I don't think this counts a gerontocracy. The movie is about the calcification of institutions and the political dangers of a crisis, but no individual is ever mentally or physically unable to do their job because of their age. Most of them aren't even that old.
The Jedi Order became the most complacent under his leadership, such that he allowed The Sith to not only grow, but thrive under his watch. And then he played right into their trap, deciding to piss off to a swamp planet after failing once to snuff out the evil he failed to see.
I feel like we owe Lucas an apology for not taking seriously his warning of demagogues provoking and taking advantage of a trade war to acquire more power while the institutions that should keep them in check instead help them only to wage a brief, futile fight once it's far too late.
Ehh, it's only comparable in a vague way. In Star Wars the war is real, just done by traders. More comparable to East India Company shenanigans but if it was done in England. Lucas doesn't seem to really understand how economies work -- bankers in Star Wars create the money and not government
The economic and political talk often make little sense. Can you imagine everyone just being like "whelp, can't do anything, let's just endlessly debate" if the Tesla Military lay seige to Columbus, Ohio? And the government had zero military of any kind? It's really, deeply, bizarre world building
Everyone? No. But I could definitely see Schumer dithering over how strongly worded he should make the letter he was writing instead of doing something.
Hey @schumer.senate.gov you should step aside as minority leader and announce your retirement at the end of this term.
Let a real leaders lead!
@duckworth.senate.gov @aoc.bsky.social
@pressley.house.gov
When you realize that even this privileged person did not have the prenatal care to know that she was carrying twins, you begin to understand why some citizens would vote to Make the Galaxy Healthy Again:
(Having just done a I-XIX marathon: the scene that causes the biggest continuity break between I-III and IV-VI: Leia apparently had a few seconds of full consciousness as a newborn with Mom because she remembers her “real mother was beautiful but sad.” Complaint over: carry on making smart points.)
In addition, IIRC, the ROTS novelization does describe Leia right after she’s born as the only twin with her eyes open and acting like she’s trying to remember everything she’s seeing.
The prequel stuff really makes the Republic into a dystopia. It's like some libertarian fantasy meeting reality, but no one is aware that there could be any other way to do it.
Palpatine really did things the hard way. Apparently, all he had to do was tell everyone to blame their problems on non-humans and tell them it was ok to be selfish, horrible people to be "great". A galactic war seems pretty unnecessary. He'd probably feel pretty foolish to find that out.
I think the war aspect was supposed to symbolize the deteriorating trust in governance by the people. It's really The Jedi Order's fault for not stepping in earlier.
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At least he was trying to prepare for the future by mentoring the younger generation.
He deserved it all.
Hey @schumer.senate.gov you should step aside as minority leader and announce your retirement at the end of this term.
Let a real leaders lead!
@duckworth.senate.gov @aoc.bsky.social
@pressley.house.gov