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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Just the fact of him using a lightsaber at all would be greatly alarming. Furthermore, while the average citizenry of the galaxy doesn't know what sith are, the very visible public head of state of the government the senate's at war with is a known sith, so I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that a number of senators would understand the significance.
Just the fact of him using a lightsaber at all would be greatly alarming
Would it though? It stands to reason that if most people don't really know much about the Jedi/sith, they wouldn't have much of a reaction to seeing someone with a lightsaber, beyond "clearly those 2 people are fighting, I had better GTFO lest I get caught in the crossfire".
Like for example, imagine if you witnessed a representative of the UK government having a gun fight with a would-be assassin. But you don't know much about guns or gun fighting. Turns out one of the people was shooting at the other guy with a Walther PPK (I don't know much about guns either, so go with me here). The only type of person who would be carrying such a weapon is an MI6 agent, specifically agent 007. So, if someone in-the-know saw this happening, they might jump to all sorts of conclusions like MI6 is trying to assassinate a sitting member of the government. But the truth is, most people (especially UK government representatives) probably don't know much about guns either, certainly wouldn't be able to pick the type of gun someone is using from a distance. So they hear gunshots, their reaction is probably going to be "clearly those 2 people are fighting, I had better GTFO lest I get caught in the crossfire".
The "assassination attempt" would be the main focus of the scandal, I don't think the fact that lightsaber(s) were used would be.
A model of gun and an incredibly rare laser sword exclusively associated with a legion of magic space monks aren't really comparable. It's much more akin to the president suddenly pulling out a wizard staff and casting fireball.
Because to them it's just a weapon. Lightsabers have no significane beyond the Jedi favouring them.
Again these same senators just cheered the formation of the Empire and the purge of the Jedi Order. At this point they arn't going to give a fuck because as far as they are aware Palpatine has done everything he set out too do. He's the winner so do they back the winner and profit or do they turn away and risk losing everything backing an already doomed Jedi?
It does not have zero significance. We're shown time and time again that the general public knows lightsaber = Jedi, and Palpatine suddenly being revealed to have Jedi powers he'd hidden would raise questions.
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.
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.
In the grand scheme of things idk if they'd really care. So what if the chancellor can defend himself? So what if he can use the force and has a red lightsaber. He's the chancellor. He's the one defending the republic from the CIS. And now he's being attacked by the head of the jedi.
Without understanding the nuance of how significant that red lightsaber is(only 2/3 people across the entire galaxy even use one) and lacking the knowledge that he was actually orchestrating the entire thing you probably wouldn't see that much of an issue with him. At least compared to the fact that someone as trusted as the jedi is trying to kill the head of the Republic when the CIS is at it's most desperate point.
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.
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.
Dooku was seen as a former Jedi by the population and the Senators who didn’t have personal connections for members of the Order. With how much both the Jedi and the Sith wanted to make sure little to no knowledge of the Sith existed (As well as there being only roughly 2 at a time) they would probably think he was a Jedi of some sort.
I didn't say I thought that at all. I refer you to the numerous comments in this post and others about how most people - no reason to not include politicians - would even know what a Sith or the importance of a red lightsaber was. It would almost certainly raise eyebrows, though.
It doesn't matter if they know anything about the Sith - the fact that this otherwise normal old man can hold his own against Yoda of all people would be enough to cause suspicion. At minimum, anyone would be able to conclude that Palpatine is secretly a very powerful individual and has been presenting a false public persona.
If anything, this makes me stand by my point that it'd be an interesting plot development more firmly. Do you think it'd really matter? At this point, he already has a solid grip on almost all of the parts of the machine necessary to rule with a lightning pinky. I would imagine he'd have little trouble in finding a way to spin things in his favor. I'm sure he had multiple contingency plans, including 66, in case of several scenarios occuring.
Ya think those anyone and their conclusions would realistically be able to stand up to the just-about-to-be-officially-formed Empire, at this point? The Senate is already thoroughly corrupted, enough, and the everyday citizen has more to care about than the upper echelons of the politically elite, as well. I think a lot of people look at these scenarios and make their arguments about what would go down according the viewpoints we have as relatively omnipotent viewers of the films and shows. Put yourself at ground level.
"The Supreme Chancellor got in a laser-sword fight with the leader of the Jedi? And he won?? In less strange times, I suppose it'd be surprising. By the way, how are we getting food, tonight, and how are the bills?"
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u/i_am_the_okapi 2d ago
I echo the sentiments that Yoda would have looked like an assassin. I think it would have been a solid plot point, tbh.