Was the Empire good?
The Galactic Empire is the bad guys to the heroes of the Original Star Wars trilogy. We just see the soldiers of the Empire which is the cannon fodder known as Stormtroopers and the villain that is really famous named Darth Vader. So from the beginning they look like the bad guys with soldiers that all look the same and covered in white and black. They also created the two Death Stars which is a weapon that can destroy entire planets. The Death Stars were massive, and they used them on different planets to destroy rebels. So it looks like they are the bad guys because they destroyed planets and controlled a whole galaxy. The Empire is ruled by one person who is totally a bad guy, but the people don’t know they are being ruled by a bad guy, citizens of the galaxy just know that the Emperor is the ruler of the Galaxy.
The Rebels seem like the good guys because they want to take down a bad regime that commits crimes against everyone. People might want to join the Rebels because the Empire is trying to kill everyone you know, but the reason why the Empire is attacking is because the Rebels attacked them multiple times so the Empire is trying to defeat the Rebels. The Empire was created to unite the Galaxy that is why it is called the Galactic Empire. The Empire ruled some worlds so unfairly because they were mostly past war worlds that fought in the previous war. The Rebels mostly come from those previous war worlds not wanting the Empire to come and destroy their freedom that is why they attack first and that is why the Empire fights back. The Rebels assume that the Empire will get rid of their people’s freedom not knowing they actually come for restabilizing those previous war worlds. Like after the Civil War the Union occupied the Southern States and the age of reconstruction began in those southern states. If the Rebellious worlds didn’t rebel their worlds will be brought back to its former glory like before the war started.
The reason the Empire was created was to benefit the people of the Galaxy. The Emperor even admitted that, and he stated “In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire for a safe and secure society.” That was a speech by the Emperor and many people present for that speech agreed with the Emperor because it sounded better than what has been happening these past few years when there was nothing but just the war. The Empire did fulfill its promise to some planets giving them a better and safer society. The planets resisting the Empire were those filled with violent citizens and the Empire had to make bad decisions to win. It was a bad thing for the right reason, and it worked on some planets. In the Mandalorian series the Client stated “The Empire improves every system it touches,” he muses. “Judge by any metric: safety, prosperity, trade opportunity, peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death and chaos.” This was fascinating because it shows what the Empire did right.
Compare what happened in the prequels where the Republic was filled with corrupt politicians, and they were fighting a war, and compare what happened after the Empire in the sequels with the First Order and the New Republic. The New Republic was failing in many aspects of simple governance and the Disney Plus series the Mandalorian even acknowledges this while Mando and the character Greef Karga were talking they said “All that are left are mercenaries and warlords, but if that bothers you then just go and report them to the New Republic, scoff that’s a joke”. It seemed reasonable to go report Imperial Remnants to the New Republic but why do those Imperial Remnants even exist in the first place? It is because the New Republic either thought they destroyed them all or they just died out over time neither was true of course because that is where the First Order was born from. The First Order is a lot more evil than the Empire because of their different philosophies. The New Republic didn’t even know that the First Order were making a super weapon which in the Force Awakens destroys the Capital Planet of the New Republic. There are three eras of Star Wars and three Galactic Governments and out of all of them the Empire was the most suitable and nicest place to live. The Galactic Empire was much better than the Governments that preceded it and the one that followed after it ended.
In conclusion the Galactic Empire were the good guys, they had the better Government, and they tried to save the Galaxy from conflict. They might have created a planet destroying super weapon or two, but they meant well. The Empire was far from perfect. There were many flaws like they were ruled by a complete jerk, but the Empire helped many planets and the rebels were trying to undo all of that. The Rebels just continued the conflict and killed so many just because of an assumption that the Empire would take away their freedom. So in the end if you take out the Jedi and the Sith from the equation the rebels were the bad guys and the Empire were the good guys.
Nyle L • May 6, 2022 at 11:01 AM
I’ve never really thought about the empire how you did, It’s kind of interesting to think about.
Owen Mullen • Apr 13, 2022 at 10:55 AM
Interesting using wars from anothe source to relate, very convincing.
Helaman Foster • Mar 25, 2022 at 7:55 AM
I agree
Aron • Mar 16, 2022 at 11:01 AM
Really interesting.
Alejandro Arriaga Flores • Mar 16, 2022 at 10:58 AM
I didn’t think about how the rebels always attack first when the Empire did nothing. Also how this whole time the galactic empire wanted to unite the Galaxy.
Mario Pena • Mar 16, 2022 at 10:56 AM
think partially they were doing good in helping some planet but they also were doing pretty bad things as well
damien • Mar 1, 2022 at 12:53 PM
i believe the empire may have been at least part kind of good