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A ‘Star Wars’ Movie Directed by a Woman Is ‘Absolutely’ Happening, Vows Kathleen Kennedy

That is your read of it. Doesn't make it the correct or only read. Lots of people see the United States in the same light as the Empire (with understandable reasoning), if they grouped up and attacked the US, I don't doubt you would be calling them terrorists.
There is no equivalent to the death star, but lets say the rebels completely destroyed the Pentagon leaving no survivors. I think that might just qualify as a terrorist act.
 
In some comics they are regarded as terrorist. And, a strict literal read of the movie is that a farm boy joins a terrorists cell after being inspired by a religious fanatic.

That's one for the kids.

Yup, he was considering joining the empire which he supposedly hated (the academy) but was dissuaded and radicalized.
 
Given what we see on screen, the empire is basically pure evil, and just exists to feed Palpatine's ego. It provides nothing for its own people (in fact it blows them up randomly) and they have no redeeming qualities. With that in mind, the rebels are obviously on the right side.

However, if the movie added a tiny bit more nuance... they could easily be about honorable Stormtroopers defending law and order against anarchists.
 
If the rebels were the Confederacy during the Civil War and the Empire was the Union, the rebel cause would be unjust but that doesn't make them terrorists.
 
Yes, but that would be "too complex" for a "kid's movie" about mythology.
Of course. That's probably the problem with making a satisfying movie now. The movies now have to appeal to adults who are asking for more subtlety and shades of gray. Once you add those though, it's hard to keep the rebels to pure good guys. We did see some of that in Rogue 1 I suppose.
 
If the rebels were the Confederacy during the Civil War and the Empire was the Union, the rebel cause would be unjust but that doesn't make them terrorists.
If the only way they could win the war was by blowing up a huge weapons cache underneath Washington DC, killing every person in the city by doing it, I'd call them terrorists.

EDIT: Also, the civil war was a conventional war - the south had territory and battle lines and stuff. The rebels have no territory. You could not evacuate from their advance because they were everywhere.
 
The metaphor is ham fisted and not quite accurate, but Lucas has stated that this was indeed his intent. The OT was his metaphor for the Vietnam war.

I'm no expert on The Vietnam War or the Cold War but I always saw the Empire as the Nazis, while the Rebellion consisted a group of insurrectionists who wanted to declare independence from their rule. To me the OT was never more than a Flash Gordon serial with mythological overtones set against the backdrop of good vs. evil.
 
I'm no expert on The Vietnam War or the Cold War but I always saw the Empire as the Nazis, while the Rebellion consisted a group of insurrectionists who wanted to declare independence from their rule.

Honestly, we're never given much on what is believed by either side. Just one is supposed to be "good", one is supposed to be "evil".
 
I'm no expert on The Vietnam War or the Cold War but I always saw the Empire as the Nazis, while the Rebellion consisted a group of insurrectionists who wanted to declare independence from their rule.
That's the direction the ST indisputably took them, but the original intent was for the rebels to be the Vietcong, fighting against the evil American oppressors.
 
That's the direction the ST indisputably took them, but the original intent was for the rebels to be the Vietcong, fighting against the evil American oppressors.

Easy to get the Nazi impression because of the uniforms and everyone being white.
 
Honestly, we're never given much on what is believed by either side. Just one is supposed to be "good", one is supposed to be "evil".
That's pretty much what it got simplified into. And the empire doesn't exist because of any actual issues with the Old Republic (according to Lucas), but almost entirely because of the machinations of Palpatine.

The whole thing just doesn't really work as a fun action romp if you overthink. It's a very very dark concept.
 
I'm no expert on The Vietnam War or the Cold War but I always saw the Empire as the Nazis, while the Rebellion consisted a group of insurrectionists who wanted to declare independence from their rule. To me the OT was never more than a Flash Gordon serial with mythological overtones set against the backdrop of good vs. evil.
While the visual language is Nazi-esque, the framing is the VC (Rebels) vs. the Americans (Evil Empire).
Honestly, we're never given much on what is believed by either side. Just one is supposed to be "good", one is supposed to be "evil".
Indeed.
 
While the visual language is Nazi-esque, the framing is the VC (Rebels) vs. the Americans (Evil Empire).

Indeed.
All the difficult concepts behind the framing were swept under the rug in order to have children as the target audience. And it works as a mythological coming of age movie. You just have to turn your brain off a little bit. Now that the prequels and sequels have introduced more shades of gray, it works a little bit worse.
 
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