Preview of Episodes II and III

Episode II
Release Date: 2003
Timeline: 10 years after The Phantom Menace
Major Events: The Clone Wars
The Marriage of Anakin and Padme Amidala
The Fall of the Galactic Republic

Anakin Skywalker, now 19, grows into young manhood under the tutelage of
Obi-Wan Kenobi. But Anakin becomes impatient, believing that his master
isn't teaching him fast enough. Their relationship becomes strained, and is
made worse when both men fall in love with Padme Amidala, Queen of Naboo.

Anakin turns to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine for friendship. Palpatine, who
has been following Anakin's career since he was a boy, shows him great
fondness and generosity.

Unbeknownst to Anakin, or anyone else, the Chancellor has begun to dabble in
the Dark Side of The Force.

Episode II also revolves around a war -- a conflict much greater in scale
and more devastating than the Siege of Naboo. George Lucas has revealed very
little about the CLONE WARS, except to say they were the primary cause of
the fall of the Republic. Some speculate that an evil power (Darth Sidious?)
collects a cross-section of the Galaxy's "scum and villainy," with the
intent of using their genetic make-up to clone an army of savage warriors.

Others believe that the Wars are fought against the Mandelorians - Imperial
bounty hunter Boba Fett claimed that the Jedi wiped out his clan during this
period - and Lucas has confirmed that a young Fett will appear in this
episode.

In any event, the Clone Wars are so damaging to the Republic that the
Galactic Senate votes to give Chancellor Palpatine unlimited military and
political powers. Obi-Wan becomes a general, and fights side by side with
his friend Prince Bail Organa of Alderaan. Anakin, too, shows great heroism
in the Wars. Many of the Galaxy's 10,000 Jedi are killed in battle, leaving
their |forces depleted. Palpatine ultimately leads the Republic to victory -
or does he? Now that he has tasted unbridled power, the Chancellor has no
intention of giving up it up.

Flush from his victories in the Clone Wars, Anakin marries Padme, to
Obi-Wan's great dismay. In a magnificent ceremony, Anakin becomes a
full-fledged Jedi Knight, and Obi-Wan a Jedi Master. Palpatine consolidates
his power and delves deeper into the Dark Side of The Force, as the Republic
continues to collapse. Weakened by the Wars, the Jedi are in no position to
stop him.

Episode III
Release Date: 2005
Timeline: Several years after Episode II
Major Events: The Rise of the Empire
Anakin's Transformation into Darth Vader
The Jedi Purge
The Birth of Luke and Leia

Events take a downward turn in this darkest of the Star Wars tales.
Palpatine has proclaimed himself Emperor. His New Order rises to power, with
the help of The Dark Side of The Force. Palpatine is supported by the many
greedy people who benefit from his rule and don't want to see the return of
the Republic.

The once beautiful planet of Coruscant becomes the seat of the new Galactic
Empire.

Anakin Skywalker falls deeper and deeper under Palpatine's corrosive
influence. He becomes alienated from his wife (who hides from him the fact
she is pregnant). His feelings for Obi-Wan Kenobi grow into an obsessive
hatred.

In the pivotal scene of the film the two Jedi duel. Obi-Wan's cuts off
Anakin's hand with his lightsaber (just as Vader cuts off Luke's hand in
Empire). Anakin falls into a pit of molten lava (just as Darth Maul fell
into a pit of molten metal in Phantom Menace). Obi-Wan quickly pulls him out
of the lava, but Anakin is near death, most of his body burned beyond
recognition.

Anakin is slowly nursed back to life by the Emperor. His damaged body parts
are replaced by implants and biotech devices. In order to breath (his lungs
were burned to a crisp), Anakin must wear a special body suit and helmet. He
becomes, in effect, a cyborg. With the loss of his human form, he also loses
his humanity.

Now that the Sith Lords are extinct, Emperor Palpatine declares himself Dark
Lord of the Sith and recruits Anakin as his apprentice. Anakin, completely
won over to the Dark Side, renames himself Darth Vader.

Together, they set about to eliminate the last vestiges of the Republic --
the Jedi Knights. The Jedi Purge, led by Darth Vader, results in the
annihilation of all but two of the Galaxy's remaining Jedi Knights, Masters
and Padawan learners (many of whom were killed years before in the Clone
Wars). Only Obi-Wan and Yoda manage to survive the massacre.

Before going into hiding, Obi-Wan and Yoda travel to Naboo in an attempt to
protect Padme. Unbeknownst to Vader, Padme has given birth to twins -- a boy
and a girl. Recognising that the royal children will become Vader's greatest
threat -- and the Republic's only hope -- the Queen and the Jedi conspire to
hide them.

Obi-Wan brings the girl, Leia, to his best friend, King Bail Organa of
Alderaan, who adopts her as his daughter. Leia is accompanied by her
parents' favourite droids, R2D2 and C-3PO. The boy, Luke, is taken in by
Obi-Wan's brother, Owen Lars, a moisture farmer on Tatooine. Padme remains
on Naboo to help her people resist the coming onslaught of the Empire (her
ultimate fate is as yet unknown). Yoda escapes to the remote swamp planet of
Dagobah, where he disguises himself as a deranged hermit. Obi-Wan returns to
Tatooine as the mysterious loner "Old Ben". There he waits, living in a cave
in the Dune Sea desert, for destiny to reunite him with Luke Skywalker.

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"Try not.
Do.
Or Do not.
There is no try."
-Yoda, Jedi Master.

10,000 Jedi is a lot more than I expected, even for the whole galaxy

I thought Darth Sidious was Chancellor Palpatine, apparently not.

Luke's adopted father was Obe Wan's brother. Hmmmmm. Didn't know that.

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"Try not.
Do.
Or Do not.
There is no try."
-Yoda, Jedi Master.

Darth Sidious IS Palpatine.

I would argue that Anakin will become Vader before the battle at the lava pit and that battle will be the culmination of the Jedi purge. Most of the other Jedi will already be dead, and in a final battle with Obi-Wan, whom Vader has grown to hate, he gets knocked into the lava pit. I don't think we'll see Vader in his armour until the last scene of Ep 3.

Also, Obi-Wan probably drops Yoda at Dagobah on his way to Tatooine with Luke. Luke says that Dagobah seems familiar to him when he lands there in Ep 5.

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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx

Aban's Illustration www.thespeakeasy.com/alanfore

The procentage is probably similar to the world of today in the Marvel comics, where a small procentage of the world are mutants, probably about the same figure.
And the difference between a Jedi and a "normal" specimen of a species is pretty similar too, except that Jedi don't get the same variety of powers that X-mutants could get.

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I'm not an atheist, I'm a maybeist�

And, as mentioned, Palpatine and Sidious are the same guy, which rules out the idea of Palpatine "starting to dabble" in the Dark Side. Also, the Sith Lords wouldn't become extinct so Palpatine can declare himself a dark lord; he already is one.

There's nothing about who will be Sidious' apprentice in the time between Maul and Anakin.

And there doesn't seem to be any mention of the Clone Wars' involving clones there...

I doubt that Obi-Wan has family on Tatooine. He didn't seem to have any recognition of the planet in TPM. I would assume Luke's "aunt" and "uncle" were some relation to Anakin's mother (either one was a blood relation, or possibly a member of a family who were friends w/ her?).

Overall, I'd say whoever thought this stuff up, if they wanted to create believable rumors, could have done a much better job...

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"Oh, it's an anti-anti-WTO song. It's essentially a pro-Starbucks song. I saw this picture of a guy sticking his foot through a plate-glass window in a Starbucks in Seattle, and he was wearing a Nike. Man, couldn't you just change your shoes?"
--
M. Doughty

*As to limbs, Luke's arm was lost and needed a prothestic replacement.

[Note: At the end of ROTJ, Vader kills Palpatine, then he begins to wheeze and start his death scene, hinting that Palpatine was the one keeping Vader from dying via using the Dark Side of the Force. It would track with how as Vader rebecame Anakin, he started dying, the Emperor is dead, he's returned to the light side, therefore his body starts to die again.
Just my theory anyway. ]

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Admin at the trekbbs.com

There's a in-depth analasys of Anakin's injuries in there somewheres.

As for Qui-Gon, how 'bout this: he was hit in the diaphragm, which impaired his breathing. Normally, he would have gone into a healing trance immediately, but he wanted to tell Obi-Wan to train Anakin, so he stayed consious. Then, when he appeared to die, he went into the healing trance, but by then it was too late. He'd done too much damage to his diaphragm by continuing to breathe, and died while in the trance. That's why he didn't disappear. Sound good?

And as to the Clone Wars, and how Palpatine managed to kill millions, if not billions, of Jedi, I think he may have cloned as many Jedi as he could, and the clones went insane like Joruus C'Boath. Then you'd have lots of little insane Jedi running around killing each other.

Nah, I don't think so. If he could have gone into the healing trance he would have, because then he could have trained Anakin himself and there would be no need to tell Obe Wan to train Anakin.

------------------
"Try not.
Do.
Or Do not.
There is no try."
-Yoda, Jedi Master.

------------------
"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx

Aban's Illustration www.thespeakeasy.com/alanfore

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"Oh, it's an anti-anti-WTO song. It's essentially a pro-Starbucks song. I saw this picture of a guy sticking his foot through a plate-glass window in a Starbucks in Seattle, and he was wearing a Nike. Man, couldn't you just change your shoes?"
--
M. Doughty

And Park is a scot too, if not more so than McGregor, so 'twas indeed a battle of the scots!

Now I see it!!! That's why Jinn died, he was irish. Not at all maul-material!

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Admin at the trekbbs.com