Could the Jedi have won the clone wars without Anakin

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Total Warrior
Title says it all already. Let's assume Anakin never existed or wasn't discovered, while any other character stays the same. So Darth Sidious and Count Dooku start the war, Qui Gon is dead anyway and Maul gets ressurected during the conflict. Who'd win the war?

Underachiever59
Honestly, I think the CIS win. Anakin was too pivotal in too many major galactic conflicts. Without Anakin's direct intervention, the CIS would have had the upper hand.

In just canon alone, Anakin proved vital in countless missions:

1. His piloting of the Republic stealth ship was what took Trench out of the game very early on for most of the Clone Wars, and allowed the Republic to actually take Cristophsis from Confederate control. Speaking of, without Skywalker's aid in actually bringing down the shield generator, Kenobi could not have taken Christophsis at all.

2. Without Anakin, the Jedi would not have successfully taken Rotta the Hutt from Asajj, meaning the Hutts would have aligned themselves with the CIS. That alone would've been a death blow for the Republic.

3. Anakin's knowledge of Balmorra Run is what gave the Republic the shortcut it needed to actually catch and cripple the Malevolence, a fleet-killing superweapon that could have pretty much ended the war.

4. At the Battle of Quell, Anakin's intervention is what spared Aayla Secura from a fiery death. Anakin was then responsible for destroying the Defoliator, a weapon that destroyed all organic life while leaving droids unharmed. If he hadn't put a stop to that project so early on, the CIS could have mass produced it and the battlefields would've been drastically in favor of the droid army.

5. Anakin was pivotal in preventing Dr. Nuvo Vindi from releasing the Blue Shadow Virus upon the galaxy, which would have further crippled the Republic.

6. Without Anakin, the second battle of Geonosis would have been a far, far worse disaster for the Republic, and the CIS would have had its "super tanks" to unleash upon the GAR.

7. Anakin being with Mace Windu on Vanqor is the only reason Windu survived Boba's trap. Had Windu died there, Ryloth would have never broken free of Separatist control.

8. Anakin is the only reason Asajj Ventress didn't escape from Kamino with the Jango Fett DNA. Granted, I'm not sure this would have changed the course of the war much, considering how long it takes for clones to develop.

9. Without Anakin, the Republic would have never saved Even Piell from the Citadel, and the CIS would have eventually pried the Nexus Route from Tarkin and Piell. The Nexus Route would have let the CIS slip by Republic defenses and launch a full-scale assault on Coruscant much earlier in the war, before their fleet was whittled down during the Outer Rim Sieges.

10. Anakin, alongside Thrawn, put an end to a Separatist plan to make droids using Cortosis in the novel Thrawn: Alliances.

11. Anakin, alongside Obi-Wan, prevented General Grievous from acquiring a massive kyber crystal (similar to the ones that would ultimately be used in the Death Star). Who knows what kind of super weapons the CIS could have made with that.

12. And of course, Anakin is the one who ultimately bested Count Dooku. One of perhaps the only 3 Jedi who could have managed such a feat (the others being Yoda and Mace).



And those dozen examples are just the first ones that came to mind from canon. If you look into everything from Legends, I'm sure the list is just staggering.

relentless1
Yes they would have. Without Anakin there is no Vader. Anakin great deeds in the Clone Wars mean next to nothing since the whole War was orchestrated anyways.

Underachiever59
Originally posted by relentless1
Yes they would have. Without Anakin there is no Vader. Anakin great deeds in the Clone Wars mean next to nothing since the whole War was orchestrated anyways.

Vader didn't win the Clone Wars, though. Vader butchered the few leaders of the CIS left on Mustafar, but by that point the war was already pretty much over. With Dooku and Grievous dead, the CIS had no prominent military leadership.

Yes, the Clone Wars were orchestrated by Palpatine. But the orchestration simply meant that Palpatine won, no matter which side actually came out on top by the end of the war. Without Anakin, Palpatine probably would have just let the CIS win, since he would have still ruled the new corporate-controlled galaxy.

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