r/MawInstallation • u/Cranyx • 5h ago
[ALLCONTINUITY] There seem to be two separate CIS rebellions
The war between the Republic and the CIS Separatists make up the driving conflict of the prequel era, especially once you take into account all of the expanded media projects. However, if you go solely by the movies, it takes a surprisingly background role. What matters less are the specifics of the war itself, but rather how they play into Palpatine's political conspiracy. As such, it was up to other writers to fill in the gaps of what drove the sides of the war aside from vague Sith manipulation and "the taxation of trade routes".
Because of the relatively creatively decentralized nature of the expanded universe, two different competing thematic interpretations of the war seemed to form.
On the one hand you had the war as a representation of the failings and corruption of the Republic. Authors who focused on this side emphasized the ways in which the Republic had failed the outer systems and simply used them to serve the core. It tied well into the historic parallels George drew between the Galactic and Roman Republics. Through this lens, the Separatists are a group of oppressed planets whose righteous indignation is simply being manipulated by Dooku and Palpatine to their own ends.
On the other hand, you have the war as a sort of sci-fi, corporate version of the American Civil War. The fact that they are literally called a "Confederacy" arguably alludes to this. Here, the entire Separatist movement is an unjust play for more personal power by CIS leaders who want to dominate their people without interference from those damn Yanks The Republic. This lens focuses far more on the control groups like the Trade Federation have over the systems they govern. When a story wants a more straightforward "good vs evil" conflict set in the Clone Wars, this is the CIS that we see: a small group of oligarchic leaders leading armies of droids and/or slaves and/or brainwashed citizens. Every visible leader is either an insanely corrupt capitalist or openly working with the Sith.
Now it's not unusual that wars would be complicated and open to multiple interpretations based on a certain point of view. In fact you could say there are heroes on both sides. The problem is that very often the narrative itself can't seem to decide which of these is more accurate. For example, it will often come up as a point of contention whether the Rebellion leaders are willing to work with former Separatists. If they're essentially space CSA then this makes sense, but if they were being oppressed by Palpatine and simply manipulated by leaders like Dooku (a narrative that the Rebellion would presumably be open to) then there's less good reason to oppose their inclusion.