- We learn that darkside telekenesis is superior to lightside. Yoda has to focus and rotate a single senate pod, while Palpatine has no trouble throwing three at once IIRC.
- With Mace and Palpatine fighting, we get an explaination why ANH between Vader and Obi-Wan doesn't have all the backflips and acrobatics. Although Yoda looks cool doing all those backflips, he loses. Mace won. So Obi-Wan and Vader aren't necessarily less powerful in ANH, but probably adopted a more conservative fighting style. Yoda fighting style seems to be a weakness anyway -- Yoda is short and needs to do those backflips to get reach.
- "Order 66" seemed to me a stupid way to kill all the Jedi at first. Why wasn't there more preparation? For example, they could have had override codes on speeder bikes to self-destruct them, or explosives planted in the tree Yoda was at. Even a nitwit could have planned the culling better than it looked on screen. Until I realized that the Jedi precog meant early preparations to kill the Jedi risked discovery. "Order 66" was all the preparation that was needed, and even with this Mace could sense "a plot to destroy the Jedi". Any more preparation than a seemingly benign order to execute traitors could have set off Jedi sixth senses from Coruscant to the Outer Rim.
- Only Yoda did what he was supposed to do -- lead rather than fight. The other Jedi Masters that we saw on screen, rather than sit back and let the clonetroopers do the dirty work, tried to play hero. They paid for it with their lives. Sure, a Jedi is powerful and could deflect a lot of blaster shots fighting in the front. However, Jedi as we see are very mortal. The result is that Yoda was in a tree overlooking the battle, while the other "Masters" were in the front surrounded by clonetroopers.
- "Killed not by clones, but by lightsaber". It looks like the Jedi had started teaching the rudimentary idea of a "blaster deflection squad" to the younglings. Since Yoda is responsible for teaching, it is probable that he taught the younglings to stay and fight together. The kids were keeping together and fighting their way through the temple to escape probably. If Vader hadn't showed up, a few might had escaped. So the lessons of Geneosis were being taught at least to the new generation of Jedi.
- A few months ago, I suggested that certain force feats required a somatic component, or "moving the hand". Several prominent board members reacted negatively against this. The two points brought out was that "Jedi could have been showing off" and "Vader choked Ozzel". However with ROTS, it is hard to argue that Jedi are merely showing off when they move their hand to use telekenesis. Was Yoda showing off when he was moving his hands, in a fight with Palpatine to the death? Were Vader and Obi-Wan showing off? Besides, Vader only appeared not to move his hand when choking Ozzel. For all we know, his fingers were moving.
- Bali and Padme were in the Galactic Senate chamber when Palpatine announced the creation of the Empire. They were less than enthusiastic. So the idea that Palpatine used some form of "mind control" doesn't make sense. Why not mind control your most formidable opponent (since Bali was mentioned as being runner up to Chancellor?) So when Dooku said "Sidious is influencing hundreds of Senators" in ATOC, it doesn't necessarily mean he was using the force. Similarly when Windu says "he has control of the Senate and the Courts", it doesn't have to mean that Palpatine is using the force either. Besides, we know that mind trick affects "weak minds" only, at least the lightside version of it.
Brian