"Always two there are... Master and Apprentice..."

With only 54 days until the release of Episode III, I want to go on record with this: Darth Sidious, the mysterious robed figure from the Prequel Trilogy, is not Chancellor Palpatine.

If I'm wrong about this, I'm going to delete this post in 55 days, but I'm pretty sure I know what Lucas is up to with this guy.

Check it out: Clones, right? Apart from a few references to the legendary Clone Wars, they didn't play a huge part in the Original Trilogy. But the Prequel Trilogy is all about the Clones. And I'm not just talking about the Clone Army in Episodes II and III -- check out Episode I again and look closely at Amidala's handmaidens: They're all played by Natalie Portman. In Episode II, Lucas would have us believe that these "decoys" are just girls who happen to look a lot like her, but it's pretty damned clear that that ain't the way it was headed. This clone technology that Obi-Wan stumbles upon in Episode II is well-known to the people of Theed -- at least in Episode I.

"So what does all this have to do with Sidious and Palpatine?"

Are you thick?

Palpatine is a clone of Sidious.

Follow me: Lucas has this thing about repetition. He's said that he approaches these films -- "for better or for worse" -- like a symphony.

"I have a lot of themes that I keep repeating over and over again through the whole thing. Different notes and different instrumentation, but when you see all six movies together you'll see that there's a lot of recurring notes being played."

Apart from the obligatory "I've got a bad feeling about this" line, things like Obi-Wan "repeating" in Episode II Han Solo's insane flight through an asteroid field from The Empire Strikes Back, or Yoda's "my own council will I keep" line from Empire recurring again in Episode I are are plain silly. Because they're just scenes or lines or characters we've seen before, and the repetition smacks more of a desperate attempt to remind us of the Original Trilogy than it does a symphonic resonance. I mean, what's the point of Anakin having created C-3PO unless the droid eventually has a hands-on role in bringing down Darth Vader? Since he doesn't, the answer is None. So why do it? Oh, right: Desperate attempt. Original Trilogy. Got it.

But looking at it thematically, with the recurrance of the Apprentice Destroying the Master, and it's another thing entirely. It's almost poetic. Only in reverse.

In Empire, Vader asked Luke to help him destroy the Emperor so that they could rule the galaxy as father and son. In Return of the Jedi, when Luke was finally brought before the Emperor, it almost happened. This is going to be the "note" that plays in Episode III: Darth Sidious is going to be revealed as a separate entity from Chancellor Palpatine, and their master/apprentice relationship (another theme in the series) will become clear. Palpatine is going to turn Anakin to the Dark Side, and together they will destroy Darth Sidious -- as Anakin/Vader will later fail to do in Jedi.

At least that's how I'd do it.

Let's wait and see...