CT Opposing the Empire

Were any planets and species openly opposed to the Empire or was the support the Rebels received more clandestine? The Mon Calamari and Wookies were subjugated by the Empire, but had these species thrown down the gauntlet and officially declared war on the Emperor? My impression from the OT was that the funding and hardware the Rebel Alliance enjoyed was through very clever accounting and rogue individuals - much like terrorists are funded in the real world.

 

I've always assumed the rebels tried to be sneaky about it. Open war against the Empire is only going to get you a fleet of Star Destroyers invading your home world, and that'll put a stop to your rebelliousness real quick.

 

If you go by the newcanon novel Battlefront: Twilight Company - the Rebels tried to take advantage of the destruction of the first Death Star to wage open war against the Empire, got their behinds kicked - and that's why they're in the position they are in during TESB.

 

IMHO the Alliance was a proxy instrument to fight the Empire as no star system would have openly opposed the Galactic Empire for the reasons summed up by Sarge.

The issue was exhaustively discussed here recently: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...-esbs-footsteps.50039530/page-3#post-53388218

 

Although I agree completely that no system could openly oppose the Empire without being blown to rubble, I suspect there were some systems whose opposition to the Empire, and/or their support of the Rebel Alliance was suspected by the Empire. Even if they could cover their tracks really well, I bet the Empire would have kept real close tabs on them, and eventually dealt with. Alderaan would be the textbook example of this.

 

I also imagine that there was more opposition early on, shortly after the Empire was established, and much of that got squelched as quickly as possible. By the time of ANH, I would think that most of the open opposition was stopped by the Empire.

 

It is "a period of civil war" after all.

 

Didn't some EU sources suggest that the petitioners of the "Delegation of 2000" (demanding assurances that Palpatine would return control to the senate) died under mysterious circumstances one after the other?

 

Or just got accused of treason, in a few cases fled, and were openly hunted down by Vader (Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.)

The ROTS novel extends the "how liberty dies" bit, having Bail and Padme carry on talking:


Bail couldn't hear Padme over the din, but he could read her lips.
So this is how liberty dies, she was saying to herself. With cheering, and applause.
"We can't let this happen!" Bail lurched to his feet. "I have to get to my pod—we can still enter a motion—"
"No." Her hand seized his arm with astonishing strength, and for the first time since he'd arrived, she looked straight into his eyes. "No, Bail, you can't enter a motion. You can't. Fang Zar has already been arrested, and Tundra Dowmeia, and it won't be long until the entire Delegation of the Two Thousand are declared enemies of the state. You stayed off that list for good reason; don't add your name by what you do today."
"But I can't just stand by and watch—"
"You're right. You can't just watch. You have to vote for him."
"What?"
"Bail, it's the only way. It's the only hope you have of remaining in a position to do anyone any good. Vote for Palpatine. Vote for the Empire. Make Mon Mothma vote for him too. Be good little Senators. Mind your manners and keep your heads down. And keep doing... all those things we can't talk about. All those things I can't know. Promise me, Bail."
"Padme, what you're talking about—what we're not talking about—it could take twenty years! Are you under suspicion? What are you going to do?"

 

I go by the old canon EU, and it only takes six Star Destroys to subjugate a system. Considering how large Vader's fleet is in TESB, we can only assume that the Empire has many more.

If memory serves me, the Rebels enjoyed a lot of support initially after they destroyed Death Star I. But many losses led to the situation we see in TESB.

 

That's the big question - what was the nature of the support, and the losses?

Battlefront: Twilight Company has gone with the support being somewhat open - worlds are uprising, Imperial governors are being overthrown - Rebel ships are battling Imperial ships for control of planets - but the Rebels, after initial successes - claiming part of the Inner Rim - end up losing ground and being driven back.

 

That they suspected Alderaan but didn't act until they had the Deathstar for me along with the political discussions in ANH to me suggests that the Empire didn't otherwise have the muscle to keep everyone in line and was having to play a certain degree of political games without it.

Looking just at the OT for me it seems like the Rebels in ESB are at the stage were there just trying to stay in the game knowing that greater support will build up if they do due to the Empire not having the Death Star as was originally planned when the Emperor devolved the senate.

 

From the (almost) final ANH draft from January 1, 1976:

MOTTI
It won’t be long before the Death Star is completely operational, then we will easily be able to destroy a planet or an entire system… possibly even a sun. No doubt there is a plan being built up against us, but it cannot prevail. If we were to destroy every planet that is even suspected of being sympathetic to the Alliance…
TARKIN
The senate would not support the emperor. A move like that would only aid the rebellion.
TAGGE
Governor, the senate wouldn’t dare oppose us. Now that we can take such definitive action to enforce our will, we need no longer worry about legalities.

The Empire might have had the muscle in the shape of the Imperial Starfleet, but the Imperial Senate was apparently the biggest obstacle.

In the first ESB draft of Leigh Brackett - http://www.starwarz.com/tbone/wp-content/uploads/Star-Wars-Sequel-Brackett.pdf - starting at # 24 we learn that 1,026 systems joined the Alliance but "are widely scattered and still vastly inferior in ships and men".

 

The Rebels started being referred to as separatist and they were confined to remote regions of the Galaxy and reprisals damaged their cause greatly. Even if we look at Episode VII at Jakku the Storm Troopers continue to resort to massacres to achieve gains.

 

Bob the X-Winger

I'm really not certain that what we saw in TFA was Imperial procedure. Here you had Kylo Ren killing an unarmed, old man in front of many witnesses. Not exactly the kind of myth-buildung Kylo Ren was interested in, hence he ordered the witnesses to be killed...

 

It's interesting how the Great Galactic War and the Clone Wars were true civil wars with each side comprising a massive support base. Each side was practically a superpower. The Galactic Civil War really ought to have been called the Galactic Revolution. The Rebel Alliance doesn't seem large enough in any CT film or tie-in work to be considered a superpower. I can see why the Empire considered it a terrorist organization, given how they blew up the Death Star. Of course, we can only say this in retrospect. Before all these other wars were explained in subsequent stories, the Galactic Civil War may have appeared to be a war with fair fights.

 

And I can see why the Alliance and its supporters considered the Empire to be a terrorist organization, given how they blew up Alderaan with the Death Star.

 

Alderaan was holding weapons of mass destruction. It was destroyed for the good of the galaxy!

 

*reads post and looks at avi*

Nice try, Palpatine. I'm not radding out the Alliance

 

Or get your planet blown up by the Death Star. Bail Organa is an example.

 

I always interpreted the line "The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us..... I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council - permanently" to pretty much imply that he murdered the entire Senate.

 

I don't think so. In the ANH novelization the senate was merely temporarily dissolved for the duration of the "crisis". Murdering the entire Imperial Senate (including those sympathetic to the Empire?) would have turned too many members into (secretive) supporters of the Alliance.

Yet, I wouldn't dismiss the possibilitiy that the most vocal opponents suffered strange accidents.

 

Exactly. I think it possible that Palpatine's rise to power is a parallel of Hitler's rise to power, as the power to dissolve Parliament at his discretion and to rule Germany by decree without Parliament was given to Adolf Hitler. Hitler, too, had been given "emergency" powers which he would expend into a dictatorship. But yes, both Hitler and Palpatine would probably make sure that vocal and troublesome opponents would disappear.

 

Those parallels are accurate. I think that Palpatine was named after the Palatine Hill in Rome, as well.