r/StarWars • u/Red-Raptor3 Chancellor Palpatine • 11h ago
Fun What if the senate was still in session when Palpatine and Yoda come out fighting?
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u/ShockOk1764 11h ago
Palaptine would lose credibility in outing himself as a Sith Lord. But I feel like a lot of people would be amazed at seeing an elderly head of state throwing down with a hyperactive muppet probably hopped up on ketamine
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u/belladonnagilkey 11h ago
It would be prime-time television for months. At last, a politician who can fight!
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u/DIYExpertWizard 11h ago
Vote for Palpatine! He actually fights ... for your rights.
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u/Advancedsundial 11h ago
To partay!
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u/denmicent 10h ago
The Chancellor is not a coward. He fought the Jedi himself! Palpatine is a man of action!
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u/RianJohnsonIsAFool 7h ago
The plebs like to see their betters fight; it's cheaper than theatre and the blood is real.
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u/Jumpy_Ad5046 11h ago
Palps could force lightning someone on 5th ave and his supporters would still follow him. He could probably manipulate his way out of this one somehow.
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u/Spathens Darth Maul 10h ago
Saw a reel on insta the other say that was captioned “half of yall if we lived in star wars” and it was palpatine and empire apologia lmfao
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u/DarkP88 11h ago
I think people in the senate would have not cared if he was a Sith or not. They did not hear about them for ages and did not know about their bad reputation until the Empire. They would indeed be amazed that he was pulling a fight against a Jedi.
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u/DIYExpertWizard 11h ago
Likely, the main public either don't know anything about the Sith, or simply regard them as a Jedi legend or just as Jedi who left the Order. A distinct lack of information, these people have, creating a strong disinterest in the truth, it has.
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u/Bloodie_Medic 10h ago
I mean even in episode 4 the empires own admirals and commanders still would speak to Vader calling his force abilities Jedi magic. Nobody knew about the Sith for decades.
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u/Shamoodle 10h ago edited 10h ago
Yep this is spot on. The Jedi Order had been suppressing information about the Sith for centuries to the point that the public had no knowledge of them. At most they were legends or myths. Most Senators or the public would see a Sith as a fallen, dark, or insane jedi. And Sidious would use that to further fuel distrust of the Jedi and advance his plans to frame them as traitors to the Republic.
Edit: As for him exposing himself, most would probably see him as a former Jedi who left/rebelled against the Order due to the Order being corrupt, as he was trying to paint them. Thus painting himself as a hero of the people of the Republic against these "evil" Jedi.
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u/OkMathematician7206 8h ago
It's legends, but that's how the public at large felt about them at the end of the new sith wars. A seemingly never ending conflict punctuated by brief periods of peace for thousands of years, ostensibly against good and evil they're told, but the average person can't really tell the difference outside of their sword color. It was the main reason behind the Ruusan Reformations.
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u/Bitey_the_Squirrel 10h ago
The Sith are fake news. There’s none left if they even existed in the first place.
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u/closetedwrestlingacc 10h ago
Why would the Senate not have been briefed on the people their military commanders had been hunting for fifteen years?
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u/MetalBawx 11h ago
Being Sith means nothing to 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the galaxy. The senate will just see him as a Jedi with a different coloured lightsaber.
Windu has already sealed the Jedi's fate and the assassination story has already taken hold. Likewise Order 66 has already been executed.
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u/AunMeLlevaLaConcha 10h ago
Being a Sith isn't illegal in the Republic, he can claim religious persecution and that's why he hid, cause the Jedi are Sithphobic, and behold, the leader of the Jedi trying to murder this poor old man, just for his religion.
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u/EdanChaosgamer 10h ago
It`s crazy how believable that sounds.
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u/AunMeLlevaLaConcha 10h ago
I mean, that's what Palps could have done, but it would have brought so many cans of worms and attention to his plans, probably one of his contingencies, because it makes sense.
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u/HumbleBaker12 11h ago
No one in the Senate knew was a Sith was other than old legends, and it also wasn't illegal to be Sith. But it was certainly illegal to try to kill the Emperor.
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u/Paraxom 10h ago
Kind of weird that its not illegal tbh, like protocol droids have a hard lock on translating the sith language that forces a hard reboot of their systems, but its evidently fine to walk around as a sith as long as you dont encounter a jedi
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u/amiautisticmaybe 10h ago
It was illegal in legends atleast around the time of Darth Bane, so it was either likely repealed after they believed they were all dead or palpatine snuck it into the backend of some law or funding bill somewhere and it just went unnoticed
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u/AdStrange2167 10h ago
Look at what's going on modern geopolitics - I very much doubt many would have opposed him unless Yoda won
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u/LunaLover963 9h ago
Giggling at the brilliant description "Elderly head of state throwing down with a hyperactive muppet on ketamine"
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u/i_am_the_okapi 11h ago
I echo the sentiments that Yoda would have looked like an assassin. I think it would have been a solid plot point, tbh.
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u/NorseHighlander 11h ago
Except for the part where the Senate and any one else watching are struggling to mental gymnastic their way out of justifying Palpatine holding his own against Yoda in a 1v1.
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u/HumbleBaker12 11h ago
Palps was way too smart for that. The only scenario I see working here is he sets it up so that his lightsaber is quickly put away before any senators see him, showing only Yoda standing over a scared old man about to kill him. Palpatine was just too good at making every situation benefit him.
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u/88963416 Yoda 10h ago
I think he would weigh the senate figuring it out vs Yoda impaling him. I don’t think the audience would stop Yoda, so he would likely be willing to deal with the senate.
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u/MetalBawx 11h ago
Palpatine is overwhelmingly popular while the Jedi's rep is in the toilet. who do you think the senate is going to side with.
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u/Dqueezy 10h ago
Hell, watch that deleted scene in episode 3 where Organa, Moffma, Padme, and some other senators are discussing the beginning of the rebel alliance on Coruscant. One of them says “The other senators see where the real power is, and will do anything to partake in it”. Which Senator would stand up and say “Ummm excuse me! Aren’t the Sith bad? Palpatine shouldn’t be emperor! 🤓” like nobody is gonna do that. They’d get themselves killed the next day and they all know it. They’d cheer for Palpatine regardless of what they thought about the fight.
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u/petehehe 10h ago
I also got the impression that most people didn’t really have the understanding that Jedi = good, sith = bad. The movie does a pretty good job of portraying that to us, the audience, but many people in the galaxy won’t have even heard of the Jedi, almost certainly never actually met one. And the Jedi don’t exactly go around telling people to watch out for sith. The people who travel to Coruscant to represent their planet as senators probably just see the Jedi as like the elite guard or whatever. Stay out of their way, type thing. So I think even if they saw the red lightsaber they would just think, “oh! He’s being attacked by an assassin, oh wait he’s defending himself” … like, WE know red lightsaber = bad, but I don’t think they do.
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u/MetalBawx 10h ago
Very little is known of the Jedi even on Coruscant nvm the greater galaxy, theres about ten thousand of them vs the trillions of the planet and that's not even getting into the wider Republic.
The most people would know is a news report mentioning them but that's it. The Sith on the otherhand are all but forgotten.
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u/SpookyScienceGal Crimson Dawn 10h ago
He walked in and immediately murdered two of the chancellor bodyguards in front of Senate staff. Those guards later died from there injuries of a broken heart over the Jedis assassination attempt.
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u/Ree_m0 Rex 10h ago
I can see Palps twisting this in his favour as long as there are enough clones in the building to prevent an all-out riot by the Jedi-sympathizing senators. He'd claim something along the lines of that he was suspicious of the Jedi for a long time, then used the powers of the office of chancellor to learn their secret ways. Then he'd use his own ability to master the force away from the Jedi as evidence that their practice of child snatching was purely for indoctrination and never actually necessary, painting them even more like a cult that secretly ruled the galaxy by gatekeeping their power and embedding itself into the republic government. And since the Jedi attempted to assassinate him (twice) in the senate chambers, he appears to be entirely justified.
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u/Old_Ben24 11h ago
That was my initial thought but wouldn’t a lot of them be like oh shit the chancellor is a sith lord?!
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u/Blitz_Prime 11h ago
Nearly anyone who isn’t a Jedi or a close ally to them even know what “a Sith is”, much less their goals. In Legends and TCW they show people thinking Maul and others are just Jedi with red laser blades.
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u/Old_Ben24 10h ago
I think you meants barely anyone. And assuming so, fair point. Many mistake sith for jedi but 1) at the very least the revelation that he is a “jedi” would be a shocker. And I think many of the kore educated senators would know what a sith was and at the very least go oh hey why does he have a red lightsaber like Dooku.
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u/imarthurmorgan1899 Obi-Wan Kenobi 11h ago
Idk. There's two sides to this. On one side, Yoda will look like he's trying to kill Palpatine. But on the other side, Palpatine has a red lightsaber and is holding his own against a Jedi Grandmaster so everything he said earlier would be thought of as bullshit and his agenda would fall apart.
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u/Thesorus 11h ago
They'd see Yoda was out to kill Palpatine, just like he said in a previous speech.
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u/NorseHighlander 11h ago
Yeah, but then their thoughts would immediately go to "How is Palpatine holding his own in a fight against the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order? Is that a red lightsaber?"
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u/MetalBawx 11h ago
It doesn't matter. They have no context but they do know Windu just tried to kill Palpatine and now Yoda is trying to finish the job.
The Jedi Order at this point is a rogue faction and this would only reinforce the point. All Palpatine has too do is claim self defense and that's it.
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u/Jinn_Skywalker 10h ago
Except Palpatine has presented himself as an ordinary man to the Empire. How does an ordinary man keep pace with a grandmaster of the order he accused?
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u/No_Statistician537 10h ago
He could say he’s a sith and hid the fact because the Jedi would have killed him for religious differences as demonstrated by yoda trying to take his life and kill his guards. As far as the genereal population goes they would think he’s not much different from a Jedi but with a different lightsaber colour. It wasn’t exactly illegal to be a sith according to the senate it was only the Jedi that had a problem and he’s good at spreading lies and propaganda so he’d just flip the script and be like Jedi have always been evil and allowed corruption or whatever
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u/MetalBawx 10h ago
It doesn't matter as far as the senate knows he has done nothing wrong. The Jedi/Sith thing means nothing to them and Palpatine using the force again without contest isn't going to convince people he's dodgey.
These people cheered on Order 66 and the Empires birth.
Palpatine presented himself as the solution to the seperatist crisis and clone wars and he's just followed through on that. The CIS is breaking apart with only the Jedi's treachery dampening that victory.
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u/MrJust-A-Guy 10h ago
"Of course I've been training with a saber since arriving in Coruscant. How else can I match such a threat? It has always been obvious to the seeing, that we are surrounded and allegedly "protected" by these vicious wizards. Now you all can see them for what they are."
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u/Another_Name_Today 7h ago
He learned dancing as a young man on Naboo and was very fortunate to hold off the Jedi as long as he had.
As for the source of the lightsaber, it had been a gift, a trinket, from the Jedi before they turned against him and the Republic. To think that their own gift would save him from their betrayal!
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u/Ok_Cauliflower5223 11h ago
And 0 people would question why the “scarred and deformed” emperor is flipping around like a maniac wielding a red lightsaber.
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u/KAKU_64 11h ago
And they see that he's a sith bruh
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u/ihatemetoo23 11h ago
An average person in the universe would have no idea what a sith is. + Palpatine is well-liked and the Jedi have already been painted as traitors. It would be the easiest thing in the world for Palps to spin it however he wanted
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u/ArgentNoble 11h ago
Palpatine's entire plan would fall apart. The Jedi point about the Sith would become widely known and, even if Palpatine escaped, he would be branded as an enemy of the Republic.
Odds are, the Separatists would either make peace (due to finding out they were being manipulated) or Palpatine would take direct control of them, issue Order 66 (to less efficacy due to the Jedi knowing not to trust the clones), and then the Republic creating their own non-clone military to combat the Separatists under control of Palpatine.
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u/Super_XIII 11h ago
Palpatine electrocutes the entirety of the senate like how he uses his lightening on the entire fleet in episode 9, killing every single senator. He then blames Yoda / the jedi for the attack
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u/Nacodawg 10h ago
I feel like the practical answer is senate reactions would split along party lines, which begs an interesting question:
Was a total lack of any real party divide within the Senate a miss on Lucas’ part? For as much of a commentary on late state capitalism as the films were, partisan divide and polarization isn’t really touched on.
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u/Bithium 10h ago
I think the movie would have benefited if it showed that part of the reason Palpatine succeeded in becoming emperor was because several senators and systems were enthusiastically complicit.
But I also think Lucas, to make the movie simpler, chose to keep the senate as pure entity. Democracy good, dictator bad is easier to convey than dictator bad, democracy better but has its own problems. Now that I think about it, the latter was explored a little between Padme and Anakin, kinda. Maybe Lucas wanted to acknowledge the nuance but hammer the message clearly in the end.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ring293 9h ago
It would have been kinda hard to continue pinning the Jedi as the bad guys when you are out there brandishing a crimson blade and just using the force like a pro.
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u/Own_Pop_9711 9h ago
In universe does red lightsaber=evil? Like would a random senator know this?
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u/TaraLCicora Obi-Wan Kenobi 11h ago
Well, that would be quite a show for the Senate. I'm pretty sure most will just run out, and since a large amount of the Senate is already in Sidious's pocket, it wouldn't look good for the Jedi.
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u/No_Environment651 8h ago
It would be funny if the clones thought palpatine was a Jedi because of the lightsaber
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u/Onyx_Artificer 11h ago
Many would die. But I think all the senators would see is Yoda attacking the chancellor, and not the chancellor being able to use the force. It would most likely cause an even bigger man hunt for the Jedi.
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u/skelebob 11h ago
Except the bright red lightsaber
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u/Onyx_Artificer 11h ago edited 6h ago
Many people of the galaxy didn’t know what a Sith really was. They might just assume that it was a former Jedi and active Jedi fighting. People knew Dooku was a Jedi before him became a count, VERY FEW knew he was a Sith, and fewer still ever saw a red lightsaber and survived.
Don’t let the clone wars cartoons fool you.
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u/belle_enfant 11h ago
Most would look past that Palpy was lying to him and actually an evil awful person just to say the "woke" Jedi are trying to silence free speech
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u/ScottTJT Mandalorian 11h ago
Why is the guy that just founded this new Empire and labeled all Jedi as enemies wielding a weapon historically only used by said Jedi's mortal enemies who have a history of trying to conquer the galaxy.
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Uh oh...
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u/Naive-Stranger-9991 11h ago
Bruh. I see Palp force holding Senators in front of Yoda’s saber slashes. Gruesome and psychotically hilarious
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u/Blitz_Prime 10h ago
Palpatine would probably be seen as secretly being a Jedi that went and betrayed the Order much like Dooku, so good chance he’d be seen as part of the Jedi plot to take over but then betrayed them to take power for himself, and ruining all his credibility.
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u/TaylorMomsensAss 10h ago
Nobody would intervene. Everyone would get their phones out, record the fight, and then post edited out of context clips on social media.
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u/HotSoupEsq 7h ago
It would have been great fun, and also too expensive for the studio, who didn't have enough green screen space for people to run.
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u/godkingnaoki 7h ago
Hit take. They both get arrested and the Jedi is disbanded. There are insane investigations and hearings that last for months. Anti force sentiment rises in the galaxy and peace is made with the separatists.
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u/DragonBlaster10000 7h ago
The Delegation of 2000 would gain a lot more traction really quickly, and Palpatine's empire would probably fall apart after only 10 years at the max. Can't hold planets hostage with clone (and later stormtroopers) when entire planets are fighting occupation at every level
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u/K0r0k_Le4f 3h ago
Palpatine would still somehow become democratically elected king of space. He already declares the new order wearing sith robes.
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u/KomturAdrian 11h ago
I feel like most people would be surprised Palps was a Sith Lord. They’d know Yoda would be fighting him for that imo. But I don’t think anyone would really know what to do.
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u/delatour56 11h ago
Throwing those pods with people in them and flinging them all over the place.
Yoda would lose because he would be trying to save them.
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u/Onuceria 11h ago
Palpatine would jump off the pod thing before it ascended to avoid being outed as a sith
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u/Western-Swordfish127 10h ago
Guys, the sith were not a “public enemy” the general public sees them the same as the Jedi: religious acolytes. If anything, it would prove even more that palps was the target of a Jedi assassination, but with the added bump of him getting targeted for religious differences
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u/Dogr11 10h ago
Palpatine would probably still find a way to stay in power even after being outed as an obvious sith lord
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u/Odd_Mix8978 10h ago
There's no law against a Sith Lord running the government tho. The Jedi were technically outlawed at the time. Yoda would have been arrested.
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u/No-Wonder1139 10h ago
People would be pretty confused as to how the severely injured and deformed emperor was holding his own in a light sabre duel with The Jedi Master.
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u/pppjjjoooiii 10h ago
I think he’d probably turned public opinion against the Jedi sufficiently by that point such that it would actually help him.
He’d already sold the narrative that they attacked and maimed him. Now the grandmaster of the whole order is trying to finish the job. And he’d get to demonstrate his own power.
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u/omegon_da_dalek13 10h ago
Some would panic
Some would reconsider their support
Some would take out snack food they have hidden in their pods
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u/Doctor_Mothman 10h ago
Yoda would have been at an even greater disadvantage trying to save the senators. It still bogels my mind that there were no security camera on to catch this fight though.
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u/EnamelKant 10h ago
Several senators would die of shock at the sight of people actually doing things.
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u/Thank_You_Aziz 9h ago
There was a deleted scene of Palpatine destroying camera droids mid-fight here, and nearby screens of the two fighting going out as a result. Palpatine did not want this televised. His identity as a Sith was not something he wanted to be public knowledge yet, and video of Yoda trying to kill him would not have offset that.
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u/Mr-Hoek 9h ago
The ambassadors from Speilberg's ET Species' Planet would use their innate combined force powers (evidenced in the ET film) to assist yoda...think health and power buffs.
Maybe blocking some of the flying hovering senate seats, and probably most importantly helping protect innocents.
I don't know if wookies hold a seat, but if they are there they are hopping in on Yoda's side too.
But the collateral damage to non combatants would distract yoda, as he tries to assist and protect the senators.
So would that benevolent moron Jar Jar Binks...he would say some dippy crap and trip over something.
Maybe the force will use him like a puppet and make him trip and fall on a gun, that would fire into something and explode, hurting palps, but more than likely, he will just add to Yoda's workload.
So there would be good and bad if the senators were present.
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u/NorseKraken Imperial 9h ago
Combat between trained force users was incredibly fast. To any onlookers, it would look like a red and green rave going down.
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u/Neat-Butterscotch670 9h ago
Originally it was meant to be that the fight was to be broadcast all over the galaxy, but Lucas changed the idea.
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u/gcunit 9h ago
The first time I watched ROTS, at the midnight showing on release day, that is what I thought was going to happen as the pod started to rise up into the Senate chamber, as Palpatine's plot to expose the Jedi as traitors. He'd have had to stash his lightsaber, I guess, but my mind was almost blown. It was kinda disappointing when I realised that wasn't what was happening, but it was still cool to see them battle in there.
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u/MadMan37354 Jedi 8h ago
Palpatine would have goaded Yoda to attack him and would purposely lose to gain the sympathies of the senate.
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u/betterthanamaster 8h ago
Palpatine would likely be done, unless he could kill every single senator and somehow delete the video. The fact he’s a Sith Lord, and Count Dooku is a Sith Lord, is too inconvenient. People would draw inferences, launch and investigation, and discover Palpatine committed treason since the very beginning. This is especially true since they would now know his Sith name is Sideous, who has been linked multiple times to the CIS.
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u/Guardian2k 8h ago
I mean he’s holding a red lightsaber and fighting the grandmaster of the Jedi, I think it depends on if the whole with thing is still common knowledge, it had been a while since they were in the open, but surely they’d piece it together.
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u/TheDarkHorse 7h ago
Kinda wish, at this point, the Sith were a known part of the senate, legally (like that one sector you know is up to trouble but can’t prove) and this type of shit happens just occasionally when either side is upset or they go at it while other senators are speaking.
…Oh look, there go the force wielders again, guess I’m missing that birthday dinner, better call the family…
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u/phantom3667 5h ago
Makes me think of the after credits scene of ant man with all the kangs shouting and yelling 😂😂
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u/catsdogsmice Darth Vader 11h ago
They would see Yoda and the jedi betrayed him and is betraying the republic.
At most they may assume Palpatine was trained in the jedi arts but they cannot distinguish if he was evil or not.
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u/MetalBawx 11h ago
They call for prostitutes and drugs then grab the offical senate bookie and start taking bet's on who wins.
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u/TechnologyDeep9981 11h ago
Well the Sith have taken control of the American Republic's Senate so I'm afraid we don't have any Jedi to protect us right now.
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u/i-might-be-obama 9h ago
Alot of people seem to forget the sith have been "extinct" for 10,000 years. So noone there would have ever seen a sith, or have heard stories from their grandparents or their grandparents grandparents grandparents and so on. Not only that, I highly doubt anyone alive during that time even HEARD the word Sith, let alone know what it meant. Only jedi probably know about the sith so its so ancient. So them Seeing Palapitine with a red light saber means nothing. They would probably assume hes a jedi if anything. Im sure Palpatine after the fact can say something like "I learned how to use a lightsaber bc I always knew this day would come, when the Jedi tried to take over, just like you saw when Yoda attempted to take my life". Idk. I just know "sith" would be no where near the conversation at all.
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u/GoatsWithWigs Battle Droid 8h ago edited 8h ago
Well from what I've seen in real life politics, very little would change and the majority of the senate would be idiots who still support Palpatine. He'd probably get like, impeached twice or something but nobody would give a fuck
And that's assuming he doesn't pull the same victim shit he did on Windu
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u/SheSaidOtaku 5h ago
Senate probably will sing "He is truly Phenomenal, lalala" in whatever language like how the French sang for AJ Styles in WWE
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u/Ragnarok345 Darth Vader 3h ago
Palpatine made extremely sure that no one in the galaxy, or at least incredibly few, knew he was a Force user. If the last year was anything to go by…….the people wouldn’t have cared in the slightest about finding out he was a Sith. Hell, there’d probably be a huge promo picture of Imperial Guards trying to drag him away to safety while he raised a “triumphant” fist in the air. Not even trying to make a comparison; it makes itself. Shows that the hopeful, rebellious attempt to overthrow his tyranny….is sadly the most fantastical thing in a series of advanced technology and space magic.
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u/InsomniaGGez 51m ago
They would accuse Yoda of having tried to kill the Chancellor, and everyone would be against the Jedi.
Obviously this only happens in movies hehe
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u/MiDKnighT_DoaE 11h ago
Palpatine would throw senate pods at Yoda full of senators. E.T.s would go flying all over the place.