Star Wars Griefing Thread (SPOILERS) - Safety off

[Space Police]

I uphold the B1s are too ineffectual in their first entry to make them ever come off as a threat, and paired with the Nemoidians over the topness, it botches the tone and leans too hard in them being goofy.

Oh dear, an expansive fantasy world with thrembillion alien races can't ever have weird enemies and must correspond exactly with we'd consider to be threatening enemies.

 

[Adamska]

Oh dear, an expansive fantasy world with thrembillion alien races can't ever have weird enemies and must correspond exactly with we'd consider to be threatening enemies.

Oh dear, someone unable to understand what works in other media and in lore doesn't necessarily work in a movie and in its tone. I've said more than once that the Prequels were saved by and made better due to the works outside of the film itself, and I stick by that.

 

[BullfrogBill]

It's called first impressions, and guess what the stormtroopers did that sold their first impression despite the pratfalls George had them do from time to time? Be really good at wiping out the Tantive IV's guards efficiently. And then later on turning Luke's uncle and aunt into a burned set of skeletons.

This is actually a very good point. The Battle Droids might have been more threatening if they made the Naboo invasion sequence the first the audience sees of them and maybe amp up how brutal the droids were to the citizens, show them shooting people for not complying and things like that. Would have been a very good opening to Phantom Menace that would "rhyme" with ANH's opening a little bit where the Tantive IV is being invaded by stormtroopers, we all know how much George loved making these movies "rhyme" so I'm surprised George didn't do something like this.

 

[Fatsuit Shinji]

In universe it would've been very counter productive to the Trade Federation's goals if they had openly brutalized the Naboo citizens and state leaders. Brutalizing the Naboo defense forces, law enforcement, traffic controllers and etc. while they're making landfall on the other hand would've been acceptable. Which is where Lucas messed up by not having the Naboo govt put up any real resistance during the landings and afterwards.

 

[Screamer_2]

Yeah, the idea of Battle Droids introductions being like the future scenes in Terminator would be cool but it doesn't fit the story. It would still have been cool at some point to have seen they could be brutal and bad ass. That's actually the kind of fan service shit they should be chucking into TV shows. Why not have a completely bad ass Battle Droid bounty hunter that the stuntman who plays Mando has to go up against?

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

Oh dear, someone unable to understand what works in other media and in lore doesn't necessarily work in a movie and in its tone. I've said more than once that the Prequels were saved by and made better due to the works outside of the film itself, and I stick by that.

The Prequels had mostly mixed-to-positive reviews when they first came out. The hatedom came from Gen X-ers who didn't like them and whined about the movies years after they came out. And these haters openly ignored everything outside of the films, so no, the works outside of the Prequels didn't "save" the Prequels from the hate. Only Filoni fans believe such things. If anything, most of the outside materials didn't save the Prequels from being hated, unless you're talking to weird Gen X and Boomer fans who hate the PT but love TCW.

You can justify the B1s being a trash mob all you want, but that's one of the worst ways humanly possible to sell the threat of anything if the first thing you see out of the lot is them being taken apart and treated as mostly jokes. Sure, they got the droideka, but there's this thing.

It's called first impressions, and guess what the stormtroopers did that sold their first impression despite the pratfalls George had them do from time to time? Be really good at wiping out the Tantive IV's guards efficiently. And then later on turning Luke's uncle and aunt into a burned set of skeletons.

Sometimes a film decision is shit, and it's going to be shit no matter the justification. Stylistic suck is still suck, and in fact it's more obnoxious suck, since you knew you made something shit and are trying to get off for it. I uphold the B1s are too ineffectual in their first entry to make them ever come off as a threat, and paired with the Nemoidians over the topness, it botches the tone and leans too hard in them being goofy. Sure you got Maul and Sidious especially early on via holonet, but that's a thing you have to factor in.

You really don't understand the B1s at all.

The idea behind them is that, yes, individually, they're weak and you can roll over them. But they usually aren't alone; the threat they pose is that it's easy to put a million of them together and send them marching your way, guns blazing. While the Stormtrooper was an elite soldier that operates in squads of a couple dozen, battle droids operate in large army groups of thousands or millions, endlessly firing at the enemy and stepping over their own dead with a cold, unfeeling march that doesn't stop until the enemy is gone.

Again, this is you being mad that something from someone else's film series isn't doing what you want. Which is the height of being infantile. The B1s design is something that, unlike the Sequels where they magically pulled an Empire 2.0 out of their asses without much explanation, actually makes sense. Especially when you're not fighting space fascists who believe in the concept of a superman, but corporate types and bean counters; they don't care about how intimidating something looks, or how effective a single soldier is. They see everything in terms of numbers, profits, cost-cutting, and efficiency. The battle droids would be EXACTLY the kind of army those types would make; they can outnumber the enemy easily, outgun them rather easily, their soldiers don't question orders, and all the broken droid parts can be repaired and put back together, unlike living soldiers who cannot be revived once killed in action.

Sure, the corpos can go over to some race of alien mercenaries good at killing and pay them to kill shit Byzantine-style, but that's expensive, not to mention risky, since those mercs can betray their employers for any reason, from ethical concerns to "the other side pays better." Like when the Turkish mercenaries of Byzantium betrayed the empire at Manzikert when the Byzantines sent them against their fellow Turkmen. But what isn't expensive is making skeletal battle droids by the shitzillions, giving them guns, and tossing them at the enemy en masse. And you won't have to worry about the enemy bribing your troops because your troops are robots who will always follow orders.

Guns are cheap, droids are cheap, programming is cheap, so you combine the three to create an army far larger than any the galaxy had ever seen, and with the droids mass-firing at the enemy, it's not a question of will you win against the enemy, but when. The droids defeated the Gungan army in TPM, they were winning against the Jedi in AOTC until the Clones showed up with gunships, walkers, and heavy artillery, and in ROTS, Darth Vader literally had to turn the off switch for the droids to power down and for the CIS to lose. Otherwise, they could've fought on for years and perhaps even won against the Empire due to how large and endless the droids were.

Just imagine an alternate timeline where the Sep leaders didn't take Palpatine for his word and packed up to leave Mustafar after Grievous died. Vader goes to Mustafar, finds nothing, and returns home. Now imagine that the Sep leaders secluded themselves in some unknown world where they're far from Palpatine's grasp. Then they gave the order to the Droid Army to keep on fighting until the end. More than likely, the Clone Wars would've lasted for decades more with a brutal stalemate, or perhaps even a victory after a brutal war of attrition where the Empire is annihilated by the droids' sheer numbers and firepower.

And it also makes sense why the Empire doesn't pull the same shit; most of their people fucking hate robots, the clones who became the first Stormtroopers have PTSD fighting robots, (see: the 501st Journal entries on Mustafar) and the Empire is mostly made up of Republic loyalists who have nightmares about the Separatist droid army. Not only that, but after years of droids and vat-grown clones fighting, the Empire needed to build the people's trust on its regime, so hiring locals to fight for them makes perfect sense, to differentiate themselves from the hated CIS that was run by corpos sending droids to tear shit up left and right, and to get the people of the galaxy to relate to them better by having their relatives and friends fill the Imperial ranks.

The fact that the Empire uses Stormtroopers and the Trade Federation uses Battle Droids goes to show the disconnect between the two as factions and cultures; the Empire is run by people who believe in things like Human High Culture and the ideals of the Sith, which points towards a culture of superiority through training and martial strength. The Trade Federation is run by bean-counters and corporate stooges who don't give a flying fuck about training or martial superiority, but they see everything in terms of numbers and efficiency. Expecting them to both have the same design philosophies when creating their bread-and-butter soldiers makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

Not to mention that, at the end of the day, the true threat isn't the droids or Darth Maul. It's Palpatine, who got exactly everything he wanted at the end of TPM. Hence the title "The Phantom Menace". He was the phantom menace that flew under everyone's radar. The droids were an artificial threat that he cooked up to gain more power. So the droids being a minor threat to the Jedi goes to show that they're not the real problem, Palpatine was.

 

[Fatsuit Shinji]

For the Naboo invasion and occupation, you'll need a very good reason as to why Palps or the Trade Federation would go through the trouble. Moreso having any "bad ass" droid bounty hunter is going to draw attention to whoever hired them. As already seen with Jango Fett in AotC drawing the Obi-Wan's and the Jedi's attention to him.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

For the Naboo invasion and occupation, you'll need a very good reason as to why Palps or the Trade Federation would go through the trouble. Moreso having any "bad ass" droid bounty hunter is going to draw attention to whoever hired them. As already seen with Jango Fett in AotC drawing the Obi-Wan's and the Jedi's attention to him.

The movie already explained it rather well. The Trade Federation's trade routes were being taxed; their very lifeline and main source of income. So they blockaded Naboo as a form of protest, then invaded it when Palpatine guaranteed them the Senate won't do anything. He upheld his side of the bargain; the Senate did fucking nothing. It was Gunray's idiocy, Maul losing the Jedi duel, and Anakin's miraculous destruction of the Trade Federation flagship that led to their losses. If Padme didn't return to Naboo, or if Anakin didn't go off into space with the other Naboo starfighters, it's more than likely that the Trade Federation would've won, and the Republic government would've either recognized their seizure of Naboo as legal or made a compromise with them to make them leave.

 

[Adamska]

The idea behind them is that, yes, individually, they're weak and you can roll over them. But they usually aren't alone; the threat they pose is that it's easy to put a million of them together and send them marching your way, guns blazing. While the Stormtrooper was an elite soldier that operates in squads of a couple dozen, battle droids operate in large army groups of thousands or millions, endlessly firing at the enemy and stepping over their own dead with a cold, unfeeling march that doesn't stop until the enemy is gone.

No I get it completely despite your attempts to claim I don't since you have a bad habit of overdefending the IP. I specifically mentioned Sidious as a threat example since he nailed the role fine, but I also explained why the way it was handled for the film didn't work and gave a bad first impression.

Yes, the Trade Federation is not the true villain, Maul and Sidious are. Sure, the B1s are disposable trash, but the first film doesn't do that great of a job showing the sheer numbers, and you still need to make the threat feel genuine, which the opening stuff does not do.

I actually looked at and went through Qui Gon and Obi Wan's fight through the ship when I was talking about this, and they don't come off as pressed by numbers at really any point. Yes, they are outnumbered, but they quickly tear through each block of units with no effort. They are more than able to sweep apart and break their numbers, they are not pressured by their blasters, and they barely break a sweat in the ship. It was the Droideka to force them back at all, which only establishes that the latter are a true threat, but also makes the film viewer ask why they weren't on hand earlier. Yes, there's OUT OF FILM reasons that you can surmise, but that's the initial reaction. This is how the film actually shows this relation.

That is a failure to display the threat described of quantity being a quality of its own. Yes, the third act actually does this correctly with the Battle on Naboo, but that's way too late in the film.

If Lucas instead had Qui Gon and Obi Wan have to exploit narrow corridors, or you see them struggle a bit with the sheer number of blaster fire or you see the swarm of droids track them in the opener? Yes. That would have worked; it would've done everything needed to show the threat, especially if you show Naboo's security guard actually get suppressed by the sheer numbers on camera rather than off screen.

It's one of many examples of the Phantom Menace needing someone to suggest and tweak some of George's stuff. Again, it's something I feel needed one more run through drafting to do it well, hence why the novelizations of the films did it better.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

No I get it completely despite your attempts to claim I don't since you have a bad habit of overdefending the IP. I specifically mentioned Sidious as a threat example since he nailed the role fine, but I also explained why the way it was handled for the film didn't work and gave a bad first impression.

No it didn't. The B1s characterized the threat level of the Trade Federation just fine; that they're corporate cowards, who unlike the Imperials that would fall on their own sword to clean up their own mess, would rather hide behind Droidekas until the problem goes away. It makes sense that their common grunts are cheap cannon fodder made in Space China instead of the Ubermensch ideal that the Empire and the Sith stole from the Nazis. Because you're not dealing with Space Nazis, but bean counters who hadn't fought a day in their life, who hide behind technology and numbers to do their work.

Yes, the Trade Federation is not the true villain, Maul and Sidious are. Sure, the B1s are disposable trash, but the first film doesn't do that great of a job showing the sheer numbers, and you still need to make the threat feel genuine, which the opening stuff does not do.

No, they did. The droid army pounds the shit out of the Gungans. Even when the Jedi rescue the queen, the plan they have was to leave, because they can't just stay and fight; they'll be outnumbered and killed eventually. The Queen only comes back when Jar-Jar tells her of a large army of Gungans-a large army that the droids pounded into oblivion and would've executed them all had Anakin not blown up that flagship.

Literally, they were all saved by a Skywalker flying a ship. If he wasn't flying, the droids would've overwhelmed the good guys and it would've been a clean win for the Trade Federation.

Also, Maul is not a true villain. He's just another pawn. He's a pawn with a lightsaber, but a pawn, nonetheless. Hence why Sidious wasn't so broken up over losing him.

Tell me, have the Stormtroopers defeated foes who have personal energy shields that can deflect blaster bolts? Who carry their own portable shield generators that could protect their army from artillery fire? No, they didn't. But the droids did, which establishes that yes, they are a threat.

I actually looked at and went through Qui Gon and Obi Wan's fight through the ship when I was talking about this, and they don't come off as pressed by numbers at really any point. Yes, they are outnumbered, but they quickly tear through each block of units with no effort. They are more than able to sweep apart and break their numbers, they are not pressured by their blasters, and they barely break a sweat in the ship. It was the Droideka to force them back at all, which only establishes that the latter are a true threat, but also makes the film viewer ask why they weren't on hand earlier. Yes, there's OUT OF FILM reasons that you can surmise, but that's the initial reaction. This is how the film actually shows this relation.

That's because the Jedi only fight a few droids at a time, whereas the large massed army of droids fights the Gungans. Especially when A) the first time they fought the droids was on the ship, where the narrow corridors served in the Jedi's advantage, B) when they rescued the Queen who only had a token guard since she surrendered without a fight, and C) the Palace at the end, where they CLEARLY STATED that most of the droid army left to confront the Gungans, and Gunray was even surprised when the Jedi and the Naboo knocked on his door, saying that "I thought the battle was going to take place far from here. This is too close."

Meanwhile, on the grassy fields of Naboo, the droid army rocks up in large formations, and they manage to defeat an army where every man had a personal energy shield and EMP projectiles. The Gungans were kitted out in a way that would've made each one of them stand more of a fighting chance than the average Naboo guard or Stormtrooper since they all had personal arm-shields, allowing them to deflect blaster shots like a Jedi, and the droids knocked the stuffing out of them anyways.

Then in AOTC, we had the droids and the Jedi squaring off in the Geonosis Coliseum, and the droids were winning. If it wasn't for the surprise attack of the Clone Army, Dooku would've sent the Jedi back home to Coruscant in body bags.

That is a failure to display the threat described of quantity being a quality of its own. Yes, the third act actually does this correctly with the Battle on Naboo, but that's way too late in the film.

No it isn't. Again, they clearly established that the droid army wasn't something you can just stand up and fight against. Kill a couple here and there, fine, they did the same thing on the Death Star with the Stormtroopers. But facing against the entire army on your own would've been suicide. And even though the Gungans were well-equipped to handle droids, they would've been annihilated if the battle went on for longer.

If Lucas instead had Qui Gon and Obi Wan have to exploit narrow corridors, or you see them struggle a bit with the sheer number of blaster fire or you see the swarm of droids track them in the opener? Yes. That would have worked; it would've done everything needed to show the threat, especially if you show Naboo's security guard actually get suppressed by the sheer numbers on camera rather than off screen.

The Jedi are far too powerful to be threatened by a couple squads of droids. The same thing would've happened if you took all the droids and replaced them with Stormtroopers. Any idiot who's played Jedi Outcast would know that the most elite Stormtrooper poses as much threat to a Jedi as a B1 Battle Droid, hence why three years of the Clone Wars were needed so that the Jedi would be exhausted and would be conditioned to trust the very same clones who would one day kill them. Otherwise, if they just sent in the clones against the Jedi from the start, as in make them part of the forces that attack the Jedi head-on, the Jedi would've probably crushed them like bugs. Kind of like what happened when Yoda and Obi-Wan went to the Jedi Temple after Order 66 and slaughtered clones like they were B1 Battle Droids.

Hell, take the badass Stormtroopers of ANH, and put them up against a fully-trained Jedi. They will all be dead before you can say "Roger! Roger!"

It's one of many examples of the Phantom Menace needing someone to suggest and tweak some of George's stuff. Again, it's something I feel needed one more run through drafting to do it well, hence why the novelizations of the films did it better.

George tried to get people to work with him on it. Nobody answered; everyone he went to told him that he can do the job best himself. And given that the movie was a hit at the time, the fans loved it and the critics back in 1999 had received it positively, Lucas was right to stick to his guns. A few minor tweaks here and there could've improved a few things, but you could've said the same thing about the Original Trilogy SW or any other movie.

Prequel-haters always get their facts wrong.

"Lucas was arrogant and didn't want anyone to butt in with his vision!" Dude literally tried to get other directors to help tweak his vision, and they not only said no, but they told him to his face that he was the man for the job.

"The Prequels used too much CGI!" Each Prequel film used more practical effects than the entirety of the OT put together.

"The Prequels were hated by the fans!" They were hated by loudmouth whiners who were far from the majority. Basically, the SJWs of their time, where it seems like they're the majority from a distance, but when push comes to shove, they're a tiny portion of the actual fandom.

This is what happens when you listen more to internet critics and their memes rather than your own senses. RLM is very iconic and memetic when it comes to their criticisms, but anyone with more than two brain cells to rub would see the holes in their criticisms rather easily. And the fact that those fuckers can't make a good film to save their lives goes to show that they don't know a damn thing about what makes a good movie.

 

[GlupShitto]

You can justify the B1s being a trash mob all you want, but that's one of the worst ways humanly possible to sell the threat of anything if the first thing you see out of the lot is them being taken apart and treated as mostly jokes. Sure, they got the droideka, but there's this thing.

It's called first impressions, and guess what the stormtroopers did that sold their first impression despite the pratfalls George had them do from time to time? Be really good at wiping out the Tantive IV's guards efficiently. And then later on turning Luke's uncle and aunt into a burned set of skeletons.

Sometimes a film decision is shit, and it's going to be shit no matter the justification. Stylistic suck is still suck, and in fact it's more obnoxious suck, since you knew you made something shit and are trying to get off for it. I uphold the B1s are too ineffectual in their first entry to make them ever come off as a threat, and paired with the Nemoidians over the topness, it botches the tone and leans too hard in them being goofy. Sure you got Maul and Sidious especially early on via holonet, but that's a thing you have to factor in.

I don't think Lucas ever intended for them to come off as a threat as far as the audience was concerned, same with the Nemoidian and Grievous. The only real threat was the Sith (and ig the clone army). Everything else was a distraction in Sheev's puppet war.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

I don't think Lucas ever intended for them to come off as a threat as far as the audience was concerned, same with the Nemoidian and Grievous. The only real threat was the Sith (and ig the clone army). Everything else was a distraction in Sheev's puppet war.

My point exactly. They were a distraction.

 

[BullfrogBill]

I don't think Lucas ever intended for them to come off as a threat as far as the audience was concerned, same with the Nemoidian and Grievous.

Lucas didn't intend for the Battle Droids to come off as a threat necessarily which I'm fine with, he's quoted as saying "Jedi cut through them like butter" when explaining them to Steven Spielberg when he visited the set of TPM. That's fine and all, but it bugs me to no end how Lucas handled Grievous in RotS. The Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars and comic book appearances of Grievous before the movie came out made Grievous a MASSIVE threat, jedi were shitting their pants at the thought of running into Grievous and for good reason, he was annihilating jedi left and right all day. Grievous even killed Adi Galia in the comics which is a big deal because she wasn't a minor side character in the books and comics, she was a main player, and he nearly killed Ki Adi Mundi, Shaak Ti, and Aalya Secura, all three of them also heavy hitters. Watch Grievous' first appearance here and tell me this guy isn't a threat.

"Jedi, you are surrounded, your armies decimated. Make peace with the force now for this is your final hour. But know that I, General Grievous, am not completely without mercy. I will grant you a warrior's death. Prepare."

So fucking badass. It's safe to say that any kid watching this on tv when it first aired had their jaws dropped. How do you go from this to the comic relief that Grievous was in RotS? George made him a complete fucking joke, same with Filoni's gay little show too. Were they fucking high? Did they think Grievous was just too badass, gotta make him Jar Jar 2.0. Can you recall Grievous ever acting even a little bit as menacing and threatening like in Tartakovsky's Clone Wars and the other Dark Horse comics at all in RotS or Filoni's Clone Wars? No not even close. I love George (no homo) but he can be a massive retard sometimes, and Dave Filoni is a gay faggot. Genndy Tartakovsky rules.

 

[Manly_Brony]

I am not against a Droid Army. A Neimoidian warrior caste army (which I would've welcomed) or just mercs from all corners of the galaxy would've been the more mundane and boring choice. I'm against one that is mostly made up of expensive cannon fodder. Expensive because I never thought that droids were cheap when I was watching the movies. They're highly skilled slaves that will outlive their buyer and serve their family for generations and that sounds expensive as fuck to me. You can argue that a simple moisture farmer like Owen Lars could afford two but he was buying them from literal space Gypsies hawking stolen and scavenged goods and I'm 99% sure Luke's uncle knew it.

The Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars

My opinion is that this highly praised cartoon series is one of the reasons why the PT fans regard the Droid Army as a legitimate threat.

 

[BullfrogBill]

My opinion is that this highly praised cartoon series is one of the reasons why the PT fans regard the Droid Army as a legitimate threat.

Not sure why you would think that since the droids are pretty cartoonish in that series and the main threats are Durge, Asajj Ventress, and Grievous. The only droids that were close to a threat in Tartakovsky's CW was the assassin droids on the swoop bikes (lead by Durge), everything else got blown away by clones and the jedi cut them through them like butter. The scene I shared with Grievous in my previous post has Shaak Ti say "Never have we been out-maneuvered by droids, his (Grievous) strategy is without flaw". The only reason the super battle droids were a threat there is due to their sheer numbers and Grievous being a master tactician. If it weren't for Grievous those jedi would have evaded the droids easily and taken out a bunch of them on the way out. The droids are only ever a threat when they massively outnumber the jedi and and are being controlled by someone competent. Fortunately for the jedi, Grievous would end up losing IQ points from lack of oxygen after his lungs were crushed by Mace Windu.

Fun fact: The book Labyrinth of Evil adapts the ending of the Tartakovsky Clone Wars and it never mentions Grievous getting his lungs crushed by Mace Windu, and the Revenge of the Sith novel taking place immediately after never mentions it either and never acknowledges Grievous having a cough at all. Another point in favor of the books to add to the ever-growing stack.

 

[GlupShitto]

I think Grievous being depicted as a badass in EU materials was the result of miscommunication between George and those working on said EU materials rather than a case of George butchering the character. Just like with Boba Fett, fans and licensed writers built up the character's mythology despite George intending for him to be a pathetic jobber who exists to give our heroes a heroic moment or two.

 

[BullfrogBill]

I think Grievous being depicted as a badass in EU materials was the result of miscommunication between George and those working on said EU materials rather than a case of George butchering the character. Just like with Boba Fett, fans and licensed writers built up the character's mythology despite George intending for him to be a pathetic jobber who exists to give our heroes a heroic moment or two.

Well George didn't intend for Boba Fett to be pathetic at all, he has stated that he wanted Boba Fett to have a menacing aura and be a big presence when he's on screen. But you're right that George never had any intentions for the character beyond the role he played in the two movies. He said if he knew Boba Fett was going to be such fan favorite character he would've given him a more proper defeat in RotJ.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

So fucking badass. It's safe to say that any kid watching this on tv when it first aired had their jaws dropped. How do you go from this to the comic relief that Grievous was in RotS? George made him a complete fucking joke, same with Filoni's gay little show too. Were they fucking high? Did they think Grievous was just too badass, gotta make him Jar Jar 2.0. Can you recall Grievous ever acting even a little bit as menacing and threatening like in Tartakovsky's Clone Wars and the other Dark Horse comics at all in RotS or Filoni's Clone Wars? No not even close. I love George (no homo) but he can be a massive retard sometimes, and Dave Filoni is a gay faggot. Genndy Tartakovsky rules.

That's because the cartoon from the 2003 era had Mace crush Grievous' chest at the end. So no, he is not going to be as threatening in ROTS because he's been essentially crippled. And he still gave Kenobi the fight of his life; even after losing his lightsabers he still gives Kenobi trouble. if it hadn't been for that gun lying around, Kenobi would be dead, and Kenobi fucking hates guns. The man literally had to break his code just to kill Grievous. That doesn't seem like comic relief at all. They even shot a scene where Grievous kills Shaak Ti for kicks, before they pulled it and had her die in the SWEU instead. That is not Jar-Jar 2.0. It's just that instead of making him Kratos with lightsabers, they opted for the T-800 in Space, which worked just as well for a crippled Grievous suffering from immense chest pains.

 

[Overpriced Gaming Chair]

I only read the text walls above partially, but to be a devil's advocate on the "senate did fucking nothing" -part:

Unlike we the audience, the senators haven't seen the invasion and all the Sith fuckery. For all they know, Naboo could've legitimately tried to screw over the Trade Federation and is now essentially a crybully running to the teacher.

Tangent: a deleted scene shows the senator of Alderaan supporting the vote of no confidence, indirectly sowing the seeds of his own planet's destruction.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

I only read the text walls above partially, but to be a devil's advocate on the "senate did fucking nothing" -part:

Unlike we the audience, the senators haven't seen the invasion and all the Sith fuckery. For all they know, Naboo could've legitimately tried to screw over the Trade Federation and is now essentially a crybully running to the teacher.

Tangent: a deleted scene shows the senator of Alderaan supporting the vote of no confidence, indirectly sowing the seeds of his own planet's destruction.

The problem is, the Senate could've easily sent their own investigation teams to the planet. Hell, their original ambassadors were the Jedi, who were attacked by the Trade Federation.

But of course, the Jedi mostly detach themselves from the politics of the Senate, which explains why the Senate might not take their word for it.

As for the Alderaan senator, he probably saw the need for reform, but as Panaka noted, he was one of the candidates running for Chancellor, so he thought he could change the Republic as leader.