Part I: Catching Up
Wow, its been a very long time since I've blogged! I've been very busy with things like school and reading. In fact, I have read 9 books since my last blog! I read Clone Wars: Wild Space, Betrayal, Bloodlines, Tempest, Exile, Inferno, Fury, and Revelation. I am currently reading Invincible which, when completed, will my 100th Star Wars book read! And just in time for Outcast! Well enough about that, now on to what this blog is all about.

Part II: Palpatine's One Man Chess Game
I'm sure most of you are familiar with the short videos before most of Pixar's movies. They are short and they are funny. Well, one of their little movies makes me think of what Palpatine was doing during the Clone Wars. Here's the link to that video: Geri's Game

If you haven't seen it before, you have to watch it! This guy is totally Palpy during the war. Going from one side to the other and playing both sides. He will be giving the Republic information on the CIS one minute and then he'll go back to the CIS and give Dooku info on where the Republic will be next. He goes back and forth playing both sides and when something is not going his way, he will give the other side a brief advantage. If the CIS is doing too well, the clone army will somehow gain intel on a weak point in the enemy lines. And if the Republic is doing too well, then Palpy goes and tells Grievous or Dooku about the Republic's advanced plans so that they can set a trap. He just goes from one side to the other pretty much making the war a stalemate until he has the Jedi spread out enough to exterminate them. Then he does what Geri did in the video. He turns the tables around so that the Jedi are off alone in a corner with the entire clone army is there waiting for them. Once he has them where he wants them, the clones go in and take the Jedi out. If that was not using the element of surprise, I don't know what is.

And I wonder how the clones felt about this. They were bred to go all out and fight for the Chancellor and take orders without question. Yet they fought day after day, side by side, with these Jedi for three years and are then told to execute them. And it was not a surprise order either, they knew it was coming eventually.

As the clone trooper in Battlefront II said in the "Journal of the 501st" "Without her [Aayla Secura's] iron will, none of us would have made it out of that mess with our sanity... or our lives." So they all knew that the Jedi had saved them multiple times in the war. And they still knew that one day the order would be called to execute them. That same trooper later says "It was a good thing we were wearing helmets, because none of us could bear to look her in the eye." They all knew what was coming, and yes, some of them dreaded it. While some dreaded it, others just saw it as another order to be carried out. They thought nothing of it, which shows once again how different these clones can be.

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Just thought I'd throw that little ad in there. Hopefully I will be blogging a lot more often! I'm sure my next blog will cover the completion of the Quest to 100 and the release of Outcast, spoiler-free of course. I will be renewing my Hyperspace subscription soon too! That's right, I've been with Hyperspace for almost a year now. It doesn't feel like it has been that long though. Oh, and be sure to tune in for the season finale of The Clone Wars! Hostage Crisis airs @ 9pm this Friday!

Well, until next time...

May the Force be with you all!