History Headscratchers / RevengeOfTheSith

* This troper always assumed that Vader force-absorbed Padme's remaining lifeforce to prevent his own death. It'd be very dark side for the method of preventing death requiring the death of another, especially someone you love, and his survival instincts might've caused it subconsciously. In the actual film, the scenes of her death and Vader being converted are happening at the same time, and the heartbeat in the audio actually stops for several seconds before his mask is sealed.

** This troper always assumed that Vader took Padme's life to prevent his own death. It'd be very dark side for the method of preventing death requiring the death of another, and his survival instincts might've caused it subconsciously. In the actual film, the scenes of her death and Vader being converted are happening at the same time, and the heartbeat in the audio actually stops for several seconds before his mask is sealed.

** Yeah, it bugged me too. The whole reason Vader has to wear the iron lung+mask is because the toxic air on Mustafar basically turned his lungs into shriveled raisins. For a while I thought it was because he was on the hot sand and, well, on fire, but that can’t be it. How would the air be any more toxic when you’re face-down in the dirt rather than upright in a duel?

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** The Expanded Universe established "interdictor" ships which can put out an invisible field that prevents nearby ships from entering hyperspace. So maybe the Republic had some interdictor ships in the area and the ''Invisible Hand'' couldn't make the jump until the interdictors were destory or the ''Hand'' got far enough away from them with sublight engines. Presumably Sidious arranged all of this in advance.

* It's entirely possible that Yoda is simply giving out bad advice. The Jedi are not gods, and their culture isn't perfect. The entire prequel trilogy makes a lot more sense when you take that as given. The Jedi are heroes overall, but they made a lot of mistakes, which led to their downfall. For instance, they could have insisted on freeing Shmi and the other slaves on Tatooine, which would have been worthwhile in itself ''and'' it would have prevented Anakin's fall to the Dark Side years later. Likewise in this scene, Yoda could haven taken Anakin's feelings more seriously. He could have offered to help Anakin ''prevent'' the thing he feared instead of just passively telling him to accept it. Maybe that would have helped! Maybe if Anakin felt that the Jedi would ''actually help him'' he wouldn't have turned. Maybe he would have killed Palaptine instead of Windu when the time came.

* At the end of the film, when Bail Organa gives C-3PO and R2-D2 to Captain Antilles, he tells Antilles to "have the protocol droid's mind wiped", referring to C-3PO. That's the last we see of either C-3PO or R2-D2 until ''Film/ANewHope'', which is set 19 years later. So, did C-3PO actually get his mind wiped? Assuming he did, does that mean that this seemingly sentient robot has to completely have his memories erased, presumably regressing him to the mental state of a ''baby'' for a while? I mean, I know that 19 years is plenty of time for him to form enough new memories to be as intelligent as we see him in ''A New Hope'', but if he really did get his mind wiped it's odd that he still has the exact same personality in the original trilogy as he did in the prequels. And for that matter, is there ever anything in any of the films that suggests that C-3PO doesn't have memories from the prequel era? And lastly, if C-3PO did get his mind wiped, did R2-D2 as well? After all, R2 is seemingly sentient too, he just can't talk.

* At the end of the film, when Bail Organa gives C-3PO and R2-D2 to Captain Antilles, he tells Antilles to "have the protocol droid's mind wiped", referring to C-3PO. That's the last we see of either C-3PO or R2-D2 until ''Film/A New Hope'', which is set 19 years later. So, did C-3PO actually get his mind wiped? Assuming he did, does that mean that this seemingly sentient robot has to completely have his memories erased, presumably regressing him to the mental state of a ''baby'' for a while? I mean, I know that 19 years is plenty of time for him to form enough new memories to be as intelligent as we see him in ''A New Hope'', but if he really did get his mind wiped it's odd that he still has the exact same personality in the original trilogy as he did in the prequels. And for that matter, is there ever anything in any of the films that suggests that C-3PO doesn't have memories from the prequel era? And lastly, if C-3PO did get his mind wiped, did R2-D2 as well? After all, R2 is seemingly sentient too, he just can't talk.

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* Shouldn't the air be ''full'' of deadly smoke and chemicals? Ok, the building the Trade Federation leaders are hiding in probably has some kind of filter, but we see Obi-wan, Anakin, and Padme standing out in the open with no protective gear and are fine.

** He's got a speaker grill. As for how the virtualization works, the details don't matter. It's not like you have to wonder about separating thought and speech normally. He is moving his robotic limbs about extremely dexterously, it shouldn't be too hard for them to fit in a "turn com-link on-off" switch.
* Okay, how does Grievous cough? If he's got no throat and lungs, and he's just using a speaker, why does he cough? Habit? Or does he have a Ultravoice (whatever than thing for people who've had their larynxes removed is)?

* When General Grievous sends off all of the escape pods. Why exactly are all the pod's controls inside the ship, rather than inside the pods? Wouldn't that mean that in the event that they had to use the escape pods, one person would be left behind to activate the controls? (And ultimately die aboard the ship?)

*** Speaking of which, why does a ship crewed entirely by droids even have escape pods (or more than one, Grievous would obviously put one in to save his own hide, but there's no need to save cheap expendable droids...)?
*** Because the ship wasn't exclusively crewed by droids. There were at least a few Neimodians on board, not to mention Count Dooku.
*** Maybe there are controls inside the pods ''and'' in the bays, just for the sake of redundancy.

** I suspect that ''might have been the point'' of that scene. In the novelization, they make this ''really obvious''.

** Palpatine set those two moments up perfectly. Though both are quite similar, he maneuvers Anakin into making the ''wrong'' choice in both instances. He talks Anakin into killing Dooku basically for revenge, and then talks Anakin into stopping Mace Windu from killing Palpatine. As is a theme of Star Wars, the symbols are the same, the meanings are reversed. In the first case, Dooku really should have been brought to justice, and perhaps spill the beans on exactly what all this was all about. In the second case, Mace really should have just executed Palpatine, because he ''was'' far too dangerous to be left alive. But Anakin won't let him, both because he needs Palpatine's knowledge to save Padme (he thinks) and because he himself made the wrong choice in the exact same situation earlier.

*** The bond between a master and a student tends to be likened to the bond between a parent and a child. Since the Padawan usually has no contact with their family, they only have their master to raise them, so it's natural that they would start to think of them as a parental figure. Once Anakin finished his training however, he and Obi-Wan were constantly paired together to fight in the Clone Wars, now as equals instead of master and apprentice. Wouldn't be surprising that their relationship would change a little. Besides, only Anakin said they were like father and son, while only Obi-Wan considered them brothers, so it could be a difference of opinion (could even reflect their own views on the relationship. Obi-Wan felt they were equals, while Anakin felt Obi-Wan was too bossy and domineering).

*** That made no sense. The battle droids are just mindless machines. They're not going to usurp anybody.
*** No, but the Separatist generals, who aren't droids, could take control of the droids and try to usurp.
*** Yep, and indeed several do fight on after the war.

*** Palpatine only gave him the order while talking to him. In the novelization, Palpatine had the Separatists shut them down before Anakin killed them, but it was changed for whatever reason in the movie.
*** In which case, adaptation induced plot hole.

** At this point, though his trust in the Jedi's moral high ground is waning, Anakin is still convinced that the Jedi are the cornerstone of the Republic, usually selfless (or they ought to be), and they are the wall between peace, happiness and the war and horrors that the Sith want to unleash on the republic. Anakin enjoys the status for sure, but it is also clear (and made clearer in the novelization) that it would only be a nice-to-have bonus, nothing more. Even the reason he wants the mastership position is that only masters are allowed access to restricted information he believes he needs to save Padme; the moment he realizes his meditations (or Palpatine's help) might suffice, he loses interest in the position. Anakin Skywalker was at his most peaceful, driven and happy when he was saving people. He considers saving people to be the reason he was born. Whenever he is not fighting to save lives, he is plagued by nightmares, anxious about his marriage, terrified of the fact that someday Obi-Wan or Padme might die and leave him the way his mother did, burdened by his status as the chosen one and the expectations everyone has of him as a results (expectations that only go up to eleven when he defeats and kills Dooku in single combat), etc. Anakin NEEDS to be in a position where he can actively save people, and Padme knows it. Leaving the order in disgrace, leaving everyone else and everything behind him to be with Padme on Naboo, while initially appearing very tempting, would only cripple him and leave him wallowing in guilt and restlessness. Hence why Padme refuses to let her relationship with him impede his progression and future within the order, because he needs it to be the man she fell in love with in the first place and be happy. Being the Republic hero, the dashing and audacious to Kenobi's subtle and steadfast, the renowned Sith-slayer Jedi/Chosen One, simply IS what Anakin Skywalker is, and needs to be. It's telling that Palpatine's efforts are, justly, aimed to destroy this part of Skywalker, and the moment he indeed loses that, is the very moment Vader is born.

[[folder:Why couldn't Anakin or Padme just come forward about her Pregnancy, but keep their marriage a secret?]]

** Also, no the Jedi probably wouldn't force her to get an abortion but they'd almost certainly force Anakin to make the choice between Padme and the child or the Order. Attachments are forbidden and a child is a pretty big attachment. If it truly was the result of a one-off thing, it might be different since there'd truly be no guarantee that he'd ever really form an attachment, but it's no secret that Anakin and Padme are ''close''. If Anakin chose Padme, he'd risk being kicked out of the Order and losing all the inherent power and respect that comes with being a Jedi. If he chose the Order, they'd probably forbid him from ''ever'' seeing Padme again, let alone allow him to meet the child. I doubt either of them want to face that situation.

** The idea that Sidious has the ability to sense Yoda's presence is seriously undermined by the events of this movie. He doesn't know that Yoda has returned to Coruscant until Yoda is in his office knocking out his guards, and then after their battle Yoda successfully escapes by merely hiding under some senate pods and using a service tunnel. In other words, even when actively searching for him in the same room Sidious is unable to locate Yoda.

** Again: During this film, Palpatine thought they were already dead. This is also assuming that Yoda could somehow keep exact enough tabs on both Palpatine and Vader to know what they're doing and where they're looking, an ability Yoda is never shown to have. Remember: Yoda is not watching the movies. He ''does not'' have access to the information we do. Remember also that he spent ''two decades'' totally unable to figure out that Palpatine was a Sith Lord at all despite speaking face-to-face with Palpatine dozens of times, so how he'd be able to tell what their daily schedules are from across the galaxy is beyond me.

** This is actually explained in the ''Revenge of the Sith'' novelization. Bail has his men steal a homing beacon from a Jedi starship for the express purpose of getting in contact with other Jedi to warn them.

** So wait, Palpatine is able to have a perfectly synthesized voice that speaks for him? What does Palpatine have his own version of Siri? That's a bit of a stretch to believe. Also, if Palpatine wanted to get their trust by saying their names 1.) How does he do that with every clone commander? Or is it only Cody, and if so, why? 2.) Again, why would Palpatine care? It feels out of character for him to suddenly care about addressing his underlings.
*** Palpatine has a flair for the dramatic what sounds cooler "Comander Cody, the time has come to execute order 66!" or "Hey what's your face, executive order 66"?

** Perhaps Palpatine identified Obi-Wan as a major threat to his plans for Anakin and called Cody first to ensure Order 66 was truly carried out, emphasizing its importance by calling Cody by name.

* Okay, so when Palpatine relates "The Tragedy of Darth Plagueous The Wise" to Anakin, he refers to it as a Sith legend. However, [[{{AndThatLittleBoyWasMe}} Palps was Plagueous' apprentice]], meaning that the story could only have occured 13 or so years prior to this film, since WordOfGod holds that Plagueous was still around during the events of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''. How can something so recent already be a legend?
** He's framing it as a legend, trying to make it off a story passed on down the generations. He's not going to openly tell Anakin, "Yo, my master, Darth Plagieus, whom I killed 13 years ago, taught me this neat trick!"

** They were caught in the battle with the Republic fleet. Plus given how this was all part of Palpatine's plan to bring Anakin closer to the Dark Side, he, as Sidious, may have left orders regarding how the invasion should go. The ''Legends'' novelization also showed that Dooku was in on the plan to have him duel Anakin and Obi-Wan, though he obviously wasn't told that he'd be betrayed to his death, so he may have left orders to Grievous regarding the situation.

*** He might have felt that but he was ridiculously gullible to think Sidious could or would even want to help in the first place. He'd just admitted to orchestrating the entire galactic conflict included attempted assassinations on Padme yet Anakin still believed him when he said he could help save her.
*** He does mention that he thinks he can overthrow him, but he mostly is singularly focused on saving Padme, and he seems willing to do whatever it takes to prevent her death. Furthermore, he is generally cocky and arrogant, so thinking he could become more powerful than Palpatine isn’t too out of character for him.

** He's obsessed with saving Padme at all costs and he isn't being reasonable, given his past attachment issues and he's desperate to try anything, no matter how unreliable the source may be. The whole point is that he has gone off the deep end and doesn't realize or care that he's been manipulated. He may be acting stupidly with his decisions, but he's not exactly a calm, level-headed thinker even in the best of situations. As for the questions about sympathy, given that he murders children, his actions are not meant to be sympathized with.

* It's implied you need a fair amount of training even if you are force sensitive, which Grievous isn't. How is he able to wield ''four'' lightsabers [[InstantExpert right off the bat,]] and do so well enough he's a match for a Jedi Master?

* Were Anakin's visions of Padme dying really visions of the future? Or where they [[MindRape implanted by Palpatine]] to make Anakin think he needs him, and ultimately turn to the dark side?

** A couple of things: disbelieving in the force does not entail disbelieving in the ''Jedi.'' Han could have assumed that Yoda was just a powerful warrior with some neat acrobatic skills. And that's assuming that Han would have even believed any of Chewie's stories about this weird green guy who he met when he was younger. He might have assumed it was just a typical smuggler tall tale.

** In addition to the above reasons, Alderaaninians are inherently pacifist. Bail has a few private security guards, but that's a far cry from having battle ready troops ready to take on a powerful Force-user. Plus, launching an attack is entirely against their philosophy.

** Even though this was several years before the era of "alternative facts", Anakin hits that note quite nicely. "Palpatine is evil? Not in ''my'' world he isn't! Those kids he had me murder? They were in on the whole Jedi conspiracy too! In fact, maybe he didn't have anybody murdered, the clones were acting in self-defense!" I could go on, but you get my drift- Anakin has already decided what he believes, don't confuse him with facts.

* Just a minor point, but how does Grievous talk, exactly? I don't know how much, if any of his throat is there, and he doesn't have a mouth. So...what separates his speech from his thoughts? And how does the built-in comlink factor in?

* As seen in other canon sources, notably Rogue One when Jyn and Cassian try to get to the databanks, blasters and lightsabers do shatter glass like bullets. Chalk it up to the melting temp of glass being so hot, the kinetic energy of a shot or swing does far more damage than the heat.

** Because there is casual sex, and the amount of time he's spent with Padme that is just... wow. They'd call him on his BS immediately

** Vader and especially the Emperor are public figures. It shouldn't be very difficult to know when the Emperor is on Coruscant, and to determine when he is in his offices running the government. Palpatine cannot be focused solely on his search for Yoda for years and years - he has a galaxy to run. At some point he would have dropped his guard, and the reason Yoda and Obi-Wan didn't take advantage of it seems to be solely because this is a prequel, and the original trilogy said they stayed in exile until then.

** Possible. WMG here, it’s possible that he was allowing the Dark Side to speak through him. I mean, this 'is'' their big win, after all.

*** Palpatine has a flair for the dramatic what sounds cooler "Comander Cody, the time has come excecute order 66!" or "Hey what's your face, executive order 66"?

** Perhaps Palpatine identified Obi-Wan as a major threat to his plans for Anakin and called Cody first to ensure Order 66 was truly carried out, emphasising its importance by calling Cody by name.

** He’s framing it as a legend, trying to make it off a story passed on down the generations. He’s not going to openly tell Anakin, “Yo, my master, Darth Plagieus, whom I killed 13 years ago, taught me this neat trick!”

** If you go by the 2D Clone Wars animated series, Ki-Adi-Mundi and his team of Jedi tried to Force push and otherwise telekinetically attack Grievous during his CurbStompBattle with him but he was able to dodge these in time. Windu was fast enough to crush his chest, but Obi-Wan might not want to risk missing in case Grievous runs away in the meantime. So he'd rather use the Force to enhance his hand to hand strikes, even though as it turns out it's not enough to punch through the cyborg's armour.

* Why doesn't the Invisible Hand jump to hyperspace immediately after Palpatine is captured? The man is just chilling on the bridge waiting for two of the most powerful Jedi to come and rescue him, and Count Dooku is killed in the process, nullifying the whole plan and setting into motion the sequence of events that destroy the Separatists.

** It’s partially implied that after Windu’s death, he felt he had crossed a line there was no going back from, so it might be a case of ThenLetMeBeEvil.

** Grevious outright said that he’d been trained in Jedi arts by Dooku, who himself was a former Jedi. Grevious’s cybernetics, especially his extra limbs, make him highly adaptable, durable (in terms of the fact that he can repair himself), and agile, which allows him to effectively close the gap, though he does notably struggle against Jedi Masters like Kenobi. And while mastering the lightsaber is difficult for non-force sensitives, it is not impossible, as Pre Vizsla notably used the Darksaber during the Clone Wars.
** Not to mention that we’ve seen Mando wielding the Darksaber a few times during ‘The Mandalorian’, and even Han used the lightsaber, albeit briefly, when he cut open the Tauntaun in ‘Empire Strikes Back’. The weapon is more or less a giant glowing sword. Anyone can pick up the sword and make clumsy chopping motions, but it takes training to wield it effectively.

[[folder: Why didn't Anakin commit suicide at the end?]]
* He's lost everything, will be wracked with never-ending pain for the rest of his life, and has also lost Padme (thanks to his own actions), which probably hurts him even more than his physical injuries. On top of all that, he found out Palpatine can't ''really'' bring people BackFromTheDead. What reason does he have to go on?
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