Why The Empire Was a MASSIVE Improvement Over the Republic (In Some Ways)

the imperial regime that palpatine launched after the waning days of the clone wars is widely regarded as one of the darkest ages in star wars history as the rebellion came to formation over the course of the next two decades it wasn't long before uprisings cropped up across the galaxy and the inhabitants of the galaxy sought to take their lives and their homes back from palpatine and his forces but while we hear of atrocities committed by the empire what was the average day like for a citizen of the empire what was life like for most of the people who lived under palpatine's rule and which groups of people actually had it the best well stick with us weary acolytes and students of the force and let's assess what exactly made life under the empire so bad and why for some people it actually wasn't all that terrible to begin with first though according to our analytics a lot of you guys that watch the channel haven't actually subscribed yet so if you've been enjoying the star wars content and want to keep up to date force crush that subscribe button upon first glance life under the empire didn't immediately seem that bad outright and it was only upon peeling back the layers of the regime that the atrocities were truly uncovered in the early days the empire was a face of change the purge of the problems that had haunted the republic for years and for many it was a very welcome change the senate had long since become directly ineffective and the jedi were no longer the peaceful guardians of justice that they had once claimed to be and perhaps once had been instead the dogmatic principles and stifled politics led to many suffering under the clone wars era as a direct result of the war itself and the public perception of the republic and the jedi was drastically damaged as a result the civilian underworld hated the jedi and they blamed them for the war at large including the consequences that the everyday citizen was left to endure on their own resources of many planets were depleted wars were waged across the galaxy with little help of reconstruction and lives were lost for a cause that nobody ever truly asked for the martez sisters in the clone wars showcase this to ahsoka tano and teach her about the war from the perspective of a less idealistic victim of the conflict someone who has lost their livelihood in a conflict that they never asked for and never wanted and one that doesn't benefit them in any direct way at all the empire however sought to change this by finally eradicating the jedi who had been framed as the traitors and doing away with the senate in favor of a more streamlined system of progress with this appealing to many citizens of the burgeoning empire sick of the corrupt politics of the senate and the corruption of the jedi not to mention it actually helped the republican a lot of ways they did this by alleging that it was a separate entity entirely that was responsible for the war and therefore its costs and allowed all of their resources to go immediately into the reconstruction of the galaxy on the surface this seeming like a very beneficial thing in the bad batch series we learn exactly what appealed to the stormtroopers who enlisted the imperial academy citing adequate pay and food as some of the most promising factors for working for the empire and incentivizing people to join the ranks of the empire as stormtroopers not to mention that the creation of the empire was also the first unification since the splintering of the separatists and this largely meant that systems were no longer torn apart by war over the course of three long years the clone wars tore apart families homes livelihoods and systems of security a looming threat that was no longer present under the empire while the citizens of the new empire weren't aware at all that the empire would grow into a tyrannical fascist dictatorship that it would later become known as most prevalently they did know that worlds were no longer being ravaged by endless waves of war and strife which led many to breathe easy and sleep better at night knowing that no war was coming for them and at their doorstep any time soon decisions in the empire were also much more streamlined with a distinct hierarchy of authority of course starting with emperor palpatine whereas the republic existed in a perpetual stalemate the empire was actually able to make considerable political progress in a much shorter window of time than the senate had been able to the senate spent their long days arguing debating and spending most of their waking time talking while actually doing very little towards progress in the galaxy in any way but the empire was able to rely on a sturdy chain of command to make noticeable rapid progress decisions were made much quicker and much more effectively which seemed outwardly promising to many members of the new regime while we are now used to viewing the empire through the lens of a jedi sympathizer this wasn't the case for most of the modern galaxy and the more civilian levels of the galaxy while obi-wan kenobi ahsoka tano and master yoda are fan favorite characters who were driven into hiding and later hunted down by vader and his inquisitors the bulk of the empire believed that these individuals were war criminals and traitors to the republic that they had once served and the populace of the empire didn't have the same personal connection that we as an audience have to these jedi many inhabitants of the empire genuinely believe that the jedi betrayed the republic and attempted to overthrow the chancellor which would have justified them in siding with the empire believing it was going to be the jedi that would reign supreme over all of them and that the jedi were responsible for the clone war palpatine however like dictators both real and fictional before him built their empire on the usage of fear contrary to popular belief however this does not necessarily entail fear of retribution or a show of force palpatine used fear in a much more intelligent way it wasn't a system wherein the empire made the public fear imperial soldiers but instead using external fears in order to justify their treatment of individuals for example during the clone wars palpatine created a fear of the jedi he created a latent paranoia that was embedded into the citizens of the republic and used this fear to justify his later actions he was able to convince the larger public over the course of years that the jedi were dangerous that they could not be trusted and many came to believe that they were directly responsible for the war in the first place because of this fear the senate and the people had a great distaste for the jedi especially when the war concluded therefore they allowed palpatine to take emergency powers and instate himself as emperor in the first place in this system is one that palpatine continued to exploit in order to justify his future actions as the emperor after the threat of the jedi was no longer a pertinent concern he had to create new ways of instilling fear into his subjects in order to keep them in line and this then extended to jedi sympathizers this is why wookies were imprisoned and enslaved and were treated as supporters of the jedi order various aliens and non-humanoid species would soon follow suit and became the target of palpatine's accusations he taught the people to fear their neighbors and this made his treatment of crime more justifiable or even just a legit crime slowly but surely the empire's grip on crime became too tight and criminals were not only captured and imprisoned but were actually punished unfairly and rather brutally since the public feared criminals however the empire was allowed to treat them however they wished for any offense without any retribution as the tactics of the empire evolved slowly many were not immediately aware of the true nature of palpatine nor his empire that he had built in fact the earliest iteration of the rebellion was founded by the senators who initially opposed palpatine and saw his rise to power coming in the first place even though they themselves were powerless to do anything about its rise in the case of many average citizens however it simply seemed like a better alternative than the current circumstances that the clone wars were offering them the clone wars was offering death loss and a galaxy fracture on the other hand palpatine promised to unite the galaxy and end the war two things which he ultimately made good on even though he pulled the wool over everybody's eyes and managed to trick an entire galaxy or at least most of them to his true motives but anyway students of the force what do you think of this idea how do you think the empire was initially perceived by the public and what other tactics do you know of that palpatine used to keep his subjects at bay as always my friends thank you guys so much for watching and continuing to support the channel may the force be with you and i hopefully will see you in the next video [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Stupendous Wave

Views: 172,584

Keywords: Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Theory, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan

Id: 5L_eKWyTfTA

Length: 8min 36sec (516 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2022