Quote Originally Posted by Errorname View Post
You're right that if they force his hand, Palpatine will fire it off without recruiting Anakin, I just assumed they were not going to force his hand by committing to a coup immediately without the knowledge that Palpatine has been a sith the whole time, although maybe they surprise me
I think they would. Even without knowing that Palpatine was Sidious, there was significant tension between the Council and the Chancellor. He apparently meddled in Jedi affairs a lot and they didn’t like it, plus they were already very unhappy that he remained in office far longer than he should have and obviously had accrued vast power under the pretence of needing it for the war. You don’t just spitball “we need to remove Palpatine from office and take control of the Senate until we get rid of the corrupt politicians he has surrounded himself with and ensure a peaceful transfer of power to a new government”, y’know? It’s evidently something the Council members have been thinking about doing for some time, even if they haven’t spoken about it out loud.

Which, when you think about it, is actually kinda terrifying. Imagine the Jedi showing up to the Senate chambers and saying “we’re taking over”. What exactly were they going to do with Palpatine anyway? You can’t arrest the guy because whatever he wanted to do, he made it legal for him to do. The Senate isn’t going to impeach him, either, because they’re already in his pocket. Were the Jedi going to remove anyone from office by force that didn’t do what they said?

They do that and Order 66 suddenly becomes the only way Palpatine can defend democracy.