Lit The Legacy of the Separatists

I don't doubt that Imperials hated the CIS. But after the Empire was dethroned, I have to wonder...
How did the New Republic feel about the Separatists?
EU or Canon (Though I know a lot more about the former).
The CIS fought against the corrupt Palpatine government. Some Rebels were in the Separatist movement, also.
Would the CIS have admirers in the Rebellion? Discuss.

 

Honestly, I think the vast majority of Rebels hated the Separatists and viewed them with a barely concealed contempt. Ezra shows that Kanan and Rex certainly consider the Separatist battle droids to be monsters. It's also not like Count Dooku and General Grevious weren't monsters. At the end of the day, every time you bring up the Separatists being write, I suggest Princess Leia bring up Humbarine.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Humbarine/Legends

Which given it came from George Lucas' notes, should still be canon.

A trillion innocent sapients....massacred to the last.

 

A lot of the Rebellion/New Republic leadership were on the Republic's side during the conflict; the Rebellion's official goal was the restoration of the Restoration of the Republic, not a Confederacy. I'm sure that there were Rebels that saw the Confederacy as an inspiration for their struggle against the Empire (e.g. Cassian), but I don't think that this was a widespread position.

I could however imagine that as time moved on, the Confederacy was seen in a more positive light by the newer generation that didn't actually experience the Clone Wars; especially as similar issues to the ones that caused the separatist movement in the old republic began to develop in the new republic, not unlike the Centrist party's admiration of the Empire

 

Mind you, I do think it's logical the Separatist worlds had a very different view of the Republic.

Basically, to them, the Empire being the Republic.

 

The old Warfare guide touched on this subject a bit. My guess is that the Rebellion/New Republic would at best view the Separatists as misguided fools (like the Separatist Parliament), or more likely idiotic traitors, depending on how much they realized that Palpatine controlled both sides of the Clone Wars. Kol Skywalker wrote up something about all of Palpatine's manipulations, but that was a full century later. Most people would probably only remember the endless droid armies and/or General Grievous as the face of the Clone Wars.

They would kind of be at cross purposes as the Separatists wanted to leave the Republic at least while the Rebel Alliance meant to restore the rightful Republic. Though they also had a common enemy in the Empire, but any Separatist remnants and Rebel cells would probably at best just avoid each other. Although there's some overlap too, depending on each person's ideals (whether they wanted the Republic to leave them alone or fighting against galactic tyranny), such as Cassian starting out as a Separatist then joining the Rebellion.

While browsing TVtropes I saw a reference that that old tactical droid might actually join the Rebellion after the Battle of Yavin? Not sure where that idea came from, but that would sure be an interesting sight. And during the war the Rebellion could use all the help they can get. After, though, they probably wouldn't remember the Confederacy fondly.

 

Yeah, I think the Essential Guide to Warfare was one of the few old-EU sources that went in depth on how the Rebels/New Republic viewed the Separatists, as well as how former Separatists viewed the Rebels/NR (the long and short of it: mixed). I think Zahn's Allegiance also had a line from Mon Mothma saying that the Rebels were nothing like the Separatists.

I did always appreciate how in Planet of Twilight, Leia mentioned having to negotiate with a group called the United Separatists. If you give a little headcanon leeway, you can easily see it as a group of former Separatists who decided to stay away from the New Republic.

 

Thinking of the legacy of the separatists-I do wonder how during the second galactic civil war in which powers seceded the separatists were viewed especially in relation to current events.

I could see Jacen, Niathal, and the GA using propaganda to paint the confederation as the CIS reborn.

While the confederation itself would bristle and deny such comparisons.

 

I always wanted some more sympathetic depictions of the ordinary people of the Separatist-aligned species; surely they can't all be horrible plutocrats, right? I was happy in a super-geeky way when the FFG sourcebook that introduced Neimoidians as a playable race said many of them were horrified at what their corporate overlords were doing, and during the Imperial period the Neimoidian people collectively grew some serious spine and signed up for the Rebellion en masse, to both repair their image and end the Empire's persecution of them.

 

I don't think it was that there were no good people amongst the separatists(heroes on both sides) it's just that the idealistic good separatists were in power terms utterly outmatched by the influence and might of the plutocrats.

There were probably separatist cells, auxiliaries, freedom fighters that were good people who passionately believed in the separatist cause however they didn't have the money, weapons, or manpower to compete with the megacorps and so were largely subordinate to them in a strategic and political sense.

 

I seem to recall something from legends that Mon Mothma went out of her way to avoid turning the rebellion into a CIS 2.0.
Not wanting to set up an actual government for their new militia so as not to be compared to the separatists, or usurpers.

Also of note Is that it is confirmed in canon that the New Republic is significantly smaller than the Old Republic. With numerous worlds like Ryloth refusing to join it.
I should think that if they were looked down upon after the Galactic Civil War, the new government would have done everything in its power to bring those worlds back into the fold.

More likely Mothma didn't want a repeat of the Clone Wars, or risk creating a situation that might allow an Authoritarian to take hold again.
So she made membership in the New Republic strictly voluntary, paving the way for numerous unaligned worlds to go their separate ways.

I very much doubt Grievous or Dooku were much liked by the galaxy at large, but there can be little doubt that the creators of the new republic acknowledged that many had valid grievances towards the Old Republic. They definitely did there best to address those concerns.

Been a while since I've read Bloodlines, but I recall they even drastically redesigned the Senate Chambers, removing the repulsorpods so every senator was on more 'equal footing' (Literally).
In the end these reforms made the Republic far weaker too, leaving it even more divided with partisan squabbling than before.

 

In Legends, I imagine there might be some fringe groups of ex-Separatist worlds that still continue using the symbols as such. By Legacy, any Separatist sympathies would've dissipated. I imagine the Fel Empire, as successors to the First Empire and Old Republic, would be classifying the Separatists as 'traditional enemies'. The Galactic Alliance, having not long ago fought against a Confederation itself, wouldn't be much different.

Which isn't to say there wouldn't be the idea of more local sovereignty instead of a strong central government, just they would try their hardest not to seem like the CIS.

 

In canon, the Separatists flat out are listed as TWO new governments following the fall of the Empire aren't they?

 

Yeah, the New Separatist Union and the Confederacy of Corporate Systems. I imagine some similar ones might've existed in Legends (United Separatists have been brought up), but that they were all pretty much gone by the time of Legacy.

 

One of my biggest disappointments is the Separatists never received any POV in Legacy of the Force.

 

I imagine the empire didn't cease punishing CIS worlds once the droid armies were shut down. I would think the empire nationalized(or galactized) CIS corporations, and inflicted heavy war indemnities on their populations. Worlds like Cato Neimodia probably saw their economies stripped bare with imperial garrisons to keep the ex separatist populations in line.

So by the LOTF era formerly rich worlds and influential species that had supported the CIS no longer had the power or political influence they did in the last days of the old republic.

 

"We are not Separatists trying to leave the Republic, we are Loyalists trying to preserve democracy in the Republic." - Mon Mothma, ROTS Deleted Scene, secret Proto-Rebellion meeting
"Understand, as a Separatist, I fought for freedom...but put my trust in a corrupt leadership."
―Kleeve, to Caleb Dume
Also I couldn't find the exact quote, but I swear I've seen some quote in one of the Essential Guides where Palpatine talks about the growing Rebellion and says something like "They call themselves Rebels, but let's call them what they really are - Separatists".

There are a number of factors at play here. The founding members of the Rebellion (Bail, Mothma, and Bel Iblis if we're talking Legends) were Pro Republic and fought against the Separatists. And thanks to Dooku and Greivous the Separatists were definitively seen as "the bad guys" of the conflict.

Ultimately I see Separatists as what the Rebellion might have been like if they "sold out" - they got a droid army, but because of it the Mega Corporations held the real power instead of the well intentioned freedom fighters.

I think any Separatists hold outs who survived that long were probably welcome into the Rebellion. But the early Rebel leaders had to be more choosey about their allies than the Separatists were, especially since Palpatine would paint them as anarchists, terrorists, and neo-separatists.

As far as Canon goes, the rotating capital (instead of Coruscant being the capital) and worlds like Ryloth being allied but separate from the New Republic shows Separatist leaning worlds were probably given more consideration.

 

According to Fiolini, the Droid Army in the Clone Wars eventually joined the Rebellion. I'm inclined to think there's a small number of Separatists with the Rebellion but the 20 year gap means a lot more like our world than Star Wars usually does.

 

The Droid Army was shut down-that was in Revenge of the Sith itself.

The one major separatist holdout in legends I can think of was Gizor Dellso and his rebellion on Mustafar-a geonosian who survived the massacre and cranked up his private army refusing to accept the CIS had lost the war. So he was a genuine believer in the cause and ended up dying for it.

 

And yet there's an episode about them.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Last_Battle

 

Those guys didn't shut down cause Kalani ignored the command order to shut down, cause he thought it was a Republic trick (which it was from certain point of view).

But I think plenty of worlds and individuals who fought for the CIS later fought for the Rebel Alliance or at least formed their own Rebel cells.

 

Concerning the question of remaining elements of the Droid army: canon has introduced the Droid Gotra, a group of militant droid-rights activists founded by battle droids after the Clone Wars. They've been mentioned in several disconnected stories, which makes me think that they'll might feed into some sort of larger Droid revolution plot in future stories

 

We have Gizor Dellso and some separatist holdouts in legends-most of them ended up meeting the business end of 501st blasters though. Which is a testament to their reputation and effectiveness.

 

According to the New Essential Guide to Aliens, the Separatist-aligned species were among the most persecuted under Human High Culture, and once the New Republic came to power they reacted to their former persecution in different ways. The Neimoidians joined the NR and began incessantly trying to rebuild their image, even swallowing their pride and asking their hated genetic forebears, the Duros, for pointers. The Skakoans and Koorivar meanwhile went full isolationist, their faith in any kind of central Galactic authority completely shattered. And the Muuns... were left exactly as they were by both the Empire and NR, since even Palpatine knew that if you kriff with the Muuns, you kriff with the entire Galactic economy.

 

The Muuns fell to the Yuuzhan Vong didn't they?

 

Well, their were "Heroes on both sides", so I'm sure some Rebellion people thought the Separatists had the right idea, as they probably blamed the Old Republic for turning into the Empire.