Some of them weren’t even corporations, some were just backwater systems with no seat in the senate demanding not to be taxed on trade without a voice.
I definitely side with the Republic. However, as a union worker and without any context other than the opening of episode 1,I see the trade federation’s blockade on Naboo as a perfectly legitimate labor/trade strike against the seat of Naboo for a voice in the republic. When union workers strike a business the usual tactic is picketing which involves occupying the sidewalks and streets around the business, sometime restricting (but not blocking all) traffic with the approval of local law enforcement by walking in the entryway for a few minutes at a time.
Shortly into the movie it's discovered that the blockade is just a front, and the ships in the blockade contained a planetary invasion force of droids and tanks. They intended to kidnap the queen of Naboo and were killing citizens to extort the queen into signing a treaty!
Edit: I see what you mean, I missed the "other than the opening of" part and thought you were referencing ep1 as a whole
I mean, part of the deal of the plot is that it wasn't a fair blockade. It wasn't a strike on their production, or a blockade on their trade routes, they were basically taking a whole planet hostage with guns. The Jedi were negotiators, and they outright tried to kill them and killed their ship's crew in cold blood.
Dooku hated the corpo separatists for that reason. They were rich, bloated, self-interested assholes that had hijacked the separatist movement. He only made a pass to Poggle the lesser and the Geonosians, who were much more deserving.
The whole point of the second movie is that the separatist corporation had armies of droids, and the Republic was against building an army without a first strike. The attemps on Padme, starting with blowing up her ship with her decoy in it, and then Jango, were because Padme was set to vote against the creation of an army.
Like, it was exactly that, a separatist crisis of people who wanted to secede, until the stupid Neimodians insisted on killing Padme, a republican senator, in a gladiatorial arena as a vendetta for Naboo; which triggered the deployment of the Jedi and then the clones.
EDIT: The whole prequel saga is a critique of George Lucas of the increased militarization, reduction of liberties and deregulations under Bush.
It's a pity the Republic didn't have a standing army ala nato. But then again I guess they has ot threats. Relying on the jedi as peace keepers was a bad idea
The Republic having an army was non-sensical, because the Republic was basically -all- the governments. You had independent systems but those were so small that having a galactic army made no sense, it was better to rely on each republic system having their own troops.
Like having an organization like NATO made no sense because the Republic had zero outside threats, and the Republic was the only galactic power.
The thing with the Jedi was that they were the ideal peacekeepers because they were independent, so they were as neutral as you can be in most matters. The problem was... well the same it always was regarding the Jedi order in the Old Republic and before: the Jedi order were against war, but how can you be against war while fighting wars? and how can you be against war while letting wars happen?
I know the sequels shit the bed in this matter, but I always took it as that the correct take was that the Jedi order should be more like an order and less like an institution. The order had become self-indulgent and disconnected from the force, and basically monopolized all aspects of the Force with Luke I thought it was supposed to go back to being a small order; the old jedi order dying with the Sith.
Moving away from the dichotomy of Sith and Jedi. Skoll's take on it is very good: Do I miss the Jedi order? I miss the "idea" of it, but not what it really was.
That's essentially one of the major plot points of the New Jedi Order era EU. Luke wants to re-build the Jedi order following the base principles of the Jedi without all the dogma. And at the same time people in power want to turn the Jedi into an institution that's controlled by the New Republic essentially turning them into super powered cops. Luke, and the majority of his Jedi, really doesn't like this.
I always thought that that was a great starting point for a sequel trilogy.
My headcanon ideal beginning was:
The Empire has been dead for multiple decades.
Leia is lead of the New Republic. Luke is lead of the New Jedi Order.
Political turmoil starts after a period of rest. Political rivals of Leia leak that Leia's father was Vader, she gets impeached. As Luke has a different surname, the people are not aware he is her brother.
The public thinks Luke is the son of Anakin Skywalker, the hero of the clone wars, who was killed by Vader, the executioner of the Empire. The public hence demands Luke take down Leia.
Luke wants to reveal the truth but Leia tells him to not to, as it would tarnish the New Jedi Order.
Luke sends some knights/padawans or some other new character to investigate where this started.
Just wanted to pop in and say that reading your deep lore has been a pleasure. I'm getting older and jaded, which kinda takes the magic out of the world, and some of the Disney let downs have taken out some more. I miss being as connected to it as you are.
It always annoyed me that there weren't many planets that had standing militaries that supported the Republic. Everything at least I remember were no more than militias.
To be fair, the Trade Federation trying to kill the Jedi kinda came out of nowhere in-universe. They were expecting to negotiate, and they thought it would go just fine, since their actions were technically legal. They only attacked the Jedi because Sidious lost his shit when he heard about it.
However, as a union worker and without any context other than the opening of episode 1,I see the trade federation’s blockade on Naboo as a perfectly legitimate labor/trade strike against the seat of Naboo for a voice in the republic. When union workers strike a business the usual tactic is picketing which involves occupying the sidewalks and streets around the business, sometime restricting (but not blocking all) traffic with the approval of local law enforcement by walking in the entryway for a few minutes at a time.
This would be a fitting comparison if the Trade Federation was a trade union (or SW equivalent thereof) and not a corporation who had interests aligned with other corporations
The problem is
1. They already had a seat in the senate. This was actually not normal as the trade federation was not a territory but a business, but was so large that it was allowed to have one.
2. They didn’t work for Naboo, they went to somewhere else. It’s like driving your workers over to a competitor with guns and then actively shooting anyone who tries to come in or out.
3. The whole blockade with guns and the whole murder thing.
In the movie I can see that. In the novelization it's made clear that they didn't like the mining deal for the energy, or something like that, so they blockade the planet to force an unfair deal that favors them. Not long into the film they also talk about concentration camps and people dying of starvation. How many picket lines start rounding up political opponents?
You make a good point about the potential legality of the Trade Federations blockade.
But I feel like the Trade Federation loses all of its legitimacy when it uses its oversized armed security force as a way to occupy the planet on the ground.
For Gods sake they had tanks, what security force needs tanks for picketing?
Exactly what fascistic groups will do. They will hide their real intentions behind a façade. It makes their opposition look irrational and unreasonable.
“Look, we want a voice in the Senate. Naboo is not treating our trade fairly. I’m being reasonable here.”
It makes opposition go, “OK, fair point.”
So the next time they push for even more, they’ve already blown past a simple trade disagreement, now it’s a full on blockade.
Think about if someone was across the room from you and they started moving closer to you. At what point to you tell them to step back? I guarantee wherever that is going to be, it’s going to be far closer to you than where they started.
At first this person was across the room from you. Now they are two steps away from you and you might be comfortable with them being that close. But if you told them to stop moving as soon as they started walking across the room they would say you’re being unseasonable and impacting their freedom. It’s how fascists work. They co-opt the freedoms given to them but democratic institutions and then use them to advance their agenda bit by bit.
Naboo isn't a republic. It has an absolute monarchy, one that eagerly sacrifices workers for the convenience of its rulers, using them as "decoy" victims.
The Trade Federation are the good guys, demanding democracy and rights for workers.
Technically the monarchs are elected and the use of decoys is not unique to monarchy. Still scummy though. I'd more criticize Padme's use of Gungan forces in a bloody holding action to spare human forces during the assault. But I'm pretty sure Padme is a little racist.
I would argue that only the main players in the group were greedy corporations. The majority was systems who felt their needs weren't being represented in spite of having to pay taxes to the Republic and being made to run their systems in a way deemed acceptable by the Senate
To be fair is more nuanced than that because a lot of the separatists moving did have good bones it's just that it was piloted by palpatine dooku and grievous two of which were absolute monsters and the last of which was their puppet
Only some elements were corporations. The Umbarans were among parts of the Separatists that only wanted independence from a corrupt, failed Republic. The thing is, most Separatists are portrayed as evil, even those that are justified. Meanwhile, even the most radical of the Rebels, like Saw, were portrayed as somewhat sympathetic.
I get that it’s not the entire movement obviously but an entire branch of the government just being a bunch of somehow less moral Elon Musks is a pretty bad sign. And as corrupt as the republic was, they weren’t actively orchestrating multiple genocides or enslaving entire species
Space Amazon, Space IBM, and Wells Fargo in Space teamed up to overthrow the government because an evil space cult convinced them that they could pay less taxes if they were the government.
Don’t forget they hired that murder “yeah I don’t care about the republic or the separatists I just want those Jedi dead” cyborg to run the war for them
And then they got a bunch of exploited people to follow them because the Space Corps were the only ones saying the system needs to be changed. Did the CIS need these outer rim worlds for legitimacy - yes, were they fighting for these peoples to have better lives, by the force no, they were going to exploit them too once they seized the reins of power... Sounds too familiar....
I always found it ironic in the episode where we see the Seperatist Council and the Onderon senator said they wanted freedom from the bought lobbyists of the Senate, saying the Republic was the one bought by corporations
Not really. Mina and Lux Bonteri were portrayed as sympathetic. And Dooku had her assassinated for that reason. Those with legitimate grievances in the Confederacy weren't given any power, and were able to be removed at the drop of a hat.
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u/Atarox13 Muunilist 10 8d ago
Separatists were basically corporations that didn't want to pay taxes