Why was the Confederacy of Independent Systems the bad guys...

[USS Avenger]

ahh, but that jedi engaged in spying was investigating the attempted assassination of a leading Senator of the Republic. Also as Geonosis was still technically a member of the Republic, at least from the Republic's standpoint, the Jedi had every right to be there to conduct that investigation.

Another reason the CIS could be seen as "the bad guys". Before they attempt to seceed, they were a part of the Republic, they had just as much representation as any other world. They had avenues for addressing their grievences. If those grievences were not addressed, then yes perhaps they had the right to declare their independence, but only if those greivences were particularly aggregious. I don't think simple corruption and heavy taxes qualify. Also from what we saw, the CIS engaged in a massive military build up, even though the Republic had no army. Rather than address things diplomatically, the CIS was attempting to force a settlement militarily. They made no attempt to negotiate in good faith.

Very few nation-states in our own world's history have voluntarily and peacfully dissolved, usually there is a great deal of bloodshed involved. The Clone Wars could be seen as similar in some ways to any of these civil wars. I see no great similarities between the American Civil War and the Clone Wars except for the names of the participants. The south attempted to leave the Union to protect the evil institution of slavery (thus making the Union easily the good guys). The CIS attempted to leave the Republic to form a Corporatocracy (totally abandoning the principles of democracy, making the Republic the good guy). Perhaps both confederacies gave some lip service to "states rights/ planetary rights" to fool the masses, but the true reasons are pretty much common knowledge. So frankly any attempt to link the two is rather silly.

The biggest reason why we see the CIS as the bad guys? Because our heroes, the ones we follow throughout the PT and TCW cartoon and all the books, fight for the Republic. During the American War for Independence I am pretty sure the redcoats saw themselves as the good guys, likewise the patriots saw themselves as the good guys. Very few if any soldiers see themselves as "the bad guys". We see things from the Jedi perspective, thus the worlds of the Republic are the good guys, and the CIS are the bad guys.

 

[Gaith]

Given the rather tortured history of the Clone Wars as part of the franchise's development, there probably will never be a satisfactory definitive answer to the OP. I myself always figured the conflict was between opposing outpourings of clones, the WWI to the Galactic Civil War's WWII.

The thing is, to have made any sense at all, the PT should probably have explicitly put forth and developed the OT-implicit notion of the Empire as a humans-only club. This would likely have meant a lot of pretty hackneyed prejudice, but at least it would have fit into the general scheme of things. Either way, it was not to be, as GL was more interested in podraces and weird creature designs than making any kind of coherent story.

 

[Blue_Trek]

Think about the opening battle of the clone wars, the Jedi just didn't come in blasting.
Mace had brief talks with Dooku before they got it on. It reminded me of two generals who approach and talk before a large battle in the old days of warfare. Mace gave Dooku an out, he never took it and the battle was on.

At least part of the CIS was evil looked what they planned to build, a planet killer called the Death Star.

 

[hyzmarca]

But don't you see, a weapon like that could haave ended the war decisively and saved many lives. A ground invasion of Coruscant would have killed trillions but they could have forced a bloodless surrender by blowing up a couple of major planets, say Alderan and Nagasaki.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I have been following the thread. I was aware that both sides where controlled by one man. But the "bad guys" or the two where the seppies..

More or less. I seem to remember that Episode III's crawl stated:

"There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere."

 

[Anwar]

But don't you see, a weapon like that could haave ended the war decisively and saved many lives. A ground invasion of Couuscant would have killed trillions but they could have forced a bloodless surrender by blowing up a couple of major planets, say Alderan and Nagasaki.

 

[Gojirob]

But don't you see, a weapon like that could haave ended the war decisively and saved many lives. A ground invasion of Coruscant would have killed trillions but they could have forced a bloodless surrender by blowing up a couple of major planets, say Alderan and Nagasaki.

Harry Truman as Palps puts you in bad waters, sir. That is just wrong on its face.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The Republic had Jedi, which is far worse than any standing army, and deploying them was their standard tactic in any hairy negotiation. If you sit down and try to negotiate with a Jedi you will give him everything that he wants, without exception, no matter how unreasonable his demands are and you will get nothing in return and you'll actually think that you won the negotiation and came out even better than you expected. This is because the Jedi can and will mind-rape you into compliance unless you are lucky enough to be a member of a small handful of species which are resistant to it. And if you are then they have lightsabers.

Where did this species immunity thing come from? In the original trilogy, it talked about how the force can manipulate the weak-minded. When Jabba's assistant can manipulated by Luke, his response was to say "You weak minded fool", not "if only you were of the same species as me." The Storm Troopers were as likely to fall for it. There's no evidence that Han could have been manipulated by Obi Wan, for example.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Where did this species immunity thing come from?

Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Watto: "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don'ta work on me, only money"

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Then again, we only have Watto's word on that. Maybe Watto himself was strong enough to resist the mind trick, but others of his species might not be. Proud as he was, he'd claim otherwise, of course.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Where did this species immunity thing come from?

Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Watto: "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don'ta work on me, only money"

Still, just because a species has built in immunity doesn't mean other species are naturally vulnerable, just weak-minded ones (maybe Qui Gon thought Watto looked particularly weak-minded).

 

[Gotham Central]

The only reason that the CIS appeared to be the bad guys was because we viewed the conflict through the prism of the Republic. It also does not help that the first shot of the conflict basically originated during the Trade Federation's attempt to annex Naboo (and killing Republic officials in the process).

At the end of the day neither side could credibly be called the "bad guys." They were both equally pawns in the same chess game. Its worth noting that when the dust finally settled on the Clone War, neither the CIS nor the Republic survived. At the end of the day, they were both simply factions of the nacent Empire

 

[Chaos Descending]

Where did this species immunity thing come from?

Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Watto: "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don'ta work on me, only money"

Still, just because a species has built in immunity doesn't mean other species are naturally vulnerable, just weak-minded ones (maybe Qui Gon thought Watto looked particularly weak-minded).

Nobody has suggested such a thing, that I can see.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

hyzmarca did

 

[broberfett]

The Confederacy of Independent systems were run by bankers and industrialist types, so they were evil capitalists and the Republic was supposed to be all wonderful and built on high minded ideals.

 

[Gaith]

Just because the Republic was being manipulated by Palps doesn't mean that the war against the CIS wasn't worth it. What if the Republic had won the war as in ROTS and Mace had succeeded in arresti- wait. This is the PT we're talking about. Don't care.

 

[Chaos Descending]

hyzmarca did

I guess I see what you're referring to. He does seem to suggest that members of races that are not naturally immune are therefore fully susceptible to their mind tricks.

 

[Hermiod]

^It should be noted that the races, or at least people, we've seen to be immune have been from distinctly non-humanoid races.

Perhaps mind tricks don't work because their brains are too different - the same way Betazoid telepathy doesn't work on Ferengi because of their four lobed brains.

 

[David cgc]

That would suggest that, say, a Toydarian Jedi would be able to influence another Toydarian, but not a human.

 

[Anwar]

Well, before Lucas went all Eugenics with the Midichlorians the implication was that the Force was in everyone and everything. So if we follow that, it's simply a matter of personal willpower and Watto just mistakenly assumed all his people could do it.