I am ashamed to say that a rather large realization I had about the Star Wars universe came not only from one of the updates in the "Super Special Editions" (my name for the further edits made to the already edited films to maintain some continuity with the prequel trilogy), but from a Gungan (the species that Jar Jar Binks belongs to). At the very end of the latest version of Return of the Jedi, after the Empire falls, we see residents of various planets celebrating (in the first rerelease, we got our first view of Coruscant) , and the newest version shows a scene in the capital city on Naboo. A Gungan yells out, "Weesa free!", and I suddenly had an epiphany: we got very few scenes showing us how the Empire functioned as a government. We were well aware of how evil the Empire was because, after all, it was led by two Sith lords. Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader obviously ruled with iron fists based on the actions they took against their own men. However, we only ever saw them in their roles within the Imperial military. I know that wars are fought by soldiers, but wars have politics behind them, and we didn't see any other branch of the Imperial government.
That doesn't mean that we didn't get an idea of how the Empire ruled, but we only ever saw the military. After making my realization, I tried to think of any time in the original trilogy when we saw the Empire interact with civilians, and I came up with a very small number of examples. In A New Hope, we saw the Empire in action when they (1) killed Owen and Beru Lars after learning that R2-D2 and C-3P0 were sold to them and when (2) stormtroopers interrogated people in Mos Eisley about the droids. However, as I came to understand things in both the original and prequel trilogies, neither the Old Republic nor the Empire had much of a foothold on Tatooine. In The Phantom Menace, Republic money was worthless on the planet, which was primarily run by Hutt gangsters, and in A New Hope, Luke's comments about the worthlessness of the planet made it seem unimportant to the Empire. The impression I got was that the stormtroopers who were searching for the droids landed from the Star Destroyer that captured Princess Leia and would pack up once their mission was complete (this could be completely wrong, but it is the impression I got).
The other example is from The Empire Strikes Back; the Empire enforced its will in Cloud City through the use of its military. Once again, our heroes came to a planet free of Imperial influence only to discover that Darth Vader and a few ships from the Imperial Navy showed up to pursue them. Vader made a deal with Lando Calrissian, Han's old friend and the current leader on Cloud City, stating that in return for turning Han, Leia, Chewie, and C-3PO over to the Empire, he would enjoy continued existence free from Imperial control. Throughout the course of their dealings, however, Vader continually altered the deal, knowing that Lando would have no choice but to comply (the alternative was submit to the Empire). If this was any indication, the Empire functioned through its military, using its vast army and navy to bully star systems into compliance.
In A New Hope, there was a brief reference to the Imperial Senate, once the Galactic Senate, and how the Emperor finally dissolved it. From what we could tell, Emperor Palpatine had absolute power to make whatever decision he wished and that the military was used to enforce his will. But this makes me wonder why the Rebel Alliance wasn't larger. If the Empire was as oppressive as we were told it was, and the military was its primary enforcer, then why did it take so long to overthrow? Some people have drawn parallels between Palpatine and Hitler, which I'm not going to wholly refute, but while Hitler singled out groups for the camps, we are led to believe that Palpatine was ruthless to everyone, which is not a way to maintain a government. While going through Wikipedia before starting this post series, one article mentioned that Palpatine had disdain for non-humans, which would bring him more in line with Hitler. But I do not recall seeing this anywhere in the two trilogies; from what we saw, he was indiscriminate in who he would harm.
And yet, in spite of their actions, Palpatine and Vader constantly state that their goal is to bring order to the galaxy. They say this to each other at one point in Revenge of the Sith, which would make us think that maybe they really do believe it. But every other time they say it, it is to others; Palpatine says it to the Senate to make them go along with the idea of an Empire and Vader says it to Luke when trying to bring him to the Dark Side. One doesn't have to look to closely at these two to know that all they really want is power. Or maybe with Vader, there is more there, but that is better reserved for my post about him. Palpatine may believe that order will come out of fear, but I doubt he would have worked as hard as he did during the prequel trilogy if he truly cared about order.
Which brings me to the prequels; unlike the original trilogy, we got more than we bargained for with the political stuff in the new trilogy. George Lucas claims these are kids movies, but when I first saw The Phantom Menace, I was thoroughly confused by the political plot. The Trade Federation blockade made no sense to me and I had no idea what a vote of no confidence was. In Attack of the Clones, the Separatist movement was poorly explained, and in Revenge of the Sith, the "Jedi Rebellion" was one act that only Palpatine witnessed. And yet, while all of those important political events were short-changed, we got numerous scenes of political discourse that seemed superfluous. If the original trilogy was about the civil war between the Empire and the Rebels, the prequel trilogy was about the politics that brought down the Republic. Unfortunately, the politics we saw were either unnecessary or handled extremely poorly. It wasn't until I saw all three prequels at least twice to fully realize Darth Sidious' (Emperor Palpatine's alter ego) plan and how he was manipulating things. I knew he was the one responsible, but everything was so muddled. For instance, I realize that he started the blockade in Phantom Menace to oust the old chancellor with the no confidence vote, but I still am not sure why the Trade Federation went along with it.
Up next: The rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker...
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