Is Palpatine even involved in the development of equipment though? Again I'd think not, and that he wouldn't try balancing things like that...
First off Jesse, I see all of your points, so please don't think I'm trying to start an argument. I actually enjoy discussing stuff like this in Star Wars so you'll forgive me....
I'm right with you, so no worries. I'm not angry or anything so don't worry, it's good conversation I think.
I think you make good points too about Palpatine's puppetry of the whole thing too, I just see it more as the technology is balancing itself... a tank's armor is met with anti-tank weaponry that's superior. I'm not much of a super weapon guy though, but I could see your idea applying more to stuff like those seismic tanks for instance from the 2D cartoon...
Those are kind of a "super weapon" being deployed by the Seps, and so I think it makes sense that maybe Palpatine would want to keep something like that from turning the tide of war somehow, let it slip out that they have some weakness or flaw... The AT-TE is, to me, just a random piece of armor that wouldn't be particularly special in any way really except in that it would be technologically on par with whatever the common armor is the Seps are using... It may give something up for firepower or armor, such as speed or maneuverability for instance, but at the end of the day it's a basic piece of equipment... So I don't really see the Palpatine Puppet thing applying as much to the "basics" if that makes sense.
I just see the idea that the "control" of the balance of war on that level is too complex or impractical... I think that works well for super weapons, but not the basic equipment of war like fighters, and other mainline equipment. Does it end there or go all the way to pistols, ya know?
To me the AT-TE being taken out, dead front, from a personal rocket launcher, is just always going to be an illogical "plot hole" (not that it impacts the plot, it's something to be simply ignored to me), for lack of a better term. It just says to me that the writers were being sort of careless in a sense... I'd like to think better of them, and generally they are, but this is just one instance I was let down.
To the contrary I liked the droid snipers being taken seriously... Not just someone out running around with a good gun, but rather a team showing tactics and things. It was a little detail I appreciated.
I'd have much rather seen them try for such detail with the AT-TE... Maybe a small ambush from the sides, and a rocket up into the recessed hip joint of an AT-TE takes it out like shooting the tracks of a tank to disable its advance. I think it would've looked cooler and more "realistic", if that can be applied loosely to the conversation.
