Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrown?

[Knight Templar]

The first three Star Wars movies were dedicated to the overthrow of the Galactic Empire and the clear assumption that was a positively good thing.

But was it?

At the time, the Empire which blew away Aldebaran and killed no doubt billions was clearly evil.

But.

The aftermath of the destruction of the Empire was decades of wars and complete disorder that cost the lives of hundreds of billions and maybe trillions.

IIRC, the Star Wars Atlas gives an estimated death toll of the Vong invasion at close to 400 billion in that war alone. Not to mention the various other wars and civil conflicts.

Looking back, if I was living in that world and knew what was coming if the Empire went down, I think I would learn to love Vader and Tarkin.

 

[Disruptor]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

Aldebaran?

 

[Mr Light]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

In "Outbound Flight" it's revealed that Palpatine foresaw the Vong Invasion and formed the Empire to combat them.

Can you imagine the Vong Invasion if the Empire was in charge? First Worldship bops into the galaxy. The Death Star is sitting there waiting and blasts it to pieces

Way to go, Rebels

 

[Set Harth]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

Yes, let's not forget that the Empire was a JOB CREATOR in addition to being a small business. Meanwhile, the so-called "Rebels" were terrorists who killed innocent stormtroopers.

Say what you will about the Empire, but they were KEEPING US SAFE. Want your grandchildren to speak Vong? I didn't think so.

They're gonna getcha! They're gonna hit the supermarkets! Your family is the next target! They're gonna getcha! The Vong are on the way!

THEY'RE GONNA GETCHA!

 

[Hound of UIster]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

The jobs created by the Empire were usually low paying and high risk jobs. Meanwhile most of the galaxy's wealth were actually being siphoned into the bank accounts of the Emperor's personal friends. God knows how much credits Vader stashed away in his secret banks accounts on Aargau or how much of the onfederacy's liquidated assets were diverted by Tarkin or Mas Amedda.

 

[captcalhoun]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

i like Han's take on "if the Empire were still in charge!" They'd have some super-weapon and some hot-shot Vong pilot'd fly in and blow it away at it's critical weak-spot.

 

[Kegg]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

The Empire's a brutal and genocidal interstellar dictatorship, that's been shown it'll knock out high populated worlds simply to instill the necessary amount of fear - it's as much a danger of life in the galaxy as anything else. If one has to choose between them and a villainous alien race from outside of the galaxy... best to start a Rebellion and improve people's standards of living.

At the end of the day, Emperor Palpatine wants a galaxy that he gets to call the shots in and do evil stuff. That's really the whole imperial endgame here.

(This question does remind me a bit of Scorpius' Peacekeepers versus Scarrans dilemma, come to think of it...)

 

[Disruptor]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

This Vong xenophobia is ridiculous. They take the jobs New Republic citizens won't do.

 

[Silvercrest]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

Yes, let's not forget that the Empire was a JOB CREATOR in addition to being a small business. Meanwhile, the so-called "Rebels" were terrorists who killed innocent stormtroopers.

Say what you will about the Empire, but they were KEEPING US SAFE. Want your grandchildren to speak Vong? I didn't think so.

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in aurebesh, thank a stormtrooper.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

I think the Empire was great if you didn't mind surrendering rights & freedoms and didn't question--much less publicly protest--its laws, even if they were unjust to you (like raising your taxes 400% or demanding that you submit to random searches of your house by Stormtroopers whenever they felt like it). The Senate was probably a joke, with most of its members appointed by Palpatine to ensure that all important votes went his way.

Of course if you happened to be on a planet where there was open opposition or public demonstrations against the Empire, it's best to have a plan in action in case an Imperial Star Destroyer is sent to your world to "restore order." Orbital bombardments can kind of suck.

 

[Gotham Central]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

The simple answer to this question is no. The Empire was just the final stage of the systematic decay and enviable collapse of the Galactic Republic. Galactic civilization was rapidly unraveling even before the rise of the Empire. Whatever ones opinion of Palpatine and what he did, his analysis of the Republic was spot on. The fall of the Republic was likely inevitable. The Empire was even less efficient and lacked accountability. The only thing that it did have that Repubilc lacked was a viable armed forces...and even that was less than effective (the storm troopers sucked at everything that they did).

THe simple fact is that the population of the Galaxy had increasingly lost faith in the ability of the Republic to govern. Later, the Public actively hated the Empire. Simply put, there was no where else to go but down. The decades of instability and warfare that followed is what happens whenever the dominant power/civilization collapses and noting is there to fill the void.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

Rebels! Fuck me! I mean, say what you like about the tenets of Imperial Totalitarianism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

AAlderan was Palpatines homeworld.

Sideous might have been a democratically elected Prince as a nipper before he was the Senator, just like Padme was princess before she was Senator...

From a fairness point of view, if he couldn't blow up his own world, the Emperor would be an asshole to frakk anyone elses... Which should have been all the justification Grand Mof Tarkin needed with or without asking for permission from Coruscant to summarily remove the extended family of... The first girl he ever kissed!

And Jarjar.

 

[Set Harth]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

Naboo was Palpatine's homeworld.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

Bugger.

 

[Disruptor]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

No, Bugger was the homeworld of the Yubyobs.

 

[Set Harth]

Re: Looking Back, Should Star Wars Galactic Empire Have Been Overthrow

You land on a planet called Bugger, you gotta be prepared for what's going to happen.