The show is very realistic but I thought that was too direct. It was too heavy on "Empire bad, regular Joes good" when we know it's not that simple. Sure we saw the inspector was a creep and wanted a BJ with consent to look the other way about visas. But dude was committing a forcible sexual assault on the job, in uniform on a screaming, resisting woman while his colleagues are standing outside? And in a professional bureaucracy that operates like clockwork and has a "Ministry of Enlightenment" to manage its image via propaganda. Not saying it wouldn't happen but it would have made the news, dude would have been reprimanded and likely lost his job, and it would have been a PR headache for whoever manages the Empire's Spacebook page.
I get why they did the scene but I hope the rest of the season keeps it more ambiguous on who is really the bad guys vs. good guys. I'd also expect more regular Joes willing to rat out rebel scum like old dude did last episode. Most IRL people vote with their own necks when push comes to shove.
The beauty of this show is they can keep us guessing like this and there's no wrong answer.
The show is very realistic but I thought that was too direct. It was too heavy on the notion of "Empire bad, regular Joes good" when we know it's not that simple. Sure we saw the inspector was a creep and wanted a BJ with consent to look the other way about visas. But dude was committing a forcible sexual assault on the job, in uniform to a screaming, resisting woman when his colleagues are right outside? And in a professional bureaucracy that operates like clockwork and has a "Ministry of Enlightenment" to manage its image via propaganda. Not saying it wouldn't happen but it would have made the news, dude would have been reprimanded and likely lost his job, and it would have been a PR headache for whoever manages the Empire's Spacebook page.
I get why they did the scene but I hope the rest of the season keeps it more ambiguous on who is really the bad guy vs. good guy. I'd also expect more regular Joes willing to rat out rebel scum like old dude did last episode. Most IRL people vote with their own necks when push comes to shove.
I don't think who's good and bad is at all ambiguous. The Empire is evil, resistance to them is good, it just shows that resistance and war is messy and that bad things are done in service of the greater good when fighting an evil regime and that rebellion to that regime isn't perfect and that the good guys in this case, are painted as terrorists while the terrorists are painted as "preserving order." I find the idea of there being ambiguity highly, highly, puzzling to say the least.
I don't think this was too direct at all. SA is common in imperial conquest and war. The Empire to this point wiped out the Jedi including wholesale slaughtering children and they're all about slavery. This mirrors real life as well. The Empire are literal fascists and their methods and doings are modeled after what the Nazis and various imperial powers have done.
I don't think who's good and bad is at all ambiguous. The Empire is evil, resistance to them is good, it just shows that resistance and war is messy and that bad things are done in service of the greater good when fighting an evil regime and that rebellion to that regime isn't perfect and that the good guys in this case, are painted as terrorists while the terrorists are painted as "preserving order." I find the idea of there being ambiguity highly, highly, puzzling to say the least.
I don't think this was too direct at all. SA is common in imperial conquest and war. The Empire to this point wiped out the Jedi including wholesale slaughtering children and they're all about slavery. This mirrors real life as well. The Empire are literal fascists and their methods and doings are modeled after what the Nazis and various imperial powers have done.
Can't say I disagree, but this is where it gets nuanced. Clearly the Emperor is evil and his "hand of the king" Anakin has been a galactic prick so by definition their organization is evil.
But is everyone who works for the Empire evil? I'm going to say no. Andor S1 established that SOME, possibly many Imps are career civil servants trying to follow the rules and pay the bills. Most of them have never seen a jedi and probably believe the propaganda that those guys were overpowered assholes who tried to assassinate the lawfully elected Chancellor to hold onto their power (and there is some truth to that).
Andor's version of the Empire has strict rules and protocol to maintain order. Rapist immigration guy's supervisor wouldn't be pleased to know his inspector were accepting BJs to not report visa violations. And he surely wouldn't want his man raping the locals and generating bad PR (making it harder to maintain order).
And probably not unlike Nazi Germany, there would be folks within the organization who didn't share the Fuhrer's ideology and possibly even thought he was a moron. But they liked the idea of keeping their jobs.
Intelligent series like this one, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, the first 6 seasons of GOT, etc. mirror real life where most folks are neither good nor evil. Sometimes good people do bad things and vice versa. And the Andor-esque episodes of Mandalorian showed the New Republic stepping into the Empire's shoes in many ways, with plenty of greed and injustice to go around with the little guy still getting hosed.
Can't say I disagree, but this is where it gets nuanced. Clearly the Emperor is evil and his "hand of the king" Anakin has been a galactic prick so by definition their organization is evil.
But is everyone who works for the Empire evil? I'm going to say no. Andor S1 established that SOME, possibly many Imps are career civil servants trying to follow the rules and pay the bills. Most of them have never seen a jedi and probably believe the propaganda that those guys were overpowered assholes who tried to assassinate the lawfully elected Chancellor to hold onto their power (and there is some truth to that).
Andor's version of the Empire has strict rules and protocol to maintain order. Rapist immigration guy's supervisor wouldn't be pleased to know his inspector were accepting BJs to not report visa violations. And he surely wouldn't want his man raping the locals and generating bad PR (making it harder to maintain order).
And probably not unlike Nazi Germany, there would be folks within the organization who didn't share the Fuhrer's ideology and possibly even thought he was a moron. But they liked the idea of keeping their jobs.
Intelligent series like this one, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, the first 6 seasons of GOT, etc. mirror real life where most folks are neither good nor evil. Sometimes good people do bad things and vice versa. And the Andor-esque episodes of Mandalorian showed the New Republic stepping into the Empire's shoes in many ways, with plenty of greed and injustice to go around with the little guy continuing to get hosed.
It's not that I fully disagree, it's just when and where to apply nuance, and I think for the most part, I wouldn't apply it within the context of the show nor this conversation. While I certainly agree they were propagandized, that doesn't make them less dangerous. Germany was propagandized, KKK terrorists are propagandized, so forth. When a boot is on one's neck, they're not afforded the luxury of nuance, the boot needs to be removed. What's that saying, if 11 people are sitting at a bar and one is a Nazi and the others tolerate their presence, there's 11 Nazis? Something like that.
While I agree the rapist's supervisor wouldn't be pleased if it became an issue he was accountable for, I question first of all whether he'd even care beyond it making his job more difficult, and if this hadn't happened before. It's a tyrannical regime, abuse of power is the law of the land, err, galaxy and I doubt it's a one off. They're in the middle of rounding people up and shot one in the back. I'm looking at it situationally and historically, this is kinda par for the course behavior of a tyrannical regime. For me, the big picture isn't nuanced, only individual situations in specific contexts would be which I've not seen presented here. I mean, in the board meaning these people casually discussing resource theft and genocide on a planetary scale. There's no way around what that is. That's what the Empire does.
I'm almost done with a book about how fascism works so the timing is interesting.
It's not that I fully disagree, it's just when and where to apply nuance, and I think for the most part, I wouldn't apply it within the context of the show nor this conversation. While I certainly agree they were propagandized, that doesn't make them less dangerous. Germany was propagandized, KKK terrorists are propagandized, so forth. When a boot is on one's neck, they're not afforded the luxury of nuance, the boot needs to be removed. What's that saying, if 11 people are sitting at a bar and one is a Nazi and the others tolerate their presence, there's 11 Nazis? Something like that.
While I agree the rapist's supervisor wouldn't be pleased if it became an issue he was accountable for, I question first of all whether he'd even care beyond it making his job more difficult, and if this hadn't happened before. It's a tyrannical regime, abuse of power is the law of the land, err, galaxy and I doubt it's a one off. They're in the middle of rounding people up and shot one in the back. I'm looking at it situationally and historically, this is kinda par for the course behavior of a tyrannical regime. For me, the big picture isn't nuanced, only individual situations in specific contexts would be which I've not seen presented here. I mean, in the board meaning these people casually discussing resource theft and genocide on a planetary scale. There's no way around what that is. That's what the Empire does.
I'm almost done with a book about how fascism works so the timing is interesting.
I think we're saying the same thing bro. Of course the Empire as a regime is evil because like I said, we know both the Man and the Man Sitting Next to the Man are evil, as are many (but possibly not all) of their most senior officers as you point out.
But lets not forget that the ISB is the Gestapo/KGB of the Empire and NOT the rank and file. Krennic swears everyone to secrecy because they're talking about a planned genocide with PR spin doctors on deck to set the stage and paper it over afterwards. They wouldn't do that if this happened every day in the public domain and they thought they could get away with it.
By 4 BBY the Empire has been in power 15 years. And this isn't 1933 Germany but an entire galaxy of thousands of planets where hyperspace travel, radio and internet, and super advanced weapon systems and coms exist. There is no way the Empire would have lasted that long if they didn't at least pretend to enforce rule of law and the INS were regularly raping random visa violators and one-up managers didn't care about it. Obviously abuses of power are happening but it stands to reason it is more frequent and brazen than in the past, and in the show's timeline, things are coming to a head because the galaxy at large has finally had it with these MFing snakes on this MFing plane.
My main point is that good or bad gets more ambiguous within the Empire as you move down into middle management and the rank and file. Kino Loy was a jailer/warden for the Empire (and himself a prisoner) but he thought he was just following the rules to get a fair shake for himself and his men. And just based on what we've seen on this show, there's no shortage of Rebel sympathizers/spies/double agents within the Empire. Cassian himself had been an Imperial conscript soldier and remember the Lonni dude from S1 who had spent 6 years as a Rebel spy serving as an ISB Director. So working for the Empire =/= unequivocally bad.
Loved the first 3 episodes. Others might have been bored with it but I was totally engaged with every scene. Reminds me of other shows that are slow-paced but moves with intentional purpose and an eye for details like Better Call Saul. Cassian's arc in the first 3 episodes was ironically the weakest of the bunch but still very entertaining and still better to most dramas out there.
Well said, While spending too much time "for my initial expectations" on a couple of sub-plot points... I'm now full on appreciation. These political backdrops are an important reality of how the rebellion became organized, & so makes a nice launching pad for the story to unfold from.
Teh snails paced moves toward discovering teh super-weapon checks out at 4 years out. It shows how scattered & disorganized the rebellion was & how difficult it was for high profile people like Mon & Luthan to operate in the shadows without being detected.
This show is just beautiful. The opening shot in episode one alone was just chef's kiss. So many incredible shots and imagery. Loved that they really spent on lavish sets and shot on location.
This^
While we certainly didn't need such detail of the wedding, it made an eye candy backdrop for teh politics to unfold. Dat mountain scene, yeah?
I love teh contrast with all teh scenery. Wedding to wheatfieldz, jungle, outer space, imperial hanger, sterile living quarterz for GQ'z couple of teh year.
It makes sense that he would spent time between teh imperial hanger & Yavin getting to know teh controlz, practicing & overall familiarizing himself wit teh controlz. Once that's done, his experience adapts to the new controlz.
Saw G ranted to Luthan in season one about how teh current rebelz are disorganized & stupid... (or however he said it.) So it's great to see that play out.
My biggest gripe is that they could've cut that jungle scene in half. Make teh point & then move on. though we did need that rock/paper/scissorz... imo.
I waz hoping Andy would swoop back on his way out & kill teh monsteh, giving them food & showing his support for what is likely teh onez who developed teh Yavin base for teh OT.
Dedra started out Team Empire and was raised in an Imperial orphanage. But I think they'll reveal her "criminal" parents were Rebel "heroes" executed by the state.
I don't think this was too direct at all. SA is common in imperial conquest and war. The Empire to this point wiped out the Jedi including wholesale slaughtering children and they're all about slavery. This mirrors real life as well. The Empire are literal fascists and their methods and doings are modeled after what the Nazis and various imperial powers have done.
We all know it happenz, & SWs has a running theme of "Empire Bad"... which I think is important, but rape is something I prefer not to "see" in Star Warz.
I think teh "Empire Bad" theme is important to continually re-visit: One of teh Bloodline novelz described a planet that the New Republic couldn't police after they "liberated" them from the remnants of teh empire. Pirates took over, enslaved teh people & gutted all their natural resources. Teh planets rep told teh New Republic: "Though hard on us, at least we were safe under the empire & had plenty of food & water."
This is important, because though most of teh canon focusez on showing teh resistance... it's a fact dat teh galaxy at large seez poor old Palpatine, who waz brutally attacked & deformed by teh prior democratic police, as a viable leader. So we need these "Empire Bad" tidbits that are spread throughout all of canon, imo.
is everyone who works for the Empire evil? I'm going to say no. Andor S1 established that SOME, possibly many Imps are career civil servants trying to follow the rules and pay the bills.
SWs showz often that the empire is filled with regular people just doing a job, (Star wars canteen skit - Kylo Ren Undercover Boss) & as such can & will turn when they see thingz that are contrary to their moralz. Teh opening scene showz one such career person helping Andy for that very reason. There'z also teh kind of people who embrace corruption with whatever power they're given & abuse it, but I'd say there'z probably more people who are not at that level of corruption, & are just trying to do their job.
LETS GET K-2SO UP IN HERRE!!!
The canon is already written for how Andy gets K-2SO. Will be great to watch it play out on screen though. They obviously have to follow already established canon.
Andy went to planet Wecacoa, to extract Imperial security protocolz... waz arrested by K-2SO & the 2 fought until one of the other rebelz found K-2SO kill switch.
I think we'll get K-2SO in teh next ep. That mission is likely "Tie" critical to justify why they stole teh Tie fighter. Better sooner than later to get teh fan fave robot into teh mix.
CHARLES JEFFERSON KILLING IT AZ SAW
In Rogue One, we see Saw G on a breather, & with a missing foot. That mission is NOT spelled out in canon yet. it takes place in 1BBY... & is about retrieving intel... so I think that's teh big final battle for this series that leadz us into Rogue One.
Spoiler: No Bothanz died to bring us this information~
I think we're saying the same thing bro. Of course the Empire as a regime is evil because like I said, we know both the Man and the Man Sitting Next to the Man are evil, as are many (but possibly not all) of their most senior officers as you point out.
But lets not forget that the ISB is the Gestapo/KGB of the Empire and NOT the rank and file. Krennic swears everyone to secrecy because they're talking about a planned genocide with PR spin doctors on deck to set the stage and paper it over afterwards. They wouldn't do that if this happened every day in the public domain and they thought they could get away with it.
By 4 BBY the Empire has been in power 15 years. And this isn't 1933 Germany but an entire galaxy of thousands of planets where hyperspace travel, radio and internet, and super advanced weapon systems and coms exist. There is no way the Empire would have lasted that long if they didn't at least pretend to enforce rule of law and the INS were regularly raping random visa violators and one-up managers didn't care about it. Obviously abuses of power are happening but it stands to reason it is more frequent and brazen than in the past, and in the show's timeline, things are coming to a head because the galaxy at large has finally had it with these MFing snakes on this MFing plane.
My main point is that good or bad gets more ambiguous within the Empire as you move down into middle management and the rank and file. Kino Loy was a jailer/warden for the Empire (and himself a prisoner) but he thought he was just following the rules to get a fair shake for himself and his men. And just based on what we've seen on this show, there's no shortage of Rebel sympathizers/spies/double agents within the Empire. Cassian himself had been an Imperial conscript soldier and remember the Lonni dude from S1 who had spent 6 years as a Rebel spy serving as a ISB Director. So working for the Empire =/= unequivocally bad.
There's plenty of people in the NYPD who are trying to do the right thing. Plenty of good officers trying to uphold law and order. And yet there's still guys getting caught abusing the power dynamic during arrests to get off. Go back to any decade, it was happening then too. Some leadership abhors this sort of activity and will harshly punish it internally, other leadership sweeps it under the rug and doesn't care until media draw attention to the abuses.
With a radio blackout on the planet during their audit and no body cams, there's a certain degree of impunity.
I think we're saying the same thing bro. Of course the Empire as a regime is evil because like I said, we know both the Man and the Man Sitting Next to the Man are evil, as are many (but possibly not all) of their most senior officers as you point out.
But lets not forget that the ISB is the Gestapo/KGB of the Empire and NOT the rank and file. Krennic swears everyone to secrecy because they're talking about a planned genocide with PR spin doctors on deck to set the stage and paper it over afterwards. They wouldn't do that if this happened every day in the public domain and they thought they could get away with it.
By 4 BBY the Empire has been in power 15 years. And this isn't 1933 Germany but an entire galaxy of thousands of planets where hyperspace travel, radio and internet, and super advanced weapon systems and coms exist. There is no way the Empire would have lasted that long if they didn't at least pretend to enforce rule of law and the INS were regularly raping random visa violators and one-up managers didn't care about it. Obviously abuses of power are happening but it stands to reason it is more frequent and brazen than in the past, and in the show's timeline, things are coming to a head because the galaxy at large has finally had it with these MFing snakes on this MFing plane.
My main point is that good or bad gets more ambiguous within the Empire as you move down into middle management and the rank and file. Kino Loy was a jailer/warden for the Empire (and himself a prisoner) but he thought he was just following the rules to get a fair shake for himself and his men. And just based on what we've seen on this show, there's no shortage of Rebel sympathizers/spies/double agents within the Empire. Cassian himself had been an Imperial conscript soldier and remember the Lonni dude from S1 who had spent 6 years as a Rebel spy serving as a ISB Director. So working for the Empire =/= unequivocally bad.
Hmm, I agree, I suppose I may have misread the context of the first post I responded to as I didn't understand the why more than anything but I also think the limitations of text play into that, I think this convo would've probably been about 30-45 seconds in real life.
The only thing I maintain - and this is opinion mind you so it's not like I'm trying to be "right" or anything - is that I don't think the attempted rape presented was far fetched, not simply for the reasons I noted but also because this is an isolated, backwater planet with people who've no real power nor connections.
We all know it happenz, & SWs has a running theme of "Empire Bad"... which I think is important, but rape is something I prefer not to "see" in Star Warz.
I think teh "Empire Bad" theme is important to continually re-visit: One of teh Bloodline novelz described a planet that the New Republic couldn't police after they "liberated" them from the remnants of teh empire. Pirates took over, enslaved teh people & gutted all their natural resources. Teh planets rep told teh New Republic: "Though hard on us, at least we were safe under the empire & had plenty of food & water."
This is important, because though most of teh canon focusez on showing teh resistance... it's a fact dat teh galaxy at large seez poor old Palpatine, who waz brutally attacked & deformed by teh prior democratic police, as a viable leader. So we need these "Empire Bad" tidbits that are spread throughout all of canon, imo.
SWs showz often that the empire is filled with regular people just doing a job, (Star wars canteen skit - Kylo Ren Undercover Boss) & as such can & will turn when they see thingz that are contrary to their moralz. Teh opening scene showz one such career person helping Andy for that very reason.
Yeah, I'm of course not going to try to tell you nor anyone else that you should be fine with it, it's totally valid if you don't want to see this kind of thing in SW, I can only give my perspective.
It doesn't bother me because I think it fits with the very serious tone of Andor and because contextually it makes sense in the story - backwater planet, isolated, no communication in or out, the Empire has total control and it didn't seem like the first time that officer had done that. Stuff like this happens in real life and Tony Gilroy knows history well, he wouldn't put something like this in the show for no reason and I think they handled it with care, it doesn't feel like a cheap way to illicit an emotional response from the audience.
Because Andor is a very serious, very adult show and SW contains every atrocity imaginable in it, it doesn't bother me; it's not out of place.
Yeah, I'm of course not going to try to tell you nor anyone else that you should be fine with it, it's totally valid if you don't want to see this kind of thing in SW, I can only give my perspective.
It doesn't bother me because I think it fits with the very serious tone of Andor and because contextually it makes sense in the story - backwater planet, isolated, no communication in or out, the Empire has total control and it didn't seem like the first time that officer had done that. Stuff like this happens in real life and Tony Gilroy knows history well, he wouldn't put something like this in the show for no reason and I think they handled it with care, it doesn't feel like a cheap way to illicit an emotional response from the audience.
Because Andor is a very serious, very adult show and SW contains every atrocity imaginable in it, it doesn't bother me; it's not out of place.
I agree it's not out of place for the reality of the world Lucas built... & I'm sure it happenz daily across teh entire galaxy.
As you opened with... it's just my personal preference that it was a little too hard to show it play out in Star Wars, but that said... it has now been shown & so it is what it is.
Yeah, I'm of course not going to try to tell you nor anyone else that you should be fine with it, it's totally valid if you don't want to see this kind of thing in SW, I can only give my perspective.
It doesn't bother me because I think it fits with the very serious tone of Andor and because contextually it makes sense in the story - backwater planet, isolated, no communication in or out, the Empire has total control and it didn't seem like the first time that officer had done that. Stuff like this happens in real life and Tony Gilroy knows history well, he wouldn't put something like this in the show for no reason and I think they handled it with care, it doesn't feel like a cheap way to illicit an emotional response from the audience.
Because Andor is a very serious, very adult show and SW contains every atrocity imaginable in it, it doesn't bother me; it's not out of place.
There's plenty of people in the NYPD who are trying to do the right thing. Plenty of good officers trying to uphold law and order. And yet there's still guys getting caught abusing the power dynamic during arrests to get off. Go back to any decade, it was happening then too. Some leadership abhors this sort of activity and will harshly punish it internally, other leadership sweeps it under the rug and doesn't care until media draw attention to the abuses.
With a radio blackout on the planet during their audit and no body cams, there's a certain degree of impunity.
The radio blockade is a great point. On top of being in the Outer Rim, the audit team likely thought the visit was "off the books" and without oversight, making them even more brazen.
But in a lawful society, longstanding government orgs have to at least PRETEND to be the good guys. I am really curious how this works in the Empire. Is it just chain of command with no oversight i.e. martial law? Is there an Inspector General or watchdog group/opposing political party to act as a check on power? Because based on what we've seen in this show, the Empire IS concerned with public opinion.
In the heist episode from S1, Imperial ambassador guy disdained the locals but put up with their shit and allowed them to observe their rituals because... diplomatic relations? And likewise on Ferrix, the Empire let the locals do the funeral procession in the streets despite the security risk because... they're super nice guys? In S1 we saw that the Empire deeply cares about security incidents because they foreshadow rebellion.
I haven't seen a clear answer to this in the show. If the threat of armed rebellion is the only check on the Empire's absolute power, I don't see how the galaxy has put up with their shit for 15 years. Surely they haven't just been arguing with each other mastering paper rock scissors.
I did. Yeah, it was awesome. I knew what he was doing even before they showed that reaction to tip the hat. It just shows what a hero that dude was. His death crushed me.
in a lawful society, longstanding government orgs have to at least PRETEND to be among the good guys. I am really curious how this works in the Empire.
Fascinating question that got my mind spinning too~
As powerful as the Empire'z military was, Sid still understood that a galaxy wide rebellion would be hard to manage. Even if you crush them, they keep popping oop elsewhere, & could develop into something larger.
It's just a hassle that you can over-come by playing nice.
Under teh guize of "protecting teh galaxy"... Sid started out with a fairly large number of Star Destroyers, (a few thousand at least) & kept building them throughout. He transitioned to teh "imperial class Star Destroyers" at some point. By Ep. 4 (A New Hope) he had around 25k all together. Each sector of teh Galaxy was patrolled by a few of them.
If you're working for a sith, he/she will tend to your happiness & needz as long as you are useful. In his twisted mind, he managed to feel that the illusion of freedom for the galaxy waz still of use to him.
I'm sure that the still active "Galactic Senate" waz a thorn in his side... but he waz now the "ELECTED" totalitarian last word, & so he allowed teh illusion of democracy.
Also keep in mind that his military itself were full of "good willing citizenz" who thought they were doing good. This makes me think of, if teh USA turned its military full on against the people in order to create a totallitarian government... how many within teh military itself would be loyal to that?
These "playing fair niceties" were likely boiling under Sid'z skin, because teh moment teh Death Star was ready, he then threw bullshit into teh fan, blowing up Alderaan.
Sid probably wondered what other damning evidence teh rebelz on Alderaan had. It could just be that they discovered teh planz for teh death star, but the Empire was going to release that anyway at some point. I guess that discovery was indicating that Alderaan'z leaderz were swaying public opinion, but they could've just nixxed those leaderz instead of blowing oop teh hole planet. However, they wanted to make an example, & Alderaan stepped oop as teh primary target.
Even with that definitive statement of blowing oop teh hole planet... he still twisted it with propaganda.
Initial propaganda said that Alderaan was building a super-weapon on it's own planet that exploded during production & that they were to blame for their own destruction. That lasted about a month.
As the story began falling apart, the Empire admitted it was the Death Star & named Tarkin as a rogue agent who acted without official authorization. This allowed the Empire to mitigate backlash by suggesting the act was not reflective of broader Imperial policy, while still letting everyone know what they were capable of.
They then emphasized propaganda that portrayed Alderaan as a hotbed of rebellious activity, with claims that its entire population had turned against the Empire. This narrative was used to argue that the planet was a legitimate military target, despite its pacifist reputation. They also hunted down & killed Alderaanianz that were off planet at the time to push the narrative.
The propaganda backfired for a lot of people though... as people who once supported the empire were turned... including many internal empire employees & soldiers who had witnessed countless Empirical tyranny.
Quite damning for the Empire being teh bad guy... that they would destroy billionz of peaceful people due to small rebel cellz.
So even with the super weapon, Sid still didn't feel that "enslaving" the galaxy under "power alone" was the best move. His military itself was enforced by a majority of "good willing citizenz." So he still had to play along, though he had made himself clear that he will blow up your hole fookin' planet if you cross him.
Is it just chain of command with no oversight i.e. martial law? Is there an Inspector General or watchdog group/opposing political party to act as a check on power? Because based on what we've seen in this show, the Empire IS concerned with public opinion.
As best I can tell, there'z no specific org that over-seez ethics. Though I also don't really see that on earth irl, as it is decided in courts, written into the laws & then over-seen by our police. That's pretty much how the Empire works in that regard... except that Sid is the one & only member of the high court.
Like our governments, there are those with higher authority who get away with thingz that others don't... until they need a fall guy, & then teh guy is fooked.
The ISB - also referred to as the Imperial Security Office or the Imperial Secret Service, was an internal security and intelligence agency of the Galactic Empire that was charged with defending it against security threats from within and ensuring the loyalty of citizens in the Empire. Aside from that, it happened to be one of the many umbrella organizations under the greater Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR), and was larger than its sister agency Imperial Intelligence. It was led by ISB high command, while the ISB Board oversaw certain sectors.
In the heist episode from S1, Imperial ambassador guy disdained the locals but put up with their shit and allowed them to observe their rituals because... diplomatic relations? And likewise on Ferrix, the Empire let the locals do the funeral procession in the streets despite the security risk because... they're super nice guys? In S1 we saw that the Empire deeply cares about security incidents because they foreshadow rebellion.
If the threat of armed rebellion is the only check on the Empire's absolute power, I don't see how the rest of the galaxy has put up with their shit for 15 years.
It waz a slow burn, & most probably didn't see the corruption like we do on screen. To the massez, the democratic Republic had failed & Sid saved them. His rool waz accepted. He hid his tyranny beneath propaganda & bullshitted teh people, but that said, he did create order. (which Anakin eventually saw through & thought he could do it better. Padme: "who's to decide deeze tingz, you?" or whatever she said...)
To most of the people for all those yearz, this waz an accepted change.
Sid kept a sharp eye out for resistance & waz quick to squash any rebellions that popped up before it could get any traction.
Honestly, I think that is exactly what teh early rebellion waz doing. Luthan, Mon, Leia & otherz likely succeeded due to their much more vast resourcez... & leadership capability. (teh rebellion was operated by military protocolz) Teh heist in season 1 super-funded teh effort while still operating in teh shadows.
Great chat... I love digging into tidbits like this!!!
I haven't caught up yet, waiting to binge it, but IIRC the in the time period the Emperor hasn't dissolved the Senate yet (happens in a New Hope) so the Tarkin Doctrine of rule through fear is not policy yet. The Senate is still a thing and has to at least be placated.
Would make sense that the Empire still has to pretend to play nice until they can whip out the Death Star and let the local Moffs handle the day to operations under fear of getting superlasered.
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