Average citizen's view of Emperor Palpatine

Actually, it makes you wonder if the Imperial Emperorship was actually a figurheed monarchy in most citizen's ideals.

A gift for service's rendered.

 

In today's society, where countries do have a Monarchy, they often fret when there will be no apparent heir... population is quite releaved when the spouse / Queen becomes pregnant, even more so when the newborn is a male, to carry on the line, the throne.

If the average citizen of the Empire thought this way, do you think they would have wondered why Palpatine did not marry or have a partner / concubine? Do you think they would have wondered what would have happened when he died? What would the publicized order of succession be?

 

In this case, its a Roman style Empire.

It's most likely Palpatine DID have an heir in Darth Vader.

 

I've always thought that whatever the view of the Empire - which I certainly think varied, most people would have been shocked by the Rebellion.

Even if you had some sympathy for their goals there is no denying that an extremely bloody Civil War would be the natural result of the Rebels and would it really have been worth such a price to bring back the Old Republic with all it's flaws?

I imagine even for a lot of liberals the Rebels were beyond the Pale.

Do chuid

 

I get the feeling that Palps was a rather distant Emperor. Yes, he had his propaganda workshop going 24/7, but apart from a vague feeling of him being some sort of benevolent ruler, most sorts wouldn't have considered him much.

 

Bloody civil war? Bloody for the rebels... not for the average citizen. The rebels weren't terrorists, they were the good guys. I know the E.U is important, but this is G.L's world, so I don't think that anyone would be thinking that the good guys were bad. IMHO the E.U isn't gospel. Lets look at the movies. We have people celebrating on the Imperial center, tearing down a statue of Palapatine. Stromtroopers were being tossed in the crowds. People ALL OVER the GALAXY are celebrating. How about when everyone ran the **** out of Bespin when Lando said "The Empire has taken control of the city". Yeah, I know, Tibanna gas mines under the books, et al. But also because the Empire is evil. George was having a discussion with someone in an interview, and the person, I don't remember who, but it might be John Williams, asked Lucas, "Why would they be celebrating, they worked for the Empire." GL said "Well, just because they worked for the Empire doesn't mean liked it. They had to do it. Now they are glad its over" So even some of ?Imperials? were glad. Yes, he may have been lighter on the people in the Core.Fine. I think that people that were corrupt or evil enjoyed the Emporer's reign, and mostly anyone who had a good heart didn't sit quite right with the Empire. Now I know Luke wanted to join the Empire, but he also wanted to get the frick off Tatootine. Also, don't you think he might have wanted to follow in the footsteps of his friend and someone he looked up to-Biggs-and jump ship for the Rebels. IMO the average citizen, not the rich bureaucrat, crime lord, or corporate ho, DID NOT LIKE THE EMPIRE. Its supposed to be like the Roman Empire.

I agree that Palps would seam like a distant Emperor. But people would still have symbols of the Empire to hate. Like Stormtroopers, and Imperial bureaucrats. I definitely think people would hate stormtroopers. Localized and immediate representation of Evil. People would know about the Empire being evil by its overt and corrupt nature. High taxes, evil stormtroopers, boot lickers, corruption. At least people voted in the republic. Look at the design of the O.T, its a time when high culture is dead. Everything is drab, white, and gray, black. All life has been flushed from the galaxy. Look at the P.T, color life, design. There is craftmanship. Its the era of the artisan. These are deliberate, its intentional. Yes, the galaxy knows that the Empire is evil.

 

He bravely sacrificed his life to boldly destroy the second rebel death star. Oh yeah, the rebels also blew up alderaan.

Hmmm... I find it highly unlikely that the Empire would spread that kind of propoganda. Consider Tarkin's words to the Death Star officers upon his announcement that Palpatine has dissolved the Senate. He says something along the lines of, "fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station."

Now, if you wanted people to be afraid of you, why the hell would you go around telling everyone it was a terrorist rebel faction that ran the Death Star?

Actulay{sP?) that could be good way to make sure stayed with you by fear. As then the common people would be affaid that evil rebels would come over there plant and blow it up, so they will accept the empire sending more troops and ships to their planet. Then it would be easer for the emperor to keep them in line.

 

As we saw in Dark Empire, Palpatine ultimately wanted to do away with any secularly run empire and unveil himself as a dark lord unto the masses in his bid to be the most dominant, glorious Sith master ever.

However, in the meantime, he had to solidify control over the galaxy in more traditional, mundane fashion. Ergo, he had to employ the propaganda machine and make the populace of the Core love him for resurrecting order from the chaotic Clone Wars, and at least have the Mid Rim tolerate him. As for the Outer Rim where Luke and other no-names would abode, who cares? Their hatred would be of no consequence, for how could they challenge his military might?

Had the Death Star I been able to fend off the attack at Yavin IV, then surely Palpatine would have been able to use it openly against any rebelling worlds. The fact of the matter is this- the DSI was destroyed and Palpatine salvaged this major blow by spinning a possible loss of prestige into a Rebel terrorist plot. Of course Palpatine would want to make people think the Rebels blew up Alderran!

Until and unless the DSI was able to move around the galaxy with impunity (meaning the Rebellion was squashed), it was in Palpatine's benefit to let people think the Rebels were the mass murderers. It was enough for Palpatine and Tarkin to know that the Alliance leaders would be terrified into submission by the Death Star; they didn't need the whole galaxy to know of their terrible plot.

Think about it- if you're Palpatine, would you rather use use the Death Star to decapitate Rebel leadership while letting the galaxy think it was the Alliance using this terrible weapon, or would you advertise to the galaxy that you had just created a planet crusher?

Only when Palpatine's Death Star was suddenly and inexplicably destroyed did they abandon their plans to make the Death Star a public terror and instead use this loss to further demonize the evil Rebels.

 

How would the rest of the argument be wrong? Of course Palpatine would be using propoganda to use the masses, whethere or not he eventually intended to due away with secular governing.

The analogies between the Roman Empire and the Galactic Empire are well-drawn.

-In both cases a Republic had been formerly in control with the Senate as the governing body; however, an Emperor ascended to dominance and usurped control from the Senate (though in Rome the Senate was allowed to retain some of its power).

-In both cases, the capital (Rome or Coruscant) was a glorious beacon of civilization and progress. The surrounding regions were likewise prosperous and loyal. The further one moved from the capital, though, the more the government was reviled and the populace ready to rebel.

The average citizen of Coruscant or Rome or anywhere in close proximity to the capital would have loved the Empire for security's sake at least. However, the average citizen of, say, Palestine or Tatooine would hate the Empire for it's oppressive methods of control.

Also, it's not exactly true that the citizens of Rome had no say in their government. There was a Tribune in Rome specifically formed to placate the people who thought they had been disenfranchised. This twelve-person Tribunal actually had crucial veto power in the government. I'm not sure how long the Tribunal lasted, but I would assume it was as much of a fixture as the Senate was, and as the Senate existed in the Empire, so would the Tribune.

 

I think, that for the average joe, life wasn't much difference between the corruption of the Old Republic, the oppression of the Empire, the incompetence of the New Republic and so forth.

Most people, even if they disliked the government, would have just done their best to live in it.

In other words, even if they might have prefferred the Empire, there was no skin off their nose when it was replaced.

 

At least their military uniforms on the whole were better than that of the NR (though the same could be said of the Nazis, I admit)

Also, there wouldn't be as much tariffs hindering interstellar trade given that the Empire ruled practically all star systems.

And the Empire effectively shut down all those interspecies and interregional little brush wars.

 

One really has to feel sorry for the average GFFA citizen.

In the last century or so that has been chronicled, they've experienced the corruption and occasional repression (by the TF at Naboo, for instance) of the late Old Republic, the devastation of the Clone Wars, the repression, corruption, and occassional terror of the Galactic Empire (which they would seen as originally having lofty ideals), the destruction and bloodshed of the extended Galactic Civil War (here referring not just to ANH-RotJ, but up to 15 ABY), apparently justified on the basis of lofty ideals similar to those of the New Order, rounded out by first the favouritism then later incompetency/corruption of the New Republic. Then of course, many areas fall under Yuuzhan vong rule, under which ritual sacrifice is commonplace and hatred for the ruled is open (not to mention the sheer carnage of the Yuuzhan Vong war itself).

Have they ever experienced a truly "good" government ? I suppose closest they would have come would be Rebel-controlled territories soon post-endor and maybe the Organa-Solo years (however, as noted above, that was a time of blatant favouritism by idealists, and there was considerable disquiet over such issues during the Yevetha and Almania crises).

The average citizen must be more than ready to throw politics to the winds and just get on with life by this point, hence making for an interesting situation post-YV war for the wanna-be-Republican Galactic Alliancers TM