I know a lot of people (myself included) are somewhat disappointed at how Imperials/First Order in the new canon are reduced to being simply pure, faceless evil; with the exception of one or two characters who actually have deeper, fuller emotions and motivations. We yearn for the EU days, when Imperials had their own families and dreams, and some were even conflicted about the Empire's methods. However, the more I think about it, the more I think this may have been a good decision on Disney's part, and is likely only temporary.

In making movies like these, you don't necessarily want the audience sympathizing with any of the bad guys (apart from the one or two you deliberately make sympathetic characters). You don't want people thinking of all the grunts being killed off as being misguided people who are honestly trying to make the galaxy better, nor their officers as people who recognize the methods as being wrong, but believe that the ends will justify the means, because the galaxy needs a strong government. In movies, where time is limited, such thoughts distract from the main action, and trying to portray them wouldn't be very believable without devoting even more time to it, further detracting from the primary story.

Even the original Star Wars trilogy was this way. In the entire trilogy, Darth Vader is the only villain who appears to have a real sympathetic side (finding out he's Luke's dad in ESB, then seeing his struggle in RotJ). Pretty much everyone else is either a very hate-able villain (e.g. Palpatine, Tarkin) or just cogs in the giant machine which is the Empire (e.g. Stormtroopers, Piett). It wasn't until the EU that the Empire was really given depth and complexity.

My prediction, then, is that the one-dimensional-ness of the current canon was implemented for the purpose of the movies. Once the movies are finished, we'll start seeing new EU adding more depth to the galaxy once more. (Also, I imagine this will simply start happening naturally as more novels are written and more authors get involved.)

I actually I saw something interesting with Rogue one. A Death Trooper is holding a doll of a Storm Trooper, a toy a child would play with. I think they are showing what they hinted at in the older material, that the Rebel Alliance also has a DARK SIDE. I think that Death Trooper finds dead imperial children and they are &*(. To support this they put a character in this movie that is known for being a terrorist extremest, AND I heard on starwar hq, I believe, that the Rebel cell that is involved in this movie doesn't want the Death Star plans so they can find a weakness.

They want the plans... so they can destroy Loyal Imperial worlds themselves.

A complex, multi-faceted group can still be taken over or fronted by a small group of zealots.

If you read Bloodlines you get some of the FO background. They didn't mean for it to be what it became.

Just like the Imperial Surrender infuriated Imperials who wished to keep fighting, which in turn burned them as they deserted to the unknown regions. Thus mitigating a future conflict.

I personally don't care for Rogue One, but I doubt Disney is going to bring depth back into its antagonists much like most of its characters are for linear people. After all, they're still fighting over family-washing Rogue One when they wanted a war movie.

They have done this with Kallus. In the Rebels episode were he and Zeb are stuck on a moon we learn more about him, including where he got his bo-rifle. Speak up if ya want a spoiler, but let's just say it makes him more likable.

Rae Sloan, Kallus, and Cienna Ree are all major Imperial characters with sympathetic motivations (Though Kallus looks like he's defecting). Even Tarkin has an attempt to give him more depth, though he's still evil to the core. And Grand Admiral Thrawn is being reintroduced into the storyline, so we'll probably get his more pragmatic style too. I think you're confusing the sudden vacuum of characters that comes with a canon reboot with a strategy that avoids giving the Empire deeper characters.

Sloan's like a regurgitated mashup of Palleaon and Daala, with neither of their strong suits.

Sloan's like a regurgitated mashup of Palleaon and Daala, with neither of their strong suits.

I would argue she is without the bad parts of their characters...

Sloan's like a regurgitated mashup of Palleaon and Daala, with neither of their strong suits.

I would argue she is without the bad parts of their characters...

I'd argue that post NJO Daala was a bigger disaster than Isaard, and that was the writer's fault. Pallaeon uniting what's left of the Remnant and becoming a GA hero was good, and treating Thrawn as some weeaboo senpai isn't negative given that the disaster he had to clean up has been bigger than the retcon we're left with.

The scope of Aftermath and condensing twenty years of the GCW, and unfortunately Sloan is one of them. At this rate I'd take Zsinj complete with raving and mustache twirling over these backroom scandals that don't honestly fit a military campaign.

Star Wars Insider appears to have come out with a sympathetic Storm Trooper story in its newest release. I couldn't really read it all the way because I was busy. They appeared very Angry about something the Alliance did so they joined the Empire to fight them.

Sloan's like a regurgitated mashup of Palleaon and Daala , with neither of their strong suits.

I'm surprised you think Daala has strong suits. She's practically a symbol of everything that was wrong with the EU pre-reboot.

Whatever is your subjective opinion on the character, it's clear she is an example of trying to give a sympathetic viewpoint to the Empire, just like Pallaeon was.

I thought Ciena Ree from Lost Stars was a lot more sympathetic than Sloane, personally. While she doesn't defect to the Rebels, she at least catches on to the Empire being kind of evil, around ROTJ. Sloane still doesn't seem to have caught on.

Sloan's like a regurgitated mashup of Palleaon and Daala , with neither of their strong suits.

I'm surprised you think Daala has strong suits. She's practically a symbol of everything that was wrong with the EU pre-reboot.

Whatever is your subjective opinion on the character, it's clear she is an example of trying to give a sympathetic viewpoint to the Empire, just like Pallaeon was.

Caedus was more of a symbol of Legacy of the Force writers running out of original ideas and failing. Daala was that affirmative action kicking in and then proceeding to take the brunt of failing to deliver. She was still better than the Clinton-level psycho that Isaard was.

The problem with the EU is the same thing wrong with Disney, they don't mesh grey areas well. Sympathy isn't so conflicting as actually making a pragmatic or realistic version of the Galactic Civil War. You don't see how the Rebellion handles POWs, desertion, civil unrest, Imperial Sympathizers stuck behind Republic lines, Rebels who were closer to Pirates and Privateers and general terrorists. (Exception of Garm)

I'll say more after work.

Rae Sloan, Kallus, and Cienna Ree are all major Imperial characters with sympathetic motivations (Though Kallus looks like he's defecting). Even Tarkin has an attempt to give him more depth, though he's still evil to the core. And Grand Admiral Thrawn is being reintroduced into the storyline, so we'll probably get his more pragmatic style too. I think you're confusing the sudden vacuum of characters that comes with a canon reboot with a strategy that avoids giving the Empire deeper characters.

Evil to the core? Captain Tarkin is just a soldier who seeks to be efficient and bring order to the galaxy, because order needs to be maintained as chaos would otherwise consume the galaxy with war. Sacrificing one or even a dozen worlds is a small sacrifice in context of a millions of imperial worlds.

Grand Moff Tarkin, well he don't see much from him.

I personally just dislike how condensed and watered down the end of the war is played (or the canon in general). It's not even a faceless evil and drab mustache twirling that's bothering me. It's poor logistics and really, really dumb shadow games of characters that go even farther than the Isaard plot. No amount of injected sympathy is going to add the complexity of a multi-faceted war.

There isn't even a Remnant, they intentionally humiliated what was left of the Empire so that there wasn't much of anything. It's embarrassing, and it's actually brilliant in how they justify it to form the FO. Which suffers its own poorly flawed execution, but at least they're trying to not remake the Shadow Empire, Krennels Hardliners, or any number of resurgence factions that were already overplayed.