The Seperatists in star wars were really the good guys.
They had complaints about the governing body of the republic being corrupt, which ultimately were true, and they simply wanted to secede and maintain their own sovereignty.
They were manipulated by the leader of the corrupt group they wanted to leave and were pulled into a civil war. Instead of relying on slave soldiers like the republic, of which millions died, they used robots to fight their war, costing them very few of their peoples lives to the war.