logo Sign In

Post #951359

Author
ATMachine
Parent topic
What is wrong with... Attack of the Clones? - a general discussion thread
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/951359/action/topic#951359
Date created
9-Jun-2016, 8:13 PM

Palpatine definitely wants the Jedi to find the clone army at Kamino, and he also wants the Jedi to be put into a situation where they have to use the army in battle, thus giving him control of a fifth column to subvert the Republic.

So - he has Dooku delete the planet Kamino from the Jedi Archives, but leave enough trace evidence to make it obvious to anyone looking that something’s fishy. He then orchestrates a scheme to get the Jedi interested in the planet: in this case by having Jango Fett use a Kamino saber-dart to kill the assassin sent for Padme.

(As an aside: Killing Padme not only would remove an obstacle to Palpatine in the Senate, it would also appease Nute Gunray’s anger over the events of TPM and cement him as an ally to Dooku’s puppet Confederation. But whether the plot succeeded or failed, it’s likely Jango had orders to take out Zam Wesell afterwards.)

Obi-Wan dutifully follows the clues from the saber-dart to the missing planet in the archives, to the actual planet Kamino, where he meets Jango in the flesh. Jango then goes to Geonosis specifically to lure Obi-Wan there, so that Dooku can take him prisoner.

Of course, the Jedi will naturally find out about Obi-Wan’s captivity, and it’s to be expected that they would do something to free him. In the era of TPM, a small team of elite Jedi (like Qui-gon) might have been sent to break him out stealthily - but as Palpatine has engineered matters, the Jedi Order now knows about the clone army. If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Actually, though, it’s possible the Jedi did try a bit of their own legerdemain: sending a force of Jedi warriors under Mace Windu to free Obi-Wan. And should that fail, as it did since they were heavily outgunned, the clone army under Yoda would move in, just when the Geonosians thought triumph was in their hands.

But by using the clone army at all, the Jedi play into Palpatine’s schemes, by instigating what turns into the Clone War, thus putting an army of custom-bred clones with secret psychological progamming to destroy the Jedi into Republic service.

Plans within plans.