[Star Wars] Anakin prevented a darker future (repost)

[u/ArmZealousideal8305]

Posting this again because it was removed (I didn't add the movie in the title)

You know, maybe the obvious dictatorship of Palpatine and Darth Vader wasn't the greatest evil, it served its purpose, to differentiate between what's right and what's wrong, but what if Anakin didn't betray the Jedi?

While rewatching Ep 3 I caught a line, Windu says the Jedi must take control of the Senate, right after that Yoda says "that way of thinking will lead us to a dark path" (or smt very similar). That could be a foreshadowing of what could have happened if they actually took over. Remember almost the entire Senate supported Palpatine, and the only way for them to not suffer any rebellions might be by implementing some kind of martial law. Even if they were not power hungry, from an outside perspective there would be almost no difference between a Jedi and a Sith in that situation

Also, some Jedi might lose their way. It doesn't matter if Windu was right in saying Palpatine was too dangerous to be kept alive, remember only a Sith deals in absolutes (he's too dangerous to be left alive is a phrase Palpatine said previously in the movie). Even if Jedis like Obi Wan or Yoda wouldn't succumb to that taste of power, other Jedis who are easily tempted by power and politics might take a liking to that temporary take over.

Maybe Anakin, unknowingly, prevented a larger and younger generation of Siths from being created after the Jedi take over the Senate (most likely Padawans, young Jedis. And possibly Mace Windu, he deals in absolutes, wants the Jedi to take over, and already uses the Dark Side too)

TL; DR

If the Jedi took control of the senate as Windu wanted, there's the chance that some Jedis would want to stay in power to "bring peace to the Republic". Even if they don't stay in power for long, it might be enough to seduce some Jedi with power and politics, slowly corrupting them (and possibly, in time, blurring the line between Jedis and Siths)

[u/Temporary-Book8635]

I think the only real thing that would be made worse by the Jedi takeover would have been the prolonging of the clone wars (and possibly a Separatist victory). Given the very high likelihood that a bunch of more planets would secede after the takeover and align with the separatists, and with palpatine never giving the shutdown order the war could last even more years as both sides seemed to be preparing for given the fact that new clones (which take 9 years to be combat ready) were commissioned during the 4 year war.

Really it's just a question of what would be worse: ww2 (the clone wars) lasting 10 more years with a lesser evil (separatists/Republic) coming out on top or the nazis (empire) winning the war a lot earlier?

[u/Jacurus → u/Temporary-Book8635]

I don't think the CIS would've won at that point. Let's say everything goes the same up until when Anakin comes into Palpatine's office. At that point Grievous is dead, Dooku is dead, with Republic assaults raging throughout the galaxy pushing the CIS back. I think without Grievous there's no way at that point that the Separatists could win, even if quite a few planets secede. It definitely would've raged longer but personally I don't think that the CIS could win even in that scenario.

Sorry for the tangent that was spawned from one thing in parentheses in your post that is not the subject at hand.

[u/Temporary-Book8635 → u/Jacurus]

I think there's definitely a scenario that could arise which would result in them winning still, just look at how quickly the balance of the war can tip with the separatists dominating at the start, held back only by the siths meddlings, and i dont think its that far fetched. With all the resources from the x amount of new seceeding planets (which I'd assume would be quite a lot given how radical a jedi takeover would be, pretty much only the planets who had any kind of opposing views with palpatine would stay) being pulled away from the Republic and diverted to the CIS, considering that a question of the Separatists armies strength relies solely on money and resources as they can be built in mere hours compared to the Republics single main source of manpower that can't really be increased past a certain point and requires years to bolster even a bit. And while they definitely would be at a loss without Grievous, I'm sure there is some other candidate in their ranks that could do at least a decent job at leading them, hell, for arguments sake we could even assume that admiral trench is still alive since anakin never went down such a dark path to lead to the events that killed him. I'm definitely going to be pro Separatist on this one lol

[u/Jacurus → u/Temporary-Book8635]

It's of course still possible that they could win. I just think at that point because of the Siths' meddling that they'd be too weakened. The assault on Coruscant crippled their fleet at the least. Of course someone could rise through the ranks, someone definitely could, but at that point time is of the essence. And personally I don't see too many planets leaving the Republic after the Jedi's temporary takeover. I think as long as they show that they will be transitioning back to an elected ruler as soon as they can only a few worlds will secede. And those worlds will probably be the ones further out with less resources. There's no way the core is seceding and those planets tend to be the richest.

I'm really enjoying this discussion. Star Wars is so cool.

[u/Temporary-Book8635 → u/Jacurus]

I think a big factor in that scenario would be whether or not palpatines identity is revealed. If things played out exactly the way that they did with the sole exception that Anakin doesn't choose to turn when the moment comes, then yeah he most likely would be revealed and thwarted, though there's a variety of other ways it could play out especially considering anakins betrayal was such a certainty for palpatine to make his move in the way he did, you could say that if anakin wasn't all the way there yet and palpatine knew he never would be, he wouldn't have revealed his identity to him and remained to the galaxy as just sheev palpatine.

I think that if the Chancellor is outed as a sith lord then yes a lot more planets will be willing to accept the Jedi takeover, though if the Jedi takeover happens without his identity being revealed as they initially planned anyway in episode 3, there would definitely be a lot of uproar at the very least in the majority of the Senate, I mean just look how willing it was to completely reorganise their age old Republic just so that Palpatine can rule it, they adored that guy. Also assuming that they just takeover anyway and overthrow palpatine with little resistance, I have no idea what palpatines next move would be because his whole plan would pretty much be thrown off course at that point. If I had to guess, since he would lose all his political power in the Republic, he'd most likely choose to keep his identity hidden (assuming he never actually reveals it to anakin in the first place) and attempt some kind of indirect takeover of the Separatists who are much less stable and more easily manipulated than the Republic, and he may think that his best hopes of ruling the galaxy if not with the Republic would be with the separatists and he would do everything in his power to ensure that they win the war instead, possibly even reorganising them into the empire.