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Understanding the Prequels (and the entire SW story)

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Having watched the entire Star Wars saga multiple times, I still seem to not understand what exactly is going on in the prequel trilogy (apparently no one else does either). For those who have decoded it, can you explain some things for me? I want to better understand the entire Star Wars saga for my next viewing (December 2015 ;-)) 

Let's start from TPM and go on: what the hell is Palpatine (Sidious) trying to do with Nute Gunray? Why is this war going on? Why does Dooku inform Obi-wan of Palpatine's evilness, but still work along side Palpatine? Why did everyone suddenly realize that Palpatine is bad right at the end? How does this all connect?

tl;dr - I'm confused about the entire storyline of the PT. The only part I really understand is that Palpatine is trying to lure Anakin to the dark side and that he succeeds, until Luke comes around.

Help me OT, you're my only hope.

“That said, there is nothing wrong with mocking prequel lovers and belittling their bad taste.” - Alderaan, 2017

MGGA (Make GOUT Great Again):
http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Return-of-the-GOUT-Preservation-and-Restoration/id/55707

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Easy.  The PT didn't happen.  Similarly, there were no sequels to the Matrix.

http://xkcd.com/566/

Also, for what it's worth, the Special Editions didn't happen either.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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I'm afraid you won't get any help here. Most of us signed up because we're wondering the same thing.

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We did?  I thought we signed up because we wanted the OOT on DVD, and we stayed because hairy_hen's mom is easy.

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Whatever. I didn't sign up for either of those reasons. But irregardless, I suspect most of us don't think the prequels make much sense.

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I can help.  Nute Gunray is actually secretly a Sith lord, running a smuggling ring with Jar Jar and is in cohoots with Palpatine.  Nute has a high midichlorian count but doesn't know it, and is conflicted about which side of the force he wants to align with.  Palpatine senses this and is considering replacing Darth Maul with a clone of Nute Gunray, which is why he is trying to take over the Senate.  Qui-Gon is confused about who the chosen one is - it's actually Padme, which is why she eventually dies.  Count Dooku believes that Mace Windu is trying to become a Jedi Consular, and is mad at Yoda for not taking this to the Council of Reconcilliation. When he failed the Trial of the Spirit, he cloned Yoda, which caused an unstable expansion of the force. Obi-Wan tried to re-balance the force by recovering the Dark Holocron, irradiating the supernova.  I hope this clarifies things.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

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I know a lot of people on here hate the prequels....but i usually love all things star wars...except The Phantom Menace...I really enjoyed Attack of the Clones and I think Revenge of the Sith is up there with the OT. I feel you guys in regrds to being pissed off at Lucas for tampering with the OT and I too would like to see them restored an offered in high quality...almost like a Criterion Collection set that offers all the versions in HQ and let's the viewer decide which one to watch.

That was just a little about myself but now on to your question.

Sideous doesn't care about Nute Gunray he just wants to use the dilemna to become chancellor. He also wants Nute to have the knowledge that a Sith is orchestrating the politics in the Republic. This will cause Nute to align himself with Dooku in sincerity, which answers the other question as to why Dooku told Obi One the flat out truth.

The whole point of Episode 1 was to have Nute betrayed by a sith who is running the politics in the republic. Dooku says this in episode 2. The viceroy of the trade federation came to him for help after being betrayed by a sith who is orchestrating and influencing politics in the republic. Dooku flat out tells this to Obi in order TO LEGITIMIZE THE INCENTIVES OF THE SEPERATIST AND MAKE THEM APPEAR GENUINE. Blinded by their loyalty to the Republic the Jedi flat out ignore the truth even though it was told right to their face. It makes sense because Dooku and the separatist were villainized by wanting to separate from the republic and especially being caught red handed illegally creating battle droids. not to mention Dooku left the Jedi order...making him appear more like the sith that's causing all the trouble, not the one Nute Gunray was supposedly talking about. This is why Obi One refused to believe the truth because he caught Dooku red handed...why would he believe him? In Obi 's view Dooku is the Sith, he caught him red handed, so Dooku telling him the truth appears like deception.

I think this plot point was really well written and I think you guys don't give Lucas enough credit for this because you're blinded by your hate for him for obvious reason (tampering with the OT, jar jar)

Technically the sith were on both sided of the war! 

The sith like to hide in plain site.

It's not that hard to make sense out of. I think too many of you guys are blinded by your hatred for the prequels that you simply close your minds to them. while I hate Episode 1 for lack of story...2 and 3 are great in my opinion.

read the star wars novel "DARTH PLAGEUIS" that's the real episode 1!! Hardcore, compelling, and made for an adult audience.

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JawsTDS said:

Let's start from TPM and go on: what the hell is Palpatine (Sidious) trying to do with Nute Gunray? Why is this war going on? Why does Dooku inform Obi-wan of Palpatine's evilness, but still work along side Palpatine? Why did everyone suddenly realize that Palpatine is bad right at the end? How does this all connect?

This is just my interpretation but I think that Palpatine is trying take control over the galactic government by turning it's mechanisms and necessary bureaucracy against itself.

The Republic is a galaxy spanning organisation and works by demarcating it's authority into spheres of interest. 

You have the senate, the courts, the commerce guilds, the military and the Jedi (which act as dual cleric/martial clique).  

Under the guise of a politician with influence Palpatine is almost to the top of the senate. He needs a little boost to get him onto the Chancellor's podium so he encourages a section of one of the commerce lobbies to invade Palpatine's own territory. This creates sympathy for himself in the senate and distrust of the entire commerce field (people don't trust the bankers).

This sympathy translates to elevating himself to control over the courts which almost allowed the invasion to become entrenched because of it's sluggish procedures.

The Trade Federation and it's other commerce pals are isolated and form a separatist movement claiming they were lead astray by corrupt politicians (people don't trust politicians) and they create a mechanical military force to defend their independence from the Republic. Their leader is a strategically placed former-Jedi.

Dooku has become a Sith Lord like Palpatine and desires to corrupt Obi-Wan into becoming his apprentice so they defeat Palpatine together and replace him. 

Palpatine is aware of this and desires to corrupt Anakin into becoming his apprentice so they can defeat Dooku together and Anakin can be his replacement.

Palpatine uses the Separatist militarisation as excuse to expand the Republic's own military force and an arms race ensues resulting in a Galactic war which the Jedi will be called to defend the Republic.

Either camp could lose and Palpatine/Sidious would win and claim the Jedi were the invisible hand behind the war.

By manipulating all the factions, that could detect and defeat his plans, to fight each other instead of noticing what he is doing (until it's too late) Palpatine gets the Republic to dismantle itself.

He then rebuilds it as his own private Empire. The tangle of bureaucracy of the Republic is replaced by a clique of competing regional governors keen to show loyalty as to not lose their position and lives.

This makes it all sound much more interesting than it actually turned out to be.

It's hard enough to do IClaudius in the context of a series of family adventure yarns but especially so when you throw in goofy cartoon nonsense, fart jokes and awkward romance scenarios.

What makes it such a muddle is Lucas doesn't build both factions as being sufficiently righteous or even self righteous enough to command loyalty.

The Jedi are a bizarre bunch and difficult to sympathise with and the seperatists are cartoonish bad guys. The robot and clone armies are faceless and dehumanised to the point where it's difficult to be emotionally engaged in their battles beyond the spectacle. And normal people, people we might have some point of connection to, are practically nowhere to be seen.

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TV's Frink said:

We did?  I thought we signed up because we wanted the OOT on DVD, and we stayed because hairy_hen's mom is easy.

That's no mom.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

I can help.  Nute Gunray is actually secretly a Sith lord, running a smuggling ring with Jar Jar and is in cohoots with Palpatine.  Nute has a high midichlorian count but doesn't know it, and is conflicted about which side of the force he wants to align with.  Palpatine senses this and is considering replacing Darth Sidious with a clone of Nute Gunray, which is why he is trying to take over the Senate.  Qui-Gon is confused about who the chosen one is - it's actually Padme, which is why she eventually dies.  Count Dooku believes that Mace Windu is trying to become a Jedi Consular, and is mad at Yoda for not taking this to the Council of Reconcilliation. When he failed the Trial of the Spirit, he cloned Yoda, which caused an unstable expansion of the force. Obi-Wan tried to re-balance the force by recovering the Dark Holocron, irradiating the supernova.  I hope this clarifies things.

 How could you possibly write that much without a single CPY reference?

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It's very simple: the Prequels don't make sense. Not one scene in those films makes any sense at all. The characters are all flat and their motivations are mindless. Everything down to the script level is bad. Bad acting, bad jokes, bad set pieces and an overabundance and reliance on special effects to carry the movies. I've tried to watch fanedits instead... hell, I even tried doing my own edit of Episode I and it was torture. It ended with me deciding that I'll never watch the Prequels again. Sure, you can say the OT had flaws. The fact is that those original three movies had a lot of things that made them light-years better movies: charm, humor, story, characters, fun. So, do yourself a favor, don't try to make sense of the Prequels. Let them go. Have a marathon of the OT and call it a day.

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It's very complicated to understand what's going on in the Prequels, because many things don't make any sense. If you managed to align one puzzle piece, another one will jump right out of the frame.

If you want to 'enjoy' some Prequel stuff, just read the Episode III Novel. That book is actually good.

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook

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George has often said in the past he hates writing. I wonder how he motivates himself?

John Carpenter has said he needed beer to crank out the script to Halloween II. ;)

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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It is supposed to be that no one actually knows Sidious and Palpatine are the same person

Naboo blockade served as a tool for Palpatine to remove current chancellor and get elected as a new one.

Palpatine created Separatists to scare the senate to get emergency powers.

Then in the end, he just labelled Jedi power-hungry traitors and took over.

真実

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TV's Frink said:

We did?  I thought we signed up because we wanted the OOT on DVD, and we stayed because hairy_hen's mom is easy.

 Bastardo!!!!

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I can't believe there are people out there who still care about figuring out what happened in the prequels

The Person in Question

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moviefreakedmind said:

I can't believe there are people out there who still care about figuring out what happened in the prequels

I love the Saga too much not to care, sadly. Not saying you can't hate the PT, but I enjoy the buildup to ROTS (going from Episode IV-III). It doesn't flow smoothly, but it makes for one hell of a marathon when all is said and done.

Thanks for all the "clarifications", I now understand a bit more of the PT, and yes, I'm aware it was written poorly.

“That said, there is nothing wrong with mocking prequel lovers and belittling their bad taste.” - Alderaan, 2017

MGGA (Make GOUT Great Again):
http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Return-of-the-GOUT-Preservation-and-Restoration/id/55707

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moviefreakedmind said:

I can't believe there are people out there who still care about figuring out what happened in the prequels

Yep. There's a whole generation of 'em.

A family friend was recently telling me her 8 year-old son is a huge Star Wars fan. (She mentioned he loved Jar Jar - Gulp!) She said he has lots of questions about the movies, and she doesn't know enough to answer them: things like what happens, what it means, motivations, etc.

Being the chief Star Wars nerd in my social circle, I offered to have him over to have a movie marathon with my kids and talk it out. To be honest, I'm glad they haven't taken me up on my offer yet.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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Honestly, I think the prequels are a lot more enjoyable to watch if you don't set your expectations too high, and just take in the spectacle.  And whatever you do, don't try to figure out what's going on.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars