Star Wars Episode Two Attack of the Clones (2002) — I: A Welcome Disruption
*SPOILERS*
Moving forward with the film noir interpretation of the Star Wars Prequels’ commentary on power structures …
Episode II begins with the context of a Separatist movement rebelling against the Galactic Republic. Trade Federation abruptly dropped from the plot, so we might infer that they are somehow involved with the Separatists. Since the Jedi only number enough to keep the peace the Republic needs an army to respond to the Separatists. In order to vote for the creation of such an army, Senator Amidala is in Coruscant where an assassination attempt against her occurs. This kicks off Kenobi’s and Anakin’s parallel arcs.
The story of the power structures here is one of the Sith pushing forward with their power grab of the Republic by manufacturing a state of emergency while the Jedi abruptly begin to realize both the gravity of the situation and the extent of their ignorance.
Jedi Vanity
The first example of the exploitability of the Jedi power structure was their assumption that war was extinguished in the galaxy. Such was their vanity that they dissolved the security apparatus of the galactic civilization — its army — and replaced it with themselves, like 500 sword wizards. (Just a little pet peeve: at an interplanetary scale such a military force wouldn’t be called an army since they would administer a fleet thus functioning more like a navy, with a complementary gravity well branch for planetary transitions as an analog to amphibious branches like Marines). This came back to bite them in the ass when they needed an army because the possibility of war is never extinguished. Best illustrated with the case of Sifo Dyas.
Sifo Dyas
He was only briefly mentioned in Episode II, but Stupendous Wave reveals that he was a Jedi Master who possessed foresight of the future (the same thing that lets Anakin see Padme’s coming death in Episode III). Likewise, Sifo foresaw The Clone Wars and appealed the Jedi Order to create a clone army. But in their rigidity the Jedi forbade him from doing this. So he flew to Kamino and commissioned the cloning of an army himself, which is what Kenobi discovers when he tracks down the dart that was used to kill the subcontracted assassin of Senator Amidala. This clone army literally immediately comes in handy and allows the Jedi to survive rather than being overwhelmed by a droid army of galactic scale, something only possible despite their self-righteous arrogance. And their making the wrong call about Sifo Dyas’s foresight prompts no self reflection from the Jedi Council, who continue mismanaging subsequent developments.
Anakin Skywalker
We can also see another example of Jedi rigidity, resulting from their arrogance, in their handling of Anakin. We ended Episode I with The Jedi hesitantly making an exception to their rule of taking in no fearful younglings. And here we fast forward to Anakin years later to find them giving this exceptional Jedi case only the standard emotionally dismissive training they give all Jedi padawan. Given how concerned they were about Anakin’s fear, it’s jaw-dropping that they did absolutely nothing to address it short of advising him to repress it, despite the increasingly obvious failure of this approach as Anakin grows. I mean you’d think if you accepted the responsibility of training The Chosen One™️ (who already has the seed of fear) that you’d take steps to address that fear. Likewise when you feel the flame of anger grow in him at a perceived injustice toward himself, you’d respond with patience to explain why your orders for him stand as they do. This is a progressive practice in any modern workplaces and even militaries; morale and performance improve when subordinates understand their roles, rather than merely playing their roles.
For instance, Anakin points out that Jedi are encouraged to have compassion for all life, something resembling the Buddhist concept of Metta. However they are also forbidden from loving an individual due to that form of love constituting an attachment. Anakin sees this as a contradiction and doesn’t appear to be familiar with the notion of omnidirectional generalized love being different than romantic passionate love being directed at an individual — something consistent with a Jedi order unwilling to explain its practices and instead demanding simple obedience.
Predictably Anakin ends up being a whiny little bitch that feels both under-appreciated and over-policed. His arc in this movie involves him being established as an angsty youth assigned to protect Senator Amidala, which puts him in proximity to his lifelong obsession and leads to him losing control of his feelings for her. They then rush to Geonosis to aid Kenobi when the battle of Geonosis happens, and I’m not sure there’s anything that would add fuel to a passionate romance like being on the same side of a war (except maybe doing Molly at Anjunadeep). They fall madly in love despite Anakin’s massive red flag personality and secretly wed each other at the end of the movie, materially escalating Anakin’s disillusionment. Something I see as resulting from Jedi mismanagement to the extent that it could have been prevented.
Senate Emergency Power Grab
In this movie we see the Senate’s vulnerability to its Chancellor seizing more power in the context of a civil war by using the collective anxiety and urgency of the moment. Palpatine’s chess moves follow:
- Instructs Separatists to attempt to assassinate Senator Amidala. Counts on assassination failing (knowing two Jedi will be protecting her) because he needs the next two steps to happen
- Leverages threat on Senator Amidala to manipulate Anakin into providing security for her, placing him in a position to have his passion provoked (passion being a Sith hallmark)
- Leverages threat on Senator Amidala to manipulate Jar Jar into sponsoring motion to grant him emergency powers for the creation of the Army of the Republic
Palpatine’s arc is one in which he begins as Chancellor of the Galactic Republic before using the Separatist movement to grab emergency powers in order to become the Supreme Chancellor with an army at his disposal. He does this by using the Separatist movement and his apprentice Dooku to conceal his involvement.
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Star Wars Episode One Essay —
Star Wars Episode Two Essay —
I: A Welcome Disruption
Star Wars Episode Three Essay —
Star Wars Prequels Overview Essay —
