Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Stranded

Propagandistic images like this are used by the rebels to frighten inhabitants of the universe into submission. Darth Vader is actually a pretty nice guy. Photo: Diflatline54 / Flickr

Star Wars is the best movie series of all time. Who needs Jake Sully when you have Luke Skywalker, right? Despite this fact (and we're talking about the original movies here…prequels? What are those?), these holiest of holy movies still have one fatal flaw: the bias. These awesome movies show some horrible partiality towards those hippie terrorists that people like to call the Rebel Alliance, when in truth they are the real antagonists of the OT (Original Trilogy). That's right - the Galactic Empire is clearly the victim here, and they, as the rightful government of the galaxy, are constantly hounded and harassed by these war-mongers. This article will, without a doubt, prove to you that the Empire is the true and right power in the galaxy, and that those dirty Rebels should just go back to the holes from whence they came.

First of all, the Galactic Empire was a force that was created solely for peace and security in the galaxy. If we think back to the government in place before the Empire, we get the bloated and corrupt Republic. That inefficient monstrosity was awful; every politician was in someone's pocket, they were using an army that no one knew existed, and the Senate was a bunch of squabbling, power-hungry beings who didn't care about the eventual outcome of the galaxy. Enter Senator Palpatine. While not the youngest of senators, he definitely helped bring people together, and, after the betrayal of the Jedi, he was forced to create a new galactic order in order to rid the government of dead weight. Indeed, after Palpatine was done, the newly formed Empire was as polished as a corusca gem.

The Empire existed for years afterwards, without problem, until the Rebel Alliance came along, spewing slander and promiooting all sorts of things. But, how do we even know that the Empire is evil? Apart from some mysterious words floating through outer space (how does no one notice those, anyway?), there is actually no evidence to support the 'evil Empire' theory. In fact, the very first scene of Star Wars is Princess Leia fleeing an official Imperial Star Destroyer, attempting to get away with more criminal activities. Secondly, the next instance of 'evil' that the Empire supposedly commits is the murder of Beru and Owen Lars, the aunt and uncle of famous Luke Skywalker. Apart from the opinion of one questionably sane hermit (and who was one of these traitorous Jedi in the first place), there is no proof that Imperial Stormtroopers committed this dastardly crime. In fact, as shown in the TROOPS documentary (www.theforce.net/troops), it is painfully obvious that Beru Lars was (due to her living all alone in the middle of a planet-wide desert) crazy. She used a thermal detonator (a type of grenade) to blow both herself and her husband to kingdom come.

As for the leaders of these Rebels…who do we really have? Princess Leia, a known traitor? Luke Skywalker, a farmboy-turned-Jedi-Knight? Han Solo, a smuggler of illegal drugs and regular lawbreaker (and he did this even before the Rebel Alliance was formed)? Thanks, but…no thanks.

What people really love to pick on, however, is the destruction of Alderaan, a supposedly peaceful planet…blown to bits of muffin after the Death Star showed up. To start on this issue, the main problem here is that Alderaan was not as peaceful as they would have you believe. Would the Empire have destroyed a planet that was completely peaceful for no reason? Of course not. Alderaan, being not only a planet that was the largest dissenter to Imperial rule, not only home to two of the most popular rabble-rousers in the Senate (Viceroy Bail Organa and his adopted daughter, Princess Leia Organa), but a secret hoarder of weapons, preparing to start the Separatist war all over again. It is, in fact, because of Alderaan that the Galactic Civil War was started, engulfing the entire galaxy in battle, death and war.

What is convieniently forgotten, sadly, is the fact that when Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star, he killed not only the top brass of the Imperial Navy, but hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people trying to make a living. From newly inducted stormtroopers to the cafeteria lunch ladies, they were all killed. If that wasn't bad enough, even more people were killed when the second Death Star, not even yet completed, was destroyed. Wedge Antilles and Lando Calrissian, two more of these heartless terrorists, killed countless independent construction workers that day, and all they did afterward was party.

To follow up on that, the Death Star was never even meant for planet destruction. The Death Star's original purpose was to break up dead asteroids and planets in order for the good people of the Empire to mine for minerals.

What's strange about this whole situation is that there is more of a parallel between the use of the Death Star on Alderaan and real life than we would like to admit. If you think about it, the destruction of Alderaan can be compared to the United States using their atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The USA did what they did to end the war early; they made sure they used a show of overwhelming force, a weapon that simply could not be matched, in order to make sure their enemies did not get back up. This is the exact same situation here, in that the rightful government needed to pull the trigger of the Death Star's superlaser in order to make sure that the enemy rebels did not continue their war of terror. Of course, the Rebels decided to commit yet another atrocity, and proceeded to kill millions more people, escalating it into a full-scale war.

To return to the topic at hand, however, there is no conclusive proof that the Empire is evil. In fact, the above seems to solidly prove that the Empire was victimized throughout the entire trilogy. Darth Vader had reason to be mad when we first met him, upon arresting the captain of Leia's ship, and subsequently arresting Leia herself ("You are a member of the Rebel Alliance, and a traitor! Take her away!"). I'm sure he would have been even saddened (or enraged) further to learn that his daughter was a hardened criminal. Even in the end, the Imperials were getting shafted, with both of their top two people (Palpatine and Vader) getting murdered. Despite this, the Galactic Empire was still one of the most powerful organizations in the known universe, and would still be for quite some time. Even with that one gaping flaw, the bias isn't enough to stop Star Wars from being, quite simply, the best trilogy ever made - The Empire Strikes Back being the best one. What's that? You don't agree with me? Well, let me tell you something…

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