RoccondilRinon said:

An edit can make of this what it will, but that's the way I see the original movies going. It's not that he planned every step exactly the way it ended up happening; he set it up so that once he became Chancellor and set up the Separatists, he could play one side against the other and come out on top whichever way it went.

Umm... he IS both sides... not playing one side against the other. Remember the sole goal is the complete elimination of the Jedi Knight. The backbone of the Republic. Without them a Sith taking over the galaxy is way easy anyway. Papalptine didn't declare himself Emperor till Order 66 was carried out and then nothing could stop him from there... Taking over the galaxy is icing on the cake but the destruction of the Jedi Order was the main goal from the start. The movie is called "REVENGE of the Sith" and Episode VI is "Return of the Jedi". These are the two groups that have been the focus here: Good and evil. Not Evil and revenge on the government....