Looking inside the Sauron Project - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
So, he gets Supreme Chancellor Valorum to call up a special session of the Senate and then lays the seeds of doubt in Amidala's mind about whether Valorum can really pull their fat out of the fire. Valorum, it appears, has been mired in (baseless) accusations of corruption. I wonder who could have started those rumors? And right on schedule, just when it seems Valorum will keep the Trade Federation from derailing the special session of the Senate, the evil bureaucrats step in and point out to Valorum that at some point in time someone else had deferred a similar motion in order to set up a committee, and precedent shouldn't be overset, blah, blah, blah.
You could see the anger creeping across Amidala's face as she realized Palpatine had been right all along. Valorum had no way of helping to save her people. With Palpatine standing at her shouldering, reiterating his warning in the queen's ear, there was only one choice for her: move for a vote of no-confidence.
That's a well-told story. Sauron won't have it so easy. He's already the Big Bad Guy. He's on top. The world is his, but for a handful of enclaves which have managed to hold out, and they are about to fall. He has the massive, overwhelming, superior force already in hand. It sounds like Sauron does have it pretty easy. But, in fact, he now has a reputation to live up to. Palpatine, because of the way the Star Wars story is being told, doesn't have to live up to the reputation of the evil emperor who is betrayed by Darth Vader (sorry if I spoiled the ending for any of you). He has to build the reputation that later emperor lives up to.
Is the difference between the two characters obvious? Sauron is there, but he's not there (in the literary story). Palpatine is not there but he is there (in the cinematic story). Palpatine has the advantage of being clever for the audience, of earning the respect of the people whose sympathy will never be granted to him. Sauron has to come on screen like he already commands that respect.
And he has to command it with so little in the way of a track record. He might as well not even be in the book, as far as Peter Jackson is concerned (or anyone who designs games based on The Lord of the Rings). There is no real Sauronic blueprint to follow (or disregard) in the literary story.
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