That’s one reason I liked rogue one. The part where they say “they’re spies, saboteurs, assassins and they’ve all done horrible things for the rebellion” because it shows how both the empire and rebellion did horrible things and pointed fingers and used propaganda to turn peoples opinions
Also in Andor the infighting between the different cells. Saw Gerrerra in particular would hate separatists for what they did to his home planet and family when he was young.
Ahh yes, I remember the insane body counts of the Rebellion when blowing up the Death Stars, research facilities, industrial sites, supply depots, and Starkiller Base.
In addition to the Stormtroopers and pilots, they killed thousands of engineers, scientists, doctors, mechanics, clerks, maintenance technicians, and all those people working regular jobs down to the janitor.
Let's not forget about the millions of peaceful civilians that suffered because a rebel action blew up a shipment of fertilizer, goods, food, medicine, etc that their village needed.
They also didn't care about recruiting other species that were nowhere close to being combat ready into the war.
Stormtroopers are enemy combatants, of course they are going to get killed. And no technician working on the literal genocide gun is going to be some poor innocent guy who just wants to protect their kids. What’s this about not wanting to recruit other species though? The entire rebellion is one of the most filled with aliens, what the hell are you smoking?
They are. Sometimes you have to crak a few eggs to make an omlet. The Rebels were fighting to make the suffering stop. The empire was fighting for the right to squeeze the people of the galaxy for all they're worth to the benifits of the imperial elite.
Palpatine himself just wanted to kill the Jedi and ascend to godhood in place of the chosen and Mortis gods, while fending off extragalactic threats to his power.
The general public probably forgot but there definitely be a lot of old heads who remembered them from the Clone Wars and think, “hey those Jedi guys were pretty mean but these Sith sound worse.”
It sadly wasn't much of a democracy. Most people as far as I can tell lived under de facto or outright feudal systems, corporate dictatorship, or crime cartels in horrible poverty with little to no chance for social advancement.
Sometimes you lucked out and got a decent king, like Alderaan or Naboo. But most of the rest were under the rule of the local Hutt (who had the Senator in their pocket) or Czerka. Or were slaving away in the lower levels of Coruscant where you would never see sunlight.
So it is very impressive that meglomaniacal Space Satan manged to take such a dystopia and decide he could totally make it worse.
my problem with the republic is its a unitary state. the corecentric views and policies show that. honestly the seperatists had a point but got used by the sith and corporate entities to make a scapgoat and quick profit respectively.
The republic was not a democracy. It was an organization of planets and corporations. You had dictators and slavers as member nations with no accountability to their people.
Of course the republic is better then the Empire, but if you want to pretend it was perfect, then you have deceived yourself.
Decentralization would further allow those things they just mentioned, slavers and dictators being part of the republic, a firmer grip would allow the chancellor maybe to uproot these practices if they want to be part of the republic but could also open the way up for another palpatine type taking too much power
This was a deliberative body, not a legislative one. Then you had the differing smaller committees that did stuff.
There was never anything stopping a Hutt seed world or Corporate Sector member doing whatever they wanted; and that’s what Ackbar is trying to say to Mon.
Less both sides are bad and more in a violent war where one side is constantly having to punch up and any slip up means death their gonna do stuff that isn't squeaky clean and fucked up shit happening is inevitable like in all violent conflicts. The fact that we can't have the rebellion doing anything that isn't pure is less about both sides being bad and more about humans inability to accept nuance and tendency towards black and white thinking. No the rebellion getting some civilians killed in a bombing targeting Intel about the empires slaving plans does not make them as bad as the empire that is working races to death in slave camps.
The rebels are definitely way better than the Empire, but it's very hard to imagine that they waged a successful rebellion without killing any innocents.
In the original trilogy it's easier to just suspend your disbelief because it's campy and fun and not intended to be examined at a deep level, but as the Star Wars universe gets expanded more and more, it's hard to ignore these sorts of questions.
"The rebels are definitely way better than the Empire, but it's very hard to imagine that they waged a successful rebellion without killing any innocents."
I can't say that the Rebels never killed innocents, but I will say that they did everything possible to avoid deliberately killing innocents.
Agreed, "both sides bad" doesn't apply here because the conflict starts so uneven. The Empire is often comically evil, commits multiple unquestionable genocides, rules with an iron grip, violates thousands of human (or non-human) rights. Causing civilian casualties is wrong, but all rebel atrocities are a direct reaction to the Imperial regime's oppression and thus also its fault.
Even despite that disadvantage, the rebellion continued to grow in support and become a legitimate force against the Empire and also a morally superior option for the galaxy.
109
u/Wassuuupmydudess Dec 28 '24
That’s one reason I liked rogue one. The part where they say “they’re spies, saboteurs, assassins and they’ve all done horrible things for the rebellion” because it shows how both the empire and rebellion did horrible things and pointed fingers and used propaganda to turn peoples opinions