Saga How good/bad was the empire actually?

The empire are now a generic evil without personality or motivations

 

If the Empire controlled Tatooine, the planet would have had a blockade or possibly a force field similar to Rogue One. Not to mention all the other evidence given in prior posts

 

"It's all such a long way from here" reminds me of "The Republic doesn't exist out here."

 

I totally agree, people don't realize the Imperial presence didn't arrive until R2D2 and 3CPO landed on Tatooine.

 

Tatooine is most likely a relatively new part of the Empire and it is not really that important.

Blockades and force fields cost money and man-power, money and man-power that many probably believe will be of better use somewhere else.

Tatooine has nothing really worth defending/control why would the Empire bother with more than a symbolic presence?

 

I figure that it's a very new part of the Empire - new enough that Ben hasn't yet decided to get Luke off-planet, and new enough that Luke knowledge of the Empire's atrocities is entirely from news reports of what it's done elsewhere.

The Rebellion's activities against the Empire are prominent enough that the moment 3PO uses the word "rebellion" Luke eagerly asks "You were in the Rebellion against the Empire?! Have you been in many battles?"

 

It's not part of the Empire. You said it yourself they have no resources, Tatooine has nothing the Empire wants.


This is directly from Wookieepedia

Initially inhabited by native Jawa and Tusken Raider species, it would soon see a population explosion following the search for valuable mining deposits on the planet's silicate surface. Finding the ore to have unwanted metallurgic properties, mining firms would leave the planet en masse, leaving behind valuable equipment, most notably large sandcrawlers, which would later be used by the Jawa population.

The Hutt Clan also maintained a presence on Tatooine, with Jabba the Hutt owning a palace in the desert at least by the time of the Clone Wars until his death shortly before the Battle of Endor.

Largely ignored by the galaxy at large, Tatooine gained the notice of the Empire during the Galactic Civil War when an escape pod carrying two droids in possession of top-secret information launched from the starship Tantive IV and landed on the sandy Outer Rim world.




In the years following Emperor Palpatine's formation of his New Order, the Great Drought of Tatooine scorched the world's surface, impoverishing the many moisture farmers of a reliable source of income to procure food and other basic supplies. The situation was not helped by Jabba's thugs collecting 'water taxes' from the many towns and isolated settlements across the planet. Often resorting to threats and brute force to acquire enough water for the crime lord.

 

We know from newcanon Complete Locations, that the Empire had started building a garrison fortress in Mos Eisley as of ANH.

 

It is a populated planet that's enought I think. Also, I did not say that they had no resources, just not in such amount or kind that deserve more than a symbolic precens.

 

I don't know what happened in Tatooine after R2D2 and 3CPO arrived, but I am sure there was no the Empire didn't control the planet before their arrival.

Think about how long it took before the Jawas found both the driods and got them ready to sell, how long before the Jawas took to find buyers, how long did Owen have them, how long after Luke got knocked out looking for the droids, how long it took Luke to get home, how long after he found Owen and Beru died did they go to Mos Isley.

Within that time the Empire established roadblocks and were looking for the droids. It was at minimum 2 days, if not more from the first scene of ANH and the Most Isley scene.

 

No offense but I start to find it tiresome to argue for something George Lucas clearly conveyed in ANH, i.e. that Tatooine was under Imperial control.

But perhaps you care to explain this:

"Let me see your identification"

This question clearly establishes that the (human) citizens of Tatooine have been registered, because they have IDs and that even farmers living close to the 'Frontier' do have IDs.

"We'll check it out"

Why should stormtroopers sent there only to locate the missing droids investigate a local murder? This makes absolutely no sense unless we're dealing with the local law enforcement of Mos Eisley.

 

Lt. Hija R2 and 3PO were quite conspicuously knocked back from the cantina before Obi Wan's little skirmish.

Nobody in that place seems to care about fights and murders. The informer was clearly tipping the troopers off to the fact that two strangers within had droids and were looking for a ride out of there.

And the need to send a detachment down rather than alerting the Imperial personnel on the planet to immediately start searching suggests that there is no such personnel.

It's no wonder that audiences don't get the impression that the seemingly lawless Tatooine is under Imperial control. Particularly once they've seen the rebels come and go rather conspicuously in ROTJ, and then the prequels where we learn that it was never part of the republic.

It would seem that it's controlled in the sense that the Empire tolerate the Hutt control of the planet, but are ready and willing to impose themselves on the backwater planet, if and when it's required.

Han makes it seem like a rare thing for the Empire to interfere with traffic in the Tatooine area. His recent misfortune could be an indication of the Imperial network encroaching on once isolated territories.

 

You don't see any off duty Imperials in the bar, Jabba taxes the citizens, no blockade after the droids land there, they come and go as they please in ROTJ, Luke is unaffected by the Empire ( of course that changes when they kill Owen and Beru ), when Obi-Wan first asked Luke to join him he said it's so far away from here and I have work to do ( not exact words ) and when Obi-Wan explains those are Storm Troopers foot prints Luke seems surprised as he doesn't see the Empire on Tatooine.

 

I'd disagree at least in the old canon and in new canon the imperials definitely have a base in Mos Eisley (complete locations) though how much they interfere in locally is debatable until ANH. and at least in the old canon I remember in ROTJ, R2 had to send a fake message to jabba's remaining associates to flee the planet from imperials, so the imperial blockade would be busy when han and the gang escape back to the rebel fleet.

 

Note that the base is still under construction, in Complete Locations.

 

@Matoto77 wrote

The informer was clearly tipping the troopers off to the fact that two strangers within had droids and were looking for a ride out of there.

Clearly not! If the informer had been looking for droids, he would have contacted MP stormtroopers right after Ben and Luke had tried entering the Cantina with Artoo and Threepio.

The way the scene is set up and edited, we "clearly" see the informer looking at the spot where Kenobi just killed and/or mitilated the two punks, the next moment we see him outside reporting what happened inside.

 

So the troops detached specifically to search for the droids decided to check out some busybody's complaint about Obi Wan dicing up two thugs in a bar where the owner and the rest of the patrons don't seem to care.

 

Martoto77 wrote

So the troops detached specifically to search for the droids decided to check out some busybody's complaint about Obi Wan dicing up two thugs in a bar where the owner and the rest of the patrons don't seem to care.

Are you seriously suggesting that less than a dozen stormtroopers searched the entire Mos Eisley spaceport and those two belonged to Praji's detachment?

The way the film was setup I see stormtrooper police doing a road check, another squad searching the streets and another squad (probably Praji's detachment, led by a local stormtrooper guide (no pauldron) to Docking Bay 94) busting into Docking Bay 94.
The two isolated guys checking the Cantina were probably just local police, but since the use of a lightsaber was involved (and I'm pretty certain the Empire followed every lead to surviving Jedi, especially in the Outer Rim) the two stormtroopers entered.

 

Why would a Tatooine resident care or know about lightsabers? The Jedi did not have jurisdiction there during the republic. They were destroyed before the Empire took "control" of Tatooine.

 

Little Ani knew about Jedi and their laser swords.