Exactly. I highly doubt headlines in the Galactic news went something like 'Galactic heroes Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker rescue Chancellor Palpatine from General Grievous'.
What exactly was Obi-Wan's long-term plan for Luke?
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Exactly. I highly doubt headlines in the Galactic news went something like 'Galactic heroes Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker rescue Chancellor Palpatine from General Grievous'.
On Coruscant maybe, but even there I doubt anyone below level 2500 cared enough to pay it much attention. I doubt Tatooine as a 1) outer rim backwater that 2) wasn't even part of the Republic even got any official news feeds about the war. Even if they got some, it's unlikely anyone would pick out that specific name, remember it 20 years later and make a giant leap of a connection.
It's best to keep in mind that planets in Star Wars tend to be very provincially minded. There is after all a million inhabited worlds out there; way too much for anyone to keep even a passing sense of let alone track even major events that don't directly affect their day-to-day.
Plus I have a pet peeve that goes back to the RotS novelization. I don't like the idea of any Jedi being singled out in the media, even in clone wars propaganda. The Order wouldn't be comfortable with it, and it'd be counter-productive in the long run for Palpatine to allow it. To most people, the Jedi in this point in history should just be a faceless monolith.
Probably the best proof of this is Yoda. Neither Ezra nor Luke had ever heard of him, let alone knew what he looked like. If a Jedi Grand Master that serve the Republic prominently for over eight centuries wasn't a household name throughout the galaxy, then nobody was.
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If you believe Matt Stover, they did.
Who?
If Palpatine wanted to push his narrative about the Jedi, but also spin why one Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, stayed loyal to him as a setup for him being his new Sith Apprentice, than having Anakin all in the media would be a huge deal. Especially if they also tied it to the Jedi betrayal with Obi-wan Kenobi.
I can't imagine Anakin being a public figure was ever in the plan. He didn't keep Vader mostly out of the public eye as his shadowy right hand enforcer because of the mask; that would always have been the case regardless of whether or not he done got barbecued.
Had things gone according to plan I think Anakin Skywalker would have been officially dead. Even so; I doubt the official story was all that detailed on the fates of specific Jedi.
Plus keep in mind that we're talking about a totalitarian dictatorship. So it's not like anyone's in a position to question the official version of events . . . or literally anything at all.
It's much more in Palpatine's interest to (for lack of a better term) dehumanise the Jedi during the war by giving them a certain anonymity. The Order would certainly embrace this as a favour, not realising he's just making it all the more easy to turn public opinion against them in the short term, and in the long turn wipe away almost all memory of them. If you want to erase a person or an organisation from history, you first have to remove their names so they cease to be people. After that you can make up anything you want about them.
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I always kind of had the impression that for most people the Jedi were the kind of thing that they heard stories and rumors about, but that the details of exactly what and who they were weren't that widely known outside of the few people who had actually worked closely with them.
People knew they were out there, and that they had special powers and lightsabers, but that would have been about it.
It's a lot easier to buy people believing Palpatine's BS, and that people would have practically forgotten all about them by the time The Force Awakens comes around, if nobody really knew much about them to begin with.
People knew they were out there, and that they had special powers and lightsabers, but that would have been about it.
It's a lot easier to buy people believing Palpatine's BS, and that people would have practically forgotten all about them by the time The Force Awakens comes around, if nobody really knew much about them to begin with.
I wonder if a non-suit Anakin would have been the Empire's face, or some shadowy enforcer. People knew Anakin Skywalker. He had a reputation. Though not everyone knew his face. Enough that he could bluff his way under cover without needing to get his face morphed like Obi-wan when he was supposed to be dead.
10,000 Jedi spread out over the million worlds of the Galaxy. Most people never saw a Jedi. Never even knew anyone who saw a Jedi. Even the Galaxy spanning Clone Wars probably never impacted most planets directly. In my thoughts the Empire didn't intend to vilify the Jedi (except in the earliest Order 66 days), but to eliminate them from history. Roughly 2 decades later Luke didn't even know what a Jedi was.
I think the mistake a lot of people make is to view Star Wars as a science fiction setting, and apply certain expectations about a technological society also being an information society simply because that's where we are at our point in history.
Star Wars is conceived first and foremost as a fantasy fairy tale setting, so it's usually best to frame things in that context. It's a medieval-esque society that just so happens to have space ships and lasers, so mass media isn't really a thing in much of the galaxy, and most people just get on with their lives. The elite of the wealthy industrialised worlds and the affluent ecumenopoli may distract themselves with holonet news feeds more than most, but primarily as fuel for idle gossip.
I can't see Palpatine taking the risk of a cult of personality growing around his heir apparent. That would threaten to destabilise his powerbase. No I think the "public face" of the Empire was always intended to be the Imperial Stormtrooper.
Remember that Palpatine doesn't really care what people think. He's not out to inspire anything except fear and obedience. To him, people are just things that exist to serve his purposes; no better and no less disposable than droids.
If you want to get a sense of the kind of society he was really creating, go watch THX-1138. I think that's basically how Lucas saw what life under the Empire would be like, and indeed we saw aspects of this in Andor.
Star Wars is conceived first and foremost as a fantasy fairy tale setting, so it's usually best to frame things in that context. It's a medieval-esque society that just so happens to have space ships and lasers, so mass media isn't really a thing in much of the galaxy, and most people just get on with their lives. The elite of the wealthy industrialised worlds and the affluent ecumenopoli may distract themselves with holonet news feeds more than most, but primarily as fuel for idle gossip.
I can't see Palpatine taking the risk of a cult of personality growing around his heir apparent. That would threaten to destabilise his powerbase. No I think the "public face" of the Empire was always intended to be the Imperial Stormtrooper.
Remember that Palpatine doesn't really care what people think. He's not out to inspire anything except fear and obedience. To him, people are just things that exist to serve his purposes; no better and no less disposable than droids.
If you want to get a sense of the kind of society he was really creating, go watch THX-1138. I think that's basically how Lucas saw what life under the Empire would be like, and indeed we saw aspects of this in Andor.
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I have several extensive Star Wars books, that go into the making of the first six films. Admittedly, I haven't read that much yet, but that's because I have a tough time slowing my mind down to focus properly.
Anyway though, from the little I remember, Lucas' overall intentions for the original trilogy went through many different iterations, between his first outline in 1973 and the release of A New Hope four years later. The only real constant in the whole thing, according to Lucas, was the main trio of Anakin and his two kids, versus the evil Empire. A lot of his early writings weren't even known about by most people, until the prequels were made. His response to people hating on him for making Vader more sympathetic, was pointing out the fact that he didn't have the time or resources to portray certain events the way he originally wanted to.
Anyway though, from the little I remember, Lucas' overall intentions for the original trilogy went through many different iterations, between his first outline in 1973 and the release of A New Hope four years later. The only real constant in the whole thing, according to Lucas, was the main trio of Anakin and his two kids, versus the evil Empire. A lot of his early writings weren't even known about by most people, until the prequels were made. His response to people hating on him for making Vader more sympathetic, was pointing out the fact that he didn't have the time or resources to portray certain events the way he originally wanted to.
