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Anakin Shrugged

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Anakin Shrugged is a series of loosely-connected videos made by the Youtube channel Seals are Good, set in a Crack Fic version of the Star Wars prequels, where Anakin is desperately trying to get anyone to listen to his thesis, Dooku has apparently seen the future, Obi-Wan is a philosopher, and Yoda is a drug addict. Meanwhile, Palpatine is exasperated when the plot goes Off the Rails.

Contains the following tropes

  • Accidental Murder: Darth Maul did not intend to kill Qui-Gon. He thought that stabbing him in the gut would merely incapacitate him, because he's ignorant of human anatomy.
  • The Ace: Qui-Gon combined the sanity, social awareness, and morals of Mace, the philisophical intellect of Obi-Wan and Anakin, and the charisma of Coleman Kcaj, to the point that he could even keep Yoda off of drugs and have a deep understanding of the Force without accidentally causing people to commit suicide, making him pretty much the greatest Jedi in the series... if not for the fact that nobody could understand his accent.
  • Acquired Poison Immunity: Defied by Yoda. According to Obi-Wan, he changes drugs frequently specifically to avoid developing a tolerance to any of them and ensuring he can continue falling into drug-induced comas.
  • Adaptational Badass: In the original canon, Anakin, now Vader, takes along a bit less than half of the 501st Legionnote  to take down the Jedi at the Temple. Here, Anakin, now Darth Academius/Academus, manages to kill most of the Jedi (and his clones) by himself with the power of his thesis.
  • Adaptational Comic Relief: Everyone, given the premise, but notably Palpatine/Darth Sidious in presentation, at least. Palpatine is largely unchanged in terms of his personality, being an evil, scheming manipulator as always, and he remains articulate, mostly level-headed, and at least reasonably smart, if coming up short compared to the genius the original Palpatine was. However, in the source material he is an ominous dark lord with all the badass and intimidating framing that implies, while in this version, he is exasperated by the turns taken in the various skits taken for the sake of comedy, with his Deadpan Snarker tendencies played up as various encounters go off his script. And what is either him cutting loose or showing the depths of his psychopathy in canon, have instead been reduced to him snapping in anger because the other person is annoying, like telling Anakin to shut up when he suggests Sith names.
  • Adaptational Heroism: Parodied. Anakin's turn to The Dark Side plays out differently, and he flat out refuses to massacre the Jedi Order, and is tricked into doing so... when Palpatine appeals to his Jedi Thesis, telling him he should recite it to the Jedi younglings multiple times to bring about an academic golden age for the Jedi. Anakin then agrees to march on the Temple to do just that. Zig-Zagged mid-way to the temple when he stops at a library and almost orders the clones to massacre the attendants for disrupting the peace (due to panicking from all the armed clones), and was only dissuaded from this action because this would have contributed to said disruption.
  • Adaptational Intelligence:
    • Played With. While Anakin was a Genius Bruiser in canon, and was well-spoken (if occasionally rude), he tended to be very hot-headed, and had little interest in philosophy or the nature of the force. This Anakin is more Book Smart, being portrayed as far more intellectually curious and as generally more level-headed, but is clueless at times, and is far more gullible than the original Anakin.
    • While in canon Savage is relatively uneducated (but occasionally contributes to the discussion when Maul is scheming) on much of anything regarding the Sith (perhaps even in general, given his upbringing), in this series he was apparently happy enough to provide material for Anakin's thesis on Darth Plagueis before his death. Granted his attempts to be a Warrior Poet are shown to be lacking, as he is very poor at it.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: Almost everyone, but especially Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Mace Windu. Somewhat downplayed as Mace is a bit of jerk in both Canon and Legends, and Windu actually raises good points most of the time about things like war crimes, abuses of power, and he believes in Yoda's ability to lay off the drugs despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. That said, even at their most hostile to each other in either Canon or Legends, Windu never straight-up yelled about how much he hates Anakin (though he tries to play it off as something he shouted in the heat of the moment while relieving stress) or cast a curse upon him that would ensure he would get burned and crippled if he ever went to Mustafar (again trying to play it off by claiming no one would ever have a good reason to go to Mustafar).
  • Adaptational Nice Guy:
    • This version of Anakin, while still having some of his authoritarian leanings, is generally much nicer to those around him; this is especially notable because most people, especially Obi Wan and Mace Windu, are now Jerkasses to him, yet he's actually quite supportive and polite to them in response. In particular, several of the atrocities Anakin commits intentionally in canon are here caused by him being oblivious to how harmful his thesis is to others.
    • While Dooku was unfailingly polite in the original series, he was only really friendly towards Obi-Wan and Yoda, viewing both of them as a Worthy Opponent and prospective apprenticenote . Here, he's generally quite amiable, if something of The Gadfly.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: Pretty much everyone, but especially Yoda, who becomes a nerd-bullying drug addict.
  • Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In Canon, Anakin despises Dooku for starting the Clone Wars, killing countless Jedi at Geonosis, endangering Padme and Obi-Wan (and later Palpatine), and severing his right arm at the elbow. The feeling is decidedly mutual, as Dooku views Anakin as an unworthy addition to his Master-Apprentice Chain (Yoda —> Dooku —> Qui-Gon —> Obi-Wan —> Anakin), whereas he had a deep respect for everyone else in said chain, and he sees Anakin as an unrefined brute who isn't worth his time. Here, however, Dooku and Anakin are quite cordial, with Dooku asking how Padme is, helping Anakin with his thesis, and engages in fairly snarky but not malicious banter with him.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Ki-Adi Mundi, rather than being just another council member, is instead portrayed as the Token Evil Teammate of the Jedi Council, utilizing flamethrowers, and conducting genocide, and when he failed in the latter, he reportedly said "This isn't over, I'll come back and finish this mission, no matter the cost."
    Windu (after having said the above): To stop quoting Mundi, because the remainder of that quote is probably some horrifying shit, about how the screams of newly orphaned children, serenade him to sleep at night...
  • Adaptational Wimp: Played for Laughs with Palpatine, not so much physically as much as his presence. In Canon, Palpatine has a dignified (if artificial) personality, while Sidious is The Dreaded to both Dooku and Maul. Here, Palpatine, despite mostly being polite, doesn't command nearly the same gravitas, and when he does lose his temper, it's less Chewing the Scenery or a Villainous Breakdown so much as Tantrum Throwing.
  • Addled Addict: Yoda, though it ruins everyone else's life more than his. According to Obi-Wan, he's always in a drug-induced coma, only switching drugs to avoid building tolerance and ensuring they keep having an effect on him.
  • Affably Evil:
    • Dooku was fairly polite in the original, but it was more of a Faux Affably Evil. Here, he's genuinely friendly - giving the heroes advice, commisserating with Mace Windu over Yoda's abuse, and helping Anakin with his thesis by providing Sith records as primary sources. At one point he even asks Anakin how his wife is doing.
    • Darth Maul is also quite friendly, wanting to trade compliments and also having a polite conversation about the weather with Nute Gunray - to Sidious's frustration. On the other hand, he does admit to wanting to freely be able to run over children with his speeder. Unlike Dooku however, he hates philosophy, which Obi-Won considers to be unforgivable.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Anakin mourns Dooku after killing him, to the befuddlement of Palpatine.
  • Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Coleman Kcaj's speeches are always the most beautiful thing you'll ever hear and it is said that the more intrinsic worth you have as a person, the more beautiful and comprehensible his voice will sound. So naturally, the viewer hears a gargled, infantile wail.
  • Badass Bookworm:
    • Anakin is not only a famed Jedi Knight, but also a learned (and long-winded) literary academic.
    • Obi-Wan is much the same, if far more socially aware and less boring, though he has been trying to repair his academic reputation after Anakin's thesis deconstructed his own.
    • Jocasta Nu, the Order's Librarian, is willing to throw hands over philisophical debates, hilariously enough in defense of Anakin's thesis.
  • Bad Boss: If Yoda isn't slamming people into and through walls to make them give him their savings for his drug habits, he's insulting them to their faces or making them smuggle drugs in their bodily orifices like ears.
  • Bait-and-Switch:
    • Anakin and Obi-Wan discuss Yoda using their bodies for drug smuggling which made standing up and sitting down painful, only to reveal that he had them stuff the drugs in their ears, which gave them vertigo.
    • Like in Canon, Anakin's response to a Youngling asking him what they are going to do during Order 66 is to ignite his lightsaber... only for it to go off the rails when he reveals he's going to give everyone in the Temple a presentation on the various schools of thought surrounding the Tragedy of Darth Plageius the Wise, and is simply using his lightsaber because he misplaced his laser pointer.
  • Bait the Dog: Played for laughs in a video with one of Anakin's earlier encounters with Dooku. Dooku remains Affably Evil throughout, offers to help Anakin with his thesis (which we know he eventually did), and, realizing they're contractually obliged to fight, even teaches Anakin to block force lightning in order to help him get over his fear of it... then, with that out of the way, he attacks Anakin with sand.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Downplayed with Palpatine. He goes through quite a lot of mental and emotional anguish because of the sheer stupidity and single-mindedness of those he's trying to manipulate, but he still manages to orchestrate the mass suicide at the Jedi Temple.
  • Book Smart: Anakin is incredibly well-educated when it comes to philosophy, but has almost no understanding of actual people and can come across as an idiot. Played with in that he is still extremely intelligent; in this version he casually deduces that Palpatine is a Sith Lord based entirely on his understanding of the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
  • Brainy Baby: Ahsoka was apparently an anarcho-capitalist even as a toddler, since she negotiated a contract with the Jedi Order that would allow her to keep her independence after joining so she could continue to get a salary as a private military contractor.
  • Brown Note: Anakin's thesis causes most people who hear it to kill themselves, and does severe damage to several who survive it.
  • Buffy Speak:
    Obi-Wan: With all due respect, Chancellor, I'm known as the Negotiator, not the Leaps-Into-Violence-At-the-Smallest-Provocation-ator.
  • Butt-Monkey: Surprisingly enough, Palpatine often falls into this, constantly finding himself suffering when people go off script to his manipulations, particularly when it comes to his attempted manipulation of Anakin. Despite his machinations, he often ends up on the receiving end of the misery he attempts to cause moreso than his victims do
    Anakin: It appears he's quite the fan of my thesis. Why, I must have recited to it to him half a dozen times by now. And the whole time, he stares off into the middle distance, a single tear trickling down his cheek, as though he really feels the weight of every word. Sometimes he mutters, "Please", then another word, and then "more". So, naturally, I start from the beginning, and he lets out this little scream of what I can only assume is pure joy.
  • Call-Back: One of Palpatine's proposed Sith names for Anakin is "Darth Icky," a throwaway guess by Dooku in a previous video for what Anakin's "cool name" would be when Chancellor makes him his apprentice. Anakin, however, thinks it's ridiculous. Doubles as a Shout-Out as this and Darth Insanius was one of the Sith names George Lucas suggested for Starkiller from the now-Legends The Force Unleashed
  • Canon Discontinuity: Some of Seals Are Good's older Star Wars videos, predate the continuity that started with Anakin has a doctorate in Darth Plagueis the Wise Studies. Seals Are Good subsequently followed a commenter's suggestion and labeled those videos "Legends," in a gag about how Star Wars did the same thing to pre-Disney canon works. These include, for instance, a video where Anakin claims to know the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise but clearly does not.
  • Cassandra Truth: Dooku freely gives away to Obi-Wan the entire Sith plot including Order 66 and Sidious’s moves to convert Anakin to the Dark side. He then continues to describe the plot of the Canon continuity of Star Wars up to and including the sequel trilogy. Given how oddly certain he is about far-future details, the logical holes in the Sith plot, and how increasingly absurd the premise gets the more he progresses, Obi-Wan defaults to not believing a single word out of his mouth.
    • Yoda, however, does believe him, and this set him off on a down spiral of extreme substance abuses to both cope with the Dark Future ahead and try to avert it with a Zero-Approval Gambit.
  • Cerebus Retcon:
    • When pressed by Padme in "I don't think the system works" on why he keeps referring to fingers as “fingies”, Anakin reveals that it was a turn-of-phrase his mother used with him as a child, and so he kept it as a way to remember her. Considering her fate in the same canonical episode…yeesh.
    • Though originally just a form of Black Comedy, when Yoda's drug usage is called into question in Yoda's Intervention he reveals it to be a Zero-Approval Gambit to try and derail Palpatine's plans, as told to him by Count Dooku. Unfortunately, Windu both doesn't understand what he's saying and is no less determined to get Yoda to kick the habit, causing Yoda to cap the video off with a somber "Failed, I have."
  • Child Soldiers: In the aptly-titled "Obi-Wan Philosophically Justifies Child Soldiers", Obi-Wan shows his support to the idea of child soldiers while Anakin is opposed to them as they wait for the arrival of Ahsoka (who they believe is to be Obi-Wan's newest Padawan unaware as revealed in the follow-up "Ahsoka Arrives" that she's actually been "assigned" to Anakin). Obi-Wan points out that the Clones could all technically be considered child soldiers and they "throw them like logs into the fires of the galactic conflict", which causes Anakin to go off on a quick rant about how the clones have been given accelerated physical and mental development into adults and are free to choose to serve the government that "views them purely as dispensable cogs in the machine of war" after being indoctrinated into its necessity all their lives. Obi-Wan after a pause asks Anakin if he's been talking to Padme again.
  • Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: Dooku managed to figure out Palpatine intends on turning Anakin to the dark side by reading his body language, deducing subtle clues based on his study of Sith history, and breaking into his room at night to read his diary.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: This version of Anakin has a very tenuous grasp on reality; he seems utterly unaware of how others react to his thesis, he's weirdly fixated on lightning fingies, and he somehow manages to misinterpret Kenobi engaging Grevious as the two of them getting married (which he is wholeheartedly supportive of.)
  • Continuity Creep: The videos started as largely disconnected jokes, but starting with Anakin has a doctorate in Darth Plagueis the Wise Studies they took on more of a sense of continuity, with characters' altered personalities and stories persisting between videos and many videos making reference to the events of previous ones.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: The Hutts regularly hire Anakin to provide tutoring in classrooms in their torture chambers. They're the only ones in the galaxy outside of the Jedi Temple that Anakin isn't legally barred from entering.
  • Cool Old Guy: This version of Dooku is unfailingly helpful and polite, constantly trying to give the Jedi actually useful advice or warnings about what's to come and helping Anakin with his thesis. It's implied that his defection in this timeline is because he's a Defector from Decadence driven away by Yoda's abuse and the way the other Jedi enabled him.
  • Democracy Is Bad: "I don't think the system works" is Anakin's critique of democracy to Padme.
  • Desperately Craves Affection: Darth Maul constantly bemoans his need for compliments and inserts praise for himself in assuming the Jedis’ thoughts.
  • Dies Differently in the Adaptation:
    • Mace Windu, rather than being killed by Palpatine after Anakin severs his arm, is instead killed by jumping out a window because of Anakin's thesis.
    • Depa Billaba, rather than being killed by Clones (Canon) or put in what is effectively death via coma (Legends), instead commits suicide because of the agony of Anakin's thesis.
    • Shaak Ti's deaths have varied in canon, so much so that in this world, even attempting to confirm her status as alive or dead is considered gauche.
  • Disproportionate Retribution:
    • Yoda assigns Ahsoka to Anakin and the frontlines for the crime of using the word "thus".
    • Obi-Wan backhandedly reveals to Commander Cody in “Get your troops to the high ground, Commander” that his psychological abuse of Anakin is strongly motivated by Anakin inadvertently ruining his academic career by thoroughly deconstructing his thesis on the Ouroboric School of Thought on “The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise”. Made worse by the fact that Anakin himself still highly recommends that people read said thesis and Obi-Wan's other works, praising his writing style and wit while stating that he only pointed out a few issues with his thesis.
    • Commander Cody returns the favor, carrying out Order 66 because Obi-Wan insulted his favorite periodical while explaining his grudge against Anakin.
    • Obi-Won cuts Darth Maul in half, not for killing Qui-Gon, but because Maul admitted that he found philosophy to be boring - and then continues that he would infiltrate the Jedi Temple to delete theses and also vandalized the statues of the Lost Twenty.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Despite nominally being Anakin's master like in canon, Palpatine is rendered virtually powerless due to constantly being subjected to Anakin's thesis, effectively making Anakin the real power behind the coup.
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • Anakin's thesis is so boring that it's driven some to suicide, like Depa Billaba and (possibly) Shaak Ti.
    • The Jedi Purge in this continuity is essentially a mass suicide caused by Anakin broadcasting his thesis to the whole temple, with most of the clones also killing themselves to escape Anakin's lecture.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: Invoked by Nute Gunray as part of his Obfuscating Stupidity. He pretends to be completely oblivious to what lobbying, capitalism, and clothes are before Palpatine explained the concepts to him, but immediately takes advantage of Palpatine's explanations to tell him to lobby for the Trade Federation’s desired concessions than to lobby for their invasion of Naboo to be treated as legal to hold hostage for the same concessions, clearly aware that the latter option is required for Palpatine to position himself into the chancellorship.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Anakin may be a war criminal with anti-democratic beliefs, but he's uncomfortable with using child soldiers. "I don't like sand" also shows that, as clueless as he can be, he is fully aware of how screwed up and evil Ki-Adi Mundi is and views the man as metaphorically heartless.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
    • Played for Laughs. Windu is confused when Palpatine does The Sheev Spin, wondering what the point was, before being mildly intimidated when the fighting starts.
    Mace: Did he just do a fucking backwards corkscrew flip while screeching? What possiblenote -OH, shit...
    • Also Played for Laughs when Palpatine is ordering Cody to execute Order 66, noting he needs to get a move on and contact Yoda's Clone Commander to make sure Yoda hasn't already killed him in a drug induced rage (again). Cut to Yoda doing exactly that, followed by Palpatine noting that he probably should have started with Yoda's Commander when issuing the order.
  • Famous, Famous, Fictional: In "I don't think the system works", Anakin cites Star Wars-ified versions of real-life philosophers...and Thrawn.
  • Fantastic Racism: Apparently, some hive minds look down on species who aren't part of hive minds, with the term Isolatedminds being a slur for them (the politically correct term is apparently silominds). This includes famed hivemind philosopher Dilthrik, who refuses to even consider that the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise could have been written by a silomind.
  • Fantastic Slurs: The revelation that Padme's daughter will one day call a Wookie who came to rescue her a "walking carpet" is treated by everyone present (and the video itself) as if she'd dropped an n-bomb, complete with a Sound-Effect Bleep.
  • Feghoot: Obi-Wan ends his deconstruction of Anakin saying "the Jedi are evil" with "It's over, Anakin. I have the moral high ground."
  • Feigning Intelligence: When Palpatine asks Anakin if he's ever heard the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, Anakin pretends he knows all about it, but is unable to come up with anything other than Darth Plagueis being wise. Later this video was tagged as [Legends], since it obviously contradicts the continuity that begins with him having written an entire thesis on the topic.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • After Anakin's thesis causes Depa Billaba to leap to her death, he's found innocent of causing it because Palpatine rules that "Jedis are always throwing themselves out windows"; Anakin notes that that's legal precedent now. When Mace Windu's death does come around, he literally throws himself out the window to escape Anakin's thesis as well.
    • While both Anakin and Padme agree that Palpatine is an ideal ruler, Anakin points out that Palpatine is just one man and could easily fall down a bottomless pit or get struck by lightning, the two ways he eventually dies in canon.
  • Fourth-Wall Observer: Dooku seems to know the complete script to the entire series, which confuses Obi-Wan and Mace Windu when he talks confidently about events in future films.
  • Freudian Excuse: Parodied when Dooku theorizes that the reason for Yoda's homophobia is that he had a bad falling out with a gay friend and internalized homophobic attitudes to prevent any gay person ever hurting him again. Mace finds the story baffling, particularly when he realizes Skor Kalpana, Yoda's former best friend, was the former Supreme Chancellor.
    Mace: Are you-are you fucking with me, or did this actually happen?
  • Friendly Enemy:
    • Anakin and Dooku are surprisingly cordial to each other. Dooku even knows about Anakin's marriage before Obi-Wan. Another video even reveals that Dooku helped Anakin with his thesis by providing Sith records to use as primary sources.
    • He also has a reasonably friendly relationship with Mace Windu, spending a while commiserating over their experiences under Yoda.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Anakin, because he keeps bringing up his thesis.
  • Gaslighting: Obi-Wan is a master of this in "Obi-Wan and Anakin vs Dooku". Dooku however proves himself to be better at it, turning it back on Obi-Wan.
    Obi-Wan: Anakin, that's crazy. It's insane you, with your inability to grasp reality, have invented a word for something I have never done in my life."
  • Geeky Turn-On: As shown in several videos not only is Padme the only one who enjoys Anakin's rambling philosophical discussions she is actively more attracted to him because of it. Notably, he doesn't seem to have any attraction to her until she gets into a political discussion on his level in I don't think the system works. As soon as she uses high-level political scientists to critique his position, he agrees to her earlier suggestion of retiring to her bed chambers.
  • Genius Ditz: Anakin is a complete cloudcuckoolander when it comes to anything except the topic of his thesis... but he is extremely sharp when it comes to that. Exemplified in Anakin has a doctorate in Darth Plageius the Wise Studies when, after going on and on about his thesis in increasingly implausible ways, Anakin casually makes it clear that his knowledge of The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise let him immediately recognize that Palpatine was a Sith Lord who was trying to use it to recruit him... and then lets himself get distracted and moves on to other points.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Mace may be a massive jerk at times, but he is also one of the most moral characters, with part of his behaviour being annoyance and anger at his fellow Jedi for being objectively terrible people, and he is shown to actually want them to be better people.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Despite his sociopathic behavior, Mundi does have a surprisingly poignant take on death, that people die twice - their physical death, and the last time someone says their name.
    • While Yoda is presented as a drug-addict who despises philosophy, he still manages to make an accurate objection to Obi-Wan's plan to debate Palpatine over his plan to murder the Jedi, while citing an actual philosopher in the process.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Anakin's assessment of Palpatine.
    Anakin: Sure, Palpatine collects Sith artifacts, wears Sith robes, and is always cackling to himself when he thinks no one is looking, but he's got a wonderful sense of humor and the only thing he loves more than the arts is the Republic.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • While the widespread study of it means that Anakin probably would have heard the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise eventually, Mace was the first to introduce it to him, and would eventually jump out of a window to escape Anakin's thesis on it. It's eventually revealed that, even beyond that, his lectures to the Younglings inspired Anakin and led to a desire to be as good a lecturer as Mace was.
    • Palpatine convinces Anakin to tell him his entire thesis in order to stop Mace from killing him. While it does save his life, Palpatine finds out the hard way why Windu was so desperate to stop Anakin from unleashing it, leaving him severely traumatized and disfigured from the experience.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: Several of the Jedi swear by "Force above", especially when talking to Anakin. In Yoda's Intervention it is even stylized as "F*rce ab*ve" in the subtitles, as if it's a serious enough bit of profanity to require turning it into Symbol Swearing.
  • Ignore the Fanservice: In "I don't think the system works", Anakin is oblivious to Padme's Sexual Euphemisms and keeps on pontificating about political theory. And then Padme actually gets into it and offers her own critiques.
  • I Minored in Tropology: Anakin has a doctorate in Darth Plagueis the Wise Studies.
  • Implied Death Threat: When Palpatine tries to name him "Darth Icky", Anakin reminds him that he is prophesied to kill him.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: At one point in What about the droid attack on the Wookiees?, while Mace Windu is tearing the rest of the council a new one over their constant war crimes and atrocities, Yoda's reaction is a tired "crack, I need."
  • Informed Ability: Exaggerated for laughs: Apparently Master Coleman is such a powerful orator that his speeches can reframe your entire worldview on everything, and the more intrinsic worth you have as a person, the more clearly you can understand him. Naturally, all the audience can hear is gibberish with inspirational music underneath.
  • Innocent Aliens: The Nemoidians before Palpatine got his hands on them had no understanding of business, lobbying, or even clothes. Gunray admits to having been confused before at to why people kept staring at their genital pouches before that point. However, it's eventually made clear Gunray is a massive Troll, meaning the entire species may have been doing it solely to make others uncomfortable.
  • Insane Troll Logic: When Anakin questions whether his name change would protect against Windu's curse on "Anakin Skywalker" while it has yet to go into legal effect, Palpatine obfuscates his intent to have Anakin trigger the curse by going on a spiel of an absurd hypothetical to conclude curses care more for the spirit than the letter of the action. Of course the logical endpoint of that conclusion would be that a name change would do nothing to protect against the curse.
    Palpatine: It's hardly as though it were originally lawyers who came up with the concept of cursing, and they somehow managed to ensure curses always consult legal documentation stored within the system with a view of ensuring they could always have a steady supply of clients looking to change their name to keep themselves safe from curses...Curses are more a spirit of the law than a letter of the law thing.
  • Insanity Immunity: While not necessarily insane, it turns out that Anakin's thesis doesn't harm people who are as mind-numbingly obsessed with philosophy as Anakin and Obi-Wan are, resulting in the only survivors of Order 66 (other than Yoda) being the Jedi Orders biggest philosophy nerds. Yoda is less than pleased by this.
  • Internal Reveal: Played for Laughs when Count Dooku is exposed as Darth Tyranus by the Pykes, which Obi-Wan reacts to in shock. Dooku is just disappointed and sighs, because he assumed that the Jedi had already figured that out, with Dooku reminding him that he told him explicitly back on Geonosis that he told him he had hired Jango Fett.
  • Interspecies Romance:
    • The nature of Yoda's relations with the Wookiees. Naturally everyone is disgusted.
    • One of the Clone Troopers in the 501st apparently once dated a Hutt, to the confusion and disgust of another member.
  • I Surrender, Suckers!: In What about the droid attack on the Wookiees?, Mace delivers a lengthy speech denouncing Obi-Wan and Anakin's habit of doing this as a war crime, and further points out that since then, millions of Republic soldiers that were genuinely surrendering have been killed by Separatist forces that couldn't afford to risk it happen again - which is why it is banned in real life.
  • Jerkass Has a Point:
    • This is part of what makes Mace the Only Sane Man and Token Good Teammate of the Jedi despite being a major jerk. He is entirely correct that Anakin is a war criminal whose false surrenders have resulted in millions of avoidable deaths on the Republic's side due to the Seperatists no longer being able to accept surrenders, that his thesis drove at least one Council member to suicide, that he feels no remorse and refuses to accept responsibility for either of those (with the weak excuse that Palpatine said it was fine), and that only he contacts Mace to if he wants Mace to solve problems or because he wants something from Mace. As well, Ki-Adi Mundi is a genocidal monster, Obi-Wan is both a war criminal and thinks Mundi forcing a parent to chose which of their two children he will kill (which he has done multiple times in a single month) is a wacky prank, and Yoda is a drug-addicted, abusive jerk, with Mace being the only Council member to stand up and call any of them out on this (the other Council members only stand up to Yoda because Mace organized an intervention).
    • In the Legends, "Obi-Wan is Bullied By Yoda" Yoda remarks that maybe if Obi-Wan wasn't such a book loving nerd and had looked up from his books to properly teach his padawan, perhaps he wouldn't have killed all the younglings. Obi-Wan admits that although the nerd comments hurt, he really couldn't argue with it.
  • Jerkass to One: Obi-Wan is usually the Straight Man, but he's a jerk to Anakin in particular. Later on this is revealed to be because Anakin discredited Obi-Wan's own thesis about the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
  • Just Between You and Me: Dooku reveals all of Palpatine's plans and the plot to the Original and Sequel trilogies to Obi-Wan.
  • Kirk Summation: Obi-Wan philosophically deconstructs Anakin's claim that from his point of view, the Jedi are evil. Anakin responds with "I understand why Yoda thought you were a nerd."
  • Lampshade Hanging: Anakin is baffled by the fact that Depa Billaba managed to speak such Long-Lasting Last Words while falling to her death (after jumping out the window to escape his thesis.)
  • Lethally Stupid: Obi-Wan mentions a past Jedi master known as Oolough the terrible, who after becoming Jedi Battlemaster through several clerical errors, taught his students to hold their lightsabers the wrong way, crippling almost an entire generation of Jedi. He gained a posthumous redemption after being tricked into falling to the dark side and almost driving the Sith to extinction by accident "single-stumpedly".
  • Literal Metaphor: When Palpatine says "I am the Senate", Mace Windu responds that there's actual legislation and paperwork legally changing the chancellor's name to "The Senate".
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Palpatine is pretty much the only person in the Galaxy who is unaware of how widely known and studied the Tragedy of Darth Plageius the Wise is, much to his confusion, as he is pretty much the only person in the Galaxy who should know about the tale.
  • Love Martyr: Non-romantic version. Master Windu strongly believes in the cause of eventually rehabilitating Yoda’s drug addiction, despite Windu’s constant frustration with him and the skepticism of his fellow Jedi with the project.
  • Manchild: Anakin has a rather naive and childish hyper-fixation on his own thesis. Outside of that, he easily misses unsubtle cues from people he is conversing with, and expresses himself to others using drawings one would find in a kindergarten.
  • Mind Screw: In "Anakin has a doctorate in Darth Plageius the Wise Studies", Palpatine realises that, since he didn't kill Darth Plagueis until after Episode I, and Mace told Anakin the tale the first time he stepped foot in the Jedi Temple (which was during Episode I), and already had a well known habit of telling people his version of the tale, that means Mace had been telling the tale before it even happened.
  • Mistaken Message: When Anakin hears that Obi-Wan has "engaged" General Grievous, he thinks they're getting married.
  • Moral Myopia: Despite the effects of Anakin's thesis on him and his horror of hearing it again, Palpatine has no problem telling Anakin to use it on the Jedi and the Separatist leadership.
  • Mundane Utility: Anakin apparently uses the Force to see into the future... and learn about philisophical concepts that haven't been theorised yet. According to Obi-Wan, he keeps causing Temporal Paradoces by discussing works that haven't been written yet with the people who will write them.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: When the Jedi try to arrest Palpatine, he notes that they are "three of the finest Jedi swordsmasters...and also Agen Kolar."
  • Mythology Gag:
    • In "I don't think the system works", Anakin mentions it being "outrageous and unfair" that people who are unfit for leadership can gain power simply by winning elections, echoing his remarks at not being made a Jedi master. The four pillars of good governance he expounds upon are "Peace, Freedom, Justice, and Security", what he claimed to bring to "his new empire" in Revenge of the Sith.
    • In "Obi-Wan and Anakin vs Dooku", Obi-Wan mentions he's been telling everyone that Sith lords are his speciality. He also declines to fight Dooku at first because they're on level ground (i.e. he doesn't "have the high ground").
  • Not Helping Your Case:
    • In What about the droid attack on the Wookiees?, when Mace Windu is tearing Obi-Wan and Anakin a new one for their abuse of false surrenders, Anakin's asks Mace which of their false surrenders, specifically, is the one that bothers him. Mace's response is a Death Glare.
    • When Commander Cody asks Obi-Wan about how his thesis was featured in "Academic Failures Monthly", Obi-Wan's response is that Academic Failures Monthly doesn't matter, nobody reads it, even the people who do don't read the listicles... and even if someone did read it, they'd see that he was ranked number 11, not even among the top 10.
  • Non-Indicative Name: ''Anakin Delivers a Short Lecture on the Schools of Thought concerning TToDPTW'' is the longest video in the series by far, clocking in at nearly 30 minutes long.
  • Not So Above It All: Palpatine shoots down all of Anakin's proposed Sith names of Darth Thesis, Darth Dichotomy, Darth Academius, and Darth Plageuis the Wiser before settling on Darth Vader. When he later communicates with Cody, he initially addresses Anakin as Darth Academius by accident.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Dooku is Affably Evil and is willing to explain his prophecies of the future to even his enemies, but he also provided materials for Anakin's thesis, dooming the Jedi.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Nute Gunray constantly pretends to be stupid to troll Palpatine, including pretending to think his hologram was a non-corporeal projection summoned via seance, saying he intentionally left tons of holes in the Naboo blockade because Sidious instructed him to make it "like a net" and real nets have holes, pretending to not know about the concept of clothes, and acting like he didn't even know what lobbying was apparently despite being one of the leaders of a MegaCorp Corrupt Corporate Executive. At the end of the first video where he does this, after the call is over, he says that next he's going to get Palpatine to explain what "capitalism" is, which he does by pretending to confuse it with "capitalise."
  • Obliviously Evil: Anakin seems completely unable to realize the connection between him explaining his thesis and the listener killing themselves. Palpatine is unable to convince him to kill all the Jedi, but telling him to show them all his thesis (especially the younglings) works fine and gets the same end result.
  • Only in It for the Money: Ahsoka is opposed to the Republic's governance and taxation, yet fights for them, because they offered to pay her more than the Confederacy would.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Despite being a massive Jerkass, Mace is still the closest thing to a reasonable person in the entire series. Sadly for him, he still has to deal with the other characters.
    • Obi-Wan tries to be this, and sometimes makes astute observations (why would Dooku be on the Invisible Hand, or why didn't they kill Palpatine?), but overall nonetheless falls into stupidity, instances including making Anakin charge Dooku head on (leaving Kenobi to face him alone), not knowing basic war crimes, not realizing Dooku is Tyranus despite some hintsnote and being an unnecessarily petty jerk to Anakin.
    • Despite being a villain, Dooku also qualifies, showing occasional exasperation at the stupidity of others, knowing the entire plot, and more or less always keeping calm. He does, however, unironically think “Darth Icky” is a cool name for a Sith.
    • Qui-Gon was apparently one, even being the sole person in the galaxy capable of keeping Yoda sober (though Master Trebor is capable of getting Yoda to cut back for a little whole), but his thick accent and Obi-Wan's mistranslation caused people to not listen to him.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • Yoda acts surprisingly sober and clear-headed after Order 66 commences.
    • When Padme mentions meeting Ki-Adi Mundi when she was a Junior Senatorial Adviser, the often clueless Anakin's immediate response is an extremely concerned "Oh, dear".
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Ki-Adi-Mundi gives this as his justification for using a flamethrower in a war against the Geonosians, claiming their methods of killing are unspeakably brutal, and using flamethrowers was a proportionate response. Windu mocks this.
    Windu: OH! MY BAD! SORRY! I didn't realize we had to commit as many fucking atrocities as the enemy! FUCK! Maybe I should break out a red lightsaber, and start shooting lightning from my fucking fingers!
  • Rapid Aging: A side-effect of listening to Anakin's thesis, if you manage to even survive without killing yourself out of boredom. A Clone tries to object to reading the thesis because the clones already age quickly, and thus the thesis means it's possible Palpatine will scrap them.
  • "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: In "Anakin marches on the Jedi Temple", Anakin took the clone troopers to the library and made each of them check out at least four books.
    Anakin: Never complain about going to the library. The library is where it's at!
  • Rudely Hanging Up: In "The Problem of the Dark Side", Obi-Wan calls Yoda to engage him in some philosophical discourse. He's barely half way through the word "theological" when Yoda silently hangs up on him.
  • Rules Lawyer: When Anakin pointed out Windu had placed a curse for him should he go to Mustafar, Palpatine convinced him to go because they’ve already legally changed his name to Darth Vader and thus the curse targeting “Anakin Skywalker” will no longer apply. It should be noted the name change only goes into legal effect at the end of the month, not during the visit.
  • Running Gag:
    • Anakin trying to get the chance to share his thesis with someone.
    • Yoda's drug addiction.
    • Anakin calling force lightning "shooting lightning from [someone's] fingies" and remarking it to be "most unnatural".
    • Characters identifying dates by BBY, with listeners being confused by what BBY stands for. (Before Battle of Yavin, the standard way to identify dates in Star Wars continuity and an official in-universe dating scheme after the Battle of Yavin; but obviously not one people living in 19 BBY should know about.)
    • An extension to the above, whenever Anakin uses or makes mention of non-English languages from Earth, it leaves others confused or thinking he is making words up.
    • People being uncertain if Shaak Ti is alive or not.
    • Obi-Wan quickly muttering out a copyright disclaimer whenever he says certain iconic phases like "Star Wars" or "High Ground".
    • The legend of Plo Koon being able to shoot lightning from his fingers, despite the man being alive to verify it. Even Plo Koon himself tells it as a legend rather than verify the claim.
      • In general, whenever someone references something from the Legends continuity, they will preface it with "I heard a legend that...".
    • Every single person who hears how Palpatine killed his master in his sleep feels compelled to point out that it was a cowardly thing to do, with a frustrated Palpatine constantly trying to insist that it was smart. This eventually leads to him inadvertantly confirming to Mace Windu that he was that Sith apprentice.
  • Selective Obliviousness: Anakin is utterly incapable of recognizing the negative effects his thesis has on others, and is barely able to process that people don't want to hear about it. Despite Mace Windu making it abundantly clear how much he hates Anakin and his thesis, Anakin still suggests that the late Master Windu would be thrilled about him giving a lecture about TToDPtW in his name.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Anakin when he's talking about his thesis. He's particularly fond of the word "dichotomy".
  • Serious Business: Anakin takes going to the library even more seriously than his own thesis, detouring from his march on the Jedi Temple for the sole purpose of getting the clones to check-out books, and when the library attendees panicked, he even ordered them shot, and only rescinded it because he thought it would disturb the library further.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Mace Windu confronts Palpatine, Palpatine argues that his (alleged) Sith affiliation is protected by the republic's freedom of religion. Mace Windu acknowledges that this is true, but points out that Palpatine's numerous crimes (including causing and masterminding the entire war) are still very much illegal.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Mace Windu is more in line with Samuel L. Jackson's other characters in how much he swears.
  • Skewed Priorities: On being told that Chancellor Palpatine is a Sith Lord, Mace Windu's reaction is mostly to get pissed at Anakin about how much paperwork this is going to saddle him with and how he's gonna have to skip his original plan to crack open some cold ones with his boys tonight and "crack open some boys with [his] cold ones." This finally gets Anakin to awkwardly ask Windu if he just hates him specifically.
  • Space "X": Space Obama was apparently a previous Supreme Chancellor. Or maybe not?
    Mace Windu: I've never even fucking heard of "Space Obama"!
  • Stable Time Loop: Anakin keeps causing bootstrap paradoces by using Force precognition to cite academic works before they're written, resulting in the people he cited quoting whatever he said and presenting it as their own thoughts.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: After Palpatine explains what lobbying is and how it could be used to make the invasion of Naboo legal, Nute proposes instead to use lobbying to get the tax reductions that was the impetus of the invasion in the first place, and even get more concessions such as government subsidies and reduced hiring barriers. Palpatine, whose plans require the escalation to an invasion, vehemently refuses to change course.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: When Palpatine asks if Anakin has heard of the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, Anakin's response is that that's like asking Master Yoda if he's ever heard of cocaine. Much later, when Anakin tells a clone trooper that Palpatine asked him that question while they're marching on the Jedi temple, the clone trooper responds in the same way.
  • Strongly Worded Letter:
    • Obi-Wan declares the Jedi council will send one to Palpatine, "urging him to perhaps think about maybe forming a committee to look into the possibility of investigating whether someone could think about hiring someone to look into the clones and their nefarious intention."
    • Later, after Order 66 is actually in progress, Obi-Wan tells Yoda that they should debate Palpatine to convince him that his plan to kill all the Jedi is morally wrong.
  • Stylistic Suck: Anakin's drawing resembles something drawn by a 3-year-old.
  • Suckiness Is Painful: Anakin's thesis is so long and boring that everyone does whatever they can to escape having to listen to it. Mace Windu even jumps out Palpatine's window to escape, while Palpatine is disfigured not from reflected Force Lightning but simply listening to Anakin drone on for hours.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: How Palpatine "defeats" Mace Windu. After being cornered and failing miserably to frame Windu as a traitor (Anakin is ecstatic at the idea of overthrowing the government and replacing it with his vision) or to even really get Anakin on his side, he tries to appeal to his desire to "save the one he loves" as in canon. While he meant Padme, Anakin assumes he meant his thesis, and Sidious rolls with it, to his great regret.
    Palpatine: I have the power to save the one you love!
    Anakin: M... My thesis!?
    Palpatine: No I mea-Actually, yes! In fact, you should tell us your entire thesis right now, and then I'll publish it!
  • Take Our Word for It: During Yoda's Intervention, when Mace Windu asks Master Coleman to speak, the other Jedi spend an entire minute talking up his skills as an orator. When he actually talks, he's The Unintelligible, but the subtitles say you are hearing the most moving and beautiful speech of your life.
  • Take That!:
    • While (supposedly) insulting the Jedi Council, Qui-Gon says he prefers the Sequel Trilogy. Mace doesn't take it well.
    • Dooku gets in a subtle dig at Solo.
    You'd have to be the kind of halfwit who just allows people to assign you a last name to even think it [the Death Star] was a moon.
    • Palpatine notes during Mace's attempted arrest that he has brought three of the Jedi Order's greatest swordsmasters... and also, Agen Kolar.note 
  • Thousand-Yard Stare: After listening to Anakin's thesis, Palpatine's face is frozen in thisnote , apparently being traumatized to the point of having difficulty talking or thinking.
  • Throwing Out the Script: After Anakin is done with his ramble in the opera house, Palpatine decides to discard all pretense.
    Palpatine: ...Anakin, your wife's gonna die unless you join the dark side.
    Anakin: Where do I sign up?
  • Time-Travel Tense Trouble:
    • Anakin mentions Thrawn "will highlight" certain points in his writings, which he hasn't written yet at this point in the timeline.
    • Characters also identify dates by BBY, with listeners being confused by what BBY stands for. (Before Battle of Yavin, the standard way to identify dates in Star Wars continuity and an official in-universe dating scheme after the Battle of Yavin; but obviously not one people living in 19 BBY should know about.)
  • Token Good Teammate: While he is very much a jerk and an example of Good Is Not Nice, Mace is the only (speaking) member of the Council who cares about not committing war crimes, is the one who leads the effort to get Yoda to stop doing drugs, and part of his hatred of Anakin is due to his thesis having driven at least one member of the Council to suicide, with him making it clear that, no matter what Palpatine says, he very much blames Anakin for it. As well, despite his hatred of the Sith, he fully acknowledges that the laws of the Republic provide religious protection to Palpatine and he cannot arrest him solely for being a Sith (but he can arrest him for controlling both sides of the Clone Wars and using it to grow his power and influence).
  • Too Dumb to Live: "Obi-Wan somehow escapes Utapau, meets up with Master Yoda, discusses the fatality of sadness" reveals that Obi-Wan actually got ahold of a bio-chip and the contents of Order 66 a while before it actually happened, and noticed the subclauses in it that included things like making the clones refer to Palpatine as Darth Sideous. He tried to bring it up to the Council, but Yoda declared reading to be "nerd behaviour", so he dropped it and never took any action against it. He also just assumed that the clone army made on Dooku's orders to fight the droid armies of Dooku was simply the result of Dooku thinking a galaxy spanning clash of man and machine would be cool.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: Obi-Wan insinuates that the only way Anakin could stop people calling him Teat-Sucker Skywalker would be to kill every last youngling. But it's implied Obi-Wan wants them dead himself, for laughing at him for losing a planet. As well, Clone Wars-era Anakin showed more awareness of and unease regarding moral quandaries (like using child soldiers) and the effects of his thesis, only for Obi-Wan to talk him out of such things.
  • Troll: Nate Gunray constantly trolls Palpatine by pretending to be unable to understand extremely simple concepts, forcing Palpatine to explain them. At the end of the first video where he does this, in The Stinger after the call is over, he promises to get Palpatine to explain what capitalism is (to the head of the trade federation), which he does by pretending to confuse it with "capitalize" in their next meeting. It's later revealed that all the Nemodians are like this, using "cultural traditions" and feigning stupidity just to mess with people. They even managed to get Dooku to give them the power to make any planet joining the Confederacy make the Nemodian Call of Unity... which legally declares that planet's resources to be Nemodian property.
  • Trolling Translator: Implied in "Qui-Gon turns down a Council Seat, racially insults Yoda, triggers the Invasion of Naboo", where Obi-Wan translates Qui-Gon's Unintelligible Accent to the Jedi Council as him insulting them. Further implied in "Duel of the Fates", where Obi-Wan uses Qui-Gon's accent to provoke Darth Maul. However, "The Problem of the Dark Side" implies that Obi-Wan wasn't screwing around and really was just extremely overconfident in his ability to understand Qui-Gon, expressing surprise when he found out Qui-Gon's views on the Force and thoughts on the idea of Force Ghosts from reading the notes he left behind after his death.
  • Unintelligible Accent: Qui-Gon.
  • Uriah Gambit:
    • Yoda orders Anakin and Obi-Wan to fight as recklessly as possible on the frontlines of the Clone Wars on planets where their communicators don't work, because he finds their philosophizing annoying. When he judges Ahsoka to be of a similar breed of "nerd" (simply because she uses "thus" in an argument at him), he sends her to Anakin and the frontlines post-haste.
    • Palpatine would later send Anakin/Darth Academus/Darth Vader to Mustafar to tell the Separatists his thesis with full knowledge that Windu’s curse on Anakin will get him burned and dismembered.
  • Visionary Villain: In "Anakin marches on the Jedi Temple", Anakin promises that when he's in charge, the work week will only be four days, with the fifth day devoted to study (of his thesis, of course).
  • We Want Our Jerk Back!: In "Qui-Gon turns down a Council Seat, racially insults Yoda, triggers the Invasion of Naboo", according to Obi-Wan's translation, Qui-Gon says Yoda is a boring "chump" for giving up drugs, and should try them again.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: In "What About the Droid Attack on the Wookiees?", Mace Windu lets Ki-Adi Mundi, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi have it over the use of flamethrowers on the Geonosians (Mundi) and the repeated use of false surrenders (Anakin and Obi-Wan), the latter of which has led to the Separatists killing surrendering people because they think it's another trap.
  • With Due Respect: Palpatine turns the subtext of this stock phrase into text when using it to shut down Darth Maul's complaints at the end of this video:
    Palpatine: Lord Maul, with all due respect, which is none because you're stupid, everything is proceeding as I have foreseen. Now shut up and go. fight. Jedi.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?: In-Universe. Anakin has written his Doorstopper of a thesis on the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Palpatine doesn't think it's that deep.
  • Who Writes This Crap!?:
  • World of Jerkass: Almost everyone is a major Adaptational Jerkass, but especially Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Mace. The one aversion to this is Anakin himself, who is generally much more polite and supportive towards his fellow Jedi than he was in canon and who flatly refuses to commit the massacre of the younglings that he committed in the original story.
  • You Just Told Me: When Mace Windu comes to arrest Palpatine, he opens by accusing the Supreme Chancellor of being "the little bitch-apprentice of Darth Plagueis the Wise", a Call-Back to how Anakin said he mocked Plagueis' apprentice as a cowardly little bitch to everyone who entered the Jedi temple. When Palpatine cuts in to argue that killing Plagueis in his sleep was a smart thing to do, Windu's response is "ah fuck, Anakin was right", implying that he hadn't been certain up until Palpatine confirmed his suspicions by defending Plagueis' apprentice.

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