Yoda and Palpatine NEVER should have been given lightsabers.

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but of all the prequels’ many failings, this is perhaps the most baffling. It directly contradicts the OT on multiple levels. Yoda is established as a wise sage for whom “size matters not” who believes “wars not make one great” and claims “a Jedi uses the force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” Yet in the prequels he flips around all over the place with a lightsaber and has no qualms about charging into battle with it.

But for Palpatine it’s even more baffling. While you could make a (flimsy) case that it’s technically never directly contradicted that Yoda might have at one time used a lightsaber, which is true despite it being thematically obvious that Yoda should not use one, you can’t for Palpatine. The guy treats Luke’s saber with snide scorn, condescendingly referring to it as a “Jedi weapon” and says it is “much like your father’s.” Implying the only reason Vader even had a lightsaber is because he used to be a Jedi, and the Sith otherwise don’t bother with them.

So why the hell do we not only see these two characters fight with lightsabers in the prequels, we even see them fight each other? That might make that sequence the most ridiculous scene in the entire saga. It simply never should have happened.

I said it a million times before - giving Yoda a lightsaber is like giving Gandhi a tommy gun.
And why would the Emperor, a guy who shoots lightning bolts out of his fingers need a lightsaber? It’s just stupid. Wouldn’t it be much more creepier/scarier/effective if Palpatine would kill the Jedi who came to arrest him by simply breaking their necks with his mind and slowly going away smiling?

pittrek said:

And why would the Emperor, a guy who shoots lightning bolts out of his fingers need a lightsaber? It’s just stupid.

'Cause as AOTC showed us, lightning can be simply blocked by positioning a lightsaber in front of it.

(Obvious sarcasm, is Obvious.)

Wouldn’t it be much more creepier/scarier/effective if Palpatine would kill the Jedi who came to arrest him by simply breaking their necks with his mind and slowly going away smiling?

Or turning them into crispy critters with his Force lightning. Either would work.

The only use for Palpatine having access to a saber, narratively speaking would be to convince Anakin that the frail democratically elected leader of the Republic is trying to defend himself with very little effect against Mace Windu. In that instance it should be not his but picked up from a previous killed Jedi and should be disguarded once Anakin has killed the Jedi Master defending the Chancellor. I wouldn’t actually had Yoda in the prequels at all but have had him mentioned with awe and reverence by the Temple Jedi. That way Luke’s surprise and first time viewers surprise is maintained. I would have drawn a line between Jedi and Jedi Knights. Ben is retired military, Yoda is a religious hermit.

This thread is a bit pointless because preaching to the choir, but with that said I do want to see if it will bring anyone out who will actually defend the way it was done in the PT. I know they are members here…

I agree with everything set forth in this thread.
Except what Frink done brung, of course.

LexX said:

Yoda and Palpatine NEVER should have been given lightsabers.

Agreed.

You can lock the thread.

QFT

I was just thinking the other day about how the Yoda vs. Palpatine battle was probably the biggest bit of fan service the prequels did.

When I was a kid, the prospect of it made me quite excited. I had always wanted to know if Palpatine and/or Yoda had a lightsaber, and if so I always wanted to see them duel. I also always wanted to see a lightsaber battle in the Senate arena. So yeah that fight was sort of many dreams come true.

Of course the problem is, these were the dreams of a 9 year-old, so maybe not the best to actually depict on screen. Didn’t help that it’s completely ridiculous and perhaps the single worst choreographed fight in the series with no compelling action/momentum/drama or reason for being.

DominicCobb said:
the dreams of a 9 year-old, [] maybe not the best to actually depict on screen.

Pretty much sums up the prequels altogether, doesn’t it?

I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree with you guys on the issue with Palpatine’s lightsaber. Although it does seem weird that he would need one, I think it really adds to his character and makes him more menacing. When you look at him, you would think that he is a feeble old man that does not have much skill in combat, but then he takes out his lightsaber and it suddenly makes him seem like a much bigger threat. Yoda follows the mindset of not using his powers for attack, but Palpatine seems like the kind of person who would do the opposite. There are many situations I could imagine him using his saber, especially when he gets confronted by Mace Windu and the other Jedi.

With Yoda on the other hand, I totally agree with you.

.

If Palpatine had wielded lightsabers taken from slain Jedi – using Jedi weapons to kill Jedi as a sign of sacrilegious disrespect, not because he actually needs to resort to using them – I wouldn’t have had as much problem with him wielding such weapons. For example, if he’d whipped out Windu’s saber when going to fight Yoda, I’d have been totally fine with that (provided the following duel wasn’t as horrendously executed as it was in ROTS).

As it is, having him carrying around a lightsaber of his own design as a default form of offense/defense is antithetical to everything Palpatine represents in ROTJ.

Dooku using lightning was another dickmove by Lucas. It undermined both the principal villain and the final confrontation between him and Luke.