No. Since Sidious is Palpatine, and Sidious is behind the Separatists, they are NOT the Rebellion. The Separatists are about corporate power and trade regulations-not about freedom.
Sorry, your theory is completely false.
I haven’t read what anyone else has to say.
Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw when I was a kid, and even though I know TPM and AOTC didn’t measure up to the original trilogy, I am still looking forward to Episode III.
Yeah, Jar Jar is annoying, and I can’t figure out how wimpy Anakin turned into menacing Darth Vader, but it’s still Star Wars. sniffs sentimentally
I won’t fight the crowds on opening day, though. Definitely not worth it.
I have to. I couldn’t stand the thought of someone accidentally revealing the plot to me.
I can just imagine walking down the street and this guy says “Man, wasn’t it cool the way Mace Windu committed sepuku at the end?”
And for 20 seconds I’ll be like: :eek:
And then I’ll scream** NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! **
And unimaginable pain shalt be wrought onto the wrong-doers!
So, yeah, after the decade-long year wait, I don’t think I could stand it.
However, I’m hoping to get those charity tickets (which they sometimes have), and watch it a week before everyone else. 
Actually, Mace Windu has Sidious by the short and curlies and is about to rid the galaxy of the old man when suddenly Anakin cuts Windu down from behind and joins the Dark Side 
Again, look closer. The Separatists are not only the trading clans, but a whole bunch of non-aligned worlds that believe that the Republic is corrupt and, this is key, oppressive and power-hungy.
Think about the history here. The Republic IS the Empire-to-be. At some point, Sidious will reveal himself as galatic conquerer and cast out the Jedi as traitors or somesuch. At that point, what happens: all the rebelling worlds instantly stop fighting and join up with him? And then later a completely unconnected Rebellion starts up? I don’t see it. By the time A New Hope rolls around, everyone is implying that distant worlds still need to be brought into line. It sounds like the Rebellion has been going on for some time now, even though it can’t be much more than 20 years after the Clone Wars.
Especially in the comics, a lot of the rebelling worlds are sincere: intensely sincere. They really don’t want to be ruled anymore. Heck, even the traders and bankers, which are selfish, are doing it to get away from the centralized power that the Empire will represent WORSE than the Republic now does. Dooku is lying to them. In Clones, he basically tricks them into giving him the plans for the Death Star, which he promptly turns over to the very guy whom the sepratists oppose! I just can’t see all these worlds suddenly bowing down to Sidious once he declares himself ruler of the Galaxy and murders all the Jedi (many of which are actually respected and even beloved by the worlds that are rebelling).
We’ll see.
There was that vaguely fish-like dude in “Jedi” wasn’t there. And, of course, robots. The Rebellion apparently has lots of robots.
At least they aren’t as racist as the humans-only Empire (which is particularly weird given the fact that quite a number of the Sith are definately NOT human, especially Lord Grevious).
Oh, and on the Sidious is Palpatine thing: I’m still unconvinced here. It’s not that I don’t think there are a bazillion clues, not to mention them having the SAME NAME. It’s that for some reason this second trilogy and every single comic or book seems to get off on pretending its a secret. It’s maddening. If Episode 3 reveals that Sidious is simply Palpatine, end of story, it will be one of the dumbest, most obvious reveals of movie history. That is why I at least HOPE there is a bit more to it. The extended stuff suggests that there might be:
Spoilers for extended universe stuff (such as comics, books, the Star Wars website, etc.)
Palpatine is definately connected to Sidious in some way, we all know that. In terms of what the public knows, it’s probably pretty certain that they see Senator/Chancellor Palpy turn into Emporer Palpy.
But Palpatine, the evil emporer one we know from the first series, is actually a bit more complex in the extended Star Wars universe than he is in the first series. To begin with, he survives by moving his consciousness through a series of clones. And he doesn’t even really die in the end of “Jedi”: in the books at least he comes back even stronger than before, his consciousness surviving to reposses another body!
So it is at least possible that Chencellor Palpy is something of a different entity than Sidious himself, though perhaps being corrupted and made ready for possession.
A major sticking point against my speculation is that at the start of Ep3, (and this is revealed in the movie description, so this isn’t much of a spoiler) Palpy is supposedly kidnapped by General Grevious, the Sepratist commander. In the most recent book I skimmed, however, this development was planned by Sidious and Dooku, and more importantly, it is described as a means to get Sidious off the planet, since the Jedi have found a way to track Sidious. The obvious implication is that Sidious IS Palpatine. And yet… they STILL never come out and say it? Why why why if they are dropping so many clues that suggest that it is sooooooo obvious? To make matters worse, Dooku and Sidious even imply that there is something more tricksy about this move than just that it’s an excuse to move Palpy/Sidious off-planet. But they are tellingly vauge. So maybe there is more to it.
Unfortunately, if there is no more to it (as I sadly suspect), then Ep3 and the whole trilogy will be that much stupider for refusing to confirm it directly for the audience, but telegraphing it in so many painfully obvious ways.
Palpatine is Sidious. Sidious is Palpatine. No mystery. Yes, it’s obvious. Wasn’t he listed as “Emperor Palpatine” in the credits of ESB and/or ROTJ? I could be wrong though.
Then why do they pussyfoot around it? I mean, for goodness sakes, they have the SAME FREAKING NAME (not to mention being played by the same person). It’s been made so painfully utterly obvious, and yet the movie logic has repeatedly refused to actually confirm it for the viewer in a way that makes little sense.
Here’s the official expended universe info, with Chancellor and Emporer pictures on the same page.
Here’s how it describes him:
“Palpatine was the supreme ruler of the most powerful tyrannical regime the galaxy had ever witnessed, yet his roots are extremely humble, traced back to the peaceful world of Naboo. Before his rise to power, Palpatine was an unassuming yet ambitious Senator in the Galactic Republic. Palpatine saw the Republic crumbling about him, torn apart by partisan bickering and corruption.”
But there are curious issues outstanding, such as how this otherwise unassuming politician from a backwater water world could also be the hundreds of years old Sidious, or how he is described as having to move from body to body as he burns them out with the rage of the dark side.
In ESB, Palpy is played by an old woman and monkey eyeballs, superimposed. Not kidding (they may have dubbed it over in the special “reditions”). Ian takes over as Palpy in “Jedi.”
I took one thing away from Nemesis: memories of Spock. Funny how both Spock and Data ended up losing their lives so nobly - clearly discrimination against logical scientists. Funny how both characters also “come back” as new people (Spock is regenerated with no previous memories, the doomed Data suddenly develops a double). Anyway, I found this film no better than an expensive and poorly written remake of Wrath of Khan. I’ve heard from a few Trekkers that it felt like a two-part TV episode to them (though, of course, some others also loved it). In this film we get not one but TWO encounters with doubles (B4 and Picard’s clone), which I thought was unnecessary and added to the general incoherence. Most of the ensemble cast has nothing to do for large parts of the film, and, in particular, I see it as a crime to give Worf so little screen time. To be honest I cannot even remember the story right now, much as I can’t remember the inane plots of most recent Trek flicks. Has there really been a good Star Trek movie since Undiscovered Country? First Contact, maybe?
Well, I had different thoughts. Number one is a good horror film. Number two is a good action film (and one of very few to score 100% at RottenTomatoes.com). Number three is a mediocre prison flick and precious little more. It involves Ripley having the worst possible luck in the universe, it largely ignores the legacy of the first two films, and it has very little in the way of originality. It’s quite well-crafted, certainly, but I was definitely not the only one who found it uninteresting, which is probably why it scored a dismal 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.
As for Star Wars, I’ve said before that I I suspect there are decently watchable movies hidden within the prequels. Consider: in Episode one, the climactic light saber battle in which one of the heroes dies is spliced with numerous bumbling scenes of the most idiotic character in film history! Whose idea was that? Why break up the most kinetic section of the film in this manner?? Did they not have an editor, did they hand the job to an intern? Who wants to see scenes of flat, poorly done CGI Jar-Jar while watching a fierce light saber fight between two jedis and a sith? Who??
Similarly, in Episode 2 you could easily edit out 40 minutes of Anakin and the princess gazing meaningfully into each other’s eyes, and you’d improve the film as a result, even if you touched nothing else. In fact, I hope that in about five years Lucas will come out with a remastered version of the prequel trilogy that “fixes” all the errors. After all, Lucas “fixed” the original trilogy, so why can’t he do something about the uninspiring love story, or Jar-jar, or the other problems with episodes 1 & 2?
With all this in mind, I’m not looking forward to bashing Episode 3 at all. I really hope it turns out to be the redeeming prequel, and I think there is a chance that it might, since the established fans have been quite vocal about Lucas’s recent work.
Eh, the ‘body to body’ thing was from some mediocre comic books that were so lacking in imagination that I’m surprised that Kevin J. Anderson didn’t write them.
As for him being ‘the undreds of years old Sidious’, where do you get the idea that he’s hundreds of years old?
-Joe
Nope-the Rebellion is formed by Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and another senator from Corellia, Garm Bel Iblis. The Separatists are NOT the Rebels. Period.
Apos, if seems you read the books and comics and such. If so, you should know the history of the Rebellion.
I’m going to post this theory on the Jedi Council boards and see what they have to say.
So, if the Rebellion was the Separatists, why the need to steal the Death Star plans? The Separatists were the ones who designed the thing in the first place, fercryingoutloud. And there are plenty of aliens working with the Rebellion, which is exactly why the “only humans and lobsters” comment is relevant. Add this to the fact that the Separatists weren’t rebelling against the Empire at all, and in fact were actively working to create it, and you absolutely can’t have the Separatists and the Rebellion be one and the same. Yeah, the new Rebellion got its start quick. Why is this surprising? Counterrevolutions always get started quick.
By Episode III, the Separatists are all but defeated. Part of the reason why Palpatine declares himself Emperor is that the Republic is under SUCH a threat.
The Rebellion is formed by a group trying to RESTORE the Republic. Now why would the Separatists want to do THAT? Mon Mothma and Bail Organa are the founders-NOT the freaking Separatists, which were only created by Palpatine/Sidious to use as a means of taking control of the Republic and creating chaos.
What? He declares himself emporer because the threat is all but defeated? I certainly think that the Sepratists will be mostly defeated by the end of Ep3 and driven back to the fringes. But some will remain enemies of the Empire. We know, for isntance, that what the Empire spends its time doing between Ep 3 and Ep 4 is fighting to consolidate its control over the galaxy.
I just don’t see it as being that simple. Clearly, not all the Sepratist races are evil, willing pawns of Sidious, and it’s clear even in the films that they are being fooled by Dooku, not plotting with him to bring about the Empire. They don’t know he’s a Sith lord, or that he himself created the clone army that is now slaughtering their worlds and people (can you really see them going along with THAT?). The whole war is a trick engineered by Dooku and Sidious to weaken the Jedi and empower Palpatine.
Remember, the Sepratists don’t just want to break away from the Republic because they like doing their own thing. They want it because they see the Republic as becomming more and more tyrranical. There’s nothing that would preclude the remaining Sepratists from joining up with the last group of good guys from the Republic to fight the empire, once THEY realize that the current form of the Republic is even more tyrranical and evil than even the Sepratists had thought. And again, in the books, once the Empire is defeated, getting all the races to agree to form a Republic again is a hard sell: something that has to be worked at rather than just “yay, Empire over, Republic back, it’s allllll good!” Those that fight the Empire have all sorts of reasons for doing so.
Argggghhh!!! Separatists! Separatists! Separatists!
ahem Sorry. That bit really bugged me.
I haven’t backed off. I’m sure you will see me post this kind of thing again.
Actually the UFO thing was the one that I took as possibly snarky, which was why I brought up the “different opinions” thing. I took your UFO comment more as, “if you think that was good, you probably believe that little green men in spaceships are sodomizing cows.” I felt it was time to remind you that although we don’t agree, that doesn’t make anyone wrong. It’s water under the bridge though. I don’t think either of us are directly trying to insult each other. We just disagree enough that we don’t mind giving the knife a little twist now and then.
There are movies that are so bad that I can’t watch them, but I don’t find AotC to be one of those movies. With your Catwoman example you actually helped support my point. You admitted that you hadn’t seen Catwoman, but you felt it was a safe example because it had gotten a lot of bad pub. You followed the mob on that one.
I would like to respond with more depth too, but I’ve found out that I have until Tuesday to finish some remodeling on my house. I had planned on taking about a month. Oh yeah, and somewhere in that time I have to manage to get ready for my Vegas trip too. Have fun at work. I’m sure I’ll have lots of fun with my home project.
I thought it was a safe example because I’d never heard anyone, under any circumstances, say anything good about it. Most of the movies I’ve seen that I thought were really bad were at least controversially bad, like AotC. I can’t think of a movie I’ve disliked that got such uniformly bad reviews. (I can think of plenty that are the converse. For example, just yesterday, I bought Last Action Hero on DVD.) It wasn’t a matter of “following the mob,” as much needing a common reference point on which to build my argument.
Good luck with your home project.
A Star Wars question from someone who knows little about these things - weren’t there supposed to be only two Sith at a time? I think Yoda says something about this at one point - only ever two of them, master and apprentice. Yet in the movies, there seem to be an awful lot of bad guys running around simultaneously - the Emperor, Darth Maul, Darth Saruman, Darth Robot or whoever (or so I gather from spoilers) and the dude who becomes Darth Vader. How does this work with the only-two-bad-guys thing? Are they bad Jedi but not necessarily Sith? Does it not actually make sense, but someone thought it’d be cool if there were some more bad guys?