PT "The Chancellor has requested... that I lead the campaign". Reasoning?

So, we know that Palpatine's greatest strength was adapting to the situation and turning it to his advantage. He constantly loses in the Prequels yet comes out with a desired result through manipulation. So what was his original plan in revealing Grievous' location to Anakin at the opera?

I think it's obvious he needed to get Anakin away from Kenobi (which eventually happened with the Council selected Kenobi for the assault), but what would have happened had Anakin gone to Utapau? Was Sidious ready to make his play? Would he have gone there to meet him? Or did he simply want Anakin to kill Grievous as a big FU to the Jedi Council, since he's already killed Count Dooku, and was basically their MVP, even without "Master status"?

One thing is for sure: With Dooku dead, the war dragging on, and the Jedi watching him closely, Palpatine was going to initiate Order 66 very soon, regardless of Anakin's allegiance. He wouldn't have revealed Grievous' position if he planned to keep the war going another 3 years.

I wonder if Palpatine would have given Anakin a "heads up" if he initiated Order 66 with Anakin out in the field....

 

I think it's reverse psychology. Palpatine knows the Jedi aren't willing to trust Anakin with the Utapau campaign, especially since they're expecting him to spy on the Chancellor. By making Anakin request to go, he knows the Jedi will deny him, further pushing him towards Palpatine's loyalty.

Having Obi-Wan being the Jedi sent to Utapau is another lucky choice that the Jedi make for Palpatine, pushing Anakin's biggest support away, in a way that spites Anakin and makes him feel inferior to his master.

 

In the book Palpatine knew they would send Obi Wan(to show that they were not going to allow Palpatine to interfere in those aspects of Jedi business) based on a conversation Palps had with Grievous and Palpatine thought it would be the end of Obi Wan. I always felt that Palps figured another loss of a loved one for Anakin would be that next step to persuade him after having heard the story of Plagueis. Plus I agree with @darkspine10 about removing Anakin's biggest supporter from the situation.

 

If you havent already read it, this is discussed here.

I would add to the accurate points already made (sending Anakin's good influence in Obi-Wan away, and reverse psychology by Palpatine setting this up when he knows Anakin will be rejected)...

Notice the mission Palpatine seemingly encouragingly recommends for Anakin is a combat mission, arguably something Anakin is perfectly suited for. Yet the mission Anakin is given instead is much more volatile - spying on his friend and mentor - arguably something Anakin isn't wise enough to handle. It pushes Anakin towards Palpatine, and is pretty ironic when you consider Palpatine didn't really want Anakin to go. So Palpatine's "You're the best choice by far" is actually true, the Jedi would have been wiser to let Anakin go do what he does best, and by trying to defy Palpatine they are inadvertantly playing into his plan. It's pretty clever writing.

 

Would have been interesting in an alternate universe where the Jedi Council plays Palpatine's bluff and goes, "Well great minds think alike! We were thinking the exact same thing!"

If Obi Wan and Anakin had been sent, would have been interesting. Indeed the Jedi partly play into Palpatine's hands and in a way they have to, because Palpatine shouldn't be interfering in Jedi affairs. It also permits Palpatine to separate Anakin from Obi Wan, assuming he knew that Obi Wan would be the Council's choice. Perhaps the attack on Kashykk is also a move to ensure that Yoda is far away from all the action also.

 

Hah! If only.

Yes and Anakin looks the other way from Palpatine's meddling, yet gets suspicious of the Jedi doing similar, even though the Jedi are acting on justified concerns.
You can see how much Palpatine has got in Anakin's head and shifted his values. The recurring argument that Anakin is loyal to people, not principles (Obi-Wan request vs Palpatine request, not so much Jedi vs Sith). And Palpatine smoothly does it "by the book", largely because the Senate have basically become his puppets.

It is pretty paradoxical, and I think implies the Jedi were right to desire autonomy from the central ruling body, but are too polite or cautious to demand it, and sacrifice the good this added reach can help them bring.

There is kind of this wedge between Anakin and Obi-Wan, unintended on their part, that has been there since TPM. The first time Qui-Gon implies to Obi-Wan that he has "recruited" Anakin, Obi-Wan senses Anakin as "another pathetic lifeform".
And Qui-Gon is more interested in the boy, Obi-Wan only taking up his training on request from his dying master.

Then in AOTC we see their bond has grown, but there is still some jealousy both ways, and a kind of sibling rivalry.
It is very telling that when Anakin loses his mother, we cut to Obi-Wan tracking his homing signal, and seeing he is on Tatooine.
He obliviously quips "What in blazes is he doing there? I told him to stay on Naboo."
This I think is a very intentional line by Lucas, to show although Obi-Wan means well and cares about Anakin, he is too "far away", both physically and metaphorically, to help Anakin when he is at his worst.
It happens again in ROTS, with Obi-Wan out-cold when Anakin is ordered by Palpatine to kill Dooku and take a step towards turning.
Plus we learn in that scene that Anakin indeed only told Palpatine and Padme about the Tusken slaughter, not Obi-Wan.

So Obi-Wan going away from Coruscant while Anakin is Palpatine's rep is basically an omen.

It is implied so in the novelisation.

 

Anakin and Kenobi both being sent would have been a logical move for the Council. After all, it's General Grievous, you'd think the Jedi Council would send a few Jedi Knights and / or Masters, but I guess they figure, one General is sufficient. Had they both gone and killed Grievous, I wonder what Palpatine's endgame would have been. The war is effectively over with no Separatist military leadership, so Order 66 has to be done soon, before the Republic is demilitarized and Palpatine is asked to step down from his emergency status.

My guess is he would have lured Skywalker and Kenobi to Mustafar to "capture" the Separatist leaders, and initiate Order 66 simultaneously. Then, he'd only have to deal with Kenobi. Most of the Jedi out in the field, including Yoda, would assumed to be killed by their clones, leaving the Temple open to attack. No cool Jedi leading the assault, though. Imagine Dooku leading the Temple attack, that would be something to see....

 

I'm afraid they are in such moment of the game when every movie than the Jedi do on the chessboard would be wrong (I mean would lead to losses) and what Palpatine do would lead to victory. Remember this is a long term strategy and Palpatine played it brilliantly and unfortunately the Jedi only followed him. So it's not only a win win situation for him, is already the most possible situation: he worked hard to elaborate it and the Jedi helped him although unwillingly.

 

- ANAKIN: You're going to need me on this one, Master.

- OBI-WAN: Oh, I agree. However it may turn out just to be a wild bantha chase.

I think the Council´s move of sending only one experienced Jedi Master makes a lot of sense because they don´t believe the information Palpatine is giving to them is 100% accurate and truthful. The Jedi are also spread too thin across the galaxy so they can´t afford to send two Jedi to a seemingly "wild bantha chase" mission.

 

I would expect that Dooku would enter the Temple furtively, with the clones being given explicit orders to follow his lead. As long as Dooku avoided being spotted by observers, he would have been perfectly capable of leading the attack on the Temple.

But even without a Sith Lord leading the charge, the Temple would still have fallen. Only two Jedi Masters remained in the Temple at the time of the attack.

 

It was reverse psychology and further alienating Anakin from the Jedi as well as buffering his ego even more. One thing I do wonder what was Palpatine's plan in the event the Jedi acceded?

 

I think Palpatine's greatest strength (and ultimately Luke showed it to be his biggest weakness) is his ability to read and foresee the future. You see that working from TPM all the way through RotJ. I believe he sees a number of future tangents and prepares for victory with all outcomes.

 

Not much would change. He would just keep delaying things until Anakin came back and then continue to work on him.

 

That's what I figured. He would also have to take care to ensure that by some bad fortune Anakin wasn't killed by Grievous.

 

I agree with Dave Filoni's take that Palpatine never actively intervened to ensure Anakin would survive the trials he faced. If Anakin happened to die, then it meant he wasn't worthy after all.

e: Aside from when he faced Dooku, I would imagine. Palpatine likely told Dooku not to kill him, at least in their early encounters.

 

Palpatine had no more use for Grievous anyway as he (Palpatine) was approaching the endgame so if Anakin HAD gone he would still be down one cyborg and Anakin would still have been faced with a (lesser) moral quandary as the mission was implicitly to KILL, not capture, Grievous, which is not exactly the Jedi way. Palpatine is known for his contingency plans too so I don't doubt if it hadn't been Obi-Wan sent he would have had a plan to draw him off Coruscant and away from Anakin - a high ranking separatist with information he will ONLY give to Kenobi for example is well within Palpatine's remit.

 

Indeed, I don’t think there would’ve been any internal debate on Anakin’s part. If both the Council and Palpatine told him to go kill Grievous, he would be half-way there already, polishing his lightsaber hilt and mulling over the perfect one-liner to say over Grievous’ charred, mangled robotic parts.

That said, as mentioned by Darth Invictus, the issue would be to ensure Grievous didn’t kill Anakin, but Palpatine probably wanted Anakin to be *alone*, away from his moral compass (Obi-Wan.)

 

I would actually be interested in seeing a hypothetical duel between Anakin and Grievous, in theory the advantage would be with Grievous as his cyborg limbs match Anakin's physical strength and he has a similarly attacking style but with extra arms, whereas Obi-Wan's defensive approach was key to his wins against both of the two. In the old canon I think Mace was able to match Grievous by going toe to toe but he feels the advantage would have passed to Grievous eventually if it was purely a lightsaber duel (no force powers.)

 

Regarding whether palpatine intervened to ensure Anakin survived, I disagree somewhat with Filoni. There were times palpatine nudged things to get Anakin out of dangerous situations or missions with no survivors. To be sure he wasn't keeping Anakin entirely from danger and most certainly wasn't mollycoddling him but palpatine invested a lot in getting him as an apprentice and so occasionally would intervene to ensure Anakin wasn't in a situation where he would likely die. One major example of this is the outbound flight project in legends. Where palpatine ensured Anakin and Obi wan would not be with the travelers.

But as for grievous-it was political back and forth as palpatine fully expected the Jedi to say no.

 

Sidious knew the Council would reject the idea out of hand, further upsetting Anakin and deepening the mistrust between the two parties.

Even if the Council agreed, this had the benefit of getting the Chosen One off of Coruscant when Sidious made his move to eliminate the Jedi with Order 66. This would make it a whole lot tougher for Anakin to get Sidious to try and duel him. Remember, Sidious believes Anakin is the Jedi's so-called Chosen One. That's why he's so invested in him. He fears his potential if he is his enemy.

 

I think Sidious definitely wanted Anakin on Coruscant for what was about to transpire. Remember that Anakin is at a crossroads at this point and could very plausibly side with either the Jedi or the Sith when all is said and done. I can't see Anakin being willing to side with Sidious if he was off-world and came back to find the Jedi Order wiped out by the Sith. I think that would push him firmly back into the Jedi camp for good, regardless of what Sidious was offering to him. It was crucial for Anakin to witness the things he did and be tricked into participating in them. Only then could he be pushed over the edge in the other direction.

No, I don't think Palpatine would have recommended Anakin for the mission if he thought there was even the remotest chance the Jedi might actually send him. In fact, he probably recommended him for it specifically because that would further predispose the Jedi against sending him.

 

I agree. But I also know that Sidious was prepared for every situation. He's kind of like Batman in that aspect.

 

See, I vehemently disagree with that characterization. Sidious was prepared for many situations, but not every situation. There are certain things that, if they did not go as he desired, would have ruined his plans.

That's the essence of the morality tale that is the PT. Sidious could have been stopped. It was the heroes' choice to play into his game that allowed him to triumph.

 

I get what you're saying. Ya, he's not omniscient. But he WAS a very talented schemer and would probably have tried to plan for most likely outcomes. Whether those plans would have been effective would have been anyone's guess. My take was he could have taken steps to delay Anakin had Anakin never joined him, but these steps could never have stopped Anakin because he was the Chosen One.

 

^ Wouldn’t that suggest that Anakin was always destined to fall? Wouldn’t that ruin the whole tragedy of ‘he could’ve made a different choice’? If he was pre-destined to fall, then any idea that he’d have a choice would be rendered moot, yes?