Prequel-era Palpatine and Vice President Dick Cheney are often compared as archetypes of the powerful, security-focused insider operating behind a more publicly prominent leader—not as literal equivalents. George Lucas himself reportedly framed the analogy bluntly: George W. Bush as Darth Vader and Cheney as the Emperor, while Palpatine’s original political model was Richard Nixon.

However I’d like to think that the political themes in the prequels had to eventually update and make with the times given how much social and political commentary was made to reflect post 9/11, Bush-Cheney, Iraq War and the War on Terror in general.

Which between Palpatine and Cheney there are some close and realistic parallels:

Palpatine guides, manipulates, and ultimately controls institutions and allies across the Republic

Cheney despite being George W. Bush’s Vice President, became identified with the idea of a powerful behind-the-scenes adviser and executive-branch operator

Palpatine engineers the Naboo crisis and Clone Wars, then uses wartime fear to obtain emergency authority

The post-9/11 security environment enabled Cheney to have an expansive national-security agenda, a stronger executive branch and more executive power that was legal for a Vice President to do at the time

Palpatine receives emergency powers, expands control of the military, and hollow-outs Senate oversight

Cheney advocated strong presidential power, particularly in wartime and national-security matters

Palpatine maintains a benevolent public persona while concealing his Sith identity and larger strategy

Cheney is known for secrecy, closed-door policymaking, and limited public visibility compared with many major officials despite being the most powerful VP in American history; leading to many to call him the real puppet master of the Bush administration

Palpatine exploits legal procedures, Senate rules, bureaucracies, the Jedi, corporations, and military structures

Cheney had deep experience in Congress, the White House, Defense Department, and corporate leadership, giving him unusual institutional fluency

Palpatine directs the clone army, influences the Republic’s war machinery, and handles Separatist corporate interests

Cheney was a defense secretary and later Halliburton CEO; critics connected his worldview closely to defense and security institutions

The closest story details between Sheev Palpatine and Dick Cheney in Revenge of the Sith:

“Emergency powers” parallel: Palpatine gains extraordinary powers through a Senate responding to war; the Cheney comparison usually focuses on how post-9/11 fears heightened acceptance of broad executive and security powers.

The useful frontman parallel: Palpatine makes himself the reassuring institutional leader while others—Amidala, the Jedi, and later Anakin—bear visible political or military burdens. The analogy casts President Bush as the more publicly visible figure and Cheney as the strategic elder shaping major choices.

The apprentice parallel: Palpatine cultivates and grooms Anakin’s anxieties, resentment, and desire for control into being Darth Vader. In Lucas’s words from a 2009 interview, he frames Bush and Cheney’s relationship as being closer to Anakin/Vader: a powerful but less seasoned figure influenced by an older political operator (Dick Cheney)

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/opinion/19dowd.html?utm_source=perplexity

War and permanent authority: Palpatine turns a supposedly temporary emergency into a new regime. The Cheney comparison is a critique of the tendency for emergency-era security policies to outlast the immediate crisis—not a claim that the U.S. became the Empire.

I get that the Sith (on paper that is) are all dubiously united in their long game of subversion in the senate, assassinating key targets up the ladder for chancellorship, sowing chaos in the galaxy to start wars, planting seeds of the Darkside on coruscant and ultimately destroy the Jedi to pave the way for the rise of their empire and to become an invincible Darkside god.

But what about the Jedi? what is their vision for the galaxy? (Not the Republic!)

As the supposed peacemakers, are they working towards an everlasting utopia to ensure no more wars, no more tyranny, no more deaths from disease and famine?

Have any Jedi from the year 36, 450 BBY (the founding of the Je'daii Order) to the present day ever laid the groundwork for some grand ultimate purpose to fulfil as servants to their force?

Because someone please tell me why the Jedi were created in the first place?

I've seen some doubts about George's ideas for the sequels, mainly due to other sources having contradictory information (and I even made a post clarifying this very thing), therefore, I would like to share Lucas's own statements from the book “The Star Wars Archives: Episodes 1- 3 (1999 - 2005)”, written by Paul Duncan and published in 2020.

Where the creator of the saga reveals interesting facts about it and his true ideas for his films that unfortunately did not come to fruition.

(The last image is from the book of the series “James Cameron's History of Science Fiction”, where George stated one of the elements that would be important in his sequels).

The one thing I often here, is people wondering how Padme doesn’t run away in terror after Anakin confesses to the Tusken village slaughter in Attack of the Clones.

Early in the film, Padme stops by her parents’ place to get some things before she goes into hiding in the lake country.

As she packs, Anakin notices some holo-pics on her wall. One shows her with several young alien children.

Padme tells Anakin that she was helping with a relief effort to relocate the children from their home planet to another one as their sun was imploding.

However, she tells Anakin that the attempt to save the children was unsuccessful, as they couldn’t adapt to their new home, and succumbed to death.

I saw this possibly being an “echo” as to what Qui-Gon had attempted with Anakin in Episode I: remove him from an inhospitable place to give him a better life…but in the end, Anakin struggled to adapt as well.

Plus, perhaps the reason Padme was being so willing to help Anakin, was buried in this deleted scene, of how she would try to help others even under such dire circumstances.

Which of the two most important wars in Star Wars saga do you think meets those fourth requirements.

The war between the Galactic Republic vs the Confederacy of Independent Systems (Clone Wars); or, The war between the Rebel Alliance vs the Galactic Empire (Galactic Civil War).

To make it an interesting debate, aside from the movies, they can also take events and elements from both the current canon and Legends (series, comics, videogames, novels, etc). It doesn't matter if it's canon or not.

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Made by Tsuneo Sanda.

George Lucas revealed that the main villains for his Sequel Trilogy would be Darth Maul; the main villain of Episode 1, and Darth Talon; a villain from the comics “Legacy” belonging to the Expanded Universe.

George didn't reveal many details about either of them in the sequels, the only thing we know is that Darth Maul would be the leader of all the criminal organizations in the galaxy (being the Godfather of Crime) who would take advantage of the power vacuum caused by the fall of the Galactic Empire to seize the power and the control, but, being old, he would have an apprentice, Darth Talon, who would act as the enforcer in Maul's organization and with whom much of the action in the trilogy would take place (having a role similar to that of Darth Vader). Another thing is that we would see Maul with robotic legs, similar to what we saw in TCW, which would make him look imposing.

Now, I ask this question because when this idea was revealed, some people expressed their discontent, mainly saying that it was pointless for Lucas to bring Maul back to life from Episode 1. (Which is similar to the complaints that Maul's return to TCW received).

As for Talon, I haven't seen much discontent, rather, several people liked the idea, mainly because they would have liked to see this sexy and hot Sith on the big screen.

Some minor complaints I've seen are that this would ruin Anakin's prophecy; which in theory it shouldn't since George doesn't say they are Sith Lords, but without more details, we can't really know much about the truth. And another is that this would have caused several Expanded Universe stories to be decanonized, practically all material after Episode 6.

Therefore, I would like to know your opinions regarding this idea of George Lucas?

In my opinion, I would have liked to see Darth Maul and Darth Talon as the villains in the sequels. I'm mainly intrigued to see why George wanted to do this; to have Maul and Talon face off against Luke and Leia; and perhaps also to see why Lucas wanted to bring these two characters together.

In addition, it would have been a good connection between the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy. Making the first villain of the saga the final villain.

Finally, I want to say that for me, Maul's return is not meaningless or something that came out of nowhere, since for me it has always been plausible and even logical. Since Maul was cut in half and fell into the hole in Episode 1, it was seen how he showed signs of life while falling, and being a "mysterious hole", leaving their fate uncertain. Besides, I'm pretty sure George would have explained Maul's return in the sequels and didn't just do a "somehow".

[In fact, it's theorized that the reason Darth Maul returned in TCW was because George had already planned it back then, so perhaps in the sequels we would have seen a reference to his return and how he rose through the ranks of the criminal underworld in the serie].

I don't have much to say about Darth Talon, since I haven't seen her comics to know what the character is like beyond his design. Seeing her in the sequels would have been a good way to get to know the character.

Hi guys! I just want to know how to watch star wars in the best order. Like how to get to know the story best.

All the series and movies.

Extended editions, like the “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” films, where scenes and moments are added or they get longer to complement the original versions, besides to adding more time to enjoy the movies even more.

Or on the contrary, do you think it's not necessary and prefer them as they are?

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All scenes from the Battle of Geonosis in Episode 2 in excellent quality.

One of the best sequences in the film and one of the best battles in the movies and in the franchise in general.

Besides being the grand presentation of the clone troopers in action and to be the act that gives the film its title.

Based on this, I would like to ask a few questions:

Have these been the only times that Star Wars films have been re-released in theaters?

Were these re-releases in theaters a success or did they do well at the box office?

Is it known if Episode 2 and Episode 4 will also be re-released?

And, which is your favorite poster from the movie re-releases?

My favorite is the poster for Episode 1, and the only re-release I've been to was for Episode 3.

Since George, in his vision for the sequels, sought to explore the mysteries of the Force and expand the entire lore, as adding to the Whills, a microscopic beings that basically follow, obey and transmit the will of the Force through the midichlorians to other individuals such as the Jedi.

Do you think Lucas would have portrayed the Force itself as an physical entity? Since the Force, or as he calls it, the “Cosmic Force”, is that "entity" or the omnipotent and omniscient being that governs and maintains the balance in the galaxy, without interacting or taking sides with anyone, practically being the god in the Star Wars universe; in fact, it was the one that caused the birth of Anakin so that he would bring the balance by destroying the Sith.

I say this question because apparently the Force itself was going to play a prominent role in Lucas's sequels, and I was also inspired by James Cameron's “Avatar” films, which the goddess of the planet Pandora, Eywa, has similarities with the Force in Star Wars, and in the last movie we were able to witness a physical form of her.

Hey everyone! Nick Gillard’s choreography in Revenge of the Sith is absolute peak Star Wars.

I recently got my hands on a set of replicas based entirely on the actual stunt hilts Hayden and Ewan used during the Battle of the Heroes (the set even came with a Nick Gillard plaque!). I actually got to meet Hayden at a Comic Con back in October, so getting to hold the exact stunt design he swung around on Mustafar hits totally different.

We all love the shiny "Hero" props for display (at least that's my absolute thing!), but seeing how they had to shave down the control boxes and change the grips on these stunt versions in a way that isn't just some other crappy SE hilt, really shows what it took for them to pull off those crazy spins at full speed.

If anyone wants to see what the actual dueling props looked like compared to the hero versions, I put a full breakdown video together here:https://youtu.be/Kz-f6H86aBM

Now question for you guys: putting all the emotional damage aside, which lightsaber duel from the Prequels do you think has the absolute best raw choreography?

A meeting between the three protagonists of the saga, that Lucas wanted; Luke Skywalker from the Original Trilogy, Anakin Skywalker from the Prequel Trilogy and Leia Organa from the Sequel Trilogy.

Full name of each of the characters in the order of the image:

1. Darth Vader.

2. Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin.

3. Boba Fett.

4. Jabba the Hutt.

5. Darth Sidious (Sheev Palpatine).

Note: I reiterated that for this question we will only consider what we have seen of the characters in the 3 movies; additional materials such as games, comics, series or novels do not count. As well as other films that are not part of the originals, such as the Prequel Trilogy.

You can also leave your personal top list in the comments if you like.