What makes the Empire in Star Wars evil?

[CommanderL]

They are not evil they just blew up a planet and enslaved countless cultures and worlds and blew those planets that didnt want to be under the baner of the empire into dust there is also the torture But they are the good guys Right guys I mean its not like They have something they named a death star

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

But Alderaan didn't have any gathering enemies...they blew it up just to show how big their space-dicks were and anger Princess Leia.

Yeah it was a World War II reference.

OT: In the original trilogy there's every indication that the Empire wasn't really evil. Vader's (before "Darth" became a title) reference to "there'll be no escape for you this time" clearly meant that he was being pushed and was stretching the law, which meant there were laws and processes protecting civil liberties. There's also an interesting theory about how the Stormtroopers had trouble shooting civilians because they weren't trained to do that. They seemed to shoot just fine when it was against people in uniform. Then again there's also the mention that blowing up the first Death Star was killing Imperial soldiers who understood the risks of their jobs. Blowing up the second Death Star included a lot of innocent contractors with families. Yeah the Rebels were terrorists and by succeeding in taking down the Empire they just caused a lot of chaos and killed a lot of innocent people.

Must I invoke the Clerks argument?
Paraphrased: Those contractors knew what they were getting into, knew the risks and still decided to do the job. Like contractors who went to Iraq to help rebuild, some of them have been killed or harmed by insurgents. The difference in Star Wars is that the Empire wasn't rebuilding a country but building a superweapon designed specifically to destroy planets. Theres no practical application for such a weapon.
Before we go into the Hiroshima/Nagasaki argument, those were military targets with collateral damage, much the same as the 2nd Death Star which isn't the same as blowing up a whole planet to quell a rebellion against an unjust galactic Empire ruled by a power-mad dictator who's sole purpose was to dominate every living being. Palpatine vilified and murdered the Jedi Order once Windu and crew tried to oust him, started the entire Separatist movement specifically to put himself at the head of the Republic and murdered an entire planet by proxy of Grand Moff Tarkin.
Just following orders is not a valid argument for those soldiers who did Palps bidding either, unless you go with the theory that Palpatine had domination of their minds which explains why after his death the superior forces at Endor lost to the Rebellion.

 

[4173]

they only blew up Alderaan because the enemy was gathering there

I'll take "Questions that answer themselves" for $100.


edit: Torching Luke's aunt and uncle and those Jawas wasn't very nice.


Oh yeah, and slavery.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

In the movies, the Imperials/Dark Side are a democratic republic, they kept the galaxy in peace, they only blew up Alderaan because the enemy was gathering there and they allowed freedom to express emotion while the light side of the force achieved none of this.

*Note that I am excluding the latest movies because they were just garbage.

They committed genocide and destroyed an entire planet, just to prove a point. Tarkin responded to an anti imperial protest by landing a star destroyer on top of the protestors.

They developed terror weapons and dissolved planetary governments in favor of regional governors that ruled through military rule.

They didn't give a shit about the Outer Rim, leaving it to fall into lawlessness, and Palpatine himself encouraged backstabbing to raise through the ranks. They were social Darwinists taken to the extreme, entire species were subjugated as slave labor.

In response to planets that backed the CIS during the Clone Wars, at least one was subjected to a nanovirus bombing that wiped out the entire planet's population in minutes, then repopulated the planet with loyalists.

Seriously, the Galactic Empire is second only to the Imperium of Man for genocidal, fascist autocracies.

 

[Sidmen]

Both the Empire and the Republic were very ambiguous entities. The Republic started a war by invading Geonosis after their agents were caught spying on an independent system's leadership. Then, the CIS broke away and instead of trying to resolve things diplomatically or establish peaceful co-existance - they start a galaxy-wide war to keep control over worlds that no longer wanted to be ruled by them.

The Empire continued this with a campaign of Terror and military conscription. Started enslaving races that nobody cared about (the wookiees), and even engineered viruses designed to kill all non-humans.

For those things, they are evil. But they also did many good things - establishing peace and order, advancing science and technology, and building moon-sized weapons of mass destruction (instead of, say, smaller planet-killing devices like asteroids).

 

[Fatboy_41]

There is a podcast out there called "A different point of view" which I think every Star Wars fan would enjoy and should listen to. It's written from the point of view of TD-0013, a Sandtrooper stationed in Tatooine. There are some pretty compelling arguments for siding with the Empire.

 

[WanderingFool]

In the movies, the Imperials/Dark Side are a democratic republic, they kept the galaxy in peace, they only blew up Alderaan because the enemy was gathering there and they allowed freedom to express emotion while the light side of the force achieved none of this.

*Note that I am excluding the latest movies because they were just garbage.

Hoo-Ly Shit...

If you think destroying a entire planet to get what may be only several hundred people is fair... you got some problems, son.

Also, I am amused you say you dont count the latest movies, but your third pint is never touched upon in the original three movies. It was only in the "new trilogy", did they actually explain the whole Light side is boring, Dark side is awesome[footnote] This is one of the things that I hate about the new trilogy, they not only make the force something you have to be born into, they made the Jedi basically the priesthood.[/footnote] data bits.

Also, the Empire a Democratic Republic? Seriously, what? They even said in the first movie that the Emperor disbanded the Senate, and instead had the various systems in the Republic governed by what were basically feudal lords.

None of your examples actually paint the Empire is a positive light.

Actually, I forgot you "keeping the Peace" point, which they did do, as they were the most powerful force in the galaxy. That wasnt peace, it was fear that kept the other systems in line, and had the Death Star not been blown up (twice), it would have be yet another sword held above the whole galaxy's head.

 

[zehydra]

lol democratic? They are in no way shape or form democratic.

 

[Shadowstar38]

I'm more or less sure the planet they blew up was a peaceful one.

Though even if it wasn't, why blow up a planet even if there were military guys on it? Thats BILLIONS of people to take out what might be A COUPLE THOUSAND.

In fact, why have a weapon that blows up planets at all? That takes out way more civilians than than actual threats no matter where you use that thing.

Also, lets not forget that the Emperor got rid of democracy and murder a fuck ton of jedi to get in power over the galaxy, and then fucks over the rebels who really only want freedom for everyone.

And this isn't even getting into Vader using torture on Leia, the stormtropers burning Luke's parents to death, or the Emperor himself laughing evilly as he gets a boy to murder his own father.

Jesus dude. Really? Really?

 

[Slash Joel]

And to add to the list besides the blowing up a planet. The empire is extremely racist to anything that is not human with hate crimes being legal and many other horrible things happening to the species of the galaxy. The act of pure arrogant hate is one of the most evil things ever a person can commit and it can be in different forms.

 

[Cale Lively]

Because we have artificial values for what is good and evil and the Empire is thus defined as evil? I mean honestly if Hitler had won we would all cheer the Holocaust. Morality is and artificial construct and we define the actions of the Empire/Dark side as evil. Honestly because they are supposed to be...is the honest answer

 

[Jessta]

Oh nothing much has made them evil... Just torture, slavery, genocide.... Normal stuff.

Wow when you put it that way it sounds like the English after a bad cup o' tea.

 

[Nimzabaat]

But Alderaan didn't have any gathering enemies...they blew it up just to show how big their space-dicks were and anger Princess Leia.

Yeah it was a World War II reference.

OT: In the original trilogy there's every indication that the Empire wasn't really evil. Vader's (before "Darth" became a title) reference to "there'll be no escape for you this time" clearly meant that he was being pushed and was stretching the law, which meant there were laws and processes protecting civil liberties. There's also an interesting theory about how the Stormtroopers had trouble shooting civilians because they weren't trained to do that. They seemed to shoot just fine when it was against people in uniform. Then again there's also the mention that blowing up the first Death Star was killing Imperial soldiers who understood the risks of their jobs. Blowing up the second Death Star included a lot of innocent contractors with families. Yeah the Rebels were terrorists and by succeeding in taking down the Empire they just caused a lot of chaos and killed a lot of innocent people.

But clerks also points out that any contractors on the second death star wouldn't have known what they were getting into. they would have taken the job full well knowing the risks.

So they would AND wouldn't have known what they were getting into? Okay, I agree and disagree with that. It's irrelevant though because while a contractor may know that there are risks associated with their jobs (I'm sure the guy installing the toilets was pretty guilt-free), it still doesn't make it okay to murder them. Besides there is no indication, none whatsoever, that the galaxy would have been worse off if the rebellion had died over Endor. For all we know once the bad people were gone, the Emperor may have reinstated the Senate and thrown a big party for all the good citizens. We'll never know now will we.

 

[Lucky Godzilla]

They wrote the prequels

 

[Agayek]

In the movies, the Imperials/Dark Side are a democratic republic, they kept the galaxy in peace, they only blew up Alderaan because the enemy was gathering there and they allowed freedom to express emotion while the light side of the force achieved none of this.

*Note that I am excluding the latest movies because they were just garbage.

Honestly? Just constraining myself to the movies: Torture and random murder are the hallmarks of their operations. They did their thing, and murdered any/everyone who objected (see: Jedi purges, Uncle Owen and Aunt Peru, Admiral Ozzel, etc).

If you go into the EU, there's even more reason. The best example I can think of is a weapon they designed called the Sun Crusher. It's approximately the size of an X-wing, and it causes stars to go supernova.

They also explicitly endorse slavery and hate crimes against non-humans, but that's pretty low-key in the movies.

 

[Loonyyy]

1) I don't think you know what a democracy is. EMPEROR. It's a dictatorship, run by an evil wizard. We get informed during Episode IV that he dissolved all the democratic elements as well.
2) They're a giant, fascist, militaristic bunch of nutters building giant death machines everywhere.
3) They killed billions of people to test said death machine, and kill a small number of dissidents, who were pacifists.

Now, if you want to ask if they were really all that evil before the Rebellion was there for them to do most of their evil in the fighting of, then that's a different question. But as we see them, they're straight up evil from the start.

There are good questions you could ask as to how bad the Empire is, and none of those are even near what you've suggested.

 

[Nimzabaat]

But Alderaan didn't have any gathering enemies...they blew it up just to show how big their space-dicks were and anger Princess Leia.

Yeah it was a World War II reference.

OT: In the original trilogy there's every indication that the Empire wasn't really evil. Vader's (before "Darth" became a title) reference to "there'll be no escape for you this time" clearly meant that he was being pushed and was stretching the law, which meant there were laws and processes protecting civil liberties. There's also an interesting theory about how the Stormtroopers had trouble shooting civilians because they weren't trained to do that. They seemed to shoot just fine when it was against people in uniform. Then again there's also the mention that blowing up the first Death Star was killing Imperial soldiers who understood the risks of their jobs. Blowing up the second Death Star included a lot of innocent contractors with families. Yeah the Rebels were terrorists and by succeeding in taking down the Empire they just caused a lot of chaos and killed a lot of innocent people.

Must I invoke the Clerks argument?
Paraphrased: Those contractors knew what they were getting into, knew the risks and still decided to do the job. Like contractors who went to Iraq to help rebuild, some of them have been killed or harmed by insurgents. The difference in Star Wars is that the Empire wasn't rebuilding a country but building a superweapon designed specifically to destroy planets. Theres no practical application for such a weapon.
Before we go into the Hiroshima/Nagasaki argument, those were military targets with collateral damage, much the same as the 2nd Death Star which isn't the same as blowing up a whole planet to quell a rebellion against an unjust galactic Empire ruled by a power-mad dictator who's sole purpose was to dominate every living being. Palpatine vilified and murdered the Jedi Order once Windu and crew tried to oust him, started the entire Separatist movement specifically to put himself at the head of the Republic and murdered an entire planet by proxy of Grand Moff Tarkin.
Just following orders is not a valid argument for those soldiers who did Palps bidding either, unless you go with the theory that Palpatine had domination of their minds which explains why after his death the superior forces at Endor lost to the Rebellion.

Just because the contractors knew that their job might be dangerous doesn't give anyone the right to murder them. And besides, they were building an instrument for galactic peace. That's what trying to own everything is, the quest for peace.
Besides there was every indication in the original trilogy that the Rebellion itself pushed the Emperor and Lord Vader into using more extreme methods to stop them. For all we know if the Empire had succeeded in trapping and destroying the Rebels at Endor, he may have reinstated the senate and let everyone relax. There may even have been a tax rebate since the Imperial military would have been able to scale back Palpatine bucks for everybody! (Which is way better than palpating bucks for everyone, they feel disgusting)