Early Episode III review from Kevin Smith

[A Black Falcon]

Really, it's an effective way to argue a point: completely ignoring the facts and making up your own to fit your false argument. Bravo!

You should know a lot about that one, OB1... at least the 'not listening to the other person's arguement" part.

I don't know about Milosevic, but Hitler had plenty of motives for what he did. I'll get back to you with details if you want, but I must be off to the cinema right now.

I'd say Milosevic has just as good reasons as Hitler. Well, except maybe he's a bit less crazy...

Spare me that. You've never told me what his motives are, you both merely assure me that he does have motives, and that this movie will satisfy my desire to know what they are. I'm not ignoring any of the facts, because these facts simply aren't revealed yet. How can I acknowledge what does not exist?

How can you say this immediately after I describe a good chunk of his motives? That's being just as bad as OB1 is... 'I'm right because I'm right and nothing you can say could change that fact" is never a good philosophy. And acting like others didn't JUST say things that directly contradict what you say here... that's not right.

But Palpatine's motives (to put it simply): wanting to bring a galaxy back to its former glory and remove the incompetence that has controlled it for thousands of years, has many parallels to Hitler's. There is more to it than that, but I don't want to spoil Episode III for you. I suggest you wait until you see that movie, and if you are still unsatisfied then there is no hope for you.

Yes.

Give me a direct example from the movies where Palpatine states that he wishes to return the galaxy to a former glory. I know that the Republic is decaying from the inside because of poor leadership, and Palpatine remarks upon this, but nothing he does speaks to me that he is really interested in fixing the system. He wishes to replace it with his own, one born from a corrupt individual. Palpatine does not want the system to improve, for that matter, he doesn't care if it changes one bit. The only thing he wants is to be in control of the system, good, bad or ugly, and that the Empire is riddled with corruption and decay is proof enough of that. The Empire is much more iron-fisted in its methods than the Republic, but it is no more efficient or stable (after all, a small rebel force is able to knock the Empire flat on its ass in a matter of only a few years), and right up to the end, Palpatine sees no wrong in what he does, neither in the moral sense, nor in the application sense. He's such a genius that his protege tosses his wrinkled old ass into a reactor core and his empire is brought down with the help of an army of teddy bears.

Palpatine doesn't want order and stability, and he never gets it. What he does want is power, and that's what he gets. He may use the guise of order and stability as bait to convince others, but the viewer cannot be fooled unless he allows himself to be.

It's obvious that he wants to return the galaxy to its former glory... he only talks about it consantly. Yes, he does use that as an excuse to his underlings sometimes (to get them to do things)... but that doesn't change the fact that it is definitely a very real problem and undoubtedly Palpatine wants to change that. Most of what he's saying about it might just be inventions to get people to follow his plans, but i have no doubt he believes what he says.

Of course Palpatine wants order. Why else would he make such a massive effort to force the galaxy to follow his orders? There's only one answer to that... he wants order. Badly. As for saying 'he was no more effective than the Republic'... well, for one thing... the Republic's war (the Clone War) was a sham. Palpatine controls both sides, and is orchestrating the whole thing... so of course it's going to go along with his script. As for the Rebellion, well, you just have to use some creative liscence there. I would admit that there's a bit of a discongruity between the Emperor of TPM and AotC (a cold, calculating, and obviously brilliant man who is succeeding at all of his plans) and the man we saw in the classic trilogy. I mean, really, he lost because of the Ewoks... well, them and Vader's betrayal, but with the Ewoks succeeding on the ground, the only thing that that event changed was whether Luke survived or not...) it is kind of hard to believe when you think about it. :)

I guess the obvious answer is that like his body, using too much of the dark force twisted his mind so that his genious was warped... it's a believable answer, too, when you consider the nature of the Force.

That's like saying that Zeus should have a greater backstory in the tales of Hercules because he's behind everything. Yes Palpatine is behind everything in the movies, but he's not the most important part of the saga. There is sufficient information on Palpatine and his motives in the movies (not even including Episode III which like I said will bring everything together), but he is not the most important character in Star Wars. He's the puppeteer, yes, but the story is about the puppets. Eh, you get my drift. It's about the Skywalker family.

Yeah... Palpatine needs Vader. Especially, I'm sure, in Episode III... though he shows his importance in RotJ too... ;)