Why were the rebels ''rebelling'' against the EMPIRE again?

[JediKnightButler]

The rebels were fighting for democracy. Although the senate wasn't dissolved until be beginning of EP4, I think it is reasonable to assume the senators were basically appointed by Palpy at that point. Once the Death Star was complete he decided he didn't need them anymore.

I always had the sense that the Senate was the only check on Palpatine's power, the one thing that kept him from being an absolute dictator, so that things weren't as bad as they could've been. He dissolved the Senate precisely because they weren't just a rubber-stamp legislature but an actual force of opposition. Keep in mind that Leia was herself addressed as a Senator in the original movie. Perhaps the Rebel Alliance was originally more of an opposition party, but as Palpatine came closer and closer to dissolving the Senate and seizing absolute power, senators like Leia began organizing it into a resistance force so they could fight back if they proved unable to ward off the Senate's dissolution.

Drawing on the EU for a moment, there is a revealing scene in "Dark Lord" where Palpatine/Sidious meets with some Senators and essentially tells them that HE and HE ALONE is in complete control and essentially tells them that while they can talk, debate, etc., HE makes all of the final decisions and warns them not to introduce amendments, motions, etc. challenging his decisions. The "Democracy" of the Old Galactic Republic basically ended the moment that Palpatine announced his ascension to Emperor and the Senate cheered him on. The Senate, at that point, was rendered about as potent as a Debate Club. He was also in the process of tracking down and arresting (and probably killing) the 2000 (?) Senators whom signed a petition in ROTS (deleted scene) asking him to cede his emergency powers once the Clone Wars ended.

 

[Gaith]

An alternate motivation for Palpatine creating the Emprie is also revealed in the novel Outbound Flight. Basically he wanted to prepare the galaxy for the Yuzzhan Vong invasion; and basically what the Rebels do is screw that up by winning and when they build their own government, they aren't prepared. It's a 'retcon' of sorts that doesn't sit well with fans....oddly it comes from the most acclaimed SW EU writer, Timothy Zahn.

I love Zahn, but yeah, that sucks. IMO, the SW universe should more or less end with The Last Command, maybe the Thrawn duology. Just as Rowling has justly said that nothing as dramatic as his school years will ever happen to Harry, and thus she probably won't ever sequel HP7, SW should damn the money (ha!) and leave good enough alone. Go back as far as you like, but not forward.

No, dictators don't invariably make war. A dictator is someone who imposes absolute power on one's own subjects. Sometimes that's in the service of winning a war (or the war is the excuse for imposing the dictatorship), but sometimes it's entirely an internal matter. Kim Jong Il has never gone to war with any other country (unless you count the fact that North and South Korea are still technically at war even though no shots have been fired since 1953), but he is a dictator who brutally oppresses his people and leaves them impoverished to feed his own wealth.

For many dictators, emperors, and the like, power is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. Everything they do is directed toward the goal of making themselves more powerful, feeding their cults of personality, crushing all resistance to their absolute rule, etc. They're megalomaniacs -- everything they do revolves around elevating themselves, feeding their own egos. To them, there is no higher priority than self-aggrandizement. This is the classic type of archvillain from comics and adventure serials and the like, but there are certainly plenty of examples from real life as well.

I'd argue that North Korea has basically been in a siege-type war with not only South Korea but the int'l community for decades. But NK is one nation out of many, and we never hear of any power outside of the Empire in the OT.

As for the aggrandizement, Palps doesn't seem too interested in being loved. C'Boath was much more credible in this respect, just wanted total control over one small village. We know what Kim Jong-Il has been up to, with his massive rallies... does Palps do something similar?

 

[Jono]

An alternate motivation for Palpatine creating the Emprie is also revealed in the novel Outbound Flight. Basically he wanted to prepare the galaxy for the Yuzzhan Vong invasion; and basically what the Rebels do is screw that up by winning and when they build their own government, they aren't prepared. It's a 'retcon' of sorts that doesn't sit well with fans....oddly it comes from the most acclaimed SW EU writer, Timothy Zahn.

I love Zahn, but yeah, that sucks. IMO, the SW universe should more or less end with The Last Command, maybe the Thrawn duology. Just as Rowling has justly said that nothing as dramatic as his school years will ever happen to Harry, and thus she probably won't ever sequel HP7, SW should damn the money (ha!) and leave good enough alone. Go back as far as you like, but not forward.

The Emperor didn't create the Empire to deal with the Vong, while he was one of the first to learn of the Vong in the galaxy proper he simply used vague references of a great threat to excuse the continual military buildup.

Zahn's stuff is extremely overrated in my opinion there have been far better authors and novels in the EU. Sure he desires credit since he did help kick off the EU proper but sometimes his attempts to get the GFFA to revolve around Thrawn are annoying...though you could also argue that having it revolve around the Skywalkers is just the same thing.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Interestingly the Force Unleashed game reveals that the Rebellion was secretly created by Vader and the Emperor using the Secret Apprentice in order to gather all the Empire's enemies in one spot. Unfortunately the Rebels escape and form a legit rebellion. Sort of an interesting twist but it reduces the impact of the movies (A problem with a lot of EU)

I think the Emperor creates new enemies out of boredom. I mean, he doesn't appear to enjoy any other aspect of absolute power besides being able to hurt people. No beyotches (in his case I suspect they'd be male). No bling (still wearing that robe shit like some old hermit/monk). No plastic surgery (he needs it!).

What an asshole.

 

[DanTheGrey]

From the Force Unleashed perspective, nothing keeps a state of emergency going like a new set of rebels/terrorists/malconents/whatevers so there could be a point there.

As for what the rebels were fighting for, basically they wanted the system brought back to a Republican model after Palpatine declared himself Emperor. The evils of the Empire were basically that they would go around, take what they want by force, grind anyone else down into the dirt and use propaganda about the threats to peace and order to keep the larger part of the population complacent. Specific things I can think of are references to strip mining planets/solar systems, forced conscription of youth, interference in regular police investigations for political ends and all the usual dictatorial regime things. They were just generic evil, nothing too specific. Sort of like the Rebels who in the EU had a hell of a time trying to get from rebellion to actually knowing how to govern.