Galactic Civil War vs. Clone Wars: Which was more devastating?

Let's put the beginning of the GCW at after the Corellian Treaty of the Rebel Alliance as opposed to random resistance against the Emperor. This is when the entity known as the Rebel Alliance is actually created. And the end of the GCW not at Endor but at the Treaty between Pellaeon and the Republic.

The Clone Wars being much easier to judge the beginning and end of.

Likewise, was Anakin a bigger hero than Luke was during his war? How do we compare the two big heroes of these wars?

 

Anakin was a bigger hero - he was in the spot light.
Luke was the bigger mover and shaker - he got the big **** taken care of when it needed to be done.

 

I also think the difference is that technically Luke's fight was a rebellion, so he wasn't going to get the press and public support that Anakin had, who was part of a legitimate government and fighting for that government (from the public perspective).

 

Tough call.

On one hand, people like Grievous didn't seem to care what damage they caused, on the other, Sidious wanted to keep the Republic intact for when he took over as Emperor.

I'd probably say the GCW caused more damage. The Rebellion may not have wanted to cause much but the Empire's own civil war after Endor probably more than made up for it. I imagine the events of Dark Empire were bad too. Throw in things like Alderaan, Camaas, Falleen, etc, and I expect the Empire caused enough devastation itself.

As for Luke or Anakin? I guess it depends what you consider more important. Anakin probably got more publicity, Luke I expect did more over the years.

 

I think the Clone Wars, just from the cost of life, will pan out to be higher given the widespread nature of the war vs. the Galactic Civil War, though decades longer, was certainly more contained to various theaters of conflict.

Luke Skywalker is MUCH better known then Anakin...Anakin was a teen beat coverboy for a brief war, who ends up dead, and then the universe is dealing with Darth Vader and Empire.

Luke was at the same status almost following Yavin...was certainly entrench as such by Endor, and by the end of the war, is an institution unto himself the galaxy depends on more then the New Republic.

Anakin wasn't that well known...don't know too many stories where people as Luke if his daddy was the war hero back in the day. (of course, now every book from now to eternity will have 5 such references...can never win.)

Clone Wars was brutal and all encompassing...and Anakin was but a shiny piece.

Galactic Civil War was a surgical operation of decades...and Luke was the #1 surgeon.

 

Hard to say which was more destructive since the Clone War's had absolute bloodbath's like Jabim, but then again the civil war has Alderaan, the pretty wide spread destruction on Coruscant and other worlds etc.

On the matter of the 'heroes' though, I think Anakin was probably recognised and 'hailed', if you will as a hero of the Republic during the Clone Wars more so than Luke was for the duration from the Corellian treaty - the treaty with the Remnant.

Immediatly after Yavin and most likely til the whole trouble with the reborn emperor I think he was up there as a 'hero' of the alliance/new republic, but at least after the defeat of the 1st reborn emperor on the Eclipse he isn't trusted as much in Dark Empire II, and from then on he seems to steadily pull out of that role as a role model/hero. People still respect him and his input, he's still a symbol of the Rebellion, just the symbol hasn't caught up to what he is there and then. He's more a Jedi than part of the Republic's command structure after that and is off doing his own thing with rebuilding the Jedi order which not many people can relate to.

So basically - Luke was probably a bigger hero than Anakin, when he was actively doing the work of the Rebellion/New Republic (so Yavin - just after Dark Empire), but he seems to drop out of that spotlight quite a bit before the end of the war compared to say Ackbar, where as Anakin is in it from start to finish really.

 

Anakin fought heroically for dubious reasons in service to an unjust cause. Luke fought for good reasons for a noble cause.

Anakin probably had more spectacular victories under his belt, but they meant less.

 

I would say that the Clone Wars were a pretty devistating three years, probably more devistating than most or all three year periods in the GCW, but the GCW went on a lot longer, so it would in the end be more destructive. Plus there are things like Alderaan...

But I think Anakin got more publicity. He was the poster boy of the war effort, and given the nickname "The Hero With No Fear" and widely known by the civilian public during the war. Luke however was doing a lot of good for the rebellion, but since civilians were almost exclusively under the rule of the Empire, they probably didn't know about him, or if they did he was painted as a villain. I would assume he and his exploits became famous once the NR became a real functioning government.

 

Between the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War proper, I have to go with the Clone Wars. The reason I say "Galactic Civil War Proper" is that I'm guessing there were small uprising that were not necessarily associated with the Rebellion all over the place. We are seeing that right now in the "Rebellion" comic series with Dunlan and his followers on Ahakista. It is hard to tell how much damage was caused in those isolated events.

With that disclaimer out of the way, the Clone Wars by far. Simply because the war was being faught on many different fronts with enormous quantities of soldiers/droids. When it came down to it, the entirety of the Rebel Alliance probably couldn't have say...held Jabiim during the clone wars. Of course, the Republic didn't either but it was one battle out of many.

 

Hm, in terms of how much damage the galaxy suffered during those periods, I'd probably said the Galactic Civil War, but that also depends on what exactly counts. Imperial forces bombarded and killed lots of worlds and colonies, quite often for little to no real reason, given how evil most of them were, so do they count as being part of the GCW? Then again, during the GCW the entire planet of Alderaan was completely blown up, which easily tops anything that happened during the Clone Wars. Not to mention the Sun Crusher and Galaxy Gun. And the First Corellian Insurrection also had the Sacorrian Triad blowing up several star systems with Centerpoint, killing millions (or maybe it was hundreds of thousands, I do remember one inhabited system was destroyed).

Also, there were some non-Imperial related wars that happened during that time period, like the Black Fleet Crisis with the Yevetha. True, Imperial ships were involved, but they all disappeared by the end, and the Yevetha were the primary instigators of that short war. The Yevetha did kill off quite a few colonies, races, civilizations etc. during their racial purge.

Not to say that the Clone Wars didn't leave a lot of damage, it did, but superweapons weren't quite as prevalent as during the Galactic Civil War when the Empire seemed to have almost unlimited funds. Though there was no shortage of just regular planetary bombardments by capital ships. The Clone Wars did have a lot more large-scale battles. The Battle of Coruscant during RotS probably had more ships involved in that one battle than the Rebellion probably had for a long while, not to mention how many people General Grevious butchered.

And Luke is probably a bigger hero than Anakin was, given that Luke scored the Rebellion's first major victory at Yavin, and just kept on going up for the most part, playing a major part in many of the Rebellion and then New Republic's campaigns, even after he resigned as an officer. And hopefully the upcoming Mindor book should show another big campaign.

Though Anakin probably did a lot of good during his years too, with his "Hero with no fear" title, and with how he often seemingly singlehandedly freed planets from the Confederacy. I think the New Essential Chronology mentioned that Anakin did things like that (save planets single-handedly).

It also kind of detracts from Anakin's heroism though that that entire war was being controlled up till the end by a Sith Lord, so a lot of Anakin's fame was purposely engineered by Palpatine. Anakin was a hero, and that was probably the height of Anakin's career, given that while he was close to falling, it wasn't until RotS that he actually fell, given Obi-wan was still a good influence on Anakin. It also helped that Anakin had been spending years training as a Jedi by that point, whereas Luke was mainly just making it up as he went along and just hoped for the best.

I didn't read all of the Republic comics, but lots of planets did nearly die out during the Clone Wars, but... at least none of them were completely blown to shreds like Alderaan was, or like Carida or that planet where Pinnacle Base was, so the GCW was probably more devastating overall. The GCW did drag out a lot longer, and the Rebellion was by necessity more of a guerilla action for the majority of its lifetime, with not that many fleet battles (there were plenty of those too, of course, but far more guerilla missions).