Saga Unpopular Star Wars opinions!

I know but i want a real show with continuity i dont care if the protagonists are Force Users or not

 

I agree. It felt more grand like the Prequels. BOBF, Kenobi, and Mando feel low budget in terms of sets, and etc.

 

Only Disney project I love as much as the original saga. It’s so good.

As for another unpopular opinion: Star Wars is kind of not so good when it goes so obviously into “it’s a Western!” territory.

 

Book of Boba Fett is better than Obi Wan Kenobi.

 

Agreed.

 

They should let James Luceno to be the one who writtes for Plagueis in the New Canon just like Zahn is with Thrawn

 

The Phantom Menace is probably my favorite Star Wars movie so far.
Also, Jake Lloyd's Anakin Skywalker is probably my favorite version of the character so far.
I think Jar Jar was a better character than Threepio.
And I really liked the Obi-wan Kenobi show.

 

Recently re-watched ROTS, and I feel like the cheating death aspect of the story was not needed.

AOTC established the forbidden relationship that could destroy both Anakin and Padme’s lives.

After the opening sequence of ROTS, one of the first things established is that Padme is pregnant and has anxiety about what to do about it. Soon thereafter she’s talking about moving to the countryside where nobody will know.

I feel like all the necessary pieces were there for a story in which their relationship is exposed, their reputations and careers are on the line, and Anakin allies with Palpatine in the face of expulsion and to protect Padme’s political future.

Granted, it’s all in hindsight. But the Plagueis stuff, the premonitions, etc. I think it was another layer on top of what would have been perfectly fine without it.




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Anakin’s ambition to cheat death is established in AOTC. It’s not the only reason he turns to the dark side, but it’s not an unnecessary addition.

 

I know. But the forbidden relationship took a back seat. There’s anxiety about keeping the secret and what it could do to the both of them. And moments of tension such as Anakin wanting to go back for Padme and Obi-Wan saying it would get him expelled.

Then ROTS, right after Palpatine gets rescued, again establishes the anxiety of Padme in that she’s now pregnant and doesn’t know how to keep it a secret. Her solution apparently being to run away.

But soon thereafter there’s a hard pivot about Anakin being anxious about saving Padme from premonitions. The secrecy of the relationship becomes secondary, and by the time people like Palpatine and Obi-Wan admit to knowing, it’s a non-issue.

There was foreshadowing of a secret that could blow up into a scandal that never does.

When I say the story didn’t need it, that includes AOTC. Anakin losing Shmi need not have culminated in Anakin proclaiming that some day he’ll learn to stop people from dying.

That could simply be a stepping stone to deepening the connection between Padme and Anakin. She was there for him when Obi-Wan was not.


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Actually cheating death subplot is crucial. GL shared that the Jedi do not covet, they “let go of those they fear to lose.” While the Sith cling, they obsess, and hold on to life, trying to even defy death with darth arts. It helped establish a major part of Sith lore in Canon.

 

I do think the cheating death bit is abrupt in that Palpatine tells Anakin it exists, then he says he doesn’t know, but then he tells Anakin that by killing his friends he’ll be strong enough to save Padme.

Jump to Anakin killing kids and crying on Mustafar, because deep down he knows it’s wrong. But then when Padme confronts him on Mustafar, he’s confident that his murdering has made him powerful enough to save her?

In the film, Bail and Yoda don’t seem to have an opinion on her being pregnant. It doesn’t come as any kind of surprise. It seems a non issue to Obi-Wan. He was perfectly ok in not talking about it in Rots, where as he’s threatening Anakin with expulsion over his attachment to Padme in AOTC.

With Obi-Wan sitting on the council, they could have even come at it from the angle of the Jedi finding out and debating over what to do with Anakin and Obi-Wan torn between friendship and duty. Or Anakin getting stripped of rank and blaming Obi-Wan for not standing up for him while Palpatine takes control of the Jedi council and promises to reinstate him.


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The Council could have given Anakin a special dispensation like the one that allowed Revan and Bastila to be married and remain Jedi, seeing their bond strengthened them in the Force.

 

I don’t see that being a thing in Lucas’ universe. The fireplace scene in AOTC makes it very clear that such a relationship is unacceptable and could destroy their lives as a senator and Jedi, and would require living a lie.


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It can work with Anakin being a hero of the Clone Wars and all the sacrificed he made in the campaigns. That and the Jedi wanting him to spy on the Chancellor, a friend. It would have been a a good bargain for the Jedi to give Anakin the option to allow his marriage be public and stay a Knight; this would then be in tension with Palpatine dangling that Padme is going to die and only the dark side can save her.,

 

I think Lucas included that to draw a parallel between Shmi and Padmé, but perhaps you're right. I don't know how it would have turned out without it.

 

Forbidding the marriage puts them in the situation where he cannot be honest with the Council and Obi-Wan about his visions. It isolates him, leaving him vulnerable to Palpatine. It also isolates Padme because she cannot openly confide in anyone about what’s going on.

It fits with ROTJ, where Luke feels more powerful by embracing the dark side. Both times, a Jedi must shed their Jedi beliefs and embrace the Sith way, which is embracing the notion of no limits. When someone is raised as a Jedi or a Sith, they are embracing a whole lifestyle and philosophy. One that becomes part of their core self. To do a 180° degree turn, you have to be willing to forsake everything you once believed in.

Remember that Lucas felt that it needed to come from a place of selfishness, rather than just ego. Luke almost turns because of his inability to let go. Anakin feeling betrayed and not being motivated by power and fear makes it difficult for Luke to relate.

 

Hence why Padme said “it would be living a lie, that would destroy both our lives.”

 

I’m not a big fan of the prequels, especially not TPM or AOTC.

But not because of stiff dialogue or childish humor.

But because Palpatine is mostly benefiting from his own failures, or seeming failures.

In TPM, everything that Sidious wants to have happen, fails, and yet Palpatine has advanced his position to Chancellor. The treaty is never signed, Padme flees Naboo, Maul is killed, and the blockade is broken. Yet Palpatine gets what he wants even though every single stated objective failed.

In AOTC, an assassination attempt on Padme fails. Then when another attempt is made, the Jedi again foil it and capture Zam. Right before Zam can reveal who hired her, she is killed using a dart of which no information is available in the archives. Obi-Wan just coincidentally knows a guy that is familiar with Kamino, so much so he can identify the craftsmanship of a dart originating there.

When Obi-Wan returns to the archives, again there’s no information about Kamino.

Obi-Wan fails to capture Jango, which leads him on a chase to Geonosis. Resulting in his reporting back about the droid army as well as his capture, creating an emergency that Palpatine exploits when every single move up to that point had just been a string of the bad guys failing again.

Then at the very end Palpatine and Dooku pat themselves on the back because everything is going to plan.

Let’s even carry this into ROTS, where Dooku is killed. Grievous is killed. And Palpatine allows himself to get drawn into a fight with Mace where he could have potentially been killed based on Anakin and Mace’s decisions.

Now, I know Grievous and Dooku were expendable to Palpatine by ROTS, but his safety net is being destroyed and he’s allowing himself to be extremely vulnerable politically and physically, going all in on his faith that Anakin would turn.

It seems to me that Palpatine basically lost every step of the way, yet he comes out on top with three sentences:

“You could call for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum.”

“What Senator would have the courage to propose such a radical amendment?”

“I have the power to save the ones you love.”

None of which even occur at the climax of their respective films.

Palpatine loses in the first act. Wins before the climax. Then the heroes, at least in TPM come out on top, but it’s meaningless.

Emotionally, for me, they’re hollow.

 

@TaradosGon , you make interesting points. However, I think Palpatine did more things deliberately than you think. I'm fairly sure it says in the EU that becoming chancellor was the main point of invading Naboo from the beginning.
In Attack of the Clones, the assassination attempt failed, but Palpatine still managed to get her out of the picture long enough to manipulate Jar Jar into giving him emergency power. I suspect he meant for Obi-wan to follow Jango Fett to Kamino, but obviously, he did not want Jango Fett to know that. Probably Palpatine and Dooku planned on the war to begin a bit later, but all the main characters did is escalate the plan.
I think I see your point, but it was Palpatine's plan to get Anakin to kill Dooku, so as to bring forth his evil. Yes, I agree that the plan could have failed, but, for the most part, I think most of the things he did were reasonable, considering his position.

 

@TaradosGon , I think Palpatine was supposedly a master of the Xanatos Gambit. Xanatos Gambit - TV Tropes

 

My understanding is that, yes, Palpatine wanted Amidala to sign the treaty, surrendering sovereignty to the TF before the Senate could make a decision to expose Valorum as a weak ruler while also gaining sympathy for himself as Senator of Naboo.

But every part of the step failed. The TF did not kill the Jedi, the Jedi helped Amidala escape and the treaty was never signed, and Maul failed to recapture Amidala.

But then Palpatine makes a suggestion to Amidala and achieves his goal, even though every attempt at fulfilling his goal was a failure.

It fits the concept of Xanatos Gambit as [mention]Sarge [/mention] mentioned. But for me, that’s not interesting to watch. It’s seeing the heroes win again and again and again, just to lose abruptly when Palpatine makes a comment that causes the heroes to advance his agenda for him. Not as part of some big climactic moment, but just at relatively slow points in the middle of the films.

As for AOTC, I don’t know how he could have anticipated that Obi-Wan would follow Jango when there were no records of Kamino or the Dart in the Jedi records. That would have been a dead end had it not been for Dexter. And had Obi-Wan succeeded in apprehending Jango, then he never would have gone to Geonosis to discover the droid army to make the Republic aware of it so that they would grant Palpatine emergency powers.

Had Zam killed Padme or had Jango’s trail gone cold without Dexter’s help, then the Jedi would have been stuck and unaware of the armies on Kamino and Geonosis.

It’s possible that had Padme been successfully assassinated that Palpatine would use that to push the approval of an army through legislation with the Kaminoans conveniently delivering one soon thereafter.

But again, if this is a Xanatos Gambit, then really Palpatine has won so fully that the tension is really gone. Any victory that the heroes earn isn’t really a victory at all and becomes meaningless.

Palpatine gets what he wants long before the climactic battle of TPM. When the Jedi return to Naboo with Padme, Sidious orders them destroyed, really just out of spite as they have nothing to gain at that point. Signing the treaty at that point was redundant.

And then when the heroes win and Augie’s Great Municipal Band plays this uplifting victory music, it gives the viewer a misguided sense of having achieved something, when the villain had already won.

AOTC, between Palpatine/Dooku, the Imperial March, and Obi-Wan/Yoda, it’s more blatant that the heroes had lost. But again they had lost before the events of the film even began.

This isn’t like Scar fighting Simba for control of Pride Rock, or Frodo deciding whether to destroy the ring in which everything is at stake. AOTC has the illusion of high stakes, but the heroes can’t win. They already lost. The armies already exist before the opening crawl. The emotional impact of that, IMO, makes for a hollow story.


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To me, the fact that Palpatine is capable of improvising when his plans go slightly awry is one the great things about the PT. He slyly wins through manipulation of events, setting up plans detailed enough to survive numerous contingencies. The hollowness of the victories in the PT is what makes them so interesting to me, it highlights the skills of the Sith and some of the blind spots our heroes are unaware of, making their ultimate defeat a natural consequence of exploitation of those same weaknesses. Rather than being outnumbered or outclassed, they're maneuvered subtly into a losing game.

As for the discovery of Kamino, the point is less about it being a completely obscured secret, and more that some of the Jedi's dogmatic arrogance is being used to block them from finding the truth sooner. A random diner owner knows about Kamino's reputation, so they would've found it eventually using the clue of the dart. It's debatable whether the Sith intended the dart to be fired as a direct clue, or whether it was simply Jango's slip up, but either way there plenty of ways the Jedi could have been led to the army, the course of events we see just happened to occur due to chance. Plus a sidenote, the assassination of Padme isn't part of Palpatine's direct plan. It's Nute Gunray's desire she die, as a request prior to his joining the Separatists, so Dooku carries it out for that reason. Palpatine doesn't care all that much about her truthfully, and her living or dying is irrelevant to starting the bigger conflict.