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The Slave Who Makes Free: An Anakin Skywalker Quest

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CanYouMeme said:
I can't speak for others in this thread, but the entire reason I'm here is for an Anakin who doesn't end up as Vader. Trading temporary gains (in this case, a stress reduction) for further restrictions and consolidation is literally Palpatine's bread and butter. It is the bedrock of how he gained power and fucked everything in the first place.
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While I don´t think we have to contact our pal at this point, I am of the oppinion that stress is going to be a long term issue as well, we just don´t think of it as one yet, because Ani is yet to blow up.

Time for my opinion on indivdual options
Kirook said:
[ ] Make contact with potential allies in the Senate.
Any friend of Padmé's is a friend of yours.
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If we want to make an alliance between Khali and Naboo, getting more people involved is going to be useful. Additionaly we will need (also) to act within the senate to effectively politicaly engage with the Banking Clan.
Kirook said:
[ ] Link up with the Senate Intelligence Division.
Wield the power of the Jedi to bring your foes' corruption to light.
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Per author, with our support they can do at least something. Not to mention any dirt or other intel we find may be useful to our allies in the senate if we also take that option.
Kirook said:
[ ] Keep trying to persuade Grievous to work with Naboo.
He must come to see that their struggle is the same.
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As others pointed out, I don´t think this is time for this yet. Grievous needs action.
Kirook said:
[ ] Advocate for the petition to defy the Banking Clan and deploy the AgriCorps.
A dangerous gamble, but one that makes it clear which side the Jedi are on.
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I am allways ready for a bit of Revanchism. The Jedi need to act and this may be a way to achieve just that. Not to mention it might give Anakin connections to some of the more radical groups in the Order.
Kirook said:
[ ] Find out what's happening with the Council.
How has the Order's leadership become so paralyzed?
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This one is a bit of a gamble. While I don´t think Anakin could influence council at this point, we might find something useful. Either for when we argue for the petition or info that would allow us to make a better informed choice next turn. It might also give us nothing or stress.
Kirook said:
[ ] Check in on your friends.
This is the worst time for their bonds to be strained.
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It is generaly a good idea to maintain our relationships, might help reduce (or increase depending on what´s going on) stress. Might be useful when finding info on the council or doing the petion. On the other hand some of our friend and aquintices might not be very happy about us taking part in the petition (cough Olin cough).
Kirook said:
[ ] Request help from the Chancellor.
This has all gone too far. Only one man can salvage the situation now.
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As I said before, I think we shoul wait and see where will this go, before going to our pal.

Anyways I came up with three distinct plans.

[ ] Plan Senate Focus
-[ ] Make contact with potential allies in the Senate.
-[ ] Link up with the Senate Intelligence Division.
-[ ] Advocate for the petition to defy the Banking Clan and deploy the AgriCorps.

[ ] Plan Jedi Focus
-[ ] Advocate for the petition to defy the Banking Clan and deploy the AgriCorps.
-[ ] Find out what's happening with the Council.
-[ ] Check in on your friends.

[ ] Plan We Ball!
-[ ] Make contact with potential allies in the Senate.
-[ ] Link up with the Senate Intelligence Division.
-[ ] Advocate for the petition to defy the Banking Clan and deploy the AgriCorps.
-[ ] Find out what's happening with the Council.
-[ ] Check in on your friends.
 
Ergosum said:
"What if I had asked the Chancellor? He's a powerful man, he could have helped. If I had gone to him all this wouldn't have happened. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again". Lesson learned: exactly the wrong lesson.
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Counterpoint: there are four possible results. We go to Palps and succeed, we go to Palps and lose anyway, we don't go to Palps and win anyway, and we don't go to Palps and lose.

With the first result Anakin will definitely trust Palps more, with the second result Palps could probably swing it as "I did everything in my power, the system is just corrupt, if only I had the power to overrule these corrupt senators, etc etc etc" and Anakin might trust him more, with the third result Anakin isn't trusting him more, and with the fourth result Anakin might trust him more.

It's only with the third result that the Sith doesn't sink his claws into our boy. I think that's reason enough to aim for it.
 
Coming around a bit on sounding out the Council. Two turns ago they backed the AgriCorps mission unanimously and easily; the IBC'S C&D should not have shaken their resolve so much that they are now deadlocked, not on its own.

Will probably vote for @Epsilon Rose 's plan.
 
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Allow me to remind the collective once again, particularly the ones advocating for trusting Palpatine...that this is a quest to NOT become Darth Vader. Or whatever would replace Darth Vader in an increasingly crazy galaxy gone off the traditional rails.

If the Council backed the AgriCorps going without question and now they are torn...they know something we don't. We need to know what.
 
Kirook said:
Instead, the HoloNet as I envision it is more like a galactic combination of TV, radio, and the phone system: mainly used for transmitting video and audio, either as person-to-person communications (e.g. the video calls in Andor) or as mass broadcasting (like what's seen in Rebels). There are some ham-radio-esque amateur or local channels, and possibly a few very rudimentary message boards, but nothing like social media or even the Internet in general as we know it.
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So what you're saying is… Jedi Reacts is the galactic equivalent of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Boot up a movie, plug in a feed to superimpose a second camera over part of the screen, and enjoy some schlock with a bunch of Warrior-monks.
 
Andrensath said:
We're not going to be able to avoid Palpatine forever. Better to push him to be useful to us before he starts taking more drastic measures.
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The older Anakin is when he starts dealing with the Chancellor, the better. I want as few rotten roots in Anakin as possible, and the Chancellor is a master manipulator. Any use we get out of him will be miniscule in the face of what use he will get in return.

gale said:
I honestly hard disagree, given it a way to lower stress with a choice which means we can push harder then otherwise could.
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I want to point out that Anakin relying on the Chancellor for stress relief is very much what the Chancellor is counting on. This is a case of "easy way versus the hard way", where the easy way only seems to help at first glance. We have picked red choices that have turned out well for us, choosing to be stressed is not always bad.

Choosing what is the easiest way to resolve a situation is not always good. Palpatine very much wants Anakin to come to him to relieve stress, and give him a chance to plant rotten seeds. If Anakin is to not be as easily manipulated by him we need to give him as few chances to plant those seeds as possible.
 
SoulCaptain said:
I know there's a lot of other stuff going on but I found Anakin making sure to name Jar-Jar appropriately in his Gungan mother tongue very in character; and I found that stark dignity Anakin is making sure to grant rather moving. He's a good kid and he's trying. It's a lovely metatextual touch too given how Jar-Jar is often characterised in SW media in general
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When I was first writing him in the TPM part of this story I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna do Jar Jar but take the minstrel show stuff out", but it turns out that there's…not a lot left of Jar Jar when you take out the minstrel show stuff. Reconstructing him into an actually interesting character and not just vaguely racist comic relief has not been easy. But it was important to me that the entire main cast of TPM come together for Qui-Gon's memorial scene, given how important his death was to that movie and everything that came after it.

Epsilon Rose said:
I want to preface this statement that it's easy to invent reasons that transmitting the plans would have been a bad idea and what I'm about to say is in no way meant to say that not doing so was unrealistic or shouldn't have happened. This is just me being a nerd about cryptography.
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So, all of this stuff is really interesting and actually gives me some cool ideas for how to use the HoloNet in this story. But if you'll permit me to be a nerd about something for a moment, the problem is that to use any of these tactics for the specific purpose of the Death Star plans, Leia and co. would be forced to use an Imperial station.

You see, the way the HoloNet works (or at least worked in Legends, the new canon not yet having reconfirmed this) is that the channels transmit their data to HoloNet relays, which then beam the information through a series of hyperspace microtunnels (via transceivers, also suspended in hyperspace) to other relays and so on until they reach their destination. And it's true that it might be possible to maintain a pirate relay or even possibly a few hidden transceivers and transmit encrypted data that way, even if the channel is technically open—or even that you could use those tactics on the general HoloNet for intelligence purposes.

But what Leia is trying to do is to transmit the entire schematics of a moon-sized battle station, and the Empire knows that she has them and exactly where she got them. And you can bet that in a state like the Empire, the ISB are watching the relays like hawks at all times. So if they detect a huge burst transmission originating near Scarif and headed for known Rebel sympathizer planet Alderaan, or even a random uncharted planet in the Outer Rim (assuming the Yavin IV base even has a HoloNet receiver), they're going to know exactly what it is and who sent it. Depending on how quickly the data is sent (because hyperspace travel isn't instantaneous and even with a proper Internet you might need long upload times for large amounts of information) they might even be able to block the transmission altogether.
 
Kirook said:
When I was first writing him in the TPM part of this story I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna do Jar Jar but take the minstrel show stuff out", but it turns out that there's…not a lot left of Jar Jar when you take out the minstrel show stuff. Reconstructing him into an actually interesting character and not just vaguely racist comic relief has not been easy. But it was important to me that the entire main cast of TPM come together for Qui-Gon's memorial scene, given how important his death was to that movie and everything that came after it.
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All I can say is that I'm incredibly glad you committed and took the time and effort to tackle the serious challenge there; and all I can provide in response is thunderous applause (the good kind, dw Padmé) to the result because I think you did a really good job even with the small amount of screen time Jar-Jar's had and I'm thrilled not to be grimacing at almost memetic repetitions of the canon caricatures (looking at you, Clone Wars).
 
Barondoctor said:
Allow me to remind the collective once again, particularly the ones advocating for trusting Palpatine...that this is a quest to NOT become Darth Vader.
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One choice will not make us fucking Vader people. Something you, and maybe others don't seem to get. I don't think our OP is going to make it one choice and BOOOM now we are on the path to Vader no matter what. Unless you have proof of that, that this one choice equals Vadar for sure, stop with yelling we are going to become Vader due to one vote.
 
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[] Plan Random Serious
-[ ] Make contact with potential allies in the Senate.
-[ ] Link up with the Senate Intelligence Division.
-[ ] Advocate for the petition to defy the Banking Clan and deploy the AgriCorps.
-[ ] Find out what's happening with the Council.
-[ ] Check in on your friends.
-[ ] Request help from the Chancellor.

Didn't pick the Grievous option, let's leave that to Padme and convince him through our actions instead. Picking everything else though, luckily Palpatine brings it down from +3 to +2 Stress.

And you can complain all you want, but he's the Chancellor and thus one of the elephants in the room. It's good to at least know what he's thinking. Or what he wants us to think he's thinking. Seriously, if we keep ignoring him, he's just going to plan around that so that we have to meet him and ask for aid or advice for something sooner or later.

And let's keep an eye on our friends. If something goes wrong there.... Well, we won't like dealing with the consequences.
 
gale said:
One choice will not make us fucking Vader people. Something you, and maybe others don't seem to get. I don't think our OP is going to make it one choice and BOOOM now we are on the path to Vader no matter what. Unless you have proof of that, that this one choice equals Vadar for sure, stop with yelling we are going to become Vader due to one vote.
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And now you're putting words in mouths like you've accused others of. Project much?

I didn't say 'one' time of going to Palpatine for help. I said the directional choice of trusting in and relying upon Palpatine which is a path you are loudly and increasingly stridently advocating for. Which OTL Anakin _did_.

(Side note, The Empire Did A Lot Of Things Wrong In Motive And Execution and Palpatine is, rather inexorably, poised and aimed to try to make The Empire; offering him more tools to do that is a deal-breaker.)
 
We should consider which options work well with and don't work well with other options. And what road we want to lead Anakin down.
 
Barondoctor said:
And now you're putting words in mouths like you've accused others of. Project much?
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Given your issue is "that this is a quest to NOT become Darth Vader. Or whatever would replace Darth Vader in an increasingly crazy galaxy gone off the traditional rails." Which is trusting Papls, which is saying to not use the one vote/choice we have to help us here. Now, am I not saying trust all the time. No that would be foolish, but it works in our favor here and helps us do more.
 
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gale said:
Now, am I not saying trust all the time. No that would be foolish, but it works in our favor here and helps us do more.
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Do you know how many things Palpatine has at his disposal that he could use to bend circumstances to make things like this commonplace? I don't either, but a conservative estimate can place them at LOTS. Remember, we're not sure that this current crisis isn't a Palpa-plot, or at the very least being spun and taken advantage of by him as much as he can.

As a general rule regarding Sheev: I assume he's playing about as much speed chess as we are, on the opposite side of the board, and I am not personally inclined to give him any freebies.
 
Kirook said:
When I was first writing him in the TPM part of this story I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna do Jar Jar but take the minstrel show stuff out", but it turns out that there's…not a lot left of Jar Jar when you take out the minstrel show stuff. Reconstructing him into an actually interesting character and not just vaguely racist comic relief has not been easy. But it was important to me that the entire main cast of TPM come together for Qui-Gon's memorial scene, given how important his death was to that movie and everything that came after it.
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It was so incredibly refreshing and such a pleasant surprise when I first saw your take on him. I didn't even know what I was missing until I saw it.
Barondoctor said:
Do you know how many things Palpatine has at his disposal that he could use to bend circumstances to make things like this commonplace? I don't either, but a conservative estimate can place them at LOTS. Remember, we're not sure that this current crisis isn't a Palpa-plot, or at the very least being spun and taken advantage of by him as much as he can.

As a general rule regarding Sheev: I assume he's playing about as much speed chess as we are, on the opposite side of the board, and I am not personally inclined to give him any freebies.
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Palpatine is, imo, the master of the Xanatos gambit. Events "being spun and taken advantage of by him as much as he can" is his modus operandi. He didn't engineer every bad thing that ever happened in the galaxy, he just gave a nudge here and there, let the chips fall as they will, and was clever enough to find something to gain from everything. That's the main issue with going up against Palpatine. There's no grand plan you can derail by being in the right place at the right time, there's just century after century of the Sith slowly and subtly making everything just that little bit worse for everyone. Even the clones were originally created in service to the Jedi, and then suborned by the Sith without even knowing it.

Depending on which bit of canon you hold to, that is. Some people dislike the biochips, and I can see why. One of the earlier novelizations of the prequels had the clones fully cognizant of their eventual role in things; a fragment I half-remember had I believe Secura giving a speech to her new battalion just after Geonosis, going on about how brave and loyal they were, and there was a line from a clone's POV that went something like "It was a good thing we were wearing our helmets, because not a one of us could look her in the eye." That's a different sort of tragic, but it's about even in how much of a kick in the gut it is.
 
Iridium Flare said:
a fragment I half-remember had I believe Secura giving a speech to her new battalion just after Geonosis, going on about how brave and loyal they were, and there was a line from a clone's POV that went something like "It was a good thing we were wearing our helmets, because not a one of us could look her in the eye."
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That was from Battlefront 2 (the original set, not the new ones), yeah.
 
As much as I recognize asking the Supreme Chancellor for help on the Kalee famine crisis is a bad idea, I'd probably vote for it anyway if we called the vote "Palpatine Hunger Force".
 
Kirook said:
When I was first writing him in the TPM part of this story I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna do Jar Jar but take the minstrel show stuff out", but it turns out that there's…not a lot left of Jar Jar when you take out the minstrel show stuff. Reconstructing him into an actually interesting character and not just vaguely racist comic relief has not been easy. But it was important to me that the entire main cast of TPM come together for Qui-Gon's memorial scene, given how important his death was to that movie and everything that came after it.
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I'll admit, it took me a sec to realize it was Jar Jar Binks and not some random Gungan until the part about him being a general was mentioned.

I'm going to mirror the other folks and say I appreciate this as well. I actually made a comment on SB talking about just this kind of thing.

I'm not sure he's so much dumb as just naive, plus a generous heaping of clumsy. He doesn't exactly make a good showing in Episode 1, but we see Jar Jar acting as a Senatorial representative in Episode 2, which implies that he's managed to prove himself competent enough that Padme trusted him in the role and eloquent enough that people actually take him seriously as a political entity (which obviously got torpedoed after Episode 3).

Hell, we see his speech patterns aren't even unique to him. Every Gungan talks like he does, up to and including Boss Nass, the Gungan leader, part of which can just be attributed to Basic not being their first language. For all we know, the Gungan language doesn't actually have things like personal pronouns or has a completely different sentence structure.

As for his clumsiness (at least on land), that can be attributed to his species spending most of their time in the water. Jar Jar, as of Episode 1, just wasn't used to being on dry land.
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[ ] Link up with the Senate Intelligence Division.
[ ] Advocate for the petition to defy the Banking Clan and deploy the AgriCorps.
[ ] Check in on your friends.


I like these three.
They seem like the proper Jedi thing to do.
 
Kirook said:
So if they detect a huge burst transmission originating near Scarif and headed for known Rebel sympathizer planet Alderaan, or even a random uncharted planet in the Outer Rim (assuming the Yavin IV base even has a HoloNet receiver), they're going to know exactly what it is and who sent it.
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Couldn't she have just sent it in smaller pieces over time though?
 
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