Star Wars Prequels Outline
I've talked to several people about my outlines, and decided to go with my original idea. Script drafting began today. I'll put the full outline behind a cut, as it is ten pages long.

I apologize for some of the formatting issues in this-- it looks much better in Word.


Purpose: To make the Prequels in spirit, but have them not suck.

Goals:
-Preserve the cool characters. Lose the sucky ones. Rename anyone with a bad name but a cool concept.


Things I want to fix:
-No Disposable Villains. No villain should be disposable. All villains should be cool, even if they only get Boba Fett levels of screen time.
-No Midichlorian Shit. Period. The Force is a mystical energy field, and that’s that. Jedi find Jedi with Jedi powers.
-Jedi are individuals. They should have individualized, meaningful endings, even though they’re all getting slaughtered.
-The Dark Side isn’t stronger. Nor is it weaker. Palpatine wins due to superior strategery, not because he’s got super-lightsaber-skillz. A good explanation should be given for that out-of-balance plotbunny.
-Every character should have unique abilities. Though there is a core of stuff that everyone does, some powers are reserved. Vader does the Grip. The Emperor does lightning. Tyrannus is a fencer. Darth Maul is a jump-arounder. Yoda lifts heavy things. Qui-gon is a healer. Obi-wan does mind stuff.
-The plot should be subtle, so the audience doesn't need to bitchslap the good guys when they fail to see what they’re getting into. Palpatine should seem to be on the opposite side he’s on, except subtly. Individual characters should have their own goals and pursue them and not kowtow to the plot suddenly.
-Mace motherf---ing Windu should be a badass and not die pathetically, motherf---er.
-No Jar Jar.
-Anakin and Padme should be the same age approximately.
-Discard "always there are two" if it ends up too limiting.
-No more historical inaccuracies vs. original movies
-Less gap between movies. Make a coherent narrative with obvious stopping points.
-Less staggering coincidences—i.e. Tatooine is not the center of the universe.
-Less waving the Death Star around. It’s a last-ditch effort, not something they wanted from the beginning.

Things I want to preserve:
-Darth Maul’s fighting style, though I don’t know if I want the character.
-Grievous’ unorthodoxness. His name and look are okish, but the lightsaber spinning bit is too campy unless he’s an actual Force user.
-Explaining the beginnings of many characters. Obi-wan, Yoda, Vader, Emperor, are all obvious. We could also work episode 4 characters into episode 3. I think R2 and 3PO as a motif were forced, and two other characters should be used, but I haven't figured out who yet.

Limitations: (things from the original movies)
-There need to be clone wars.
-Anakin needs to give Obi-wan his lightsaber at some point.
-At least Leia needs to remember her mother.

Things I’m discarding:
-I am not holding any book to be canon though I’ll give Zahn a nod. Particularly if I end up rewriting Chewie and Han’s origin stories. Hell no will there be any references to the vong.





The world:

Active groups:
-The Jedi: The Jedi Order has kept order in an increasingly decadent world for thousands of years by now. They are very good at what they do, but they are very set in their ways. New innovation ended a long time ago—before even Yoda’s time. The Jedi way is a strict, ascetic discipline. They have high standards for themselves and others that often rankle, and of late there has been a trail of disaffected Jedi. While most Jedi think that these disaffected Jedi are fundamentally good people with an honest disagreement, harder-line elements are starting to see these people as a danger. And with good reason. They are. The hardliners are typified by Mace Windu, who sees from the beginning a pattern that will eventually lead to the destruction of the Jedi, but is powerless to stop it (Cassandra complex). The moderates are typified by Yoda, who does not believe that it is the Jedi’s way to force others to their beliefs, but only to protect the innocent, and if correcting the errant happens to be part of that, fine, but not until an actual threat develops.

-The Republic: Old, fat, bloated, corrupt, inefficient. Democracy has been buried under a tide of money, and the Jedi are the only thing that remain uncorrupted. The weak and the innocent thus turn to the Jedi rather than the government, and this rankles. The government has a tendency to step on the Jedis’ toes and vice versa. The Republic’s decay is exemplified by the power of the trade and commerce guilds, who can buy whole votes and should do so during the movies at least once, never on seemingly important issues. Chancellor Vellorum typifies the old way. “Let us deliberate on this. Matters are more complicated than you think.” The Republic has an army, but it is outdated, inefficient, and stretched thin.

-The Reformers: Young, angry, zealous. Very bright, they should sound much like the reformers of today, calling on the people to see what their government has become and correct it. Different reformers have different views, and Senator Palpatine of Naboo is not their foremost. One outspoken leader among the reformers who wants to keep the good and toss out the bad is Senator Padme Amidala, in the later movies. Bail Organa and other later rebel leaders also figure prominently here, and the support they garner explains why Palpatine doesn’t have them all shot. They all want to curb the power of committees, the amount of red tape, and the power of non-voter interests. But Palpatine wants a strong government after that, where Amidala wants minimal government after that. As the Republic’s challenges grow greater and greater, Palpatine’s faction will grow in strength, and he will find himself propelled to empire by making events fit his rhetoric, rather than the other way around.

-The Separatists: Wanting to break clear of the Republic’s corruption, the separatists are at face value a populist movement believing in planetary inviduality and diversity. However under this pretty face, there are some ugly ducklings bankrolling the show—like the South fighting to defend slavery, these planets are fighting to defend evils they are worried Palpatine’s faction is threatening—slavery, corruption, exploitation of the environment, racial wars the Jedi would never allow. However, these are late-comers, and the Separatist leaders are doing what they can to kerb them. As the initial idealists are killed by the Sith, these corrupt elements take over, making the Separatists a genuine evil that the Empire seems like a good alternative to— too much freedom leading to anarchy leading to oligarchy. The separatists only gain military power as a result of these darker elements taking control.

-Separatist Jedi: The Separatist movement is in part sparked by the charismatic Qui Gon Jinn, who has won over several Jedi to his cause of making a clean start of government, rule, and protection of people. He belives the Jedi have grown arrogant with their power, that they have lost touch with the people and with the Force, and that they do not have a proper respect for life. He believes they are slowly creeping to the Dark Side, as evidenced by their inability to perceive the movements of the Sith. However, he has had limitted success training pupils. The Sith fear his new interpretation of the Force and actively hunt his converts. As such, he has a bad reputation in some quarters, but it is known that he is a good and honorable man. His greatest nightmare is that Jedi might end up fighting Jedi, and will do everything he can to avoid that eventuality. This attitude makes him a pacifist when it comes to confronting the Republic directly.

-The Sith: A long-oppressed dark-side worshipping order that once ruled the galaxy, the Sith are not flip-out-and-kill-you berserkers as they once were. Now they work through two methods—the Sith Lords tend to subtlety, manipulation, and domination. Fear, anger, and hatred are their subjects of study, but only in others, never in themselves. Palpatine is the epitome of this. The Sith Hunters are the hitting end of the stick. They specialize in kicking ass. They meditate only on their anger and hatred, and have far less patience, though they do have some. Darth Maul is the epitome of this. The Sith hate both the Republic and the Jedi, and long to re-establish their Empire. They know they have a black name though, and do not willingly reveal themselves, even to tempt, instead leading converts to their own conclusions gradually. They believe the Light Side of the Force is completely useless, and do not claim to have studied both sides.

-Trade Guilds: The trade and commerce guilds chafe under the bureaucratic yoke of the Republic. Though they have subverted it, it is resistant and unwieldly. They would like direct control of their spheres of influence. Chaos will allow them to take that control, and as such, they have been secretly militarizing. They are not stronger than the Republic’s military initially.



Episode 1:


Before the beginning:

-Palpatine needs to make a threat to the Republic to start breaking down the old order. The perfect threat would naturally be the Jedi. In order to turn the Jedi against each other, he pits their loyalty to the Republic versus their idealism. Qui-gon vs. everyone else. To get Qui-gon upset, he directs the trade guilds to boycott the trade of weaponry to his homeworld of Naboo, currently under attack by Palpatine’s rebellious apprentice: Darth Tyrannus. He plants his new apprentice, Darth Maul, with Tyrannus to keep him apprised of developments and manipulate matters.

Begin with: (parallel to ep4)

-The Republic sends its military forces, badly underpowered. They also send Jedi, but in order to keep the situation precarious, Tyrrannus and Maul fight them and kill them. The other Jedi can’t sense what killed them, but Qui-gon can since his way of the Force at least brushes the dark side. Meanwhile, Qui-gon Jinn sneaks to the planet to check things out with his apprentice, Obi-wan Kenobi. They make contact with the local government, including the young queen _____ (not Amidala). They discover that things are pretty bad, and the queen says to contact the senator on Corruscant.
Exciting chase scene to escape ends up with them crash-landed on Tatooine, where Qui-gon senses power in the Force in a young man named -dun-dun-dun!- Anakin Skywalker. Anakin rescues them from sand people via some really fancy flying with a sand speeder while hunting for junk for Watto—the Sand People wanted to kill their crashed ship, and Anakin leads them on a merry chase and guides them to a cave. Anakin gets hurt in this and Qui-gon heals him.

-In order to get a new ship, Qui-gon teaches Anakin enough of the Force to win the Boonta Eve Pod Race, and then takes him on as an apprentice. Obi-wan objects that you’re only supposed to have one apprentice at a time, and Qui-gon says Anakin’s talent is such that he will learn to use the Force, and it’s dangerous to leave him untrained. Anakin is a slave, son of a slave, who has no idea who his father is. Qui-gon senses Shmi is Force-sensitive too, but she’s far too old to learn anything, and not as talented as her son, who has figured some things out on his own.

-With the winnings from the race, they go to Corruscant, where Senator Palpatine warns them they can’t cut through the red tape. The Queen tries anyway, and of course it fails. Qui-gon goes to the Jedi Council, and they don’t take his threat of something using the Dark Side seriously. They say maybe he senses his own dark side. Qui-gon counters that, dark side or not, evil is at work on Naboo, and if they don’t trust his senses, they should see for himself, because he’s going back. Mace Windu warns him he’s on a dangerous path, and then decides to go himself. Obi -wan is embarrassed. Qui-gon says he is a teacher, not a warrior. Padme says don’t worry, there’s an army on Naboo—she knows this Jar-Jar guy. But they won’t fight to protect a people who doesn’t care about them. The queen then proposes that they steal the weapons that won’t be given to them. “Our world should not be held hostage!” Qui-gon says can it be done without anyone getting hurt, and reluctantly agrees. Obi-wan says he can get people past the security without trouble. Introduces mind powers.

They then make a raid on the droid manufacturing facilities on Geonosis. They get caught on the way out, and Qui-gon talks to the Geonosian leader about some thing he did for them in the past that got them out of trouble, and shouldn’t they stick up for the little guy, and he will find a way to pay for the droids they’re stealing, just cut the Trade Federation’s bullying out. The leader is so impressed he lets them take them. After Qui-gon leaves, he reports to Sidious that the board is set and the pieces are moving.

Of course, they’d be in trouble if they jumped the Trade Federation’s franchise, so the Geonosians report the theft. This makes the Republic upset. They direct Mace Windu to stop Qui-gon and give back the droids before he pulls the Geonosian droid factories into a multi-way war with the clonemasters and the Republic.

It all comes to a head in a big battle for control of Naboo. Anakin ends up piloting, and acquits himself well. Qui-gon, Obi-wan, Mace Windu, and Darth Tyrannus face off in the palace. Darth Maul runs for it, setting up Tyrannus for his death. Windu sends Qui-gon and Obi-wan after him, but he escapes. Mace Windu kicks Tyrannus’ ass, motherfucker. The droids and the clones fight it out, and the Gungangs drive the clones off.

At the end, it’s clear Anakin has a biiiig crush on Padme. The Republic censures the government of Naboo for sponsoring terrorism, and threatens a regime change if they don’t give the droids back and pay the raised prices the trade federation wanted. The queen tells them, “I’m not fired, we quit,” and announces a big speech that things are chanigng, and worlds that want a government that support their rights should join each other. Yaaaaay, happy, joy. Qui-gon warns that this is the more difficult path, and why not just give in to their demands now that the danger is past and the world is no longer watching? And the queen says she has principles.

Mace Windu and Qui-gon face off. Mace doesn’t hold it against Qui-gon that Darth Maul escaped—it’s not Qui-gon’s way to run down a fleeing enemy, and now the Jedi know to be vigilant. But he is worried that as the queen is tearing apart the Republic at a time when it can’t afford it, so too is Qui-gon tearing apart the Jedi Order. Qui-gon says he’s not tearing anything apart, he is only following the way the Force was meant to be followed- the natural way. Mace warns that the Force is neither good nor evil, and to obey it without question is to let others dictate his course. They part on somewhat-good terms—they both respect one another, but each believes they are doing the wrong thing. Qui-gon explains that Mace sees the pattern of events but is never able to change them. Anakin says wouldn’t it be better to be able to change them, leading to a whole light-dark discussion thing.



Episode 2:

Overall: I want a hint at Anakin going to the Dark Side. I need Obi-wan and Anakin back on the Republic’s side. I need clone madness. I need the war to escalate significantly. I need Qui-gon to die. I might want to get Darth Maul killed.

Initial Situation: Inspired by Qui-gon’s proclamation that planets should be able to run their own affairs, thousands of star systems have joined the Separatists of Naboo, and are attempting to create a new government. The Republic has actively opposed attempts at secession, but a nervous Senate has already started enacting reforms to try to keep secession from spreading. Now the ancient and cultured planet of Alderaan, with the Republic’s largest orbital shipyards seeks to join the Separatists, and the Republic has decided that only force will be sufficient to maintain its security in the face of armed revolt. To quell the insurgency, Chancellor Velorum is calling an emergency meeting of the galactic Senate.

-They can’t get an army quickly enough. The Chancellor says, “we’ve captured Darth Tyrannus’ cloning facility. Lets use it.”

Qui-gonn Jinn, fearing a galactic war breaking out between the two sides, huries to Alderaan in an attempt to negotiate a peaceful settlement. If the Alderaanians give up their weapons, the Republic will see they are not a threat and let them go peacefully.

Unfortunately, while he’s on the ground, Darth Maul takes over a group of clones, lands them, has them secure the building, and assassinates Qui-gon while Obi-wan and Anakin fight their way through the clones. Qui-gon seems more concerned with stopping Anakin and Obi-wan from hurting the clones than he is with staying alive.

At the death of their beloved master, they both charge after Maul, who flees, still using clones to slow down his pursuers. He gets to his ship, and Qui-gon and Obi-wan get in their Jedi starfighters to chase. Maul blows up their hyperdrive rings and escapes into hyperspace. Anakin notes his course and suggests they acquire another ship. They land on and begin taking over a dreadnought, killing Republic clone soldiers as they go. An apprentice Jedi gets in the way and they stun him. Just as they’re about to leave, Yoda arrives, takes their lightsabers, and gives them a stern talking-to.

Obi-wan realizes how far he’s gone wrong and agrees to submit himself to the Jedi Council. Anakin is more resistant, but still loyal to Obi-wan and follows eventually.

With Qui-gon dead, the Alderaanians decide to fight, refusing to put aside their weapons. They believe it to be a Republic assassination of their beloved leader, especially with Anakin and Obi-wan not in the area to tell them otherwise. The Republic begins to attempt to annex the place, but the violence sets off the clone madness. The clones are fighting each other, and the Jedi, and doing terrible things to the Alderaanians. The Separatists, seeing a planet in deep trouble, need to send aid but don’t have enough forces. They bring in the banking clan and the trade federation, who have an ingenious military leader, a droid general (maybe named Grievous? But I’d rather not—that sounds villainous. I’ll call him Grievous for now.) Grievous sets up many devious traps, starting to cut up the clone fleet, but of course Jedi are killed in the process. Though Qui-gon told them not to, separatist Jedi knights ask to go in and try to extract their brethren from the fight so that they won’t be killed in a pointless war.

But the Jedi with the fleet see the droid army and the seizing of Alderaan’s shipyards as the first stage of a bloody revolution,a revolution that will decimate the Jedi, who are peacekeepers never meant to fight a war. The real solution is to stop the separatists now, before they get too big, and then reform the Senate from within. Nobody gets killed that way. The Jedi end up fighting as much as talking, especially with the clones being so hard to control.

Back on Corruscant, the government is in shambles. Chancellor Vellorum takes the blame for the clone disaster, and is tossed out by a reform party, of which now-Senator Amidala is part. The new government’s reforms centralize government and military power, and allow the deployment of defense force troops on Republic planets not under foreign invasion, as well as allowing people to be arrested for seditious propaganda as an aid-and-comfort for the enemy thing. They talk about how the Separatists are simply a shelter for corrupt corporations and slavers to free themselves to loot and pillage the environment and trample on universal rights. When a few Senators protest and say the separatists are breaking new ground in personal freedom, they are arrested under the new law. In their faces. Amidala expresses dismay, and Palpatine says that the tyranny of the majority is an unfortunate facet of democracy. Also, a draft is announced, so that the Separatist movement can be prevented from holding planets like Alderaan hostage.

The Jedi Council attempts to bring Anakin and Obi-wan back into line, but Anakin is stubborn, and claims that Qui-gon was opening important new chapters in the history of the Jedi, and it’s foolish to sweep it under the rug with his death, especially with the forces of the Dark Side still at large. Mace Windu points out their behavior on the star-ship and says they’re dangerously close to joining the Dark Side. Anakin fumes a bit. Palpatine reassures him that change is coming to the Senate, thus it must inevitably come to the Jedi as well, and perhaps he’ll be the one to bring about that change. Oh and isn’t it so sad that Obi-wan is too afraid to embrace the Force in all its variety. Anakin clearly starts being tempted. Anakin wants to hunt down Darth Maul, but the Jedi Council don’t trust him. He fumes about this, and says Maul will kill any Jedi they send against him. Obi-wan tells him not to under-estimate the skill of the masters. Anakin and Padme get married and spend much time complaining to each other of how the world is getting more and more out of tune with what’s right and good, and nobody wants to see the bigger picture.

Seeing that a long war with the Republic will result in inevitable defeat, Grievous advises the Separatist leaders to take Corruscant, thus showing the Republic that it can’t afford a drawn-out war with a force as powerful as the Separatists. Their leaders say this would make them the aggressor. Grievous compromises and says seizing a few government leaders should do the job. He, his best droid forces, and a few Jedi, and the whole fleet, set off for Corruscant. Though they don’t know it, Darth Maul stows away among them as well, having overheard the plan from the shadows.

Mace Windu goes out to hunt Darth Maul. He follows Maul’s tracks, marked with a trail of bodies of Republic officials and Jedi, only to find the trail leads back to corruscant. Meanwhile, Palpatine suggests that Corruscant is lightly defended and close to several key Separatist worlds, and thus vulnerable to a counterstroke by the enemy’s much more powerful army. The Chancellor agrees and concentrates forces there, and calls in many Jedi. The council agrees under protests—they’re not soldiers. However, some of the Jedi have been able to keep clone soldiers stabilized, so they’re needed.

The Separatist fleet arrives in orbit and deals the Republic fleet a collosal defeat. However they are temporarily slowed by local orbital defenses and shields that prevent them from landing troops.

Palpatine suggests to Anakin that the coming battle will go very badly, and that as a Senator, Padme is in danger. He tells Anakin that only his method of use of the Force will be strong enough to defeat the Sith leading the invasion fleet. Anakin says he knew of no invasion fleet, and Palpatine says it’s obvious— this attack is just like Tyrrannus’ attack on Naboo. It’s clearly not about peace and invidiuality, or they’d have kept to their own planets. Anakin agrees and says he’ll disobey the council and take out Darth Maul. Palpatine suggests that taking out Darth Maul will mean that there’s nothing Anakin can’t do, and the Jedi would be fools to think otherwise.

Grievous pays a bounty hunter to take the shields down. Obi-wan kills her but not before her mission is successful. The Separatists land a strike force in the palace. Darth Maul lands with them, and they seize the main Senate chamber. The Jedi arrive in force to stop them, and Darth Maul appears. Anakin shows up and starts fighting him. It’s about an even fight. Meanwhile Grievous grabs a bunch of Senators, including Padme. Torn between kill the bad Sith, and save his wife, Anakin goes after his wife. Obi-wan, fearing for his mental balance, goes with him.

Mace Windu lands and helps the Jedi break the siege, kicking Darth Maul’s ass in the process. The Jedi who were helping the seperatists in this raid are arrested. (They’ll get executed quietly in Ep3 as the Chancellor takes power). He hears from other Jedi that Anakin is on the ship with the captured Senators.

On the ship, Grievous has a number of clever traps, including energy shields, droidekkas, and soforth, which Anakin and Obi-wan barely thwart. Grievous abandons ship (Which he can do through space ‘cause he’s a droid) and the fleet retreats. He says, as a parting shot to Anakin, that he could’ve killed the Senators, but it’s not the separatist way. They’re just here to tell the Republic to leave them alone. Anakin takes this totally the wrong way ‘cause it’s threatening his wife. Anakin hops in a starfighter and blows Grievous’ ship away after some subtle prodding from Palpatine, scaring Amidala. Palpatine scares her a little more while Anakin’s not looking, foreshadowing the coming Empire and her lack of a place in it.

With Greivous defeated and Republic reinforcements streaming in, the Separatist fleet retreats. Everyone returns to Corruscant to celebrate the victory, but the Jedi don’t congratulate Anakin for killing the enemy leader. They instead berate him for disobeying orders not once, but twice. Obi-wan tries to comfort Anakin, saying he led the Jedi to Maul, and prevented the Separatist gambit from succeeding, and who else could’ve done that? Anakin says Grievous had Padme at his mercy and he could do nothing, and he never wants to feel like that again, and reveals that Padme is pregnant with twins.




Episode 3:

-The movie opens with tearful goodbyes as soldiers are going off to fight the Separatists. War has broken out, and neither side will cease until the other’s army is broken, yet each side recruits more and more soldiers. On Corruscant, there is a conscription riot, and the current Chancellor calls on the Jedi to defuse it. The Jedi refuse, saying this is a mess of their own making, and the Jedi advised time and again against it. The current Chancellor calls the Jedi traitors and attempts to have the council members arrested for sedition. Naturally, this is horribly unpopular, and even members of his own party refuse to go along with the idea.

-Palpatine, however, now has is eyes on the prize, and proposes a clever plan to break the popular appeal of the Jedi—everyone knows there are separatist Jedi and that they fight willingly for their cause. If the Senate proposes a hammerstroke against the Separatist Jedi’s base of operations on Ilum, where lightsabers were most popularly made. The chancellor proposes it as a way to break the Separatists’ desire to fight. The military accepts this plan and dispatches a battle group to do the job.

-Naturally, the Jedi don’t want their own people killed, and they don’t want the only source of natural lightsaber crystals devastated in battle. Despite being on different sides, the Jedi are still cordial with one another. Yoda says he sense the Dark Side in this move, and Mace Windu agrees that though he cannot perceive their intent, he is certain the Sith are behind this decision. Anakin argues that he’s certain he would’ve perceived the Chancellor’s darkness if it existed, but Mace says the intent of his actions is obvious. They go to arrest the current Chancellor, who is not actually a Sith. Their dramatic confrontation is caught on tape and broadcasted widely. Reactions are mixed—some say the Jedi are defectors and always have been. Some say they’re not surprised the Chancellor was a Sith, because he was way out there.

Debate is cut short when the Chancellor is assassinated by a bounty hunter—Jango Fett while the Jedi Council are testifying before the Senate that a strike in Ilum will only make the war worse, and Anakin is busy being temptinated by Palpatine. Though the bounty hunter is killed in the attempt by—you guessed it—Mace Motherf---ing Windu on his way back from the Senate, the damage is done. A study of Jango’s accounts reveal that he was in fact under the pay of the leader of the Geonosians. The leader of the Geonosians is of course under Palpatine’s influence, but he’s not accessible to find that out. Naturally, the Jedi being conspicuously absent is assumed by many to be complicity, as well as the fact that they were in the process arguing not to strike at the Trade Federation.

Enraged, Palpatine is “forced” by “political pressure” to give the strike an OK, while the Jedi have to stand by and watch. Palpatine tells Anakin the Jedi are afraid to do what’s necessary to end the war, and tells him to go kill the Geonosian leader, whom he says is under the mental influence of the separatist Jedi. Anakin goes, sneaks into the factory, and assassinates him, confirming that he was indeed under mental influence. He tells Padme the Jedi are behind the war, and Padme is horrified, and says she doesn’t believe it. Anakin says the Jedi are fighting among themselves over how the Force is to be used, and he wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to pull the whole galaxy apart in the process.

Mace Windu, realizing that the Chancellor wasn’t the Sith, but noting that Palpatine is letting the Chancellor’s plans happen, decides to ask him some tough questions. Palpatine asks since when have the Jedi dictated the Republic’s policy. Mace says that the Jedi are Ilum may be separatists, but they are still Jedi. “So it’s treason, then.” He goes to call his guards to arrest Mace, and Mace of course lightsabers the comm. He then accuses Palpatine of being the Sith, and of controlling the Senate. Palpatine says he has only been doing what was best for the Republic. Mace Windu says there’s no jury made that would convict him after he has influenced so many minds, but now he sees the pattern, just in time to end it. He goes up for a killing stroke, Palpatine lightnings, is blocked. Anakin intervenes, says it’s not the Jedi way. Mace says he’ll do what’s necessary. Anakin says he will be a guardian of what is right, whichever side it comes from. Mace Windu asks what determines what’s right and wrong. Palpatine says it’s obvious—the Jedi have long ago stopped serving the people of the Republic and only served themselves—otherwise they would’ve ended this destructive conflict wrong ago. Mace Windu tells Anakin not to be pulled in by the Sith’s web of lies and attacks. Anakin intervenes to stop him, and Palpatine takes the chance, while his saber is tied up, to fry him to death.

Anakin turns on Palpatine, who laughs at him, and says that when the Jedi learn he turned on the council, they’ll kill both of them. They’ll then take over the Senate and rule the galaxy, as they have been plotting to for some time. Anakin says the Jedi will do what’s right. Palpatine: “Like Master Windu was doing what was right?” He goes into the whole point of view thing. He says the galaxy is descending into chaos, and only a strong, just hand can set it right. But the Jedi are too weak—they couldn’t even see the Sith, let alone oppose them. The Sith, however, are positioned to crush the traitorous separatists and restore order to the galaxy. The alternative is civil war without end. Anakin has seen the horrors of war. Surely peace is worth fighting for just a little longer.

Anakin asks what he must do, and is tasked down with hunting down the Separatist Jedi—the Republic’s Jedi can’t be trusted for the task, and the army lacks anything potent enough. Palpatine offers to teach him some new tools that will make him victorious in battle against them, and a series of Dark Side lessons ensues. Between lessons, the Jedi don’t know what happened to Mace or Anakin, who seem to have disappeared. Obi-wan and Yoda go searching for them—Yoda poking around Corruscant, and Obi-wan looking among Anakin’s old separatist friends.

Anakin kills many of the separatist Jedi in battle. He gets more badass whenever he gets wounded. Many of them act all betrayed and stuff. But his corruption isn’t complete— he allows one of them to call for help, and Obi-wan finds and rescues the Jedi children.

Palpatine declares that the Jedi have rebelled and joined the separatists. He reorganizes the Republic into the Empire because he says a stronger government is needed to combat their seditious influence. Padme is aghast and flees to the Separatists. Palpatine tells Anakin of this, broadly hinting that she’s ended up with Obi-wan. Anakin rages a bit.

Yoda confronts them, pwnzes Anakin, but can’t overcome both the Emperor’s powers and his many disposable goons. He retreats and is shot down over Dagobah, and presumed dead as his ship breaks up.

Anakin is sent after Obi-wan on Mustafar. He’s jealous of Padme naturally. Obi-wan refuses to say where she is, because she’s with all the remaining Jedi children, their one hope for the future. Enraged, Anakin attacks. Obi-wan barely fends him off, cuts off his hand and takes his lightsaber. Anakin uses the grip on him, loses awareness, and falls into lava. Obi-wan rescues him, pleads with him to come back to the light. Anakin says he is looking forward to the future when he kills Obi-wan. Anakin summons droids to start rebuilding himself.

The Emperor, who had landed nearby with troops to complete the purge, orders his body finished, and gives him his Darth name. He talks Anakin into a royal rage about how the Jedi are an insidious parasite, and it is his mission to root them out.

The twins are born. Padme tells Obi-wan to keep Vader’s lightsaber, and swears there’s good in him. We get some fast-forward here.

Imperial forces push the Separatist forces back to a last stand at Naboo, with Darth Vader at their head. Imperial forces breach the palace. To buy the Jedi children enough time to escape to the Gungans, Padme joins the defence forces guarding their stronghold. When Obi-wan objects, she asks who will teach them if he gets himself killed.

Padme plans a trap for the infamous Dark Knight, saying no Sith will ever be allowed to harm her children. They rig half of a room to collapse with remote controlled charges. Anakin pops the charges off the with Force and then collapses the other side of the room on the defenders who were trying to keep him boxed in, killing a bunch of Jedi and Padme. He realizes what he’s done and collapses in place as the troops flow around him. Obi-wan and Bail Organa escape with the two children, taking them to their respective homeworlds.
Ending has Palpatine “consoling” Vader his sacrifice was noble, because the war is now over and the Empire has “peace”.

Obi-wan verbally wrestles with Qui-gon’s ghost, who says the Jedi of all people should realize that the attempt to hold power drives it away, and that the Empire is but a puff of dark smoke before the endless light of the Force. Only by accepting that everything passes, especially ourselves, can we truly predict the future.

But then we see that there is in fact peace. Luke is having a happy childhood on Tatooine—the childhood his never had as a slave. Leia is growing up with the pomp of the Alderaanian court, while the people of Alderaan destroy their weapons and promise never to study war again. Yoda sets up his hut on Dagobah. ((Do we want a hint of the Death Star? Or is that too dark))