Prologue
Prologue: A New Era
"The powers of the Empire must be used without even a blink of hesitation in order to ensure the safety and the security of our citizens and sentients. Many lives have been sacrificed in our pursuit of this just cause, and many more will continue to be sacrificed. It is unfortunate, but it is also necessary that our generation bear these terrible burdens so that our children, so that our future generations are spared from the pains and losses of war."
Empress Padme Naberrie Amidala Skywalker, Coronation Address, Year Zero
Perhaps the irony of such a scene was lost only on those who were most closely involved: the politicians. Only years before, the Senator representing Naboo and the Chommell sector had been publicly shamed, persecuted, and forced into exile due to an illicit affair that played out like a sordid holo-drama in front of Coruscant and the entire Galaxy. Less than a decade later, blazing through obstacles with sheer force and military strength, the former Senator and Queen had returned triumphantly to the capital planet. Long established political dynasties of the what were now the remnants of the former Galactic Republic could only watch on the sidelines as the new Empress and her royal Consort, the former Jedi turned General Anakin Skywalker, lead the way in disassembling and reassembling, in some places from scratch, the constitution that had held together the Republic for over ten-thousand years.
Yet, lying beneath the surface but just as responsible for their astonishing and devastating rise to power are one, if not two, master politicians who knew exactly what was required to maneuver themselves into the positions that they were in now. They had forcible control over the government, but rebuilding from the inside out would take more than just a show of force and power. Facing this new administration was the very real and pressing tasks of reorganizing and reallocating the various factions that still scampered for political, monetary, and military power and control. The fate of the Senate still had to be decided, as did the fate of the Jedi, all in the face of the on-going war against the Confederation of Independent Systems.
No historian will deny the fact that these two individuals were able to single-handedly change the fate of an entire Galaxy. Certainly, events shaped by individual and collective forces had moved and collided in the most favorable way for them. The Jedi and others would eventually make their own moves, thus forcing the hand of newly crowned Empress and sealing the fates of all involved, for better or for worse.
But a reappraisal of these two once in a thousand generation individuals reveals two extraordinarily normal, somewhat mundane yet exceedingly epic, but most importantly, two very human beings. Based on new documents and holo's only recently revealed to the public, we also see two expert manipulators who worked tirelessly and meticulously to ensure that only they themselves controlled the serendipital forces working in their favor. But who were the real Skywalkers? The answer can only be revealed by examining every facet of the personal, spiritual, political, and despotical sides of Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker.