Star Wars Fanfic Ideas, Recommendations, and Discussions Thread

LindyAF

Well-known member
Anakin, with a living Padme at his side? That's a very different situation in terms of politics, PR, and desires.

Who knows? In large part it probably depends on just how everything works out.

I can't really see Padme as characterized staying with Anakin in this scenario or backing any sort of Imperial-like regime, whether it's led by Palpatine or Anakin, even for a regime that was significantly better than Sidious' empire was.

Padme at least in TCW was characterized by being an avid peacenik - to the point of opposing further mobilization during the Clone Wars, and seeking some sort of peaceful settlement with the Trade Federation / Separatists (which is basically insane, given how they were), and pretty much always in favor of the galactic senate and democracy as an institution, as well as being close with and politically aligned with the senators who started the rebellion.

IMO this... does not make any sense at all given who she associates with, the history of Naboo, that Palpatine is Naboo's former senator, and her friendship with and marriage to Anakin, but it's still the characterization we got.
 

Emperor Tippy

Merchant of Death
Super Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
I can't really see Padme as characterized staying with Anakin in this scenario or backing any sort of Imperial-like regime, whether it's led by Palpatine or Anakin, even for a regime that was significantly better than Sidious' empire was.

Padme at least in TCW was characterized by being an avid peacenik - to the point of opposing further mobilization during the Clone Wars, and seeking some sort of peaceful settlement with the Trade Federation / Separatists (which is basically insane, given how they were), and pretty much always in favor of the galactic senate and democracy as an institution, as well as being close with and politically aligned with the senators who started the rebellion.

IMO this... does not make any sense at all given who she associates with, the history of Naboo, that Palpatine is Naboo's former senator, and her friendship with and marriage to Anakin, but it's still the characterization we got.

Padme's characterization is all over the place throughout canon. What her actual beliefs are and how they balance with her personal interests and pragmatism is really anyone's guess.

Then throw in that she is a mother with newborn twins and how that will affect things.

It also depends on how pragmatic Padme is willing to be. I mean Palpatine didn't commit a coup or something, the Senate legitimately and legally turned the Republic into an Empire and named Palpatine Emperor. Sure, he rigged the game from day one but as far as the public and the Senate itself is concerned; it was 100% legitimate and legal.

This isn't the Empire after two decades of rule and repression, or the Empire after it has blown up one of the galaxies most prominent core worlds, or the Empire after the Emperor has dissolved the Senate.

This is the Empire immediately after an attempted Jedi coup against the most popular politician in the galaxy, one who has just defeated the CIS, one who is publicly seen as anti-corruption and pro "the little guy".

The Republic was a shit government for basically everyone, and a lot of the reforms that the Empire made were seen as (and were in fact) good things from the viewpoint of the average citizen.

Any kind of large scale revolt is an impossibility at the time, the GAR being fully on Palpatine's side and the CIS being fully defanged.

I could see Padme being pragmatic enough to decide that the best chance of actually throwing Palpatine down and restoring democracy is to stand shoulder to shoulder with Anakin and play the game from the very heart of the Empire. As far as anyone knows, Palpatine will eventually die of old age. And Anakin is both his apprentice and the commander of the Empires military forces.

Play the game, temper Palpatine's evil to the extent she can, and prepare to replace him (either via overthrowing him or by simple old age seeing him off) before restoring the Republic.

I mean a living Padme with the twins and a healthy Anakin? She is the one person that Palpatine absolutely cannot move against, he does and he guarantees that Anakin and him have their fight to the death. Moving against the twins? The same.

So long as Padme is at least nominally and publicly loyal, she is basically free to do what she wants. She is free to make herself the beloved face of the government to the public, the mother of the Empire, the Just Queen, and whatever other monikers seem useful; and Palpatine, again, can't really do anything about it.

Hell, the real baller move would be Ashoka Tano walking up to Skywalker. I mean she wasn't a Jedi at the time, and Anakin is unlikely to be willing to just let her be killed. Making her Padme's/the kids bodyguard would be hilarious. And, given the situation, Palpatine may well let her get away with basically neutrality so long as she is willing to publicly swear fealty and condemn the Jedi.
 

The Whispering Monk

Well-known member
Osaul
Palpatine can't politically survive that fight at the time
I have no idea why you think that's true. Especially, if Anakin dies 'off-screen' and Palpatine can make up whatever he wants to about it.

If Anakin doesn't move against Palpatine, all of the above is what essentially forces Palpatine to de jure make Anakin his Heir

I think you're underestimating the creativeness of Darth Sidious in this. Don't see any need for Palps to do it, nor do I think he'd be forced by public perception to do it even with your ideas about how it might have ended up this way. I think Anakin is still eminently pliable, fragile and emotional at this point. That's a pure recipe for disaster for Anakin in any confrontation with Sidious.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree at this point on it.
 

The Whispering Monk

Well-known member
Osaul
I mean a living Padme with the twins and a healthy Anakin? She is the one person that Palpatine absolutely cannot move against, he does and he guarantees that Anakin and him have their fight to the death. Moving against the twins? The same.
I don't agree with this simply because Sidious can move against them in any sort of fashion he wants. Overt or not. Anakin can't always be there, won't always be there. And if there's one thing Sidious is good at it's turning friends against each other, so Padme's allies aren't necessarily her friends.
 

The Whispering Monk

Well-known member
Osaul
Was looking at earlier pages finally...

That was my idea in the first place, that they were stranded in some dark corner of the galaxy and were forced to settle and rebuild there. In forced exile, and with the knowledge that many of their comrades didn't make it.
Might I suggest they inhabit the Hapan Consortium frm Legends U?
 

Abhorsen

Local Degenerate
Moderator
Staff Member
Comrade
Osaul
Admittedly, this is Padme right after Anakin ordered the slaughter of children.

But honestly, I don't know how canon this is, but I'm pretty sure Palpatine foresaw Padme being dealt with. IDK how much of mustafar he foresaw, but my guess is a bunch.
 

LindyAF

Well-known member
Admittedly, this is Padme right after Anakin ordered the slaughter of children.

But honestly, I don't know how canon this is, but I'm pretty sure Palpatine foresaw Padme being dealt with. IDK how much of mustafar he foresaw, but my guess is a bunch.

I quite like the theory that Padme's "dying of a broken heart" was actually Palpatine somehow draining her in order to prevent Vader from dying.
 

Hlaalu Agent

Nerevar going to let you down
Founder
I quite like the theory that Padme's "dying of a broken heart" was actually Palpatine somehow draining her in order to prevent Vader from dying.

For all we know it could be multiple factors, such as her getting throttled, and then having complications during pregnancy; after which she loses her will to live, and then Sidious drains what little life remains. And maybe her losing her will to live is what gave Palps the opening to suck her dry like a carpi-sun tetrapack.
 

Urabrask Revealed

Let them go.
Founder
For all we know it could be multiple factors, such as her getting throttled, and then having complications during pregnancy; after which she loses her will to live, and then Sidious drains what little life remains. And maybe her losing her will to live is what gave Palps the opening to suck her dry like a carpi-sun tetrapack.
Not to mention that losing the will to live and heartbreak are legit occurences.
 

Bassoe

Well-known member
Hell, just Padme surviving childbirth without Palpatine having to intervene would cause issues. The one person that Palpatine can't really turn on at that time is a healthy Anakin. He isn't the mysterious Darth Vader, Palpatine's personal hit man and problem solver. He is Anakin Skywalker, the Hero With No Fear, the Saviour of the Emperor, the one who saved the Republic from the treasonous Jedi and threw them down. Padme is, again, one of the most beloved people in the galaxy and a bonafide war hero while also appealing to basically every anti-Palpatine faction politically speaking. And she's married to Anakin, the mother of his two children.

The Skywalkers are very much the first family of the Empire. Anakin basically has to be Palpatine's declared Heir, PR alone demands it. Until and unless Palpatine takes a wife, Padme is the First Lady of the Empire and everyone knows that Luke will be Emperor someday.
And you're forgetting that Order 66 has already gone out, and Anakin has just slaughtered the Younglings. Any shine he had is GONE.
Thing is, who knows about the Great Youngling Massacre? Obi-Wan, currently dead after Mustafar or public enemy number one and unlikely to be trusted, Anakin and Palpatine. So that's how Palpatine keeps Anakin under control, in exchange for not sharing the holorecordings with the galactic media. Or Padme.
 

Emperor Tippy

Merchant of Death
Super Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
Thing is, who knows about the Great Youngling Massacre? Obi-Wan, currently dead after Mustafar or public enemy number one and unlikely to be trusted, Anakin and Palpatine. So that's how Palpatine keeps Anakin under control, in exchange for not sharing the holorecordings with the galactic media. Or Padme.
Padme already knows.

As for telling the media? Remember that this is immediately after Palpatine held Anakin up as the hero and saviour and has publicly condemned the entire order for treason. Even if Palpatine dumped the recordings onto the public, the counter is as easy as a PR campaign saying it was obviously the work of disgruntled traitor Jedi trying to bring down the only loyal Jedi (Anakin) and was obviously fake.

Anakin was trying to save the young children kidnapped by the Jedi, but the evil Jedi realized their plans were falling apart and so turned on the children.

Honestly, it doesn't have to be a particularly coherent argument. It's PR in a galaxy spanning polity that has been at civil war for years and just became an Empire with lots of purging going on. Rumor far more than fact controls, especially off of Coruscant itself.

Could Palpatine win that PR fight? Sure. But what does he gain from it vs. the costs of it? He loses Anakin as an Apprentice.

Sure, he might plan on ruling forever but he hasn't laid the groundwork for that yet, he still has lots of pesky Jedi running around, he doesn't have decent Jedi hunters trained up yet, he doesn't have a generation of indoctrination behind the New Order yet. He has naked force in the GAR (and to a lesser extent/backup the Droid Army), he has nominal political control, he has blackmail. What he doesn't (yet) have is stability or durability of position.

Anakin is able and willing to go Jedi hunting, he brings a ton of political legitimacy with him (and even more if he can get Padme to at least mouth support to the New Order), and he is at least nominally Palpatine's Heir already as far as the Sith go. If the price of his support is legitimating Anakin as Crown Prince? Palpatine would pay that without blinking, he can always off the boy later if it becomes a problem.
 

LindyAF

Well-known member
Why did the youngling Massacre occur, anyway? Sidious afterwards seems interested in setting up various dark side force sensitive operatives of various sorts (in both Legends and Disney), and the Inquisitorious in Disney canon outright recruits former Padawans. It seems like it'd be a waste to get rid of probably the lion's share of force sensitive children in the galaxy, especially who are still at an age where they're presumably pretty moldable.

I guess one interpretation is that Palpatine did want an actual apprentice, not an enforcer, and only started up his various programs for dark siders once Vader was crippled, with the intent of replacing him. Alternatively, it could actually have been Vader's decision (bitter about never really getting to be a youngling?), and Palpatine just didn't care.
 

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
There was also a lot of anti force user sentiment brewing at the time.

Yoda for example went from being ab unimpeachable pillar of civilization to a reviled green sorcerer who presided over an order of child stealing religious fanatics by the time the war was nearing its end.

A video of Anakin merking younglings might not actually do the damage people think it might.
 
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LindyAF

Well-known member
There was also a lot of anti force user sentiment brewing at the time.

... was there though? from where? I can't think of any actual instances of Jedi having bad relations with local forces or their own forces in the Disney canon with the sole exception of like Pong Krell, who was a traitor to both the Republic and the Jedi. You'd think the Jedi would notice if like, Palpatine was running a propaganda campaign against them (we also have no indication he was and it would go against his messaging on the war and the CIS). I can't think of any characters who accuse the Jedi of anything or have a negative opinion on them prior to the Empire, except 1) outer rim locals who want to stay uninvolved in the war, who don't exactly make up the core of the empire 2) people who feel they don't do enough.

After the attempted arrest Palpatine has an accusation he can make and can run anti-Jedi propaganda without having to worry about any actual Jedi left over, although we still see few people who actually seem to have a negative opinion of them - mostly it's "I didn't think the Force was real" or "The Empire is after them and that endangers me."
 

The Immortal Watch Dog

Well-known member
Hetman
... was there though?

There was that whole EU story about the parents of a force sensitive child who was taken from them partially against their will trying to sue the Jedi Order and fall out over Yoda basically putting down a slave rebellion at the request of the Arkanian Government. Who caused said slave rebellion by gleefully pulling Unit 731 tier crap on sentient beings.

@Guy of Z can elaborate further on that.
 

Hlaalu Agent

Nerevar going to let you down
Founder
There was that whole EU story about the parents of a force sensitive child who was taken from them partially against their will trying to sue the Jedi Order and fall out over Yoda basically putting down a slave rebellion at the request of the Arkanian Government. Who caused said slave rebellion by gleefully pulling Unit 731 tier crap on sentient beings.

@Guy of Z can elaborate further on that.

And this shit is why I support the Separatists, no matter what people say. Everyone, even the big corporations have greivances. Remember the Republic literally punished the Trade Federation for being victim to a terror attack, which happened to remove the non-corrupt leadership... The Republic refusing to help unimportant member worlds, because well, they are unimportant. Then like IWD said, literally sending Yoda to put down a slave revolt.

The Republic kind of sounds like an evil empire to me, or at least a horribly corrupt monstrosity. But I am pretty sure I have said that the Republic was already turning into the Empire long before the prequel era and probably to a very large degree without Sith help.
 

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