One of the interesting things about canon is the slow exploration of the Empire's growing cruelty, though, we mostly see it from people who knew the Empire was horrible from the start, rather than people who initially celebrated it. But there's definitely been a lot done to show that the Empire was cruel and evil, we do get stories like Zare Leonis' in the Servants of the Empire books where he realizes just how bad it is and I think we see a lot of it in Rebels, where all these worlds were excited about how the Empire first came, there was so much promised to them, but years later they're poorer and more oppressed than ever.
But I would love to see more of it on Coruscant! We know they celebrated when he died, but what was the atmosphere like in the handful of years leading up to that? Most of the stories I can think of that deal with the time of his death (like Battlefront II's storyline) are from the POV of characters who wouldn't really give us an idea of that.
And that makes me wonder what if the Jedi had suceeded in arresting or killing Palpatine, what the public backlash would have been against them.
This is a great question! I think they would have gotten a tremendous amount of backlash. Dave Filoni has briefly talked about it a little, how Mace knew that he would be arrested for it, that even though he was doing the right thing, he would have probably gone to jail for it, and I think Mace and the others knew that, walking into Palpatine's office, that there was a good chance it wouldn't end well for them politically, but that it was still necessary and they were willing to sacrifice it, because leaving a Sith Lord in charge would have been worse.
For the Jedi as a whole, I think it would have been a huge hit to their credibility, because they were already being blamed for the war, they may well have taken a huge downgrade in the scope of their granted authority, but that there at least would have been a chance to heal, especially as evidence about Palpatine's true activities would come out. Without him there to protect them or stir the pot for them, it'd be a lot easier for Mon and Bail and Padme to actually get good legislature through, to investigate into Palpatine's connections to the Separatists, etc.
It would have been a shitshow, but a shitshow with a chance for better. And, honestly, I'm not sure the Jedi would mind so much. They were thoroughly SICK of war and fighting, even if they really wanted to help people, I think they all believed they were whiteknuckling their way through the war, and being forced to take a step back would be a relief, in some ways. They could finally, FINALLY focus on healing and ridding themselves of the constant dark side attacks on their psyches and take time to just be again.
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But I would love to see more of it on Coruscant! We know they celebrated when he died, but what was the atmosphere like in the handful of years leading up to that? Most of the stories I can think of that deal with the time of his death (like Battlefront II's storyline) are from the POV of characters who wouldn't really give us an idea of that.
And that makes me wonder what if the Jedi had suceeded in arresting or killing Palpatine, what the public backlash would have been against them.
This is a great question! I think they would have gotten a tremendous amount of backlash. Dave Filoni has briefly talked about it a little, how Mace knew that he would be arrested for it, that even though he was doing the right thing, he would have probably gone to jail for it, and I think Mace and the others knew that, walking into Palpatine's office, that there was a good chance it wouldn't end well for them politically, but that it was still necessary and they were willing to sacrifice it, because leaving a Sith Lord in charge would have been worse.
For the Jedi as a whole, I think it would have been a huge hit to their credibility, because they were already being blamed for the war, they may well have taken a huge downgrade in the scope of their granted authority, but that there at least would have been a chance to heal, especially as evidence about Palpatine's true activities would come out. Without him there to protect them or stir the pot for them, it'd be a lot easier for Mon and Bail and Padme to actually get good legislature through, to investigate into Palpatine's connections to the Separatists, etc.
It would have been a shitshow, but a shitshow with a chance for better. And, honestly, I'm not sure the Jedi would mind so much. They were thoroughly SICK of war and fighting, even if they really wanted to help people, I think they all believed they were whiteknuckling their way through the war, and being forced to take a step back would be a relief, in some ways. They could finally, FINALLY focus on healing and ridding themselves of the constant dark side attacks on their psyches and take time to just be again.