StarDestroyer.Net BBS

So, I don't know if the title is a spoiler itself...I hope it isn't, because it's cool. Anyway, in Vympel's review of the ROTS game here, he mentions an 'alternate' ending if you beat the game as Anakin/Darth. Basically, Obi-Wan is killed, Palpatine arrives to present Anakin with a red lightsaber....and Anakin immediately kills him and declares himself emperor.

So, I've been thinking about this for a while. How would the original trilogy have changed if un-borged Anakin were calling the shots instead of Palpatine? Would things have been better or worse off? Could he have held it together?

Personally, I could go either way. On the one hand, he hasn't shown stellar leadership qualities to date in the PT, and wouldn't have the benefit of the decades of planning that Palpatine had on his side. On the other, he never fully embraced the Dark Side, and as Vader showed at least enough talent to keep the officers from causing problems (in the 'if you so much as think of crossing me I'll crush you into a little ball of agony' way).

The problem I see is that Anakin isn't an accomplished manipulator and politician as Palpatine was. If Anakin wanted to maintain a tight grip on his Empire like Palpatine did he'd probably have to do it a lot more personally and brutally himself.

On the flip side, Anakin's empire may not have been as brutal as Palpatine's and more than likely not as xenophobic.

I guess it depends on what dark path Anakin decides to take on his own. It's interesting that from ROTS where it's his fear of loss that sends him to the darkside that he becomes the brutal enforcer in the OT.

I would say more then anything it's the Loss of his Humanity ((being Borgafied)) and the loss of Padme that Really push Anakin into the Depths of the Darkside. Without that happening, being victorius against Obi won, would have had him turn it far more different in terms of nastyness.

Anakin couldn't have an Empire. Palpatine was the Supreme Chancelor and worked his way up the food chain to actually have political power. His jump to Emperor was possible since he was already the de facto leader of the Republic.

Anakin was just a soldier with no political power. If he killed the Emperor, he'd have had to start from scratch to build a political base.

It's possible that by ANH he might have consolidated enough political power to nominally call himself Galactic Emperor but it's just as likely that he'd have a splinter goverment/empire.