After being rescued from the Geonosian colosseum, while Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme are chasing
after Dooku, their shuttle takes fire and Padme, along with a clone trooper, is knocked
from the ship.
Anakin wants to land the ship to get her, but Obi-Wan convinces him otherwise.
But what if Anakin didn’t listen?
What if Anakin jumped out of the ship after Obi-Wan refused to land it?
Well, that’s what we’ll look at in this Star Wars What If scenario.
Let’s get into it.
Our story starts in a LAAT gunship soaring above the red Geonosian sand.
The brand new Republic clone army had just rescued Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme from their
untimely end in the Geonisian Colosseum.
After their rescue from the colosseum, their gunship joins in the fight taking down several
Federation starships before they can take off.
After some fierce aerial combat, Obi-Wan spots Dooku on a speeder.
Anakin yells to shoot him down, but their ship is out of rockets, so they follow him
so that Anakin and Obi-Wan can take him on themselves.
During the pursuit, their ship takes fire from Dooku's Geonosian escort fighters, knocking
Padme and a clone trooper from the gunship.
Anakin demands that the ship be brought down to retrieve Padme, but Obi-Wan tells Anakin
that they can't lose Dooku.
This should all seem familiar to anyone who has seen Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the
Clones.
However, in the movie, Anakin listens to his master, and they successfully catch up to
Dooku and face him in combat, but in our story, this does not happen.
In our story, Anakin leaps from the gunship, using the force to land safely and runs over
to ensure that Padme is okay.
Obi-Wan continues his pursuit of Dooku.
He catches up to Dooku before he can board his ship and runs at him, brandishing his
lightsaber.
Just like in the movie, Dooku defeats Obi-Wan with ease, but Anakin is not there to save
him.
Dooku raises his blade and finishes Obi-Wan off.
By the time Yoda arrives, Obi-Wan is already dead, and Dooku is boarding his ship.
Dooku rushes aboard and begins to fly away, but Yoda pulls his ship back into the hanger,
smashing it into the ground.
Dooku climbs out of the ship and ignites his Saber.
Dooku and Yoda have a fierce fight, but as we saw in Attack of the Clones, Dooku is no
match for Yoda.
Dooku has no escape with his ship destroyed and with Obi-Wan already dead, the tactic
of making Yoda choose between capturing him and saving the injured Obi-Wan is not available
to buy some time.
Yoda efficiently disarms Dooku and captures him.
Anakin runs over to Padme to make sure she is okay.
Luckily Padme wasn't hurt.
The clone trooper runs over to the two of them to see what their next move will be.
Anakin realizes that he just left Obi-Wan to face Dooku alone and frantically orders
the trooper to call for a shuttle.
They travel as fast as they can, but when they arrive, they see Yoda sitting beside
a lifeless Obi-Wan.
Anakin is devastated and blames himself for his master's death.
Anakin, Yoda, a captured Dooku, and Obi-Wan's body return to Coruscant.
Once on Coruscant Palpatine demands that Dooku be tried in Republic court, but the Jedi wish
to handle him personally for the large number of Jedi deaths he caused.
Palpatine, however, manages to overpower the Jedi council, and Dooku is set to be tried
by the Republic court.
A few days pass when Palpatine summons a still-grieving Anakin to meet him at the Republic prison.
When Anakin arrives, the guards do not confiscate his lightsaber for some reason.
This confused Anakin, but he continued to follow a guard, which led him to a cell where
Palpatine was waiting outside.
Palpatine tells Anakin that he is needed for a very important task.
Palpatine opens the cell door to reveal a shackled Dooku inside.
Anakin becomes enraged upon seeing him and asks Palpatine why he was brought here.
Palpatine shuts the door to explain.
Palpatine explains that he has uncovered plans to free Dooku at some point throughout his
trial.
This cannot be allowed to happen since Dooku is far too dangerous, so they must work together
to uncover Dooku's plan.
Palpatine asks Anakin to help interrogate Dooku alone because he was informed that there
are traitors within the government who are working with Dooku, so they can't trust anyone
else to do this.
Anakin agrees, and Palpatine opens the door.
They begin to ask Dooku questions for a few minutes until suddenly Palpatine rises into
the air clawing at his neck.
It looks as if Dooku is force-choking Palpatine but what is actually happening is Palpatine
is lifting himself in the air to make it look so.
Anakin quickly stabs Dooku in the chest, and Palpatine falls to the floor, which is precisely
what Palpatine planned.
Although Anakin was justified in striking Dooku down, he did so in rage.
Palpatine put him in this position so that he would be forced to kill Dooku, satisfying
his desire for vengeance and bringing him one step closer to the dark side.
Despite Palpatine making the best of his situation, Dooku being captured was a significant disadvantage
to his plan.
Obi-Wan's death did make Anakin turn to the dark side much quicker, but without control
over the Separatist droid army, the final stage of his plan had to wait.
Palpatine had to win the war fair and square so that when order 66 took place, the droid
army wouldn't hinder the total control of the Empire.
The war went on fairly similarly, although Anakin played even more of a significant role
through Palpatine's influence.
Anakin was made the general a full corp instead of just a legion filled with the best clone
troopers Kamino had to offer.
Anakin and his forces were sent to the front over and over again with Palpatine praising
Anakin's more ruthless tactics, which strayed from the Jedi way.
This was Palpatine's way of keeping Anakin under his control since, with Obi-Wan gone,
Palpatine filled the role of mentor in his life, and Palpatine was able to inflate Anakin's
ego and pull him away from the Jedi order.
By the time of the outer rim sieges, Anakin was a ruthless general who responded exclusively
to Palpatine and won him battle after battle.
It was also at this time that Padme became pregnant, further cementing Anakin's separation
from the Jedi Council.
However, in our story, Anakin would already have a growing hate for the council and Palpatine
wouldn't need to plague him with nightmares of Padme dying in childbirth.
In our story, the Clone Wars would last much longer and continue until the Republic was
nearing the Separatist's completion.
Anakin hunted down and slaughtered each Separatist leader by order of Palpatine, and once he
was complete, Palpatine was free to proceed to the final stage of his plan.
Palpatine subtly revealed to the council that he was the Sith lord that they had been after
all of this time which caused the council to attack Palpatine as he planned.
Palpatine survived, claiming that the Jedi attempted to overthrow the senate, and finally,
all was ready.
With all of his pieces in place, Palpatine uttered those devastating words.
"Execute Order 66."
The Jedi were gunned down by their clones, and Anakin allowed it to happen due to his
manipulation for years at the hands of Palpatine.
However, Anakin wasn't desperate in our story.
Anakin just thought that the Jedi were a corrupt and inefficient force that the galaxy needed
to get rid of.
So, Anakin would stand by Palpatine's side, but he would not ruthlessly slay the younglings
since he had no reason to do so.
In the movie, he was willing to do anything that gave him the power to save his wife,
but in our story, he just thinks that what they are doing is right.
Palpatine understands this, so he maintains the image that what they are doing is right
to keep Anakin on his side.
Instead, Anakin leads the siege of the Jedi Temple, forcing all of the Jedi to surrender.
Any who resisted where gunned down but it didn't take long for the remaining Jedi to
realize that fighting was hopeless, so the Jedi surrendered and were imprisoned.
Palpatine had several Jedi executed under different charges he could pin on them, primarily
focusing on the Jedi who could possibly be a threat.
The younglings remained alive and were put into a foster care system.
Palpatine did find ways to, let's say, "get rid of" as many as he could since he wanted
to limit the amount of Jedi culture carried on.
The whole process of Order 66 was a lot cleaner, and despite the atrocities Palpatine committed,
they were able to be covered up neatly.
After some more political work, Palpatine successfully formed his Empire with Anakin
by his side.
Anakin fully converted to the Sith and Darth Vader was born, in our story though, with
all of his limbs attached and no suit needed.
Without the debilitating duel with Obi-Wan, Darth Vader was a far more powerful Sith.
In our story, the Empire is far more efficient, and rebellion really stands no chance.
The only conflict would stand between the two Sith Lords.
Following order 66, the new Darth Vader beat several planets into submission who remained
loyal to the Separatist movement; he also thwarted some assassination attempts on his
life from the far larger Jedi population of the galaxy than in the original timeline.
As time passed, Darth Vader became more and more powerful and eventually began to reach
the level of power of Palpatine, but he remained loyal.
Padme was also alive and successfully gave birth to Luke and Leia.
I know many of you have probably seen fan art of Ahsoka playing with Luke and Leia with
happy Anakin and Padme watching but in this story, Obi-Wan would not have been there to
push the council to give Anakin an apprentice.
So Ahsoka would have just been one of the Jedi who got captured or killed.
Yes, it's unfortunate, but in this story, Luke and Leia do get to live happily with
both of their parents.
Their upbringing does bring some complications, however.
Luke grows up to be just as powerful as his father and also grows up to be a pretty arrogant
and power-hungry kid.
Without his humble upbringing on Tatooine, Luke grows up as the son of one of the two
most powerful beings in the galaxy.
Not only is he just as innately strong in the force as his father, he also grows up
so close to the ruling power of the entire galaxy.
As he gets older, he begins to befriend Palpatine and Palpatine sees an opportunity.
You see, to keep Vader loyal, Palpatine must keep up the image that they are the good guys,
which limits his plans.
Vader is also getting powerful enough that if he finds out Palpatine's true desires for
the galaxy, he could overthrow him.
Palpatine still needs a powerful enforcer, so with Luke now demonstrating the same potential,
Palpatine begins to manipulate him.
Palpatine feeds his desire for power, teaches him to align with sith values, and grooms
him to be the perfect apprentice.
After years of this manipulation, Luke is more than eager to take his father's role.
At this point, Palpatine blatantly trains Luke to overthrow his father, explaining how
powerful he is.
Palpatine explains that he may not be able to take on Vader on his own, but both of them
combined will be able to defeat him.
After years of training, they are finally ready to make their move.
Palpatine deliberately slips information about massive amounts of slave labour that the Empire
uses on outer-rim worlds.
This enrages Vader as he was once a slave and despises the practice more than anything.
This was the bait to get Vader to attack first.
Vader stormed aboard Palpatine's ship and barged into the Imperial throne room.
He ignited his lightsaber and approached Palpatine but right as he was about to attack Palpatine
to force him to give up power, Luke stepped out.
This shocked Vader, and Palpatine laughed.
However, suddenly Palpatine stops laughing as he realizes Luke is facing him and not
Vader.
Luke explained that Palpatine was no match for Vader alone, let alone both of them together.
Luke had betrayed Palpatine and remained loyal to his father.
Palpatine shot his force lightning at both of the Skywalkers, but they deflected with
their lightsabers.
This started a battle which was brutal but fairly quick.
The Skywalker father and son duo quickly defeated Palpatine and took his throne.
For the remainder of their lives, Vader and Luke ruled the Empire with an iron fist but
strived to make changes for the better.