Star Wars Episode Two Attack of the Clones (2002) — II: Jedi Vanity
*SPOILERS*
A Revolutionary Plot
Likewise, the upstream background dynamic of power structures from the previous segment is essentially what Kenobi catches downstream glimpses of over the course of his noir arc.
This movie fits the noir framework better than Episode I, as you can more clearly follow Kenobi through his journey tracking the would-be assassin of Senator Amidala to uncover two distinct conspiracies, mapping to separate power structures:
- The Separatist plot to assassinate Padme to prevent their own droid army from encountering military resistance as a result of her vote
- The unauthorized Jedi plot to create a clone army for the Republic, as well as its attempted cover-up from within
Kenobi learns the weapon used to kill the Changeling subcontracted to kill Padme is only manufactured on Kamino, so he searches for this planet in the Jedi database only to discover it doesn’t exist. He knows Kamino exists but its deletion from the database indicates that a Jedi Master very high up must have deleted it — “ this one goes all the way to the top! “ He goes there himself and discovers the creation of a clone army for the Galactic Republic being made at the order of a Jedi who died shortly thereafter. You can almost hear Kenobi thinking (transatlantically), “It was curtains for him. But why would someone want him dead, offed, caput? And a Jedi at that. It just doesn’t make any sense, see.” This in just as it turns out the Republic needs an army. Uncanny — someone knew something no one else did and had to conceal their actions. “But the only thing that would be potentially threatened by a direct military presence would be the incumbent peace keepers,” Kenobi might think. “Could it be? This has something to do with the Jedi Order?”
This before finding out that the genetic blueprint for the clones was taken from the same bounty hunter he’s tracking! His target is indeed being housed on Kamino. The plot thickens. Upon tracking the fleeing bounty hunter he then uncovers the creation of another (droid) army! This time for the Separatists (and the Trade Federation is in fact in on it), connecting both conspiracies he’s been following.
Oh yeah and then the rest of the movie happens but that’s it for the noir parts of it.
Through his arc, you can replace Kenobi with Al Roberts and the tone doesn’t change at all.
Limits of Conspiracy
I prefer not seeing Palpatine as predicting that the Separatist Droid Army would be discovered since he’s already Chancellor and should have wanted to use that army to skip steps and kill the Jedi directly, utterly overwhelmed by the scale of a proper army. My favorite interpretation is that Palpatine ordered the Separatists to attempt to assassinate Padme to accomplish his goals from Segment I and left it up to them to figure out how. I prefer to see it as a coincidence (or Force-willed fate) that the bounty hunter they hired would lead to the discovery of the clone army. And why did the Separatists hire Jango Fett, conveniently tying together both noir plots? For the same reason he was picked as the genetic template for a clone army. Because he’s the fuckin man and the entire galaxy knows it.
And if it turns out that Palpatine is such a genius-one-million-IQ-megamastermind that he predicted every step of this sequence of events perfectly then… well shit. That’s fuckin corny and no fun. Besides have you seen the people inclined to grab power? Genius matters less than audacity.
*SPOILERS FOR TALES OF THE JEDI*
What’s annoying is that Tales of the Jedi hints at this being the case though, since Palpatine orders Dooku to delete Kamino from the Jedi database. Meaning he likely knows the importance of Jango Fett and the Clone Army.
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Star Wars Episode One Essay —
Star Wars Episode Two Essay —
II: Jedi Vanity
Star Wars Episode Three Essay —
Star Wars Prequels Overview Essay —
