=How the Empire Was Created=
Before Palpatine stepped in and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, the galaxy was in complete chaos. The Republic claimed to be a democracy, yet at least two of its worlds (Naboo and Alderaan) were ruled by absolute monarchs who had the power to opress their citizens. The economy was a disaster, and many planets such as Tatooine didn't even accept Republican currency because it was too unstable. The Republican Senate was a small group of corrupt wealthy oligarchs with almost no real power, and the Republican military was practically non-existent. And atop all this mountain of anarchy sat the Jedi Order, an ancient religious cult that controlled the government and had its own private army of lightsaber-wielding knights.
Long story short, a private corporation called the Trade Federation invades the planet of Naboo, the Galactic Chancellor is impeached for incompetence, and a policitian called Palpatine is elected to the position of Chancellor. A full-scale galactic civil war ensues, fought between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. To save the Republic from collapsing, Palpatine commissions an enormous army of well-trained clones, finally creating some kind of military for the Republic. Palpatine also becomes close with a Jedi called Anakin, who saves his life during a kidnapping attempt by the Confederates.
Anakin becomes more and more loyal to Palpatine, and Palpatine eventually promotes him into the Jedi Council, the guys who are in charge of the Jedi Order. But the Jedis do not follow this direct order of the Chancellor! Are the Jedi a separate religious cult or a government body? If they're part of the government, they should follow the orders of the Chancellor, and if they're not they should stay away from politics and not be commanding the Republican Army.
Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is a member of the ancient religion of the Sith, another ancient cult whose members the Jedi have killed and persecuted. Anakin tells this to the Jedi. And you know what they do? They try to f*cking assassinate him! The Jedi Order, a cult of religious fanatics with their own private army, try to murder the galactic equivalent of the POTUS just because he follows a different religion from them! Thankfully, Palpatine surives the attempt and orders the military to execute all the Jedi for betrayal. He then orders his Sith apprentice Anakin, now Darth Vader, to kill off all the Confederate leaders, which quickly ends the civil war and brings peace to the galaxy. Then, Palpatine transforms the Republic into the Galactic Empire, and strips the corrupt and incompetent senate of its power.
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=Palpatine's Plan=
Now, you may say that Palpatine was the one who orchestrated the Galactic Civil War to seize power for himself, and you would be right. However, this was the only way to bring peace and stability to the galaxy. Even before Palpatine started the war, the galaxy was in a complete mess as I have already described above. The Confederacy of Independent Systems didn't come out of nowhere, these wealthy corporations with their own armies existed way before Palpatine and they could have started a civil war anytime they wanted. Palpatine was the one that gave CIS a push, and he only did so to destroy them so the government would end up with more power. You can see in Episode Three that instead of rewarding the Confederate leaders, Palps orders Anakin to kill them all. This isn't because Palps is a dick, no. He did this to prevent a civil war in the future, to stop the galactic corporations from having enough power to invade planets and fight wars with the future Imperial government.
Palpatine also destroyed the Jedi Order, which was terrible for the galaxy and needed to be eliminated to bring peace and stability. You can see the Jedi's true side when they tried to assassinate the Chancellor just because he was an adept of a different religion. At that time, they had no evidence at all that Palpatine was the mastermind behind the CIS, their only justification for trying to murder him was that he was a Sith. The Jedi are a danger to galactic stability. Even decades after the execution of Order 66, a few Jedi still constantly attempt to overthrow the Empire and create chaos, which proves that they are a bunch of evil fanatics who just want personal power and nothing else.
So, to summarize, this is what Palpatine did to bring stability and order to the galaxy:
- Eliminated the Jedi Order, which was too powerful and brough chaos to the galaxy.
- Eliminated the leaders of powerful corporations, who were too powerful and brought chaos to the galaxy.
- Created a strong military to prevent a civil war from happening in the future.
- Stripped the corrupt and incompetent Senate from its powers, and later completely dissolved it as it was useless.
- Made sure he had absolute control over the entire galaxy. This is good because Palpatine cared about the galaxy's peace and stability, and this could only be achieved with a smart and determined absolute leader such as him.
- Fixed the galactic economy. We can see in later episodes that Tatooine residents use galactic credits, while during the Republic they refused to accept them. The only reason for this is that the economy got better and the currency became more stable.
- Began the construction of the Death Star. This was necessary to prevent a civil war from happening in the future, so rebellious planets like Alderaan could be kept in line. Even the Death Star now makes sense, doesn't it?
So, now we know that Palpatine created the Empire to bring order and stability to the galaxy, and making the galaxy suffer through a civil war was the only way to achieve such a plan. Now, let's move on to the original Star Wars trilogy, where the rebels are supposedly the good guys and the Empire are supposedly evil.
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=Why the Rebels Were Evil=
The Rebel Alliance was far worse than the Galactic Empire. They were a bunch of terrorists who blew up two Death Stars and killed billions of Imperial personnel. The point of the Death Stars was to prevent civil war by keeping rebellious planets in line, but the Rebels still destroyed them and did not care about the consequences. The rebels murdered Palpatine and the Empire's most competent officers, and they created a power vacuum in the galaxy which led to the rise of the First Order. So, essentially, these guys started two civil wars and completely ruined Palpatine's plan for a stable and peaceful Galactic Empire.
Now, you may say that the Rebels were fighting to stop Palpatine's oppression of galactic citizens. But the citizens weren't that opressed in the first place! All that changed after the Galactic Republic was that the people couldn't vote for their leaders, they now had to live under a monarchy. And... that's pretty much it. In exchange, Palpatine created a peaceful and stable Galactic Empire with a mighty military and a strong economy. Democracy is a small price to pay in exchange for stability, after centuries of Republican corruption, incompetence, poverty, and civil war.
The Rebels were incompetent idiots whose generals were people like Han Solo, a smuggler and criminal who thought that parsecs are a unit to measure time and not distance. Luke Skywalker's teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi was like a galactic Osama Bin Laden: a bearded old man who hid from the authorities in a cave in the middle of the desert, and then orchestrated two attacks against important government facilities because he thought the government was opressing his religion. Even the names of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Osama Bin Laden sound similar when pronounced. And so do the words Jedi and Al-Qaeda, by the way.
The Empire may not have been perfect, but it was far better than the Galactic Republic and the Rebel Alliance combined. Palpatine was a smart politician who wanted to bring peace and stability to the galaxy, and the Jedi were regicidal maniacs who just wanted personal power. Palpatine best summarizes what the Empire was in this quote:
"We are an Empire ruled by the majority! An Empire ruled by a new Constitution! An Empire of laws, not of politicians! An Empire devoted to the preservation of a just society. Of a safe and secure society! We are an Empire that will stand for ten thousand years!"
Your floor, Con.
Everyone knows the Death Star was an inside job: https://vimeo.com/61930750
As a judge, I would appreciate some minimal citation effort. I don't want to just take someones word for it based on fan fiction about what Yoda did to Luke.
I Googled a couple of the events, and the current government officially denies much of it... Which is strange, because when I was growing up with Empire issue history books, they seemed to have committed many more human rights violations. (yes, this is referencing Disney's decision to basically declare everything except the movies to be Fan Fiction).
Long live the Empire!
Good topic for a debate. I suggest adding a couple limitations, mainly what shall be cannon for the debate (that way some jerk like me doesn't quote one of the expended universe books). Plus a general definition for good guys... Better yet, a direct resolution along the lines of 'The Empire Was Morally Superior To The Rebels.'
Come to think of it, a simple apply in comments rule is your best bet to get someone looking for the right spirit of debate.