Is the Empire really that bad?

Great point! I think the biggest argument one can make is the magnitude of fear you are talking about.

For instance, the Empire instills fear into the Galaxy by using a huge ball to blow up planets. Luke scares the Ewoks by threatening to use some magic. See?

The difference is the Empire actually do evil things and their fear is on a much greater magnitude. Luke never actually did the things he said he would do to the Ewoks, plus the magnitude isn't even comparable to say, blowing up a planet.

 

Can you say "Propaganda"?

 

I once read a Star Wars book(I don't remember which one) in which some imperial officer says that the Emperor wasn't exactly a tyrant.

The SW books aren't part of the movie canon. (See my signature.) Also, you can hardly expect an Imperial officer to be objective when it comes to the Emperor.

Who was a Sith lord. Who ordered the slaughter of who knows how many people/beings. Who commissioned weapons designed to destroy a planet. Who used Force lightning to fry his enemies.

He was indeed a tyrant. The Empire was evil (opening scrawl to ANH).

at the beginning of ANH, it does say the "evil" glactic empire, but its biased in favour of the rebellion,

No it isn't. It's the omniscient narrator.

which are the good guys. once i was reading a star wars book and i remember someone, affiliated with the New Republic,

SW books are not part of the movie canon. This "New Republic" exists in a parallel universe that exists outside Lucas's universe (his words -- TV Guide, Oct. 2001).

saying the empire kept peace and order in the galaxy.

The galaxy was at war by the time of ANH. Obviously lots of people didn't like the Empire and its oppressive rule.

They basically said "like your neighbor, or we will kill you." It kept peace and order in the galaxy, though through means of fear.

How nice of them.

That's just one more thing I can't stand about the EU...the way it tries to make the Empire "not so bad," mostly in order to absolve "kewl" or "popular" characters who, in the context of the EU story, served the Emperor. No, no, they weren't bad, because the Empire and the Emperor weren't bad either.

In order to do this, the EU authors either try to make the Empire look good by contrast (i.e., making the New Republic incompetent and corrupt), or insert unlikely examples of supposed Imperial beneficence. Or else they try to make the heroes question their actions while they served the Rebellion. The most disgusting example of this was in the Black Fleet Crisis books, when some woman Luke was sleeping with told him he was wrong for destroying the first Death Star -- and HE BELIEVED HER.

Good LORD. The destruction of the Death Star, the moment which galvanized a generation and, even 20 years later, still had audiences applauding and cheering in movie theaters...is twisted into something "bad" in an EU novel. For what purpose? Is this supposed to be "depth"?

 

I understand your argument. But I have to go by what I've seen in the movies. Tarkin never appears to be passive with his new Death Star toy. He blows up Alderaan to make a point, Alderaan posed no threat to him or the Empire. Luke threatened Ewoks with magic. Luke, though he appears to be convincing, could only just be all talk. Perhaps Luke has a really good poker face ... but I don't think he ever intended on hurting or scaring the Ewoks very much.

The level of fear expressed by each the Empire and Luke is on two completely different planes.

 

Good point. That explains why the EU is consistently so lousy and its villains so boring, and the movie villains so much more interesting -- unlike the EU villains, they aren't one-dimensional, and they do have a sense of dignity and morality, even if it's only so they can better manipulate people.

Good thing Lucas didn't go that route, then, and instead made his villains more interesting than the Star Trek ripoffs that permeate the EU. Heck, even Darth Maul, who had maybe two lines and had only a minor role in one movie, was ten times more interesting than Grand Admiral Yawn...er, Thrawn, or the Bong...er, Vong.

Where did I say that?

Han wasn't a Rebel then; he didn't formally join the Rebellion until ROTJ, long after giving up smuggling. Also, it's odd how you mention Han's smuggling past. In the EU, Mara Jade -- the Ultimate Hero of the New Republic, the red-gold goddess who's held up as an ideal that every other character should aspire to be like -- also had a past as a smuggler, as well as a throat-slitter for the Emperor himself, but it's never even brought up, much less held against her. Han, on the other hand, is stil thought of with disdain as a "former smuggler," despite doing more for the galaxy than Mara ever could.

No, he's an interestingly flawed human being, whose sense of decency is reactivated when he meets up with Luke and Leia. But I suppose in the EU he's considered a monster compared to the sweet, innocent former Imperials -- i.e., Mara, the Imperial assassin who was taught by a Sith but was NEVER DARK, and was purer than the snow on Hoth even while she murdered people -- that the EU keeps trying to hoist up above Luke, Han and Leia, and the rest of the dirty stinking Rebels who dared to fight to overthrow the moral, beneficent, perfect Empire that never hurt anyone.

You are honestly comparing Luke making an empty threat -- in order to free himself and his friends, who were about to be roasted alive -- to Tarkin threatening to blow up a planet with a weapon designed for that very purpose in order to extract the location of the hidden Rebel base (so he could then use the weapon to destroy that base), when he not only had the capability, he then proceeded to do it.

You are honestly comparing the two.

There are...just no words.