations behind the scenes ala TCW and chaos in the Senate, yes.

Monologues, no.

 

I think it'd be awesome! I'd love to see the Imperial Senate and if it's still run like the Republic Senate. Maybe some voices are getting squashed by the oppressive Palpatine, and have senators from other worlds take up with Bail.

 

I expect to see some at the start. Someone finds out about the DS and reports it to Bail and company and they send someone to go get it.

 

Bail Organa and Mon Mothma and (Lux Bonteri?)

 

Whats interesting is that the Death Star seems to have started being built in relative secrecy before the emperor gained power.

So will the Death Stars true power be revealed to the senate? Will the emperor appear when there are concerns about possible espionage and sabotage? Will Coruscant appear? (I think it will).

 

But.... Saving Private Ryan included lots of scenes with the President and high ranked military officials...

 

Did it? Funny, I don't remember that. Haven't seen it in a long time. I guess those scenes didn't stick with me at all. It was the scenes with the grunts that really made that film something special.

 

It has to start with a governmental accountant wondering why Tarkin is categorising billions of credits as "Miscellaneous" expenses.

He shows his manager. He shows a senator. The paper trail goes on....

 

I would like to see the scene where Palpatine dissolves the Senate that Tarkin mentions in ANH.

 

About that, why did Palpatine not dissolve the senate as soon as he became the Emperor? Why wait 19 years?

 

Do it Saving Private Ryan style, put in two 5 min scenes or so of "rebel sympathizer" senators secretly working with rebel strategists to conduct the main battle or mission of the film. You don't need a whole senate sub-plot or scenes in the Senate building, do something like the video below to drive the plot forward, give the audience a different point of view to set the stage of the movie, and up the stakes of just how important it is that the grunts we follow for the rest of the film complete their objective.



Throw in Bail, this new Senator, and maybe a couple of Rebel military leaders like Ackbar or someone new/ from the new canon, and you got some effective scenes that don't detract from the type of movie this will be, which is essentially a war movie in many respects.

 

I've always assumed he went slow with his complete overthrow so that the people didn't see it coming until it was too late. He kept his image of a benevolent ruler for as long as possible. And had it not been for Luke it would've worked.

 

Exactly. This is something many fans seem to forget. The political schemings of the PT are excellent - it all went slow and precise, just as Palpatine had foreseen.

 

Yes, yes, and yes!

I'd love to see the Senate, it's Senators Mon, Bail, Leia, and Emperor Palpatine!

 

He needed the death star re-watch ANH they will explain why in the movie. The death star would allow them to keep the systems in line because anyone attempting to rebel would lose their planet. Before the Death Star, Palpatine probably was worried that if he dissolved it he wouldn't have the resources to stop another major rebellion after the Clone Wars so he waited till he had constructed major capital ships like the Super Star Destroyers and the Death Star in order to combat signs of rebellion.

 

Obi-Wan says in ROTS that even Palpatine couldn't control the thousands of star systems without keeping the Senate intact (even if it was an in-name-only thing). The Death Star finally gave him enough power to be able to do away with it, like Tarkin said in ANH. I'm sure he wasn't keeping it around because he enjoyed it

 

In the novel Dark Lord: Rise of Vader, Vader hunts down Fang Zar, one of the Senators from the deleted ROTS Rebellion scenes. We could see something like that in Rogue One. The same novel also has meetings between Bail, Mothma, and Sheev. These meetings give us insight into how the Empire is perceived by the public.

 

Why would the Senate have anything to do with this story?

 

Everything. The story will be about the rebels. And prior to ANH, the rebels were backed by a handful of senators in the Senate. Leia obviously visited the Senate aswell, just like her adoptive father Bail Organa. And there will be at least one senator in Rogue One, according to reports.

I think it makes perfect sense to include the Senate, in one way or another.