Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

I've been trying to piece together Palpatines overall scheme in the prequels. The first two movies were pretty weak, but the underlying plot that Palpatine/Sidious has put in motion is masterful, in my opinion. I think that everything that has happened has been exactly the way Palpatine wants it. Heres the way I see it, in 10 easy steps. Feel free to take it apart, shoot it down, whatever, lets have fun.

1. Sidious orders the Trade Federation to blockade Naboo.
This is the most confusing part to me, but heres what I think: Palpatine is from Naboo, so he picked his home planet to blockade, knowing that the senate would take no action. It would gain him more sympathy when he had Padme put forth the vote of no-confidence, so that he would be the favorite to become Supreme Chancellor.

2. Palpatine becomes Supreme Chancellor
Palpatine rubs his hands together and says 'excellent'.

3. Sidious gains Dooku as an ally
Since Sidious was already 'courting' Anakin when he had Dooku as an apprentice, I think he would do the same thing with Dooku. With Maul unknowing, he was probably already becoming friendly with Dooku as Palpatine. He was probably stoked to have a Jedi as a potential apprentice, so much easier to bring them down from the inside! I think Sidious already had his eye on Anakin even before Dooku officially became Darth Tyranus. Dooku was a means to an end, nothing more.

4. Sidious has Dooku order the clone army
It appears that Dooku left the Jedi order with little more than ill feelings. Ki-Adi and Mace both said that there was no way Dooku could be a threat. Seeing a way to further persecute the Jedi when the time came, Sidious has Dooku order the clones from within the Jedi Order. This parts gonna be debated, but I think Dooku gets his former Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn to order the clones. Dooku is as much a talker as a fighter, so he convinces Qui-Gon to not only order the army, but to do it secretly and to use a false name. I'm not sure why the name Sifo-Dyas is used.

5. Palpatine befriends Anakin
Sidious knows that Anakin is going to be a force to be reckoned with, possibly the most powerful Jedi ever. He also knows Anakins history, and knows that he will be able to turn him with some kind words and gentle nudging. Dooku is a joke to him, a means to get Anakin as his apprentice.

6. Sidious orders Dooku to begin the Separatist movement.
This is a biggie, and pretty obvious. Sidious and Dooku play both sides. I love this part. Palpatine starts a war and gains emergency power, giving him control of the Republic. Thats just genius.

7. Dooku 'captures' Palpatine
Sidious has Dooku 'capture' him. Dooku probably thought this was a good move...too bad he didn't figure out why Palpatine wanted to be captured.

8. Anakin kills Dooku
Man, I cannot wait to see the look on Dooku's face when he realizes that Sidious is rooting for Anakin. Thats gonna be good.

9. Mace confronts Palpatine
This is the only part that Sidious/Palpatine does not have control over, but due to the previous steps, he is well prepared for the moment. As soon as Palpatine knows the jig is up, its game over. Mace dies, Anakin falls, Palpatine demonifies the Jedi and names himself Emporer.

10. Checkmate
The rest is just mopping up. Officially granting Anakin the Darth title, hunting down and killing all the Jedi, ruling with an iron fist, that sort of thing.

read cloak of deception

huh

that's pretty much it I guess, but I think it was Dooku that deleted Kamino

Number one is exactly what you say. it is a classical political move- Palpatine precipitates a crisis in which he will emerge as more powerful without anyone knowing he was the instigator.

The interesting question is what was MEANT to happen- as Sidious' plans were clearly confounded by the actions of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Most fans who like to discuss this agree that Palpatine's original plan was most likely to rally the Senate to form a force to liberate Naboo, still leaving him as the hero of the hour, with Amidala a dead martyr.

That didn't happen, but Palpatine is adptable and made the best of what happened. GL also indicates that the events of TPM showed Sidious that droids were not up to the job, so he turned to clones instead.

Likewise in AOTC, Obi-Wan traced the link too fast and started the war earlier than Dooku intended, I think- so Dooku had to fight his way out. But he did, and so that plan went back on track as well.

i don't think the war started early, only because Sidious seemed pleased that it had started. Also, I'm into the idea that Dooku really doesn't know the full plan at all. Based on the cartoon, which is apparently like half canon at the moment, dooku seemed to think Anakin would be killed by Ventress, but they were probably just testing him. Dooku might be onto the whole Palpy courting Ani, which is why he was training Ventress in the first place so he'd have an apprentice when he usurped power from palpatine. Which would be why Palpatine wanted her sent to attack Ani, knowing full well the Chosen One would kick her @$$. I think Dooku is only getting some have truths. When Dooku says to the separatists there's no way the Republic could get an army so quickly, its obviously just to keep them loyal to him by him looking shocked. Especially since we know he was involved in the cloning on some level since he recruited Jango, and its pretty obvious that he put in the order personally. I agree with Ush on his first two points though, since GL has sighted those things.

Hmmm...I don't have cable so I'm not able to watch the cartoon. Dooku may be on to the plan, but I don't think so. I think he's blinded by power and under the assumption that he can one day take out Sidious, thus his training Ventress. After all, he's an idealist...the moron.

Ush, once again you are able to punch a hole right through opinion and make some good points. You are a true SW scholar, my friend. I might tend to agree with you that the Jedi's interference in TPM caused Palpatine to change his plans, but I have a couple points you have to shoot down first.

Since I believe that Sidious was courting Dooku even before Maul died, its possible that the clones were ordered before or during TPM. Unless I'm mistaken, we were only told when Sifo-Dyas died, not when he placed the order. Lets just take for granted that Sidious and Dooku had the clones ordered, its just possible that they used a third party (Qui-Gon, Anakin?) to actually do the ordering.

More importantly, Palpatine leaves NOTHING to chance. I strongly believe that he had a plan for any outcome. Its not so much that he's adaptable, which he certainly is, but he had already prepared a way to win out no matter what the twist. No matter what branch his path took, he had a plan. In addition it makes sense that he could 'see' what the future held for him. If the dark side had clouded the future for Yoda and the Jedi, wouldnt the opposite be true for the Sith? He might have been aware that a mysterious boy with great Force power would be coming into his life soon.

I stand by what I said: Everything that happens in the prequels happens because Palpatine wants it that way. There are as always a few random occurances, but he twists them to his advantage almost immediately.

From the opening scroll of TPM, Palpatine could have probably told you exactly how he would become Emporer.

The war definitely started too early- Dooku was not meant to have to fight for his life to escape. Obi-Wan tracked Jango too fast- they tried to KILL Obi-Wan, in all seriousness, and if they had, the war might not have started for months. The attempts to kill Obi-Wan were not faked. Obi-Wan avoided Jango's attempts to kill him, and by discovering the clone army and making it to Geonosis, which he was not meant to do, started the war there and then.

The point is there is still room for the validity of heroism in this film- the hero's actions are not pointless; they are causing the bad guys trouble. But they will tltimately fail.

GL's comments about clones replacing droids after their TPM failure makes it relatively clear that the Clone order was placed after TPM.

I indeed agree that Palpatine can navigate the future well- but unexpected results still throw him. In the Prequel films he will adapt, but this does not always work, as this is indeed what eventually kills him.

I've always wondered...if it was so important to delay obi wan's search for Jango, why hadn't the bounty hunter just hit obi with the dart rather than finishing off...crap, I forgot what the shapelings name was

Zam

nice theories man,

I don't think it mattered that Obi-Wan tracked Jango to Geonosis. Someone said earlier that Sidious likes to set things up so that his enemies walk into his traps. I think Sidious had set things up so that it didn't matter when the war started. By the time Obi-Wan got to Geonosis, Sidious was ready for the war to start at any time. Thats why he was so happy when Dooku told him that it had begun.

He is always one step ahead...until Vader grabs him and throws him down a shaft anyways.

Discos - but of couse

CoD documents how palpatine manipulated Nute gunray, the most corrupt person in the trade federation to become it's sole leader. i'm sure he did something similar for the other commerce guilds. the logic being that by having anakin kill the separatists in episode 3, those businesses can be nationalized and used to create the most horrifying imperial weapons.

Actually, yes it did. What if they had stopped Dooku? That would have been a disaster. The war would have finished there and then.

The bad guys only just got away with it in AOTC. Obi-Wan's actions caused real problems.

What if they stopped Dooku from doing what? I might be missing something, but all I saw Dooku doing was minor stuff...placating the various guilds and making sure they would all do what they were supposed to. By the time Obi-Wan gets to Geonosis, the clones are ready and Anakin is already falling under Palpatines spell. Even if Dooku would have been killed Palpatine would have been able to get another sucker to keep the secession going. He would still claim emergency powers to take care of the Separatists. The Separatists themselves would not have been as much of a threat without Dooku leading them, but they would have done their job long enough for Palapatine to be sure Anakin would turn when the time was right.

Seriously, what was Dooku doing that was so important?

Yoda said it was essential to stop Dooku or he would rally thousands of other worlds to his cause. Dooku is the driving force behind the Confederacy. It did not exist without him.

The war continues because Dooku escaped.

As well as what Ush said, the end scenes of AOTC showed the audience that Dooku had embraced the Dark Side of the Force completely and is a force to be reckoned with. He is a powerful ally, as well as apprentice to Darth Sidious, and he instigated the beginning of the Clone Wars (to which Sidious commented: "Excellent".

Dooku rallied other star systems to his "separatist" movement, which was the catalyst for the Clone Wars. May not appear to be important but it is.