The "treaty" in TPM

I never understood why Palpatine/Sidious would want a treaty when invading Naboo.

If Queen Amidala had signed the treaty, then she would have given up her planet on her own free will, and there wouldn't be any debate in the Senate about the Trade Federation's actions, meaning there would have been no vote of confidence in Chancellor Valorum, and Palpatine would have remained a Senator.

If Queen Amidala signed the treaty, what would Sidious have gained? Nothing. So why did he "want that treaty signed" so bad?

Also, why didn't the Trade Federation oppose to having a treaty? Wouldn't it defeat the whole point of having a blockade? They blockaded Naboo because of the taxation on trade routes, if the treaty was signed, they'd end up with a planet, but would still be taxed.

 

having a planet is pretty good.

 

Yeah, but Sidious really wouldn't allow the Trade Federation to have to planet unless he became Chancellor.

 

He wanted the treaty signed so he could come before the senate and complain about the state of the republic, having such in incredible injustice allowed to happen - a young, innocent, beautiful queen is forced by "greedy, squabbling delegates" to accept that invasion. Result: Senate angry, complaints about that "this body is not capable of action" and that "new leadership is needed".

Fortunately for him, Amidala short-circuited all this by coming to Corouscant herself and letting herself be persuaded to call for the no-confidence vote. Treaty no longer needed - mission accomplished without it: The new chancellor is Palpatine.

 

With that treaty Naboo would be but the first to secceede from the Republic (as is the case with other planets later in AOTC).

 

How would the Senate know that the Queen unwillingly gave away her planet legally? The treaty would cover protect the Trade Federation from any actions the Senate would have taken.

Remember this:

Governor: How will you explain this invasion to the Senate?
Viceroy: The Queen and I will sign a treaty which will legalize our occupation here. I have assurances it will be ratified.

 

Yes, assurances from Darth Sidious! You don't really think that he really planned to take measures that the senate will actually ratify this treaty?

 

What Mandragora said.

Basically, his whole plan of having the Queen call for a vote of no-confidence was improvised when his original plan of killing her failed.

His initial plan it seems was very different than what turned out. Palpatine's saving strength is not only his diabolical genius, but his ability to include a series of failsafes in his planning as well, so that no matter what happens, he comes out on top.

His original plan it seems is to have the TF blockade Naboo, legitimize the invasionn with a "treaty", enslave the people and execute the Queen. Meanwhile, Palpatine, able to escape the whole tragedy due to his senatorial duties, can go before the senate as the sole survivor of the Naboo genocide and lament that his beloved Queen has been executed and his entire people enslaved by the greedy TF, who are able to get away with it due to a "treaty", thus prompting outrage in the senate and exposing the inability of the government to provide safety for the people, thus resulting in Valorum's removal from office.
The TF meanwhile would remain as a threat, now occupying a whole plane, with enough resources to wag war on further planets now. Soon other commerical guilds will join them, such as the Commerce Guild and the Techno Union, and as Palpatine becomes Supreme Chancellor in place of Valorum, he will state how the tragedy that befell his own people and wiped out Naboo could soon happen elsewhere, and indeed it may already be so, as the TF and co ammass huge resources and begin building armies for further conquest. To counter this threat to the Republic, the Grande Army is created, which the jedi reluctantly must fight as part of, to combat the genuine threat of the TF and their invading armies, thus dwindling the jedi numbers. Then everything plays out like it did in ROTS, with Darth Maul replacing Vader as the Emperor's enforcer.

Very little of this original plan survived, but Palpatine was able to modify it on the fly to accomodate new changes, namely Padme and the Naboo victory and the discovery of Anakin.

 

Cats are among the most respected animals to a black magus. Their distinguishing ability is: They always land on their feet

 

It seems to me that this is a classic case of a Hitchcockian "MacGuffin": that plot point that really doesn't matter what it is, but gets everybody moving. I don't know if Lucas thought of it that way, but it seems that way to me.

 

Had his orginal planed worked out, then Padme wouldn't have escaped and landed on Tatooine, meaning Anakin would not have been discovered.

 

That blew my mind.

 

What really throws a monkey wrench into all of this is the ROTS plot hinting that Sidious (the Sith) may have created Anakin via manipulating midis. Lucas purposely didn't answer that but he suggested it. If it's true, then Maul was meant to die, Anakin was meant to be discovered somehow, and TPM did go as planned. Of course this entire plot was created years after Lucas wrote TPM, so details and motives still are a bit shady.

But assuming that isn't the case and that TPM just didn't go exactly as planned. Palpatine would have gotten his sympathy vote. But then what? He has to create a galactic emergency and start a war. Meaning he would need two armies. So the clones must have been part of the plan for later. Yet we have quotes from Lucas saying "It becomes obvious to the Emperor, that droids are of no use for fighting" suggesting the clones were a second choice. I suppose Maul could order the clones for Sidious and Gunray perhaps could have led the CIS with Grievous with Maul as an enforcer of Sidious's will. Perhaps Maul is a military genius and we just never were shown that.

At least everything after AOTC we can safely say went according to plan for Sidious.

 

I trudged through 400 pages of "Cloak of Deception" and got no real answer to this. Zombie wraps it up in three paragraphs. Well Done.

 

Great thread

 

In the TPM Visual Dictionary it says that Naboo had tax exemptions from Trade Fed. because it was one of the planets in the Outer Rim.

It then says the greedy TF didnt like this so this was their motivation to agreeing to blockade it at Sidious' request.

It also mentions that Palpatine supported Amidala's ascension to the throne as he hoped that as a young woman he would have more control over her then the last King.

So does this mean the Treaty meant that Naboo was going to agree to pay taxes and the blockade would then cease - allowing Naboo to participate in trade again (and no longer be under occupation)?

So the signed Treaty would seemingly have made it a legal agreement between a planet under trade blockade and the trade federation.

(Although we know that they were actually and illegally occupied planet).


The Visual Dictionary also says: Pals represented 36 other outer rim planets in the Senate in addition to his home Planet Naboo.


... Sooooo, I get that he wanted to create a way to get political attention/sympanty for himself career-wise and create no confidence among the senate towards Vallorium ...

but how does this Trade Federation thing fit in with AOTC and Dooku meeting with the other Guilds and Federations who become the Separatists? Agh!!!

 

Other planets and groups felt they were being taxed unfairly
without due compensation.

From the SW databank:

Despite rosy recollections of a greater past, the Galactic Republic succumbed into undeniable decay. Its cumbersome bureaucracy slowed down any attempts at reform, and too many of its constituents had grown corrupt and complacent to enact any change. A feeling of disenfranchisement grew in the galaxy, particularly in outlying systems where heavy taxation was not balanced by improved services.
Into this disarray stepped a charismatic man named Count Dooku, a former Jedi, who sought to teach the Republic a lesson. The status quo could be upended and there was an opportunity for change -- radical change. Dooku led a popular Separatist movement that gained increasing momentum, and in two short years, he had a following of several thousand solar systems.

 

Due to instability of the current leaders and the Beourocracy of the Republic all that one would think would have to happen is that Palpatine would just have to choose a headstrong yet sympathetic leader. I'm sure he knew Padme enough to know she wouldn't sign the treaty. That she believed in Democracy and would attempt to cause awarness to this growing problem in the galaxy and that this would encourage other disgruntled systems to step forward.

 

Good stuff, Good stuff

 

So Naboo was taxing the trade routes and the Trade Federation was upset about it? That's why they blockaded the planet? Was Naboo in the wrong by imposing taxes like that or was it legal for them to do so? Was it really the Naboo who were the bad guys? I never thought deep enough about this to make any sense of it.

 

No the Senate decided that. The EU says that it was Palps idea though in TPM he seems pretty outraged when he says:

"It all started here, with the taxation of trade routes!"


It probably was his idea and he got someone else to say it.


Either way, he would have had enough sympathy to get a vote-of-noconfidence in Chancellor Valorum. The guy wasn't getting anything done and he really had no allies in the senate, at all.

He was on his way out and Palps just slipped right in since no one expected a vote-of-noconfidence so soon.

am I spelling that right?

 

That would be stage two of his master plan. Dooku and the Seperatists have nothing to do with the Naboo Blockade. Palpatine's plan was exactly as Zombie put it, but second part, which we see in AOTC, was what he needed Dooku and the Seperatists for. By starting a war, he was able to secure powers under the pretense of bypassing the senate to make big decisions quickly in a time of crisis. He then uses these powers to destroy the Jedi and declare himself Emperor. So he influenced Count Dooku after TPM, got him to start the succesion from the republic, which created the war he needed.