i know these are movies for little babies, but i think it's interesting how the moral conflict between good and evil is presented so vaguely. like obviously the empire is bad because they casually commit genocide and call themselves "the empire," but how do they actually function? what is their ideological superstructure like? do they see their project as one to unite the galaxy under one banner to create a pax imperium? are they somehow nationalist, despite not being clearly founded in any national project? we can project the same imperialist racism onto them that historical empires have displayed, but this isn't actually ever shown onscreen, and it's not explicitly stated in the movies that they're human-supremacist or something.
Part of it was supposed to be more blatant human supremacy, with no aliens at the upper levels of the imperial hierarchy. Then other writers came along and reintroduced aliens and the metaphor was lost.
pretty sure you're supposed to plug in exaggerated notions of liberalism for the rebels and cartoon fascism for the empire. The books are the only thing I know that actually describes what the empire thinks and I could get into that but then I'd have to admit as a child I read Star Wars novels.
Alright, in short, the Empire is just fascist. Although it's different in a lot of ways than in real life, because magic exists. Their overarching ideology is almost a copy and paste of what Nazis said about themselves, except with Jedi instead of communists. The Empire blames every problem it has on non-human species or Jedi provocateurs. Their ideology is built around managing a huge central state and expansionist military operations. All organized religion is illegal too, but that's a sweeping measure to stamp out any potential Jedi. You gotta remember this is a fictional universe where one religion has absolute proof it's correct and being a follower gives you superpowers.
I think I remember one book slyly talking about the empire's need for child rearing, so I'm pretty sure they were heteronormative.
All the aspects of Imperial ideology are about channeling power up to the Emperor, but power I mean actual magical powers. The more people who live in fear, the more the Emperor gains mastery over the dark side.
Nah bro, I read everything as a child. The most embarrassing thing was the Mary Kate and Ashley Detective novels, there's like 50+ of them and I read every single one. The star wars books were all over the place in terms of quality but I wouldn't be embarrassed about reading them.
It didn't need much explaining in the original trilogy because everyone more or less remembered the Nazis, and the Empire was heavily coded as space Nazis. it's just gotten muddier over time because liberals are doing liberal shit.
we can project the same imperialist racism onto them that historical empires have displayed, but this isn’t actually ever shown onscreen, and it’s not explicitly stated in the movies that they’re human-supremacist or something.
It's implied. In the OT you never see any imperials that aren't white men. And they're dressed like Nazis. So the audience could pretty much just figure that part out.
Their helmets look like skulls and their boss is a literal Dark Knight. Whereas the good guy wizard is a nice old man who tells people to believe in themselves.
"sith values"
i know these are movies for little babies, but i think it's interesting how the moral conflict between good and evil is presented so vaguely. like obviously the empire is bad because they casually commit genocide and call themselves "the empire," but how do they actually function? what is their ideological superstructure like? do they see their project as one to unite the galaxy under one banner to create a pax imperium? are they somehow nationalist, despite not being clearly founded in any national project? we can project the same imperialist racism onto them that historical empires have displayed, but this isn't actually ever shown onscreen, and it's not explicitly stated in the movies that they're human-supremacist or something.
Part of it was supposed to be more blatant human supremacy, with no aliens at the upper levels of the imperial hierarchy. Then other writers came along and reintroduced aliens and the metaphor was lost.
pretty sure you're supposed to plug in exaggerated notions of liberalism for the rebels and cartoon fascism for the empire. The books are the only thing I know that actually describes what the empire thinks and I could get into that but then I'd have to admit as a child I read Star Wars novels.
Can u tho :meow-popcorn:
Alright, in short, the Empire is just fascist. Although it's different in a lot of ways than in real life, because magic exists. Their overarching ideology is almost a copy and paste of what Nazis said about themselves, except with Jedi instead of communists. The Empire blames every problem it has on non-human species or Jedi provocateurs. Their ideology is built around managing a huge central state and expansionist military operations. All organized religion is illegal too, but that's a sweeping measure to stamp out any potential Jedi. You gotta remember this is a fictional universe where one religion has absolute proof it's correct and being a follower gives you superpowers.
I think I remember one book slyly talking about the empire's need for child rearing, so I'm pretty sure they were heteronormative.
All the aspects of Imperial ideology are about channeling power up to the Emperor, but power I mean actual magical powers. The more people who live in fear, the more the Emperor gains mastery over the dark side.
:side-eye-1: :side-eye-2:
Me and the other
nerdscool guys in the Goosebumps corner be laughing and pointing.Nah bro, I read everything as a child. The most embarrassing thing was the Mary Kate and Ashley Detective novels, there's like 50+ of them and I read every single one. The star wars books were all over the place in terms of quality but I wouldn't be embarrassed about reading them.
It didn't need much explaining in the original trilogy because everyone more or less remembered the Nazis, and the Empire was heavily coded as space Nazis. it's just gotten muddier over time because liberals are doing liberal shit.
It's implied. In the OT you never see any imperials that aren't white men. And they're dressed like Nazis. So the audience could pretty much just figure that part out.
Also their troops are called stormtroopers
Their helmets look like skulls and their boss is a literal Dark Knight. Whereas the good guy wizard is a nice old man who tells people to believe in themselves.
Okay, but the think of all the merchandising opportunities around the space nazis.