Saga Empire or Rebellion?

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine, who dislikes the Empire. So I explained why the Empire is the secret good side of the Star Wars movies. Please do contribute to this argument.

The Empire is the lawfully (well, not elected, but supported) government. It also most likely cuts down on crime, and generally makes the galaxy safer.

The Rebellion is full of imperial deserters, makes a drug smuggler a general (Han), and destroys a space station full of innocent construction workers. And the ends just don't justify the means. From what we've seen, much of the galaxy just seems to be fine with the Empire.

So other than Palpatine and Tarkin, we really can't complain about the Empire.

Thoughts?

 

Is this supposed to be funny? I don't even...

 

The Empire are the good guys. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

 

The films don't work without both, It would be kinda boring if the Empire was a lovely-dovey government that had no reason to overthrow, and it would be jarring if the Rebellion was a terrorist group that just attacked the Empire for no reason.

Personal preference for fictional factions is subjective to your own opinion.

 

I think it's a joke. Sure what's wrong with the Empire if nobody is complaining? Uh....They murdered everyone who complained. If that's Peace and Order to you, well then we should probably just skip the middle man and toss you right in jail. If you're serious and not drunk.

 

Err, what? That whole blowing up planets, enslaving people, arresting anyone who even looked at them wrong and even dealing with illegal weapons themselves I guess was just them trying to protect the galaxy. Oh wait.

 

Republic

 

That whole speech is delivered so freaking smoothly. If Palpatine ran in real life and we didn't know about his Sith-iness (and let's be honest, we wouldn't), he'd have my vote in the bag.

 

I do prefer TIE´s and star destroyers over X-wings and mon calamari cruisers. But that the empire is the secret good guy? That hilarious .

 

Rebellion has the moral high ground, but the Empire gets the cooler toys.

 

I voted for rebellion. But, a Galactic Empire with the right leadership, maybe a triumvirate of Luke, Han and Leia, wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

You’re gonna have a hard time convincing me to support the fascist dictatorship that blows up entire planets for no real reason.

 

I mean, I absolutely love the Empire. But that's because they are the coolest bad guys ever. Not because I actually support their ideals, because I don't. That'd be crazy. If I lived in the Star Wars universe I would absolutely be with the Rebels. But this is fiction so I can like the bad guys.

 

And yet I am majoring in political science partly because the PT got me interested in government

 

Obviously the Rebellion in terms of my moral code. In terms of the fiction that it is, I think the Empire is way cooler as an enemy and actual threat. The Republic is where my stance is because to me, it's the most realistic interpretation of a government on Earth. It has flaws and can be corrupt like any government but its ideals are what is most important. Also, we'll have to wait and see in the new films how the government that is established after ROTJ holds....so...

 

Philosophically speaking, and I'm sure Lucas would agree, there are times when a relatively benevolent dictator is morally preferable to an alternative of endless war and chaos. Institutional corruption had rendered the Republic unfit to govern; it was on the verge of collapse. Conflicting political interests and competing factions had already fractured it and led to years of brutal civil war. The very systems of government, justice and diplomacy that relied on the Jedi's supposedly impartial arbitration had fallen apart overnight. Regardless of finger pointing and conspiracy theories, at that bleak moment of constitutional crisis only Palpatine was in a position to take control and reset the whole system. He had the moral duty to establish order, to limit the greatest suffering for all. He was not a perfect man, and he was of course corrupted by power, as all great men are.

If the only choice was for an order of Force users to take control of the galaxy, better for the majority if their number is ideologically limited to two, rather than an army of thousands with an ideological motivation to recruit more. Force users are notoriously dangerous, their conflicts can cause great suffering for the billions who must share their galaxy with them. Hence the creation of a regulated authority, overseen and guided by elected government. Since the order itself had become corrupted to the point of treason, and given what we know of the warrior abilities of the Jedi, it stands to reason that the entire institution had to be liquidated quickly. It's not pleasant, but the protocols were already in place, ratified through legal process of Rebublic law and overseen by the highest Republic authorities. The speed at which the order was carried out exemplifies the compassionate motivations behind it; far better to end the Jedi's suffering quickly, and to limit collateral damage in doing so.

We can write off incidents like Alderaan and Kashyyyk to the inefficiency and self indulgence of the Imperial Senate. They obviously created badly drafted policies, so consequential decisions carried made by individual Imperial officers acting on their own initiative resulted in the odd genocide or spot of planet exploding show-boating, but it seems that the Empire was actually quite open to the local cultures and customs of the planets they occupied. The way of life enjoyed on Tatooine before the Empire remained largely unchanged, with the positive exception of Imperial troops keeping law and order (thus fewer Tusken Raider attacks), and the criminal Hutts public profile was significantly reduced. Criminal penalties were harsh but fairly distributed among the different species. Was Hutt justice any less severe? Watto didn't risk it when he knew he was the victim of a crime. With the Empire, justice is at least seen to function swiftly and evenly.

The Empire was quite happy for the Bespin settlement to operate with complete autonomy as long as it started paying proper taxes to the authorities. A very generous offer, given the off-the-books nature of the establishment. The situation only changed when a chance pursuit of a religious fanatic led an Imperial battalion to inspect the dangerous facilities and working conditions. Diplomacy became aggressive when the governor insisted on keeping an attractive female political prisoner in his personal custody.

The sinister owner/governor of the Bespin facility was a known criminal, previously linked to terrorist leaders such as Hera Syndulla. He had plenty of blood on his hands from arms dealing, but the death of every person who lost their lives in the Bespin incident is also on his conscience due to his criminal negligence. Vader's actions were later further justified when the opportunistic Calrisian subsequently played a prominent role in a large terrorist organisation himself, taking part in a mission that led to the deaths of thousands at Endor.

The indigenous population of Endor was given complete autonomy and functional independence while the Empire altruistically developed the forest moon's infrastructure, both on the ground and in low orbit. Surely once complete the Death Star 2's shipyard facilities would have attracted further development, with Endor becoming the thriving treetop metropolis every patriotic Ewok surely dreams of. Sadly for all concerned, an invading terrorist cell's deft use of communications technology enabled the local Ewok population to become swiftly radicalised, and this proportionally small number of Ewoks perhaps unwittingly aided that cell in the massacre at the power station (that could have one day supplied cheap electricity to millions of Ewoks).

The Empire was seen to respond to terrorism, criminality and extremism with overwhelming force but it's unclear if the level of violence we see in the films is the galactic norm. Its pursuit of terrorist mass murderers and religious fanatics such as Luke Skywalker (orphaned son of a drug smuggler, grew up in socially isolated poverty, became radicalised after his adoptive parents were executed for handling stolen goods) may have seemed like overkill at the time, but Skywalker murdered tens of thousands of people on board Death Star 1, and was in part responsible for the unfortunate events at Bespin. Though the terrorist who radicalised Skywalker thankfully died in a suicide mission, Luke's continued existence and growing notoriety could only lead to an exponential growth in radicalisation, thus any collateral damage suffered in pursuit of this dangerous man was justified. Imagine the terror that 10 Luke Skywalkers could spread, or 100, or 1000.

TL;DR:
Palpatine was morally obligated to save his galaxy from a religious war without end. A limited amount of genocide and slavery is philosophically preferable to an otherwise inevitably greater genocide and total loss of liberty for all. The relentless pursuit of terrorists (especially those preaching radical Jediism) justifies collateral damage because a potential army of Jedi could easily cause more death and destruction than a single pair of Sith, never mind what you think any individual Sith might do, or might have done. Despite this robust logical and philosophical principle, and due to the compassionate strategy, diligence, and disciplined restraint of Imperial forces, collateral damage was kept to a minimum when pursuing terrorist forces. Therefore the Empire were always the good guys.

 

Radical religion of peacekeeping monks? Freedom fighters are terrorists? Billions of innocent lives is "collateral damage"? Dude!

 

When I played Star Wars Galaxies (showing my age here) I always played for the Rebels