Star wars is inherently a political allegory.

Can we have anti patriotism? Is that a thing? Remember folks, napalm sticks to kids.

24 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

@Geressen Not saying that I disagree with you, but I don't want a powderkeg started with my name attached.

I do firmly believe that patriotism should not equate blindness, but again this is a Star Wars forum, not a political one.

star war is the continueation of politics through different means though.

18 minutes ago, ExplosiveTooka said:

Star wars is inherently a political allegory.

Can we have anti patriotism? Is that a thing?

As least in the (Legends) novels I've read, in-universe politics weren't poorly disguised heavy handed political commentary but interesting and varied philosophies, everything from the Chiss Ascendancy and Hapes Consortium existed previously.

4 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

As least in the (Legends) novels I've read, in-universe politics weren't poorly disguised heavy handed political commentary but interesting and varied philosophies, everything from the Chiss Ascendancy and Hapes Consortium existed previously.

The original six movies were all super political.

4 minutes ago, ExplosiveTooka said:

The original six movies were all super political.

There is political influences and some commentary in the OT and PT. The ST has a lot of hamfisted messages in the 2 films so far.

The Last Jedi in particular forgot to be a good movie in it's effort to push it's maker's beliefs.

The latest Star Wars comics have an imperial squad that covers this quite well.

The sergeant even relates how his world was a complete death sentence until the empire came along and put an end to the fight pits etc etc.

Im sure you can make a good “pro-imperial” movie without going down the space nazis tropes.

6 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

There is political influences and some commentary in the OT and PT. The ST has a lot of hamfisted messages in the 2 films so far.

The Last Jedi in particular forgot to be a good movie in it's effort to push it's maker's beliefs.

Lol okay I'm disengaging now

4 minutes ago, ExplosiveTooka said:

Lol okay I'm disengaging now

Fan of the Last Jedi?

Can we please not turn a genuinely interesting thread into a “TLJ sux” thread? Or real world politics? List of potential Imperial main characters:

Soontir Fel (heard him mentioned, love it. Dream big!)

Random stormtrooper squad

General Madine?

Someone brand new

Thrawn and Sloane seem way too well covered elsewhere. Any other ideas?

Actually Madine would be really cool

6 minutes ago, The Jabbawookie said:

Can we please not turn a genuinely interesting thread into a “TLJ sux” thread? Or real world politics? List of potential Imperial main characters:

Soontir Fel (heard him mentioned, love it. Dream big!)

Random stormtrooper squad

General Madine?

Someone brand new

Thrawn and Sloane seem way too well covered elsewhere. Any other ideas?

I would like Thrawn, the main reason being the near guaranteed onscreen appearance of the Chiss Ascendancy.

Plus an outsider joining the Empire would help show a different side of the Empire to the audience, which would be a goal of the film.

Maarek Stele would be a great second choice.

1 minute ago, ExplosiveTooka said:

Actually Madine would be really cool

Is he still a former Storm Commando in Canon?

4 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

Is he still a former Storm Commando in Canon?

He led an Imperial commando unit before defecting. No specific mention of Storm Commandos anymore, though.

And how could I forget Maarek? Shame on me.

"Boy, I haven't been to the forums recently, how have things been today?"

46 minutes ago, Piratical Moustache said:

Is he still a former Storm Commando in Canon?

No? I'm not familiar with his backstory

Perspectives of 3 different characters maybe, each portraying a different view point of someone in the empire. Here is an example. A ruthless aspiring officer who has and is willing to do anything to advance and embraces the empire fully . A seasoned starfighter pilot who believes in the propaganda and ideals of the empire and his struggle to maintain it as he is exposed to the cruelties of it and war. Lastly a lowly grunt imperial army grunt or the like who is sent to a planet to "liberate" where he and a group of cohorts try to do what's right with or without rebels or local populace (denouncing the empire, rebelling or trying to flee)

55 minutes ago, geek19 said:

"Boy, I haven't been to the forums recently, how have things been today?"

I remember reading some storm trooper team that fled the empire after killing an officer who told them to kill some civilian and then mara jade was sent after them but ultimately let them go do their thing as they went around doing anti-imperial stuff...

Dont remember the name of the book.

13 minutes ago, Ling27 said:

I remember reading some storm trooper team that fled the empire after killing an officer who told them to kill some civilian and then mara jade was sent after them but ultimately let them go do their thing as they went around doing anti-imperial stuff...

Dont remember the name of the book.

Allegiance.

My Star Wars film would follow a pair of ISB Officers, one old school from the Republic days while one is a young party fanatic, investigating a string of assassinations of Imperial senators and officials.

They learn there is a group of Imperials who are patriots of the Empire but anti Palpatine and are trying to take over the government. A rebellion but to change the direction of the Empire rather then topple it. They wouldn’t be good guys just not as evil as Palpatine and Tarkin

Valkyrie essentially.

The officers investigate various locations from hubs of Imperial activity to the far corners of the galaxy where Imperial Forces are in the process of conquering worlds.

Upon uncovering the coup, the investigators have this conundrum of loyalty.

It would really be about how loyalty and duty relate to morality.

Look to the Vader comics if you want good stories from an imperial perspective. Basically use the empire as an unchangeable, corrupting force of nature. The characters want order in all this chaos and so turn to the empire's way of doing things. Initially exposed to the face of the empire order, peace, justice, then later seeing the imbalances and then having face all of that being a lie pushed by papa palps because he's an evil space wizard. See: Inspector Thanoth, Tagge(old EU and Disneywars), Doctor Aphra, Grand Moff Tarkin, Soontir Fel, Pellaeon and Thrawn for good Imperial characters. The Shu-Torun arc in the Vader comic was also an excellent tale told from the empire's perspective. The galaxy is not a nice place(coughHUTTScough), the empire may be bad, but for many it is the least bad provided you deal with rank and file and not Palpatine's menagerie of sickos.

P.S. I'm as surprised as anyone that Marvel could make a good comic books still, but the early star wars runs have been solid.

I think it can be done. I agree with what a lot of people have said prior. I'm sure a lot of grunts joined the Armed Forces of the empire for the same reasons real people do: Anything from an idealistic desire to serve to having no other real prospects in life.

I'm not sure if it's the greatest idea, but there is nothing stopping a Band of Brothers like story where you see a group of recruits go through the process and grow into different ends. Maybe some realize that the Empire is morally questionable, maybe some blindly follow orders.

I just can't see a suddenly gun-shy Disney spending big money to make a movie on this. TV show, possibly.

1 hour ago, Stasy said:

I think it can be done. I agree with what a lot of people have said prior. I'm sure a lot of grunts joined the Armed Forces of the empire for the same reasons real people do: Anything from an idealistic desire to serve to having no other real prospects in life.

I'm not sure if it's the greatest idea, but there is nothing stopping a Band of Brothers like story where you see a group of recruits go through the process and grow into different ends. Maybe some realize that the Empire is morally questionable, maybe some blindly follow orders.

I just can't see a suddenly gun-shy Disney spending big money to make a movie on this. TV show, possibly.

yea they ran into a disturbance with the Star wars fans... it was if Millions of Butthurts cried out in Pain and then were suddenly (not) silenced

On 9/25/2018 at 6:25 AM, Norell said:

The Empire 8s faceless by design. Stormtroopers never wear the same armor, pilots never fly the same fighter twice, to keep thrm detached from anything. Rotation of personell is constant for the very same reasin and stormies aren't allowed to call each other by names. How do you want to write a sory with developing relationships and personal growth in a system that was designed to root out anything like that?

The only possibility is to focus on an Imperial hero, but then you can't paint him anything less thn lawful evil, otherwise it wouldn't make sense... And how many moviegoers can identify themselves with such character?

In a similar way to how the Unsullied were portrayed in Game of Thrones. And yes you are absolutely correct in your description of Imperial “de-humanisation” protocol, but human spirit is pretty hard to erase, you will always find people bending or braking the rules even in highly-structured totalitarian organisations. You could definitely tell a compelling story about or within that setting.

Star Wars’ problem in this regard, for me, is that the OT was very much on-the-nose allegory, and when you try to make allegory “realistic” it rarely works. The Empire isn’t supposed to accurately represent the real-world pros and cons of a lived-in totalitarian regime.

If you were going to give things a more realistic spin, it’s not hard at all to bring out the benefits of the Empire over it’s alternatives. Would you rather live in a an grey, amoral wild west where the government is too weak or corrupt to actually protect the weak from the predatory strong, or in a (too) black and white regime where safety is given as a reward for compliance?

The answer is different from person to person, but it’s not hard at all to see why people would prefer the Empire to the Old (or New) Republic.

The ground troops in the Solo movie don’t exactly seem like typical space nazis, but normal people who are stuck in their job.

Plenty of imperial stories to tell.