Exactly.
-Joe
Apparently so, as even Tarkin doesn’t appear to know that the Emperor is a Force-user. He tells Vader that the Jedi “are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. You, my friend, is all that’s left of their religion”. One wonders why the Emperor keeps his Force-mastery a secret; Vader is certainly quite open with his.
Without a totally compelling reason, he probably doesn’t tell anybody anything. When did we first hear the word “Sith,” by the way?
But once again… If you take the first movie alone Then there is no reference to The Emperor being a Sith lord, no link given between Darth and the Emperor and no mention of Darth being head of the Fleet. Try to prove that Darth was origianally supposed to be the same Darth in movies 2 and 3 (chronologically not by episode title) without refereing to the later films and you’ll have a hard time finding the evidence.
If you want to prove that the triolgy was mean to be about Darth you have to Lucasretrofit everything to make it that way. The original film was about the adventures of Luke Skywalker… period. The second film was also about Luke. Think about how much screen time Luke gets compared to dear old pops. Look at the story arc… it is about his maturing and facing his greatest fears and own persobnal weakness.
The Third was a slap happy wrap up with another stunning and silly surprise and early Lucasretrofit of Ben’s “I told the truth from a certain perspective” crap. Vader’s salvation was more about Luke refusing the Dark side And in turn showing that good is stronger than evil without using evils (pardon the phrase) overt force.
Sure you can bang all the puzzle pieces together so they fit, but if it’s wrong the picture is still off.
rjung:
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I haven’t the nerve to re-watch the first two prequels, but IIRC the only time Kenobi and R2 were within eye contact was on the Naboo starcruiser, where Kenobi praised “this little astro-droid” for fixing the shields or whatnot.
[quote]
Artoo was also with Obi-Wan and Anakin when they were assigned to protect Senator Amidala at the beginning of Episode II.
In any case, it’s made pretty clear in the series that R2 units are common droids, there’s no reason for anyone to look at a particular specimen and think it’s the one he had had dealings with twenty years ago.
Threepio-Vader is a bit harder to rationalize, as Anakin had actually built Threepio from scratch. Nonetheless, if his was a standard “protocol robot” design, there’s again no reason for Vader to have recognized him as the specific droid.
The idea of Anakin building C3PO raises a lot of ridiculous questions.
But still: nobody noticing? Vader uses the Force routinely to inspire fear and to uphold discipline. Why doesn’t the Emperor? He just needs to lose his temper (which is kind of what the Dark Side is all about) once, and the secret is out. And why would he try to restrain his temper to start with?
Who is going to chastise the President of the USA if he constantly throws temper tantrums and flings chairs in his office?
Much as I dislike our current president, I haven’t heard any stories about that happening.
Some people are flashy, some people aren’t. Why does Yoda walk with a cane instead of fast-forwarding everywhere? Why do Zen Masters sit around meditating all day instead of going out and Kicking Major Ass? Certainly they’re both better exercise.
-Joe
He’s a twisted old man who doesn’t want his subordinates to know anything about him, probably because he fears they would find a way to use it against him. Only Vader knows the real deal, and he won’t take a step against him.
Plenty of people, I think, but not quite as many as would take notice if he were to strangle insubordinate subordinates with the power of his mind, if you get my drift.
One would think that Vader would keep his own Force-mastery a secret too, then.
The Emperor concealing his Sith-ness actually makes sense.
People will accept an ordinary Emperor a lot more readily than an Evil Wizard Emperor.
That’s true – Lucas considered a miracle to just get one episode made. And during the filming of TESB, I’m sure a lot of folks were wondering if it was going to flop.
Maybe Anakin’s mom got him a “Protocol Droid In A Box” kit for a birthday present? 
Or, at a minimum, Annie could have been scrounging for spare PO-class droid parts in Watto’s junkyard. The protocol droid series aren’t rare in the movies.
Accept? You mean that the people accept being oppressed and tortured, but if the Emperor uses magic - that does it! Let’s revolt! And how is an Evil Wizard Emperor any worse than an ordinary Emperor who employs an Evil Wizard to do his distance strangling for him?
So? What’s wrong with putting together the pieces of the puzzle? Again, going with the LotR analogy (which is valid regardless of who’s a better writer), there was no mention of Sauron in The Hobbit or Gollum’s true origins. The book is about Bilbo’s journey with the dwarves to defeat a fire-breathing menace and how he ends up in a battle of five armies. However, when you read LotR, you see certain things from a different perspective once you go back to it. That it doesn’t please you doesn’t mean it isn’t perfectly valid.
I still see no reason why there should be any mentions of the emperor being a Sith Lord or to have Vader come out right away and say, “My name is Anakin Skywalker. I am your father. Prepare to die!”. And I don’t think we should care if things were intended from the beginning to be this way or that way. “Expanding upon” means taking things as they are and see what else you can do with them.
Certainly Lucas has the right to define the entire saga as he chooses. By the traditional view of narrative structure, however, Eps. 4-6 are the story of Luke. Luke recieves the call to adventure (which he initially refuses), he has experience with the a mentor and an oracle (in both Kenobi and Yoda), he is tempted from the true path, he evolves into something of a supernatural being. Jedi training is this hero’s “journey of trials,” atonement with a father figure is another element common to a traditonal protagonist.
In Eps. 1-3 there is an attempt to do similar things with the story of Anakin, this time as a tragedy, but it doesn’t quite work IMO. I never saw the idea of a “fatal flaw” in his character defined properly. OK, he has feelings of loss and fear, but it is not clear how these things come to dominate his decisions. He’s just…well…kind of a dickhead.
I didn’t see a lot of wholesale torture or oppression, except for when the victims were actively rebelling. Sure, everything sucked, but apparently not a “universal uprising” level. It’s probably not a great idea for a head of state, however he got the job, to run around advertizing that he’s an evil sociopath with superpowers.
If he conceals it he’s still got Vader as a front man.
Not only that, but in the first movie, there’s not even evidence that the Emperor himself is even evil. In fact, in the novelization of the first movie, we’re told that the Emperor is a puppet of corrupt and evil bureaucrats, who are doing evil things in his name that he doesn’t even know about.
Of course. But the series as a whole revolves around Vader. He might not even have to be the center of attention in any one film to be the center in the whole series. But as it is, the series covers him: from the moment the Force guided him to Qui-Gon to just after he dies. And that does almost by default make him the center of the series.
You sure about that? Out of laziness, I’d like to see something on that.
If he was just some poor puppet it seems kind of odd that Tarkin comes in and announces, in reference to the senate, that the Emperor has “dissolved the council, permanently”.
-Joe
It could quite easily be that Tarkin and his fellow governors pressured the Emperor to dissolve the Republic in order to increase their own powers. For all we know, he could’ve been envisioned in a similar light as the King of England: the ability to appoint and dissolve the legislative body, but still within the framework of a democratic system.