Should Palpatine try to turn Padme to his side?

[Slowpokeking]

With Padme alive, it could keep Vader on check as a weapon to go against him.

With Padme on his side, he could also gain more support from the senate and use her to shatter the potential rebel alliance since they were close to her.

[Frontier]

I can't see Palpatine, under any circumstances, being able to get Padme to agree to work with him. She was against practically everything he stood for both morally and politically.

Not to mention that alive she probably held the best chance of returning Anakin the Light Side.

[Jackalope89]

I can't see Palpatine, under any circumstances, being able to get Padme to agree to work with him. She was against practically everything he stood for both morally and politically.

Not to mention that alive she probably held the best chance of returning Anakin the Light Side.

Agreed. Padme is the antithesis to just about everything Palpatine ended up doing. If Anakin hadn't accidentally killed her, Palpatine would have arranged something to kill her anyway. Her mere existence was too much of a threat to his plans for Anakin. So for him, it was a happy "accident" (though he probably foresaw it happening anyway) that Anakin killed Padme.

[Frontier]

Agreed. Padme is the antithesis to just about everything Palpatine ended up doing. If Anakin hadn't accidentally killed her, Palpatine would have arranged something to kill her anyway. Her mere existence was too much of a threat to his plans for Anakin. So for him, it was a happy "accident" (though he probably foresaw it happening anyway) that Anakin killed Padme.

I think there was even some deleted scenes or stuff in the novel related to her helping set up the initial Rebel Alliance.

[ChrisIII]

Palpatine did sort of use Padme as a bit of a pawn in his plans-it was making her start to doubt Valorum and suggesting a vote of no confidence which somewhat started things; although it's clear in the next scene with them that she's starting to have doubts, as she isn't exactly too thrilled at Palpatine's nomination. Also her being in mortal danger in AOTC and ROTS allows him to manipulate Anakin, as he seems certainly aware of her affect on him.


Yeah, there are several deleted scenes in ROTS where Bail, Mon Mothma, Padme and other senators are sitting concerned about Palpatine's plans, including the "governors" (Moffs) who they feel kind of make the senate obsolete (and of course, once he gets the Death Star, that's exactly what he does in ANH). I'm guessing the scenes were partially cut because there were already complaints about too much politics in the movies, and the first half of ROTS between the opening battle and Obi-Wan fighting grievous is already overly talky anyway.