Tyrphanax said:
Well the "Empire-as-Good" theory is just for fun or playing devil's advocate.
Star Wars as it stands alone is a very black-and-white film (which is proven in the opening scenes of Star Wars by the black contrast of the imposing, inhuman, armoured, obviously-evil Darth Vader against the stark white walls of the Tantive IV and the "soft", feminine, human, obviously-good Princess Leia in her white dress; because of that, you instantly know who's good and who's evil). It's very simple: the good guys are the good guys, and the bad guys are the bad guys. The good guys don't have to show remorse, because they're killing bad guys; it's like in movies where they kill Nazis, you don't have to show remorse, because Nazis are just evil, no other explanation is required.
Also there's really no cause for them to kill Owen and Beru, or to blow up Alderaan over some stolen plans; that's hardly an eye for an eye. Plus the Empire did the whole "Great Jedi Purge" thing which was pretty evil just to be evil, Anakin was murdering little children and stuff; that's not really a "good guy" thing to do.
Grey areas only enter into it when you get into the EU, but the films themselves are pretty cut-and-dried as far as who the good guys and bad guys are.
From my religious point of view, "bad guys" dying, even if they are evil Nazis or imperial stormtroopers, like the ones in Star Wars, is a very sad and tragic thing; because, exactly, they're are evil. Evil people go to hell and suffer for all of eternity, and THAT is the reason that I am against the idea of "war is glorious war is awesome, fighting bad guys is fun and awesome"!!!!!! If they had lived and repented of their evil ways, they would turn good and have a happy eternity in heaven......Anyways, religion, spirituality, isn't all that relevant to this topic, or the main point that I'm am trying to prove....... I just mentioned that, because, it was my opinion on wars........
I find that/it very hard to believe that the Rebellion Alliance is fighting the Galactic Sith Empire because "Darth Vader dressed in black armour and has a scary, imposing samurai helmet and a deep voice and deep scary breathing" and that the "Princess Leia is a very pretty feminine looking pretty young lady"........
Here's is your reasons on why the Sith, and/or the Galactic Empire is evil.....
Killing Owen and Beru Lars
Destroying Alderaan with the first Death Star
The Great Jedi Purge
And here are my responses to you.... Everything evil that the "bad guys" had done was a response to the Rebellion Alliance.
True, yes, that was very evil. However, would that have ever happened if the rebellion alliance had never existed??? No.
Again, the same concept and idea as what I had written above..... If the Rebellion alliance had never existed, Alderaan survives and no destruction of billions of people!!!!! I will quote the official Star Wars website to prove this!!!!!
The Death Star was the code name of unspeakably powerful and horrific weapons developed by the Empire. The first Death Star was an immense space station that carried a weapon capable of destroying entire planets. The Death Star was to be an instrument of terror, meant to force rebel worlds into surrender under the threat of destruction.
While the massive station is evidence of the evil nature of the Empire, it was also proof of the Empire's greatest weakness -- the belief that technology and terror were superior to the will of beings fighting for freedom. The Rebel Alliance was able to defeat the Death Star threat, as well as a second battle station constructed after the first's destruction.
The Great Jedi Purge. Again, it was a response to the Jedi, who were perescuting the religion of the darksiders, and were a threat to his power, because they were persecuting him......
Maybe I'm am wrong on that last point. Didn't Darth Sidious want to exterminate the "Jedi" for revenge, for vengance??? What was that all about??? The movies don't say why they wanted revenge (like darth maul mentioned in episode 1, or the tite of episode 3 itself.... I don't get that!!!!! Can you please help give me some answers/explanation on the meaning of "The Revenge of the Sith"......
Besides, I'll will most certainly agree with you on that, Order 66, operation knightfall, and the great jedi purge were all not only evil atrocities, but would have happened anyways without the existence of the rebels....
However, that was 20 years ago, the quadrillions/trillions of imperial citizens don't want a war to be waged in which their millions of stormtroopers families member will die to enact vengeance on that, many of whom had nothing to do with that..... The Great Jedi Purge was done and over with, during the time of the original trilogy!!!!!!
They only destroyed one planet with the death star; they had no plans to destroy other planets on a mass scale, they never did that!!!!