"I don't think the system works." "How would you have it work?" "We need a system where the politicians sit down and discuss the problem, agree what's in the interest of all the people, and then do it." "That's exactly what we do. The… the trouble is that people don't always agree." "Well, then they should be made to."
―Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala exchange political views while on vacation[1]
The Republic supported peace and democracy for a thousand years.
Democracy was a form of social organization that involved freepolitical participation in a state's decision-making processes.Galactic history alternated between a mixture of democracies anddictatorships, and theGalactic Republic was founded after the fall of theSith Empire around1032 BBY. The Republic was a democratic union of thousands of worlds in much ofthe galaxy[2] that maintained athousand years of democracy, symbolized and upheld by theGalactic Senate.[3] The Senate was a representative democracy[4] comprised ofsenators andrepresentatives[1] of their respectivehomeworlds[5] andsectors[6] who were elected to cooperate extensively through discussion and debate in the best interest of all the[1] trillions of beings in the Republic,[2] passing legislation to solve the Republic's issues.[1] Each senator was responsible for representing both their constituents and the government as a whole, with politicians needing to reconcile frequently conflicting responsibilities especially during wartime.[7]
Political Doubletalk poster campaigning against Republic militarization
The Republic was supported by theJedi as they had strong connections withthe Force and were committed tolight andlife, safeguarding peace and justice throughout thegalaxy and sometimes being tasked by the Senate to act on its behalf as negotiators.[10] Jedi had a responsibility to uphold theJedi Code and protect all people of the galaxy,[7] and the Republic did not maintain a standing military until its final years, thoughtreaties allowed some member worlds to contribute their local military assets to an overarchingRepublic Defense Coalition for the duration of specific emergencies, such as theNihil conflict.[2] TheJedi High Council made key decisions for members of the Jedi Order to follow and operated based on consensus among its twelve members. The council included respectedGrand Masters, with one,Ry Ki-Sakka, believing that after a memberdied andpassed intothe Force, the council did not replace their seat but instead expanded by inviting new Jedi.[11]
In the years leading up to theSeparatist Crisis, the Senate'sCore Faction advocated for increasing the centralization of power, including funding expansion programs to outlying star systems and organizing them in the model of theCore Worlds. They were opposed by theRim Faction, which favored greater rights for individual star systems in the Outer Rim, such asRyloth. The Core Faction was often supported by theMilitarists, who wanted a centralized Republic military to counter criminal gangs instead of relying on a patchwork ofplanetary defense forces and theJudicial Department, which included theSector Rangers who were supported by Jedi.[12]
The Republic's increasing investment in warfare and executive powers of the Supreme Chancellor were exploited bySheev Palpatine to create aGrand Army of the Republic during theClone Wars and becomeGalactic Emperor.[2] TheChancellor of theNew Republic was therefore established as a position with limited authority byMon Mothma, who refused to let the office maintain the emergency powers granted in the oldcharter of Chancellor.[13] The new democratic state therefore lacking an executive despite an attempt byCentrist faction senators to create a new position namedFirst Senator that would have executive power over economic and military affairs. They were opposed by thePopulists, who favored the sovereignty of individual member states and were led byLeia Organa. Organa believed that the fledgling democracy was left vulnerable to various remnants of theGalactic Empire due to its own demilitarization, and she left the New Republic Senate to form theResistance, an armed movement that vowed to protect the freedom of people throghout the galaxy.[14]
Economy[]
"It is my experience that senators focus only on pleasing those who fund their campaigns…and they are by no means scared of forgetting the niceties of democracies in order to get those funds."
The Republic's democracy moderated the galactic economy through a mixture of trade taxation and private corporations.[3] While theRepublic Treasury was responsible for printing Republiccredits, the Senate'sFinance Committee oversaw annual budgets, revenue generation, government grants, and emergency relief fund appropriations.[12] While interplanetary cooperation and trade created the prosperity of theHigh Republic Era, the age of prosperity and hope was disrupted by the Nihil conflict.[2]
Economics was the study of resource allocation, people, and their choices. While some economic policies promoted rapid, short-term growth at the expense of beings, other policies allowed for incremental and constructive long-term economic growth. Although some people believed that economics had no morality and that free markets would correct themselves, some economists resolved moral dilemmas through the guidance of the Force. Listening to the Force could uncover deeper truths even when economics was popularly seen as patterns of doom and gloom; supply and demand. Some Jedi adopted monastic lives of austerity,[15] and the only personal possession allowed within the Jedi Order's membership was thelightsaber.[2]
Having long abandoned theaurodium standard, the Republic partnered with theInterGalactic Banking Clan (IGBC) andBank of the Core to maintain its credit reserves and ensure the stability of the Republic'scurrency. The Republic also had atax collection agency,[12] cut other areas of public spending,[16] and issuedwar bonds to fund militarization during the Clone Wars.[17] As one of the most powerful corporations in theOuter Rim,[18] the IGBC issued loans to the Republic at interest rates of their own discretion.[19]
Corporate interests corrupted the Republic's democracy and profited from war.
In the latter years of the Republic, peace fostered comfort and comfort in turn begot complacency, encouraging corruption. Several commercial corporation giants such as the IGBC, theTrade Federation, theCommerce Guild, and theCorporate Alliance gained their own seats in the Senate. They exploited disagreements among politicians to stall solutions and loopholes in the bureaucracy in pursuit of profit at the expense of representative democracy, corrupting more senators on their payroll.[2]
Although the corporations were in turn restricted by the levying of taxes, they decided to lead theConfederacy of Independent Systems, a secessionist faction motivated by the frustration of many senators of Outer Rim star systems with what they perceived as an ineffectual Republic that favored the Core Worlds elite while being burdened with heavy taxation. The formerJedi MasterCountDooku ofSerenno had a reputation of being a political idealist frustrated with the Republic's inefficiency, and he promised freedom and prosperity as the leader of the Separatist Alliance. While theSeparatist Parliament was a representative democratic legislature akin to the Galactic Senate, it did not have the Republic's layers of bureaucracy, existing treaties, and interference from corporations.[2]
However, the Confederacy was a democracy only in name.[20] The Parliament was largely sidelined by Dooku's secretExecutive Separatist Council, which consisted mainly of corporations such as the Trade Federation, Commerce Guild, Corporate Alliance, InterGalactic Banking Clan,Techno Union, and theRetail Caucus that funded the war against the Republic.[2] When the Confederacy was defeated, the trade corporations were absorbed by the Galactic Empire dictatorship.[21]
Justice, rights, and the rule of law[]
"It's every citizen's duty to challenge their leaders, to keep them honest, and hold them accountable if they're not."
The Jedi safeguarded the Republic's democracy as guardians of peace and justice.
The Galactic Republic valued the rule of law,[23] as did planetary representative democracies such asDevaron.[24] The Alliance to Restore the Republic likewise emphasized its belief that galactic governance required just laws that were fairly implemented by the "consent of the governed."[17] The Rebellion[25] and the New Republic[26] were sometimes denounced as forces of "anarchy," and the First Order purported to reclaim "stability" and "progress" that were granted by Imperial "civilization" and "rule of law,"[25] yet without democracy, the Imperial and First Order regimes ruled by decree. They arbitrarily made oppressive laws and committedacts of terror that could not be challenged in peace,[2]militarily quashing disagreement rather than protecting their citizens.[27]Soldiers' obedience to superior orders ensured the birth of the Empire from a corrupted Republic; whereas the plague of corruption and ineffectual governance undermined the state's legal systems, the subsequent dictatorships were ultimately toppled by popular defiance.[2]
Republic laws were enforced by variouscourts and agencies of the Judicial Department,[12] with the Old RepublicJudicial Forces having worked alongside Jedi to dismantle theZygerrian slave trade[28] asslavery was outlawed in the Republic. However, many outlyingstar systems that were not part of the Republic continued to experience slavery, including the planetTatooine inHutt Space.[3]
In the Republic's twilight years, its courts were overwhelmed[2] and the Jedi's ability to predict the future diminished, encapsulated by their involvement as military leaders rather than their traditional role as peacekeepers in the Clone Wars.[1] The slave trade onZygerria revived under Separatist influence during the war.[29] The Republic Senate'sEthics Committee had the power to investigate senators and government officials, including to order witnesses for court hearings, and theJudiciary Committee'sInternal Activities Committee could recommend criminal charges on relevant individuals.[12]
History[]
Knights of the Old Republic[]
"The Republic victory was so definitive that it reinvented itself, resettling its capital on Coruscant after a devastating ouster. History reset its chrono on this date, and from that moment, the modern Galactic Republic was born."
The Republic was a democratic union of worlds throughout the galaxy.
The "Old Republic" was initially founded bytwenty-two Core Worlds[30] around25,000 BBY.[31] As time progressed, members of the Republic included a growing quantity of sovereign signatories of star systems and worlds that sent their representatives to the Galactic Senate,[2] which met in theSenate Building in the Federal District of Coruscant, the Core Worldecumenopolis that Serving as the political capital of the Republic. The congress of the Republic elected Chancellors who led the Republic government and also chaired Senate meetings.[9] Given differences inorbital cycles andspecies lifespans, members of the Republic defined their own electoral procedures and term limits for their own senators.[4]
Coruscant attracted migrants from thousands of other worlds, including from both Republic member worlds and foreign allies. AlthoughTroithe in theDeep Core rivalled Coruscant as the cosmopolitan jewel of the Republic with its aristo-mercantile families, Coruscant's growing workforce bolstered its industrial capacity and outpaced production on Troithe.[32]The Works of Coruscant thrived and were later vacated as the costs of manufacturing in the ecumenopolis rose, though its population remained in the trillions.[9] TheExpansion Region'sThisspias had a constitutional monarchy that was culturally led by the hereditaryBlood Monarchy but otherwise governed by aparliament. TheBlood Monarch had successfully convinced the world's fighters to serve in the military of the Republic during its initial establishment, securing her reign and expanding Thisspias' economy while her people defended galactic democracy despite their generally conservative and pro-independence stance. Thisspias was involved in many Republic conflicts during theGreat Manifest Period and had great influence in the Galactic Senate, connecting the Core Worlds and the Outer Rim.[15]
Tarsus Valorum served as the first Supreme Chancellor of the modern Republic state, which disbanded its military[8] in favor of the Jedi Knights, who were no longer burdened by an existential threat such as the Sith.[2] The Republic tried to suppress the history of the Sith's oppression and their obsession with genetic sciences andimmortality.[38] TheGalactic Constitution[17] was influenced by the quartet of controversialphilosophers known as theFour Sages of Dwartii.[9] While the constitution included a declaration that allsentient beings were equal and outlawed slavery,droid rights remained a contentious topic.[39]
Expansion of the High Republic[]
"Perhaps it's just the cost of peace. That it's hard won. That it hurts because it's worthwhile. Worth fighting for. Precious." "We need to be better, Aida. All of us. We need to recognize what we have and help the galaxy cling on to it." "We will. The Jedi Order, the Republic—we'll find a way. One day, we'll be the beacon of peace that the galaxy needs. But we're not there yet. In the meantime, we have to do all we can and hope it's enough."
The Republic was the dominant galactic-scale state that included sovereign signatories of star systems across the Core Worlds,Colonies,Inner Rim Territories, Expansion Region, andMid Rim Territories. Republic explorers extendedhyperspace routes across the Outer Rim Territories, leaving the largely unchartedUnknown Regions and the unpredictableWild Space out of the authorities' reach. Cooperation between much of the galaxy's star systems ensured that the Republic prospered in the golden age of the High Republic[2] between around500 BBY and100 BBY.[23]
The Republic executive's powers were limited and depended on collaboration.
In382 BBY,[10] the Republic was led by the Co-ChancellorsKyong Greylark andOrlen Mollo, who sought to develop a more equitable and connected union[41] during theGreat Hyperspace Rush.Republic Pathfinders and Jedi led expeditions further into the Outer Rim. Mollo was aQuarren who had experience of conflict onMon Cala, the shared homeworld of the Quarren andMon Calamari peoples, and effectively worked with Greylark until the latter's resignation following herson's arrest.[42] While Co-Chancellor Greylark specialized in the Senate on Coruscant, Co-Chancellor Mollo traveled extensively and, while he believed the Republic should not exert undue influence on non-member worlds, he and Jedi negotiators pleaded for a ceasefire to theEiram and E'ronoh War.[10] Around thattime, the Republicclashed with the sovereign and independentTogruta people of[30] the Expansion Region planetShili.[43]
Jedi Masters and found-siblingsPorter Engle andBarash Silvain meanwhile negotiated between theBethune army and thebesiegedFirevale onGansevor, allowing humanitarian supplies to enter Firevale and establishing a ceasefire.[44] Silvain was quick to believe the PrincessSicatra ofBethune that theBethunians wanted to kill her due to her pregnancy with PrinceColden of Firevale, given that Silvain herself had strong childhood longings for being part of a family, and entrusted Engle with demanding the army's departure. However, the army had allied withGeneralAbediah Viess'mercenary army that insisted on targeting Firevale's city center, forcing Engle to battle Viess.[45] Princess Sicatra then revealed that the siege had been a ruse intended to usurp theFirevale throne and ordered the Bethunians to turn against Viess' army. Although the mercenaries retreated, Silvain felt responsible for her misjudgement and the resulting bloodshed,vowing to exile herself to reconnect with the Force.[46]
The Nihil crisis[]
"We are all the Republic"[]
"Some have traveled far, some are close to home. But we all are one. We are all the Republic, and this fair is for all of us.This day is for all of us. Together we will experience new things. Together we will witness marvels from across the sectors. Art. Music. Drama. Innovation. They belong to us and they bring us together. This is a chance to understand one another; to realize once again what we all bring to the Republic, each and every one. This is our time. And it is only the beginning."
Following herelection as Chancellor around234 BBY,[23]Lina Soh launched theGreat Works projects to strengthen the Republic'soutreach programs and expand the democratic union's influence in the Outer Rim. Among the projects were the negotiation of a treaty between the Quarren and Mon Calamari,[48] therenewal ofKwenn'sGem Cities,[49] and technological innovations such as developingbacta cultivation, enhancing a network ofcommunications relays, and buildingStarlight Beacon as both a symbol of the Republic and an effort to boost interconnectivity in theGalactic Frontier. Chancellor Soh used the phrase "we are all the Republic" to emphasise the value of its democracy,[48] and Jedi such asAvar Kriss used the phrase "for light and life" to highlight the Jedi's commitment to all beings in the galaxy.[50]
Chancellor Lina Soh was committed to the Republic's ideals of unity and compassion.
When the anarchisticNihil marauders instigated theGreat Hyperspace Disaster and subsequentEmergences in232 BBY,[23] the Chancellor haltedhyperspace travel in the Outer Rim via theRepublic Transport Bureau underSecretary of TransportationJeffo Lorillia to ensure spacefarers' safety. SenatorIzzet Noor of Serenno spoke in protest of the order on behalf of the majority of the Outer Rim, thoughNoor's aide was a covert Nihil agent.[10] Chancellor Soh also asked the Jedi Order to work with the Republic Defense Coalition against the Nihil. The Jedi High Council debated and voted on the issue, with six members in support and five opposing;Ephru Shinn argued against Jedi military involvement on the principle of peace whileYarael Poof countered that Jedi must also intervene to maintain justice.[48]
SenatorTia Toon of theSullust system was not satisfied with the Republic's reliance on the Jedi and was concerned about the Republic Defense Coalition's limitations, and he had been proposing aDefense Force Program that would boost the Republic's military capabilities. While Toon did not consider the economic dominance of theSoroSuub Corporation in his star system to be a conflict of interest, his costly proposals had failed multiple rounds of voting in the Senate and were not welcomed by Chancellor Soh's pacifist ideals.[30] Around the same time, Republic authorities dissolved theByne Guild[23] after learning about the shipping company's abuse of employees working inindentured servitude, a legal practice upon which theHutt Clan capitalized to build industries.[51]
In231 BBY,[23] the Chancellor hosted theValo Republic Fair to celebrate the spirit of democracy, progress, and unity. ThejournalistRhil Dairo was granted broad clearance to much of the Chancellor's work coordinating the event, as Lina Soh believed in the importance of free and transparent press coverage. TheRepublic Fair itself was hijacked by a vicious Nihilattack, but the Jedi and Republic forces protected many of the dignitaries and citizens ofValo, including the Chancellor herself. As Soh recovered from her injuries,Vice ChancellorLarep Reza served as acting chancellor. The Jedi's bravery convinced the fair's guest of honor,RegasaElarec Yovet of the Togruta people, whosegovernment had misgivings about the Republic, to argue for an alliance between the two states.[30]
Against surging storms[]
"We are all the Republic. What does that really mean? Are they just words? Is it merely a thoughtless motto we all toss around without considering its true intent? Perhaps to some, that's all the words have ever meant. To our enemies, certainly, they are a point of ridicule. But this is because they do not understand the strength that might be found inunity. While we of the Republic share a common purpose, we share, too, common values. Compassion for our fellow beings. A desire to raise one another up, to help where help is needed, to grow. And to do ittogether."
The Nihil also forcibly claimed an area of the frontier as their ownOcclusion Zone, and the Jedi High Council informed the Senate that they were implementing theGuardian Protocols, a series of policies limiting the Jedi Order's activities alongside the council's order for all Jedi to re-gather on Coruscant to evaluate the Nihil threat. The Chancellor vowed not to abandon the trapped worlds, and some Jedi were sent along with Republic forces to patrol the Occlusion Zone's seemingly impenetrableStormwall border and attempt to break through it.[10] In thefollowing year, Lina Soh faced an increasing number of senators who began to push for an accord with the Nihil to recognize their legitimacy and reopen trade routes. She nevertheless commanded the Senate's approval, emphasizing compassion and collaboration as core values of their democracy, including those beyond the state's borders who carried the Republic "in theirhearts."[52]
After theanniversary of the fall of Starlight, in lieu of a way to enter the Occlusion Zone, Jedi MasterElzar Mann petitioned Grand Master Ry Ki-Sakka about mounting anassault on the Stormwall. However, the Grand Master was concerned about prioritizing the Nihil conflict over the rest of the galaxy; most citizens' lives continued as normal and required governance and guardianship with everyday issues such as disputes, trade negotiations, and migrations. The NihilMinister of Information and former Republic senatorGhirra Starros sought to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic, and she was received as a guest by Chancellor Soh and Master Elzar Mann, but they agreed that the Senate and the Jedi would be divided on the issue of recognizing the Nihil as legitimate and refused to show that the Republic would capitulate to the Nihil.[52]
The Republic endured and overcome crises with through the Jedi and Republic Defense Coalition forces.
The Jedi Council initially refused to work with Republic forces to attempt breaching the Stormwall. When Master Mann relayed a Republic report believing that a breach had been identified, the council agreed to help Republic forces in their assault. When it failed, the Nihilexpanded the reach of the Stormwall, claiming more sectors of Republic Outer Rim space, up to theSeswenna sector.[52] Although many citizens of Coruscant conducted their businesses as usual and were ignorant of the crisis in the frontier, including the consequent influx ofrefugees, the Chancellor and the Jedi High Council refused to abandon the outlying systems and instead worked together closer than ever, with Master Mann serving as liaison, representing the Jedi Council.[11]
Choosing and living[]
"I bring a message of hope, though it is difficult to hear. But listen, please. Even I am familiar with despair. I know it. That feeling when everything is too much, when the pressure of looking for anything inside of tomorrow is overwhelming. It hurts. I know it, too. In times like that just remember who you are—who you want to be. Who you can be. Focus on that. Fight with me, if that is who you can be. But if you cannot, you do not have to fight. I won't ask that of you. There are people already fighting for you. For all of us. All I am asking of you today is that you live. Live today, and try to find hope tomorrow. Help is coming."
―Avar Kriss' promise to people trapped in Nihil space[11]
Given the crisis, Chancellor Soh continued to have the confidence of senior senators from a rainbow of worlds, including Senator Toon.[11] Grand MasterYoda suggested that the Nihil had overreached and would face uprisings from the billions of additional people trapped within their territory, assuring the Chancellor that the council fully committed to helping the Republic Defense Coalition breach the Stormwall and learn more about the dreadful Nameless horde. Indeed, Jedi Masters Avar Kriss and Porter Engle devised a way to exit and enter the Occlusion Zone,[52] with Kriss recording a message of hope broadcasted by resistance organizers in Nihil space.[11]
Ghirra Starros reached out to the Chancellor again. While Soh was open to the idea of the Republic coexisting with another nation, she believed the Nihil had proven to be incapable of doing so and refused to recognize the Nihil's sovereignty; the Chancellor cited the "Eye of the Nihil,"Marchion Ro's record of violent atrocities and hostile, expansionist agenda that trapped people within the Stormwall's borders against their will. When the Jedi Council invited Elzar Mann to join its ranks, Master Kriss, his lover, encouraged him in the belief that his strong voice would keep the council from stagnating.[11]
Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann played their parts in upholding the Republic and the Jedi's promise to serve the citizens of the galaxy.
Master Kriss believed that love was limitless, as opposed to attachment and possessiveness[11]—which had long been forbidden within the Jedi Order[10] as they dangerously led to the dark side—and that the Jedi's love for people inspired them to find hope and fight for freedom, even beyond the Republic and at times of despair. Master Mann later discussed love with Grand Master Yoda, asking him if it was possible to be free of attachment while loving another individual, a place, or even the entire Republic. Mann realized that his parents must have let him go to be trained as a Jedi through their love; that despite Chancellor Soh's desperate desire for herson to safely return from Nihil space, she was unwilling to compromise the billions of lives for which she was responsible to make her demand; the importance of choosing how to live and serve in every moment.[11]
For light and life[]
"There will be times when it seems the fate of the galaxy hinges on the tiniest decision you make. Great and terrible times, indeed. In these moments, you will have to choose: will you dance with the flow of the Force, or will you become a boulder against the tide of history? You mustdance, even in the storm. To do this, you must hold within your body thememory of having danced in the calm. Only then, can you truly know how to let go, and rise."
Within the Occlusion Zone, the Nihilinvaded the planetEriadu and lay siege onBri-Phrang City, where Jedi and the Republic Defense Coalition remained. The Nihil wanted to secure the support of Eriadu'sTarkin family and combine their forces to defeat the Jedi. While theEriadu High Council debated ahead of their vote on whether or not to support the Nihil,Lula Talisola andZeen Mrala's allySevran Tarkin exposed heruncle, who was inclined to welcome the Nihil, of dishonoring their family in the past.[55] As the family continued deliberating among themselves, the Nihil traveled to recruit more fighters from Valo, which they had previouslyoccupied. The visiting Nihil were not aware that the Jedi had already freed the world, which remained in the Occlusion Zone but was the secret source of a pro-freedom and pro-Republic broadcast by theJedi InitiateGavi Takitaken.[56]
The Nihil attempted to re-conquerLonisa City with lethal force, with some residents fighting back and others, wary of another war, were either subdued or tried fleeing from the violence. The Jedi PadawanRam Jomaram, having initially set up Valo's broadcast studio to spread hope and remind himself of freedom in the smallest moments, returned to his home city as Gavi Takitaken was forced to broadcast a plea to surrender. Each member ofJomaram's crew played their part as the Jedi used the broadcast to call on each person to "never shut up" and be a "light in the dark," banding together to transform from "a scattered constellation" to "the dawn," fighting against the occupation until every person, every world, and the entire galaxy was free.[57] The people of Lonisa City indeed rose up and deposed the Nihil, who regathered on Eriadu to stomp out the resistance there. While the Nihil ignored their remainingEriaduan collaborators' refusal to bombard Bri-Phrang City, a sweeping coalition of Jedi, pirates, and Eriaduans crossed the bay to Eriadu City under the leadership ofFarzala Tarabal. Despite haunting visions of destruction throughout the war, Tarabal recalled hisJedi Master's teachings to rise up together with the tide of history, fighting for the freedom of Eriaduans as theBattle of Eriadu began.[54]
While Marchion Ro kept nearly 10% of the Republic's members isolated behind his Stormwall and Nihil spies infiltrated the Republic, Ro could not be satisfied with his quest to have the power to choose for everyone else, and he therefore unleashed the all-consumingBlight, threatening to destroy all life in the galaxy and thus, potentially, kill the Force itself. When he offered to remove the Blight from afflicted Republic worlds in return for public acknowledgement of his help, the Senate signaled that it would support the Supreme Chancellor whether she chose to accept or reject Ro's offer. With the decision left to Lina Soh herself, she asked her ministers to brief her on the state of the crisis and thought that even though she had been elected to the position and she tried to represent all the Republic, even the greatest elected leaders could ultimately only be themselves. When the Jedi discovered the Blight in the depths of their temple, they chose not to immediately alert the Chancellor—her Jedi liaison, Elzar Mann, reminded her that the Jedi Order was unelected and did not serve the Republic per se but rather helped the Republic, and they would not have helped if the government ordered over a trillion of Coruscant's residents to evacuate their world since doing so would lead to disastrous stampedes. Despite her initial anger at Mann's revelation, Lina Soh considered her desire for strengthening the Republic's unity and, trusting that the Jedi would do their best to stop the Blight, rejected Ro's offer.[58]
With the war focusing on Eriadu while his Nihil were denied legitimacy as a separate state, Ro accelerated the spread of the Blight by killing more of the so-called Nameless on theirhomeworld, in doing so abandoning the Nihil and collapsing the Stormwall. He was ultimately foiled by the team of theLuminous Nine, sent by the Jedi Council, who discovered but promised to keep secret the truth of the "Nameless" people—the Shrikarai—with Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann remaining on the world to restore balance on their world, each loving but not needing the other, both dedicated to defending light and life. In the war crime trials to follow, the Republic afforded the Nihil suspects due process to show the Republic's regard for the rule of law, and Marchion Ro's trial was held in the Senate Chamber and presided by a magistrate. Chancellor Soh resolved to rebuild faith in the story of the Galactic Republic, telling citizens that their republic was built on shared beliefs and that people had more in common despite disagreements on the details. However, given how close the galaxy had come to its doom, she also realized that the Republic faced a new reality in which it would be irresponsible to depend on having faith in the goodwill and effectiveness of the Jedi.[58]
Fading of the golden age[]
Corporate stranglehold[]
TheRepublic Ministry of Economic Development and theHomestead Act incentivized migration from the Core Worlds into the galactic frontier and the Outer Rim, aiming to encourage such worlds to join the Republic at various times in its history.[4] Economic development in outlying systems was encouraged by the Republic'sFree Trade Zones. Companies that faced threats to shipping and commerce in those peripheral regions founded the Trade Federation[59] in the wake of the Great Hyperspace Disaster.[58] Politically, it empowered theNeimoidian people, who had felt neglected by the Republic until the corporation's founding,[60] For hundreds of years, the Neimoidians colonized a wealthy network of worlds in the Colonies region known asPurse Worlds,[61] with wealth being funneled to theTrade Monarch onNeimoidia.[62] Neimoidians were born as grubs on their homeworld and competed over enforced food scarcity, with successful adults prizing calculation as a strategy for life and traveling off-world while surviving larvae were enslaved as administrativedrones.[9] Among the Purse Worlds wereNarq, where the nativeNarquois people were treated as serfs,[61] and the opulentbridge city world ofCato Neimoidia.[62]
TheCorporate Sector had been established at the end of theHydian Way by the late High Republic Era thanks to theGalactic Corporate Policy League's lobbying of key senators.[63] Two centuries prior, the same groups that founded the Corporate Sector were corporate conglomerates known as theExpansionist Oligarchy, which had secured the rights to develop worlds in theOuter Expansion Zone. Laborers were subject to cruel practices akin to slavery as the corporations exploited their worlds' resources, which prompted the Republic government to shut down the Oligarchy.[12] Among the Galactic Corporate Policy League's members were the Trade Federation of Cato Neimoidia, theTagge Company ofTepasi, theConsolidated Holdings of Preox-Morlana Corporation of theXappyh sector,Kuat'sKuat Drive Yards, theChiewab Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals Company with its exploratory fleet, andCybot Galactica ofAffa. A treaty negotiated between the Corporate Sector and the Republic stipulated that the sector could not develop on any world with preexisting intelligent life.[63] Subsequent compromises between politicians and corporate interests pulled the Senate away from the common interests of the wider citizenry. Various population and governance criteria existed for a region to join the Republic as a "functional constituency" with its own senators, and corporations such as the Trade Federation gained seats in the Senate.[12]
A Padawan's mission in an unfree society uncovered the corporate government's brutality while striving to be consistent to Jedi values and appreciating Aakaash culture and the people's dedication to their communities.
In200 BBY,[23] theAakaash system was independently ruled by the localhuman-centricLand & Sky Corporation. It was technologically advanced and heavily industrialized, destroying the planetWind's natural ecosystems and leaving much of the population in economic hardship. The mega-corporation secretly systematically detained members of the nativedragon-like minority population, theLoongren, and harvested theirblood for the apparent effect of granting immortality. Despite the magnateNan Holi's efforts to promote the star system's integration into the Galactic Republic, he was opposed by isolationist forces within the corporation which ruled by draconian laws,[64] defying the democratic Republic's rule of law.[23] The JediMostima andSean weresent to the system to investigate Nan'smurder but were forcibly separated by criminal gangs that worked with the authorities.[64]
While sheltering with theSilver Knights in the wastelands of Wind, Sean learned that their leader,Li Yu, had organized among the Knights an elitemercenary group—thered apricot squad—alongside a community support group for the people in the wastelands, allowing them to live free of the ruling corporation and its thugs at the cost of using cynical and often aggressive tactics against other criminals. Sean later discovered that state-owned companies had been mistreating their own employees, which encouraged corruption, and enslaving the Loongren. To minimize dissent, the mega-corporation brainwashed the rest of the population withpropaganda in the news, politically strengthening the government while insinuating that foreign forces were responsible for internal discord. He vowed to expose the ruling corporation's corruption, which continually deprived citizens of their choices.[64]
Institutional decay[]
"The majority of my colleagues can't imagine a galaxy without the Jedi, and I can understand why. When you're looking up to heroes, you don't have to face what's right in front of you."
The hidden Sith strikes at the vulnerabilities of the Jedi Order following a series of impulsive Jedi decisions.
In148 BBY,[66] four Jedi werestationed on the planetBrendok to investigate avergence in the Force. A series of impulsive decisions made them come into conflict with thewitch coven there, who sought to protect their secret of creating life, manifest in two bodies:Osha andMae. Desiring an apprentice of his own, the JediSol killedMotherAniseya—even though she had decided to let Osha go become a Jedi—and let Mae fall to her apparent death amidst the chaos. The four Jedi took a confused Osha with them and vowed never to tell the truth of the events on Brendok to the Jedi Council, with Sol wishing to protect Osha from knowing the truth too.[67]
In132 BBY,[66] two of those Jedi wereassassinated, prompting an investigation by MasterVernestra Rwoh, who convened a meeting with several fellow Jedi. Although they concluded that the assassin was a highly skilled Force user, Rwoh rejectedKi-Adi-Mundi's suggestion that they inform the High Council of their findings, stating that the council would be obliged to inform the Senate. She resolved to keep theirquest an internal Jedi affair and sent Master Sol to lead it.[68] Rwoh also kept in contact with SenatorIsedwa Chuwant to prevent the increasingly popular SenatorWorus Rayencourt and his allies from the Expansion Region to support an external review of the Jedi Order.[69] Together with Osha, Master Sol discovered that the assassin was Mae, who had survived the events on Brendok and been trained by aSith.[65]
Vernestra Rwoh gave false testimony to Republic senators to cover up for the failings of the Jedi Order.
However, Osha was seduced by the dark side as she discovered that Sol had killed her and Mae's mother; Mae wanted Sol to face a trial before the Jedi Council and the Senate, but Osha instead killed Sol and joined the Sith. Believing that the Jedi would kill an individual who used the dark side, Mae asked the Sith to erase her memory and let her be captured by the Jedi to keep them ignorant of the events. Vernestra Rwoh realized that the Sith was a former Jedi pupil of hers and that her fellow Jedi had made a series of grave mistakes; nevertheless, faced with Senator Rayencourt's campaign for increased transparency of the Jedi Order, she lied to a Senate tribunal chaired by[65] ChancellorVeeth Drellik[70] about the events on Brendok. On behalf of the Jedi High Council, Rwoh claimed that the recent Jedi murders had been the sole responsibility of one man who had gone rogue and then taken his own life—Master Sol—thereby dismissing Rayencourt's call for a review of the Order.[65]
Dooku confronting corruption[]
"You serve the Senate." "No. We serve the people of this Republic."
The Jedi Order had grown to be complacent and comfortable with its elevated stature in the Republic.[2] Jedi Master Dooku, who was born toward the end of the High Republic Era and had been Yoda's apprentice,[23] balked at such corruption.[2] Dooku was a son of theCount of Serenno, head of thenoble-ledassembly of the planet Serenno, named after theancestor who led thecharge against the Sith Empire.[72] Between68 BBY and around58 BBY,[71] when Master Dooku andPadawanQui-Gon Jinnrescued the kidnappedson of SenatorDagonet, the Jedi found that the senator had been severely neglecting the people on hisdilapidated world. Dooku's frustration broke out when the senator ordered hissoldiers to kill the citizens who had kidnapped his son, and the Jedi Master stopped the soldiers and nearly killed the senator, but he was stopped by Jinn, who had also freed Dagonet's son. The latter promised the people that he would help them before departing with his father.[73]
Jedi Master Dooku was frustrated with the corruption of Senator Dagonet.
Years later, MasterKatri of the Jedi Council was killed onRaxus Secundus, and Masters Dooku andMace Windu were sent to retrieve her body. However, Dooku deviated from their task to investigate Katri's death and confronted SenatorLarik of Raxus, who revealed that hisguards were responsible. The guards immediately killed Larik but were defeated by the Jedi. The assailants explained that they had wanted to force Larik to fulfill their wishes in the Senate; they believed that the senator was accumulating personal wealth at the expense of their planet by selling its resources to off-world companies for industrialization, and they also thought that the Jedi were merely enforcers of the Senate. Dooku expressed disagreement with the guards' methods but agreed with their ideology of protecting their world. Windu was subsequently offered a seat on the Jedi Council, and the younger Jedi explained to Dooku that the council had made the decision given that Dooku's actions had led to a senator's death.[74]
Corporate colonialism and slavery[]
"As for my first act, I intend to cancel any and all contracts the government has with Czerka Corporation." "You never did care for them." "Nor did I make any secret of it. Yet the princess never realized we had so much in common. If she would've confided in more of us, she might have realized how much support there was for standing up to the company."
Master Dooku had been introduced by his former PadawanRael Averross to Senator Sheev Palpatine ofNaboo after Dooku made an address to the Senate[72] in42 BBY,[23] when Dooku left the Jedi Order to reclaim his birth title asCount of Serenno.[72] Averross served as thelordregent of the Inner Rim planetPijal untilPrincessFanry's coming of age and drafted atreaty alongside the arms manufacturerCzerka Corporation that would transfer power from thePijali monarchy to a democraticAssembly. Fanry thought that the treaty's terms would prevent the Assembly from actually representing the population ofPijal's moon or be able to cancel contracts with Czerka, which would allow the corporation to further exploit thePijali people and its enslaved workers. To this end, the crown princess sought to sabotage the treaty proceedings under the passionate belief that her subjects deserved actual freedom from Czerka, enlisting the assistance of theBlackguard—a clandestine division of thePijali royal guard led byCaptainDeren—to stage aviolent series of attacks that Fanry framed for being the work of theOpposition performance troupe, who had been conducting their ownseries of peaceful protests against the signing of the Governance Treaty initiative. Although she was not involved with the blackguards,MinisterOrth—one of Fanry's closest advisors and staunch proponent for Pijal tradition—expressed contempt for the capabilities of the Galactic Senate, believing that its members were more concerned with "posing for their re-electionholos".[75]
In40 BBY,[23] Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, weresent to ratify the Governance Treaty on behalf of the Republic. The Jedi learnt that Czerka was a politically powerful business, secretly using slave labor even in itsfactory on the Republic Core WorldHosnian Prime. At hercoronation, Queen Fanry stabbed Pijal'sreligious leader for accepting Czerka bribes and decried democracy before ordering an attack on theCzerka representative'sstarship—despite the presence of enslaved people aboard. Fanry's attendant and confidante,Cady, was shocked by the new queen's betrayal of her anti-slavery stance and forced the monarch to surrender. A Republic judicial ruling deemed Fanry's crowning illegitimate, and she abdicated her right to Pijal's throne, leaving her cousinLamia to reign asqueen to outlaw slavery and establish a democratic Assembly before dissolving themonarchy. Led by Governor Orth, the new democracy canceled all of Pijal's contracts with Czerka.[75]
At some point after Dooku's departure from the Jedi Order, Qui-Gon Jinn was sent to rescue the runaway Jedi PadawanLizel Liit, who was taken byZarah Bliss to be auctioned to the highest bidder onDesinta. Jinn met withPrefectAminar, the nominally elected leader of Desinta who was opposed by theDan'Gar, a political group which also claimed Liit at the auction.[76]
Malastare's Gran colonizers were prominent members of the Republic Senate.
Following members of theGran species' violentcolonization of the Mid Rim planetMalastare at some point in thecenturies preceding the Galactic Empire, the Republic'sGran Protectorate Act notionally partitioned Malastare between Gran colonists on the eastern continent and the nativeDug on the western continent. In effect, the Gran were granted control of the planet and were exclusively represented in the Senate.[77] Gran senators defended the Republic's status quo as the majority Dug population of Malastare were deprived of their rights by the Gran invaders and practically lived in slavery;Ask Aak, a Gran senator during the Clone Wars, had many Dug servants himself.[78]
Moe particularly opposed the criminal justice reform proposals of theCoruscant Security ForceInspectorTanivos Exantor Divo. Divo spoke against the complacency produced by a thousand years of peace and changed tact after receiving stiff opposition from men like Moe who were well connected with the Republic bureaucracy, focusing on smaller cases to build up larger ones against Coruscant's crime lords and their associates in politics. The inspector also did not think highly of the Jedi Order that headquartered itself on the crime-ridden capital, but he appreciated the efforts of MasterQuinlan Vos in helping localpolice.[82]
Trade and discontent[]
"Because something dangerous is brewing in our little corner of the Outer Rim. Discontent is on the rise, as are criminal enterprises and mercenary groups in the employ of self-serving corporations. In the Seswenna sector, several lommite mining concerns are vying for the attention of the Trade Federation, which is determined to forge a monopoly in the free trade zones. Even on my own Naboo, the king finds himself embroiled with the Trade Federation and off world bankers with regard to our plasma exports. Ours are remote worlds, but what transpires in those sectors of the Outer Rim could very well have galactic repercussions."
While the Republic's expansion bolstered the established Core systems' prosperity via trade, many outlying systems such as Eriadu were forced to take loans from the InterGalactic Banking Clan at high interest rates and thus accumulated debt.[8] Toward the twilight years of the Republic, many systems that wanted to join it had their applications delayed by senators of the metropole—particularly those who feared losing political influence in the Senate and wanted their own worlds to profit from the resources of new members without expending resources to the periphery.[83]Coruscanti-centric perspectives of the outlying systems typically treated them as a barbaric wilderness. Such beliefs were ingrained by the Outer Rim's high crime rates arising from a lack of Republic protection, driving resentment toward the Republic's elites and institutions among the peoples of the Outer Rim.[8]
While the Neimoidians gradually lost control of the Trade Federation to theKuati of Kuat Drive Yards,[84] the Federation had consolidated a monopoly over the Free Trade Zones by the final decades of the Republic.[8] The corporation incentivized colonization, offering to guidecolonists on their hyperspace routes based on tariffs set by the Federation itself[17] and its "protection" fees,[59] In65 BBY, a joint venture between Naboo andDamask Holdings completed construction of theTheed power generator.[24] Its opening ceremony was attended by the Naboo official Sheev Palpatine, and it extractedplasma from the depths of Naboo to power the capital city ofTheed. The complex's operations far exceeded Theed's energy needs, and energy was exported off-world in deals arranged via the Trade Federation.[9] Issues of the plasma trade with the Trade Federation and off-world bankers occupied theking of Naboo.[8] The Trade Federation also built up its ownarmed forces, with theGeonosianArchdukePoggle the Lesser'sfactories producing a massivedroid army at the behest of a secretive Lord Sidious.[85] Geonosian society was industrious but was prone to warfare when the hives were idle, and the archduke agreed to an offer byBaktoid Armor Workshop to design those droid factories.[86]
A seemingly modest Senator Palpatine of Naboo began cultivating influence in the Republic.
In lieu of protection from criminal gangs, the Republic member world Eriadu took its own initiative to establish theOutland Regions Security Force, which was funded by off-world loans, boughtweaponry from arms manufacturers that had been ignoring a Republic ban on selling weapons to member worlds for centuries, and counteredpiracy in the Seswenna sector underWilhuff Tarkin's leadership.[8] In36 BBY,[23] Senator Palpatine allied with Tarkin, agreeing with his assessment that the Republic'sJudicials were being obsoleted in favor of the Jedi Order. Palpatine supported Tarkin's bid to become theGovernor of Eriadu, and Tarkin blocked ChancellorFinis Valorum's requests to investigate theEriadu Conference; talks between the Republic and the Trade Federation on the Federation's tariffs in the Free Trade Zones had collapsed due to an attack by the radicalNebula Front, which killed the Federationdirectorate. With their removal,Nute Gunray of theNeimoidian faction was able to take over as theViceroy of the Trade Federation[8] andLott Dod became the corporation's senator,[59] wresting control from the Kuati; the Techno Union subsidiary Kuat Drive Yards firmly aligned itself with the Chancellor of the Republic instead.[84] Chancellor Valorum later managed to push for a Senateproposal to tax the Free Trade Zones.[59]
The Republic relied on volunteer soldiers and Jedi to resolve localized conflicts such as theStark Hyperspace War,[12] of whichSaesee Tiin was a veteran.[87] Tiin became a member of the Jedi High Council,[49] and in33 BBY,[88] Qui-Gon Jinn challenged the council on their undue focus on large-scale issues while they allowed the closure ofJedi outposts such as theone scheduled to be shuttered on Kwenn, which had been established through great effort in the High Republic Era. Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi had witnessed the migration of people from Outer Rim worlds affected by the increased presence of criminal groups following the closure of such outposts, and all twelve members of the council agreed to embark on amission to Kwenn to help its citizens despite the threat ofpirates.[49]
In Wild Space, the Republic and the Jedi had intervened in thewar between theYam'rii andKaleesh peoples. The Yam'rii had the benefit of advanced technology, exploiting and enslaving the people ofKalee until the Kaleesh warlordQymaen jai Sheelal led his people in a ferocious campaign not only resisting the Yam'rii but also driving them off their homeworld ofHuk. Having been displaced, the Yam'rii successfully sought the help of the Republic,[89] which censured the Kaleesh and imposed trade embargoes and fines that led to mass starvation.[90] Qymaen jai Sheelal, having taken the name "Grievous," developed a vendetta against the Jedi.[89]
Palpatine worked with Queen Amidala as Naboo's senatorial representative.
Around33 BBY,[91] theHoloNet News reported on how Chancellor Finis Valorum's administration was beleagured by mounting political crises, including a row with the Trade Federation over taxation and thecollapse of a Republic-mediatedreconciliation effort between theAnselmi andNautolan peoples of the planetGlee Anselm in the Mid Rim. The broadcaster was aware that Republic citizens were tired of "doom and gloom" over threats of war, though such news boosted the company's ratings, and it additionally reported on apop icon dating ashockball star as a counterpart to the negativity. Count Dooku took advantage of Glee Anselm's dire situation in further destabilizing the Republic government.[92]
Two voices from Naboo[]
"So many people from all over the galaxy, and all they could do was squabble. I told them that our people were suffering, and they would have made us wait until some committee flew out to the Chommell sector and checked. They were more concerned with voting along the lines of their alliance than they were with listening to problems and trying to find solutions. It was a mess, and Chancellor Valorum did nothing. Nothing."
Queen Amidala and her council were frustrated with the Senate's inefficient response to the invasion of Naboo.
In32 BBY, Naboo was blockaded andinvaded by the Trade Federation upon the order of Lord Sidious—Viceroy Gunray wanted to force the corporation's Senate dispute on trade route taxation to conclude in their favor. However, the sovereignNaboo people had democratically elected the fourteen-year-oldPadmé Amidala as their queen[3]—her youth reflected Naboo culture's emphasis on education and protecting their monarchical tradition against the impersonal and cynical aspects of modern politics[17]—who refused to yield. The Chancellor had also sent Jediambassadors Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi to Naboo, and they escorted Queen Amidala to the Senate on Coruscant. The Queen deemed the invasion illegal, and she was frustrated with the Senate's inaction and complacency, with Senator Aks Moe agreeing with the Federation's Senator Lott Dod to simply establish a commission to evaluate the events on Naboo.[3]
Senator Palpatine then convinced Amidala that the Senate was suffering from the weak leadership of Chancellor Valorum and alleged that he was being unduly influenced by the Republic's bureaucrats, who were in turn on the payroll of the Trade Federation. Palpatine thus successfully suggested Amidala to move aVote of No Confidence in Valorum. With Valorum defeated, Palpatine took advantage of other senators' sympathy for Naboo to win the followingChancellorship election, which was contested byBail Antilles ofAlderaan and Ainlee Teem of Malastare.[3]
The humans and Gungans agreed to share their homeworld in peace after uniting to repel the Trade Federation invasion.
Although thehuman Naboo people had colonized Naboo centuries ago, driving the nativeGungan peopleunderwater after arriving on the planet as refugees fleeing theGrizmallti civil war in the Core Worlds,[24] Queen Amidala humbly appealed to the Gungans for help. The two peoples embraced theirsymbiotic bond anddefeated the Trade Federation on their homeworld, but Qui-Gon Jinn was slain by aSith Lord—the likes of whom the Jedi Order had assumed to be extinct for a thousand years—who was then defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi.[3] TheGungan High Council subsequently contributed to the planet's democratic process alongside the humans, particularly for off-world relations.[24]
Unbeknownst to them all, Palpatine was secretlyDarth Sidious—themaster of Qui-Gon Jinn's killer and mastermind of the Trade Federation invasion.[3] As Supreme Chancellor, he retainedMas Amedda as the Republic's Vice Chancellor and the Senate's Vice Chair and Speaker, with the canny bureaucrat being one of the very few individuals who knew that Palpatine was aSith Lord.[94] Dooku had allied with Sidious, believing that the Jedi blindly served a corrupt Senate and regretful over the death of Jinn, his former Jedi apprentice. Sidious anointed Dooku as his newSith apprentice under the name "Darth Tyranus."[95]
A Republic divided[]
"Loyalty to the Republic is paramount. Loyalty to democracy." "And what if democracy does not return the favor?" "Then you must work to restore the democratic process."
Having forsaken the Jedi, Dooku called on Republic star systems to secede and threaten to take the path of war.
Four years after the Trade Federation invasion and after refusing an offer to amend theNaboo constitution to stay as queen, Padmé Amidala took up the post of Republic Senator for Naboo and the widerChommell sector at the request of the newly elected QueenRéillata. Amidala joined the political faction led by SenatorsBail Organa of Alderaan,Onaconda Farr ofRodia, and Mon Mothma ofChandrila. Although they suspected SenatorMina Bonteri ofOnderon of covertly working against the Republic's interests and were wary that she was befriending Amidala, Organa spoke with the new senator and realized they shared faith in the Republic and its principles of galactic democracy.[6]
In24 BBY, Dooku gave the landmarkRaxus Address, in which he lambasted the Republic's ineffectual bureaucracy and corruption and inspired many worlds to leave the Republic.[2] Dooku unsuccessfully attempted to recruit Tarkin as Eriadu's governor to the Separatist cause, proving Tarkin's loyalty to Palpatine[8] and preventing the count from having a economic stranglehold over the Republic.[12] Chancellor Palpatine held on to power past the typical term limits due to the resulting Separatist Crisis, with evermore star systems discontent with the Republic's system of governance threatening to leave the union.[1]
Nute Gunray remained asviceroy of the Trade Federation despite undergoing four trials at the Republic'sSupreme Court, and, with an eye on personal profit, he secretly pledged military support for the secessionist movement's new rival state[1]—Dooku's Confederacy of Independent Systems.[2] The Trade Federation's reparations to Naboo paid for the newTheed Spaceport,[9] and the courts additionally ordered the corporation to reduce its army—however, economic concerns meant the Jedi were not allowed to investigate rumors that this was not carried out.[1] A number of theHaor Chall Engineering Corporation'sIG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks, initially commissioned for the Intergalactic Banking Clan to enforce debt collection, were owned byDanry Ledwellow, a senator of the Republic who took bribes fromThalassian slavers operating onEr'Kit.[96]
War and peace[]
Road to Geonosis[]
"It's-a clear desa Separatists made a pact wesa desa Federation du Trade. Senators! Dellow felegates! In response to this direct threat to the Republic, mesa propose that the Senate give immediately emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor!"
The targeting of Senator Amidala, a vocal advocate of the Republic's constitutional and peaceful democracy, prompted intervention of Jedi.
Several senators, including Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, Ask Aak, andOrn Free Taa of Ryloth, joined Chancellor Palpatine'sLoyalist Committee as advisors, wishing to defend the Republic's integrity, democracy, and peace as more member systems joined the Separatists. On behalf of QueenJamillia, Amidala also tirelessly campaigned against the Republic'sMilitary Creation Bill, which she believed would prompt the Separatists to seek armaments from the Commerce Guild or Trade Federation. She knew the corporations had undue influence over Republic bureaucrats, judges, and senators and feared that they would push the galaxy into civil war.[1] The veteran senator for theRaioballo sector,Horox Ryyder, supported Amidala's position against the bill but, depressed and exhausted by politics, bitterly retired from the Senate even though he was one of its most respected members. Ryyder subsequently toured every world that he had represented and continued speaking out against the endemic corruption in the Republic.[78]
Also among the bill's opposition were theRoshu Sune,Gotal terrorists who wanted their homeworld ofAntar 4 to leave the Republic. Apoet laureate ofKooriva made the posterPolitical Doubletalk for the Roshu Sune's "United Committee for Galactic Peace" front, alleging that Chancellor Palpatine was engaging inlinguistic distortion, advocating security and order to actually benefit his politics of war.[17] The government ofCarida supported the Military Creation Bill given that theCarida Academy ofRepublic Military personnel stood to benefit from it, investing over two million credits to back the re-armament campaign.[97] Ahead of a crucial debate on the legislation, Dooku hiredbounty hunters toassassinate Amidala[1] in22 BBY to no avail.[23]
At a meeting between Palpatine's committee and members of the Jedi Order, the High Council admitted that it was unaware of the identity of the assassins' benefactor but vowed to investigate. Amidala placed her suspicions on Dooku and believed that he intended to destabilize the Republic, though the leading Jedi Council member Ki-Adi-Mundi dismissed Dooku as simply a "political idealist." Later in private, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi discussed his skepticism of all politicians with his PadawanAnakin Skywalker; though Skywalker felt Amidala and Chancellor Palpatine were different from most politicians, Kenobi spoke from his experience that senators forgone the "niceties of democracy" to appease those who would fund their political campaigns, and he also thought that Palpatine cleverly took advantage of senators' "passions and prejudices."[1]
Democratic politics were discussed between Anakin Skywalker (left) and Padmé Amidala (right).
On the Jedi Council's suggestion and the Chancellor's order, Amidala briefly hid on Naboo with Padawan Skywalker to prevent further attempts on her life. Queen Jamillia welcomed the two and—after discussing corporate corruption and influence over the Republic's bureaucratic, legislative, and judicial branches and contributions to the heightening tensions between the Republic and the Separatists withGovernorSio Bibble—the queen declared that they must all maintain "faith in the Republic," as "the day we stop believing democracy can work is the day we lose it." As Amidala and Skywalker retreated to the meadows in private and fell in love, the pair debated democracy—as opposed to simply "popular rule," Amidala believed that constitutional laws such as term limits were integral to democracy so that politics gave people what they "needed" rather than simply what they "wanted," while Skywalker expressed his admiration for Palpatine as a strong leader.[1]
Meanwhile, Master Kenobi reported to Jedi Council leaders Yoda and Mace Windu of his discovery of a clone army. Kenobi was told that it had been ordered by the late MasterSifo-Dyas onKamino[1]—anextragalactic world outside the Republic governed byPrime MinisterLama Su and hisRuling Council[9]—and theclone troopers who composed the army were based on the bounty hunterJango Fett, who claimed to have been hired by a "Lord Tyranus." Meanwhile, Tyranus himself, in his public persona as Count Dooku on the planetGeonosis, closed a clandestinedeal with corporate leaders who pledged support for the Separatist cause.[1]
Master Kenobi's discovery of aSeparatist Droid Army on Geonosis prompted Vice Chair Mas Amedda to persuade Naboo's Gunganrepresentative,Jar Jar Binks, to call on the Senate togrant the Chancellor unprecedented emergency powers to form a new Grand Army, whose ranks would be composed of the newly discovered clone troopers. Following Binks' urging[1] and with it seeming as though there was little choice in fighting back,[98] the fearful Senate[99] empowered the Supreme Chancellor[1] lest they be attacked by the Separatists[99] without a military of their own. Palpatine pledged his "love" for democracy and the Republic and promised to lay down his powers at the end of the conflict.[1]
The Jedi watch from the sidelines of the Senate, which votes to support Palpatine and his war.
Yoda later reflected that the Jedi were quick to join the conflict out of arrogance and fear, and even the wisest of the Jedi were clouded by the dark side arising from within themselves[100]—Yoda and Windu were aware that their ability to use the Force had diminished but, believing that only the Sith knew of their weakness, decided against informing the Senate for fear that doing so would provoke more opposition against the Jedi. When a host of Jedi attempted to rescue Kenobi, Skywalker, and Amidala from Separatist detainment on Geonosis, Dooku, intent on starting a war, ordered the execution of all the Jedi there. Clone forces led by Yoda then rushed in and engaged the Separatists, swiftly winning thebattle under Jedi leadership while failing to stop the Separatist leadership from fleeing.[1]
Rapid militarization[]
"You see, the victory of the clone army, for now, is the only thing that can lead us to peace."
The Jedi Order found itself the military commanders of the Republic armed forces.
The Jedi were irrevocably drawn into the so-called Clone Wars. TheJedi Military Integration Act formally made Jedi Knightsgenerals of the Grand Army of the Republic, and even young Padawan learners were folded into the frontiers of war, becomingJedi Commanders.[60] Darth Sidious had the additional advantage that the Jedi Council continued meeting in the Jedi Temple, where their wisdom was clouded by the historical Sith's dark side energy from theShrine in the Depths,[8] as well as by their own dark side, with more Jedi experiencing fear, anger, and hate.[100] Under Jedi leadership, the clone troopers were deployed across the galaxy by the Republic[60] and fought in the name of galactic democracy, an ironic idea considering that the clones themselves had few individual rights.[102] All the same, the clones quickly came to exhibit signs of individuality, which was encouraged by the Jedi.[103]
The Separatist Droid Army answered directly to Dooku's minion,Supreme Martial Commander General Grievous, rather than the Separatist Parliament.[2] The Confederacy's laissez-faire model removed Republic protections against slavery and exploitation of workers as well as for autochthonous sentient beings' rights and environmental protection. While localized resistance arose on Separatist Alliance worlds, local governments ceded political control and resources to Dooku and the Separatist Council. The council oversaw the administration of government and the war effort, being formed of corporate backers[12] that dealt in secret, sidelining the Separatist Parliament.[2] Parliament was led bySpeakerBec Lawise with an ideology of minimal taxation and trade regulation, but the congress was divided between senators who opposed Dooku's war powers or war taxes andsenators who wanted to extend the war.[12]
The Military Creation Act spurred the Republic's foundingCorellia system to close its borders and other star systems to vow to retain their own defense forces or even declare their independence from the Republic—they wished to avoid paying more taxes to fund the new army.[104] Cato Neimoidia and the Trade Federation declared neutrality at the start of the war. Despite her dislike of the Trade Federation's leadership, theNeimoidian guardRuug Quarnom believed in the concept of the Federation as a champion of the Neimoidians and thought that the Republic treated her people as no more than shipping statistics, though Quarnom also believed that some Republic citizens were reasonable. WhenCato Neimoidia's capital wasbombed, both the Republic and the Confederacy sent emissaries to aid in investigating the disaster. Obi-Wan Kenobi represented the Republic whileAsajj Ventress represented the Confederacy, and the latter radicalizedQuarnom's colleague against the Republic and goaded him to try to bomb the Jedi.[60]
Padmé Amidala's opposition to militarization in the Senate was overruled by Palpatine's emergency powers and machinations.
"We need to remember why we're here. We came to aid the Twi'leks, not destroy their home."
―Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, to his troopers[108]
When thecrime lordJabba the Hutt'sson was kidnapped, Chancellor Palpatine asked the Jedi Order to rescue him so that the Republic may negotiate military access toHutt-controlled hyperlanes in the Outer Rim. Mace Windu opined it was a "dark day for the Republic" to be working with the Hutt gangsters, but Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were nonetheless diverted from Christophsis to negotiate a treaty with Jabba and rescue his son. After the Jedi found that Dooku and the Separatists had secretly kidnapped the child and framed Skywalker for it during theBattle of Teth, Palpatine offered the news to Senator Padmé Amidala during a meeting about security measures the Chancellor had put into place on Naboo. Skywalker's predicament prompted Amidala to attempt to re-establish contact with Jabba and negotiate a treaty by herself as a representative of the Galactic Congress. SheexposedZiro the Hutt's conspiracy with Dooku to force the Hutts against the Republic, and Skywalker safely returned to Jabba his son with his new Padawan,Ahsoka Tano. The resultanttreaty allowing the Republic to use Hutt routes to the Outer Rim set back the Separatist war effort[109] while legitimizing the Hutts' businesses, and Hutt Clanlawyers further amended the agreement to allow the Hutts to peek into affairs in Republic space, access routes in the Mid Rim, and make inroads into the Core.[82]
Representative Binks deployed his antics to distract Neimodian delegates from Republic supply ships trickling up Toydaria's sky.
When the Separatistsblockaded and invaded the Republic member planet Ryloth,[110] local residents were forced to surrender after a group led by the radicalCham Syndulla was massacred nearLessu City.[111] Millions of Ryloth citizens were forced into starvation, and Republic Senator Bail Organa and Representative Jar Jar Binksappealed to KingKatuunko and his ministers onToydaria for assistance. Although theToydarians were keen to remain "neutral" in the war due to pressure from Senator Lott Dod of the Trade Federation and formally refused to allow the Republic to ship relief supplies to Ryloth via Toydarian territory, King Katuunko privately gave assent for Organa and Binks to stage their relief mission in secret from the Trade Federation delegates on Toydaria.[110] The king subsequently decided that Toydaria should join the Republic after negotiations with the Separatists broke down given that Separatistleader Asajj Ventress had broken her word andambushed the Republic delegation led by Master Yoda and theCoruscant Guard'sdiplomatic service.[112]
SeparatistEmirWat Tambor of the Techno Union oversaw the occupation of Ryloth, tasking thetactical droidTX-20 with preventing Republic soldiers from landing usingheavy artillery in the city ofNabat. The nativeTwi'leks were deprived of food and forcibly displaced, their homes having been destroyed while the streets were left barren—TX-20's battle droids took the Nabat's inhabitants hostage and used them as living shields among the cannons, predicting that the Jedi would not be willing to risk the hostages' lives. Indeed, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi was unwilling to endanger the Twi'leks after he and his forcesbreached Nabat's high wall, yet clone troopersWaxer andBoil found a displaced Twi'lek girl,Numa, who showed them Nabat's underground tunnels. Kenobi's forces distracted TX-20 while the Jedi, Waxer, and Boil freed the Twi'leks and destroyed the cannons. Kenobi and Numa were nearly killed but the Twi'leks, unarmed but angry, overwhelmed TX-20'stank and dismantled the droid, freeing their own home.[108]
As Jedi General Mace Windu led Republic forces to Lessu, Count Dooku ordered Emir Tambor to evacuate from Ryloth while causing maximum damage, intending to signal the high cost of a Republic victory. Windu asked Cham Syndulla and hisTwi'lek Resistance for support inliberating the capital. Informed by his mistrust of Senator Orn Free Taa and the possibility of an armed occupation of his homeworld under the Republic, Syndulla was hesitant to commit his group to the Republic's efforts until he heard that Separatists hadfirebombed villages around Lessu, which were filled with women and children. Senator Taa was likewise suspicious, concerned that Syndulla would seek power on Ryloth, but Windu convinced the two men to agree on a compromise. The senator promised that the Republic Army would leave Ryloth once the droids on the planet were beaten, and the freedom fighter affirmed that he believed in democracy. The joint forces prevented the Separatists from destroying Lessu and accepted their unconditional surrender from Tambor shortly afterward.[111]
A grievous commander[]
"General Grievous is a critical part of my plan for the Clone Wars."
The brutal General Grievous (mask depicted as a shadow) was a useful figure to wartime Republic propaganda.
General Grievous was a critical figure in Sidious's plans for the Clone War.[113] With the cyborg leading brutal campaigns across the galaxy,[114] his actions spread fear and destruction across the Republic.[115] When Grievouscaptured Obi-Wan Kenobi and hisclone battalion onCaliban, he forced them to rebuild abridge despite Kenobi objecting on the basis of theGalactic Accord of Systems, which said prisoners of war should not be forced into manual labor.[116] Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi's encounter with General Grievous in the early weeks of the war brought to light the infamous brutality of the Separatist general,[60] who led aslaughter onHypori that demoralized Republic forces.[117]
Indeed, Republic propaganda exploited Grievous as a figure of "evil," such as by depicting the general's mask in works likeKeep Our Republic Secure andEvil Has Its Eyes On You. Republic propaganda depicted Grievous as a "mechanical monstrosity," taking advantage of the deep-seated droidophobia that the Clone Wars kicked up and worsened.[17] Meanwhile, Separatist citizens were shielded from the worst of Grievous's actions.[118] Clone troopers listened and watched theGrand Army of the Republic broadcast, hosted byHologram VJ as "the voice of the Outer Rim" to keep up morale on the front lines, such as for theMud Jumpers "slugging it out" onMimban.[119] Mimban's rainforests were devastated by the Separatists' indiscriminate mining practices, resulting in significant mud deposits.[120] The Republic's224th Division trained andfought alongsideIasento and histribe ofMimbanese against Separatist droids who invaded their world[121] and sought itshyperbaride minerals.[122]
Clone troopers were heralded as the last hope of a democracy that did not recognize their own rights.
Grievous also launched a devastatingcampaign on the Republic using thedreadnoughtMalevolence,[115] which was built by the Free Dac Volunteers[106] and Pammant Docks[123] and armed withmega-ion cannons. The campaign spread fear across the Republic as it wiped out dozens of Republic warships[115] and pushed into Core Worlds territory.[23] TheMalevolence destroyed Venators and even targetedmedical transports and theKaliida Shoals Medical Center, which was undefended and filled with over 60,000 injured clone soldiers.[124] When Jedi-led forces were poised to overwhelm theMalevolence, Grievous briefly took Senator Padmé Amidala hostage in an effort to call off the Republic assault before abandoning theMalevolence, which Skywalker and Kenobi boarded, joined Amidala and C-3PO aboard, and reprogrammed by sending it into a crash course into theDead Moon of Antar.[125]
Shadowfeeds and schemes[]
"The charter of Chancellor maintains the emergency powers granted by Palpatine[…] They are a poison to democracy."
―Mon Mothma, reflecting as Chancellor of the New Republic on the office's past[13]
Until Republic forcesdestroyedSkytop Station, Grievous led anothercampaign in which he ambushed Republic fleets using intelligence collected via thelistening post.[126] Thestation was overseen by the ex–RepublicAqualish SenatorPo Nudo'sHyper-Communications Cartel, which also ran anti-RepublicShadowfeeds on theHoloNet,[12] supervised by the propagandist and Separatist parliamentarianAnsibella Dellu of Raxus Secundus. The Republic Navy was able to shut down the Shadowfeeds, and theCommission for the Protection of the Republic (COMPOR) was founded in response. Associated with Republic Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin, COMPOR produced populist propaganda that supported the consolidation of power in the Chancellorship; Palpatine was granted direct control of the HoloNet, which featured damning footage of Separatist rights violations that were timed to attempts for peace talks in the Senate.[17] Furthermore, official conversations between Republic senators and their Separatist counterparts was illegal under Senatorial decree for fear it would legitimatize the Separatist cause. Palpatine alleged that he was open to negotiation with the Separatists, only to also claim the CIS always ignored his alleged pleas for peace,[127] leaving it to seem as though military victory in war was the only path forward.[101]
Senate Guard Argyus betrayed the Republic in the hope of a lucrative reward.
Later in 22 BBY,[23] Senator Farr of Rodia accepted a deal with Viceroy Nute Gunray to ally with the Separatists and capture Senator Padmé Amidala—Farr's longtime friend and Gunray's hated political nemesis—in exchange for vital supplies. Representative Jar Jar Binks andprotocol droidC-3POproved to be steadfast companions of Amidala's, and Senator Farr decided to help arrest Viceroy Gunray before Chancellor Palpatine pledged relief efforts to Rodia.[128] Fearing that such turn of events meant Gunray would leak important secrets to the Jedi, Darth Sidious arranged for the viceroy to be either rescued or assassinated while he was in transit—Asajj Ventress worked withSenate Commando CaptainFaro Argyus tofree theprisoner. Having been promised a fortune by Count Dooku,[129] Argyus' betrayal of the Republic weakened the authority of theSenate Guard—elite soldiers clad in distinctive blue armor charged with defending the Republic Senate and its representatives—and Chancellor Palpatine took the opportunity to expand his favored contingent ofRed Guards.[12]
As the war progressed, theRepublic Security Council changed from a Senate committee that made recommendations to the legislature into an advisory council for the Supreme Chancellor on military matters. It oversaw decision-making on which worlds to defend or attack and, along with the Chancellor, could activate any of the150 general orders subconsciously memorized by each clone in the Grand Army. While Republic civilians ran theSenate Bureau of Intelligence, it was separate from theRepublic Intelligence service under the military.[12] At some point during the war, Republic citizens staged aprotest at the Carida Academy against militarizationin which ademonstrator was killed.[130]
The successful detonation of anelectro-proton bomb secured the Republic's victory at theBattle of Malastare, but it also awakened theZillo Beast with its seemingly indestructible armor. TheDug Councilagreed to give the Republic access toMalastarian fuel in return for the Republic's protection, and Chancellor Palpatine ordered the creature to be cloned for further research.[131] Following theSecond Battle of Geonosis and the capture of Archduke Poggle the Lesser, Palpatine presentedplans for a weapon of mass destruction to the newStrategic Advisory Cell, a highly exclusive group of a few select senators, military officials, scientists, and industrial representatives that oversaw itsSpecial Weapons Group in constructing thebattle station in theGeonosis system—ostensibly necessary because the Separatists were developing one based on Geonosian schematics.Artificial intelligence specialistDr.Gubacher oversaw augmented droids to expedite progress on the station. Other scientists unknowingly attached to the project and assigned to developing its various aspects were monitored by a dedicated branch of Republic security.[86]
"What has happened to democracy… and why doesn't anyone seem to care?" "Well, you do. Forgive me, my lady, umm… you're not like most politicians." "If only that were enough, Teckla."
The Trade Federation remained officially neutral and continued to be represented in the Republic Senate by Lott Dod.[133] Other Separatist corporate backers, the Techno Union and the Banking Clan, likewise remained represented in the Senate byGume Saam andNix Card respectively. The trio plotted together despite Card's contempt for Saam.[127] Conversely,MagistratePassel Argente of the Corporate Alliance and Kooriva withdrew as a member of the Republic Senate,[85] andVoe Atell represented the alliance in the Separatist Parliament, which met on Raxus Secundus.[127] The Commerce Guild, which competed with the Corporate Alliance, similarly pledged itsforces to Count Dooku underPresidenteShu Mai ofCastell[12] but did not openly join the Separatists,[134] thoughAmita Fonti represented the guild in the Separatist Parliament.[127]
Halle Burtoni was part of a grouping of senators who defended their pro-war attitude as Republic patriotism.
In21 BBY,[23] Count Dooku and Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were captured byHondo Ohnaka and hispirate gang following abattle. The Republic sent the Gran SenatorKharrus, Representative Jar Jar Binks, and diplomatic serviceshock troopers to deliver a hefty ransom ofspice to the Ohnaka Gang in exchange for the captives. Themission fell apart when Kharrus and several troopers were killed and Dooku and the Jedi escaped separately.[135] As Senator Gume Saam of the Techno Union pushed for afinancial reform bill to deregulate the InterGalactic Banking Clan to open more lines of credit to fund the Republic Military, theLoyalist Senators Padmé Amidala, Bail Organa, Onaconda Farr, and Mon Mothma led the opposition. The bill was also supported by theKaminoan SenatorHalle Burtoni.[127]
Meanwhile, Padawan Ahsoka Tano joined Amidala as the senator broke aRepublic law prohibiting diplomatic contact with the Separatists by meeting the pro-peaceOnderonian politician Mina Bonteri, and they spearheaded theConfederate–Republic peace initiative. When Voe Atell declared that the Corporate Alliance would not allow the Confederacy to make a peace offering in the Separatist Parliament,Kerch Kushi countered that the Confederacy was a democracy and, "unlike the Republic," was not ruled by corporations. Tano discussed the politics of war with Senator Bonteri's son,Lux Bonteri, and learnt from her time on Raxus that there were heroes on both sides.[127]
Arguments for and against peace with the Republic were hurled across the Separatist Parliament's benches.
However, Dooku bypassed the Separatist legislature by ordering a secretassassination of Mina Bonteri, blaming the murder on the Republic, and thenbombing Coruscant's power supply, which scuppered the peace process.[127] Outraged members of the Senate such as the pro-warTarnabMot-Not Rab andZinn Paulness approved the deregulation bill, debates on financial reform nevertheless continued with Senator Halle Burtoni'sproposal for the Republic to purchase five million moreclone troopers. The Banking Clan, which had been charging the Republic 10% interest on its war loan, claimed that it lended money to the Separatists at an increased interest rate to fund three million new battle droids and increased its Republic interest rate to 25%.[16]
Amidala believed that the Republic would be bankrupt if the Senate passed the bill, leading to public spending cuts to the maintenance of basic social services, education, healthcare, and infrastructure. However, senators who were not in support of the proposals were being intimidated and even severely assaulted by thugs hired by Dooku on Coruscant, which was already experiencingmandatory power blackouts[16] and other harsh austerity measures of water andfoodstuff under theVictory Rationing Program.[105] Despite Senators Farr, Amidala, and Organa being attacked in succession in the streets of Coruscant, Amidala's aideTeckla Minnau encouraged the Naboo politician to address the Senate.[16]
Senator Amidala was defiant in arguing against military spending increases at the expense of basic services to Republic citizens.
By citing Minnau as a Republic citizen whose livelihood depended on the basic services provided by the Republic, Amidala argued that the lives for which the Republic defended in the war would be upended if state funding was diverted to the military. Other senators were thus persuaded to defeat the bill, slowing the war to the Chancellor's private annoyance; Palpatine spoke with Mas Amedda about having "all the power in the galaxy" yet a single senator was able to "sway the thought of millions," resolving that they must, "for now," allow the Senate's proceedings to continue and follow "the principles of our democracy."[16]
The Senate eventually passed the proposal to increase military spending and rejected Senators Amidala and Farr'smotion to reduce it[101] despite Amidala having succeeded in persuading theRoonan SenatorAang, who held the deciding vote on the issue on theMilitary Oversight Committee.[136] After the vote, Palpatine claimed to Amidala that he did not support the increased troop production, but he also alleged ensuring the clone army's victory was the Republic's only option in pursuing peace and such was a natural thing to do after increasing secruity in the Senate. In any case, Palpatine claimed to Amidala that he was upholding democracy by allowing the policy he supposedly did not agree with to stand.[101]
No safe refuge[]
"I know that there are those among the Separatists who would end this conflict, and I know that there are those individuals in the galaxy who would seek to promote fear and spread chaos. To those who act as agents of chaos, I say this: I stand resolute and unyielding. And if you strike my voice down, know that a chorus of thousands shall rise up in its place, for you have no dominion over the righteous. We are the defenders of truth."
Strength and Unity poster showcasing peoples of diverse backgrounds uniting for the Republic
As a part of the Republic, thePantoran people of themoonPantora claimed Pantora's planet, namedOrto Plutonia, as theirprotectorate territory as it was believed to be uninhabited. Despite discovering the presence of the nativeTalz people[138] in 21 BBY,[23] the PantoranSupreme ChairmanChi Cho insisted on his people's sovereignty over the planet and declaredwar; the Jedi were not able to interefere in their capacity as the Republic Senate's peacekeepers as Chairman Cho declared that the Pantorans' dealings with the Talz were an internal affair. Pantoran SenatorRiyo Chuchi then spoke with the democraticPantoran Assembly, which declared Cho's act of war as out of order and whosespeaker authorized the senator to petition theJedi Council to interefere. However, Chuchi was able to negotiate directly with the TalzChieftain,Thi-Sen, ending the war with the Pantoran people recognizing the sovereignty of the Talz people.[138]
Later in 21 BBY,[23] Onaconda Farr, Zinn Paulness, and fellow senatorKin Robb ofTaris joined theCouncil of Neutral Systems, a group of 1,500 star systems that wished to remain neutral in the Clone Wars and were represented in the Republic Senate. The Council was led byDuchessSatine Kryze ofMandalore,[139] and many of its member systems' economies relied on trade with both Republic and Separatist systems.[12] Decrying violence as extremism, the Duchess became occupied with the terrorist activities ofDeath Watch, a band of militantMandalorians that was funded by Count Dooku[139] and later appropriated by the renegade Sith Lord and crime lord Maul.[2]
Away from the Republic's war, the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano worked with the leaders and people of Mandalore.
Duchess Satine Kryze argued for the Mandalorian people's right to self-determination against aSenate bill that would commit the Republic Military to "save" Mandalore.[140] Although she managed to maintain Mandalore's neutrality from the Clone Wars, supply pressures encouraged corruption within the Mandalorian government and citizens turned to theblack market, including fortea that had been improperly diluted and turnedtoxic. Prime MinisterAlmec'sgovernment council refused to seek Republic help as they believed the Republic was more corrupt, so the Duchess and Senator Amidala privately appealed to the Jedi for help.[141] Padawan Ahsoka Tano was assigned to Mandalore to investigate corruption undercover, ostensibly to teach at theRoyal Academy of Government. Tano spoke of citizens' "duty" to scrutinize their leaders to encourage honesty and maintain accountable governance, inspiring a group ofcadets led byKorkie Kryze to secretly infiltrate a food supply warehouse. They uncovered the Prime Minister's involvement in theblack market conspiracy, leading to his arrest.[22]
Afterward, Senator Bail Organa hosted aconference on Alderaan on the swelling numbers of refugees due to displacement by warfare. Padmé Amidala argued that the Senate should enact legislation to protect refugee rights as well as ensure that clone soldiers would have a sense of their own futures beyond the war. Amidala also advocated for opening diplomatic avenues to discuss an end to the war, stating that some in the Confederacy likewise desired peace while agents of chaos were everywhere and declaring that she would be steadfast in defending truth and democracy. Although another assassination attempt was made on Amidala's life, she was saved by Ahsoka Tano.[137]
When the Trade Federationblockaded Pantora following the election ofBaronNotluwiski Papanoida as its Chairman, Senator Lott Dod of the Trade Federation refuted Pantoran Senator Riyo Chuchi's accusation that the corporation was aligned with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Dod insisted in the Senate that his corporation was neutral and the Pantorans had outstanding debts, but Amidala and Tano privately supported Chuchi's efforts to resist the hostile expansion of the Separatist sphere of influence. Count Dooku promised aid for Pantora should it join his Separatist Alliance while bounty huntersabducted Baron Papanoida's daughters,Che Amanwe andChi Eekway. The chairman surmised that the "wheels of democracy" were turning too slowly for his people, whose views soured on a seemingly unsympathetic Republic Senate and popular sentiment pivoted toward joining the Separatists. However, instead of accepting Dooku's offer, he took upon himself to investigate his daughters' captors while Chuchi and Tanoinspected the Trade Federation blockade, uncovering the commerce giant's conspiracy. Although the Trade Federation lifted the blockade, Lott Dod was able to insist that the corporation was not associated with the Separatists, denouncing the supervising officerSib Canay and arguing that Canay was influenced by Nute Gunray.[133]
At the heart of the Republic, the Senate was sullied by a team of bounty hunters hired by the Hutt Clan.
Later in 21 BBY,[23] the Senate was debating theEnhanced Privacy Invasion Bill, which proposed allowing the Chancellor to spy on Republic citizens suspected of being a Separatist,[142] when a group of senators in opposition weretaken hostage inside theSenate Office Building byCad Bane. Leading other bounty hunters, Bane was hired by the Hutt Clan to demand the release of Ziro the Hutt,[143] who, if left in Republic custody, would be able to reveal theGrand Hutt Council's many crimes to the Senate via aholodiary only he knew the location of.[144] While Ziro was set free and the Gran SenatorPhilo was killed, the other hostage senators survived, among them Padmé Amidala, Riyo Chuchi, Bail Organa, Onaconda Farr, and Kin Robb.[143] Meanwhile, Bane and his crew escaped into the Coruscant underworld, distracting a pursuing force of Jedi by shooting the engines out of a nearby transport. In the end, Bane and his company were able to escape with Ziro,[145] who was returned to the Hutt capital of Nal Hutta.[144]
Mon Calamari and Quarrens; Gungans and the Naboo[]
"Rish Loo manipulated mesa head-thoughts with lies and misinformation. He's the real enemy."
The QuarrenTikkes's election as Senator of Mon Cala was approved by theMon Calamari government council, but he joined the Separatists and gained a seat on the Executive Separatist Council when the war began,[89] representing the Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps andPammant Docks, which produced Separatistcapital ships.[146] Other Separatist corporate leaders likewise supplied theirstarships and forces to theConfederacy military. Tikkes was replaced in the Republic Senate by the QuarrenTundra Dowmeia, who shared representation of Mon Cala with the Mon Calamari SenatorMeena Tills.[142]
Both the Mon Calamari and Quarren peoples recognized Lee-Char as their king following a civil war stoked by the Separatists.
In20 BBY,[23]civil war erupted between the Quarren and Mon Calamari peoples on their shared homeworld after the Separatist-backedQuarren Isolation League of ChieftainNossor Ri rebelled against theMon Calamari monarchy, which had governed along withrepresentatives of both species. The Mon Calamari Senator Meena Tills appointedGial Ackbar the personal protector of PrinceLee-Char, heir to the throne, and appealed to the Jedi and the Republic for help, receiving additional Gungan reinforcements from Naboo.[147] The Quarrens agreed torestore the monarchy under the Mon CalamariKing Lee-Char after they discovered that Dooku had promised the Separatist ambassador,Riff Tamson, control of their world.[148] All the same, Tikkes remained loyal to the Confederacy and maintained his seat on the Separatist Council.[149]
Dooku focused on conquering Naboo, which was experiencing civil unrest as the Gungans'city experienced power shortage. With Dooku promising the Gungan ministerRish Loo that he would play a key part in the "new order" of a Separatist-occupied Naboo, Rish Loo manipulated the popular BossLyonie usingsorcery. Lyonie recounted that Rish Loo fed him "lies and misinformation" to stoke discontent against the human Naboo, blaming them for all the troubles of Gungan society. TheGungan Grand Army embraced Lyonie's rhetoric and was ready to march on the city of Theed, where QueenNeeyutnee asked Senator Padmé Amidala and Jedi General Anakin Skywalker to find a diplomatic solution. The latter pair spoke with Representative Jar Jar Binks and GeneralRoos Tarpals—a veteran of the battle against the Trade Federation and a firm believer in the friendship between the Gungans and the Naboo—broke Rish Loo's influence on Lyonie, and convinced the Gungan boss to tell the Gungan army to stand down.[113]
However, General Grievous' Separatist Droid Army had been invited to march alongside the Gungans, forcing Representative Binks to masquerade as Boss Lyonie to stall the attack. The Gungans deactivated the droid army and Tarpals sacrificed himself to capture Grievous, yet Darth Sidious, needing the general for his war plans, exploited Senator Amidala's relationship with Skywalker and ordered Dooku to capture the Jedi for a prisoner exchange. Despite believing that Grievous' capture would win the war, Amidala agreed to the exchange with the support of Binks, Boss Lyonie, and Queen Neeyutnee.[113]
TheAleena people on the planetAleen maintained a pastoral way of life organized byfaith and families, which formedtahiko kinship groups. Tahikos were represented by their eldest member in a planet-wide collective of advisors who elected the largely ceremonialKing of Aleen, typically apriest. The Aleena had little contact with the wider galaxy to maintain peace with theUnderworld, home to theKindalo people, following a destructive and technologically advancedwar between them millennia before the Clone Wars. The notional Kindalo government was a system of anarchical consensus, never taking action on a societal level unless every Kindalo agreed. The Kindalo therefore had only a handful of absolute laws, one of which was the compact that they shared with the Aleena: the separation of the two peoples, enforced by theGreat Seal,[24] which the Republicdroids C-3PO andR2-D2 helpedreseal when it was disturbed[151] later in 20 BBY.[23]
C-3PO introduced democracy to the Patitites after shoving R2-D2 onto their dictator.
C-3PO and R2-D2, who respectively assisted Senator Amidala and her Jedihusband, Anakin Skywalker,[23] then stumbled upon the planetPatitite Pattuna, where they accidentally and literally stumbled upon the dictator "Big"Hay-Zu; the potentate of the petitePatitite people was killed when C-3PO knocked R2-D2 for making an uncivil remark and the falling R2-D2 crushed the "big" dictator. When the Patitites requested C-3PO to stay as their new leader, thedroid instead suggested that they find someone among their own. C-3PO asked them to nominate three of the most intelligent, understanding, and compassionate individuals and then asked the remaining people to shout their support for the three nominees in turn. The crowd was unable to decide the winner and began scuffling, at which point C-3PO decided to leave them to build their "happy democracy" on their own.[150]
Mounting frustrations[]
"One shudders to think where the galaxy would be without the Jedi."
―Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, to Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi[152]
Apeace conference between Republic and Separatist politicians was chaired by Duchess Satine Kryze[153] in 20 BBY.[23] It was attended by Senators Amidala, Organa, and Mothma of the Republic and the Separatist Parliament's speaker, Bec Lawise, and members Voe Atell andAmita Fonti[153]—the latter two were corporate-allied politicians who had little interest in peace,[105] and the talks indeed collapsed: the Separatists arrested Lux Bonteri for accusing Dooku of assassinating his mother, the late Senator Mina Bonteri, when barging into the meeting, and the Jedi Ahsoka Tano and R2-D2 battled the Separatist-allied Death Watch Mandalorians to rescue him.[153]
Onderonians fought for their own freedom from the Separatists, though the Republic and the Jedi were slow to provide support.
Lux Bonteri later helped persuade Jedi and clone forces to secretly traininsurgents led bySteela andSaw Gerrera in their "armed struggle" against the Separatist-alliedmonarchy ofSanjay Rash on Onderon. Rash and his Separatist masters haddeposedRamsis Dendup asking, whom they tried to publicly execute after he emphasized that dissent was the "will of the people." After Steela and many other rebels have been made martyrs in skirmishes, Onderon militias repelled the Separatists with additionalfirepower supplied by Hondo Ohnaka and his pirates, courtesy of a deal with Anakin Skywalker—who was frustrated with the Jedi Order's refusal to partake in the civil war—thus allowing the restored king to assert Onderon's freedom and appoint Bonteri Onderon's representative to the Republic Senate.[154]
Later in 20 BBY,[23] Count Dooku organized a bounty hunterplot to kidnap Supreme Chancellor Palpatine during apublic address on Naboo.[152] The Jedi High Council had Obi-Wan Kenobi fake his own death to infiltrate the bounty hunters, and the Jedi kept their counter-operation secret from both the Republic[82] and the wider Jedi Order, including Anakin Skywalker.[155] After the Jedi foiled the kidnapping attempt, Skywalker privately confessed his frustration with Kenobi and the council's lack of trust in him to the Chancellor when they wereambushed by Dooku. Having successfully distracted the rest of the Jedi security detail, the Sith Lord overwhelmed Skywalker and nearly captured Palpatine when Kenobi intervened.[152]
Darth Sidious viewed Asajj Ventress and thewitches ofDathomir as a threat to his plans. After forcing his apprentice to abandon Ventress as the Separatistswithdrew fromSullust,[156] which was home to the Commerce Guild'sSoroSuub Corporation,[12] Sidious tasked General Grievous with themassacre on Dathomir, which was outside the Republic and beyond its protection.[157] During the war, the Republic also established aPopulation Observation program that surveyed public opinions on various aspects of the conflict, which revealed increasinganti-Jedi sentiment.[4] While the Jedi Order had been thrusted into warfare, some Jedi insisted on remaining true to their traditions whereas others were willing to explore more extreme methods.[105] Jedi GeneralPong Krell had become disdainful of clone lives and the Republic, and after sending scores of men to their deaths at theBattle of Umbara[158] in 20 BBY,[23] he was relieved of service and killed by clone troopers.[158]
Jedi KnightBarriss Offee was critical of the Order's involvement in the war andbombed the Jedi Temple[159] in19 BBY,[23] killing fellow Jedi and also clone troopers and civilians to make her point. A number of Coruscanti accused the Jedi of corruption and lambasted their government's "cloning violence" during anti-war protests held in front of the Jedi Temple.[159] The Jedi were deliberately omitted from the Republic's wartime propaganda, and on the Separatist side, the mysterious Jedi were also branded as hypocrites—self-styled "guardians of peace" who gladly led "slaves bred for war."[17]
During the investigation into the bombing, Offee framed Ahsoka Tano for her own terrorism, and the Jedi Council expelled Tano from the Order so that she may be trialed by the Republic Military. Chancellor Palpatine oversaw the proceedings asAdjutant General Tarkin pressed for Tano's prosecution while the jury was comprised of senators. Among them were Riyo Chuchi, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Mot-Not Rab, and Kin Robb, while Senator Padmé Amidala spoke in Tano's defense. The court case nearly came to a close in favor of Tano's prosecution when Anakin Skywalker presented Offee, whom he had captured following an aggressive confrontation, and she admitted the truth of her actions, vocally condemning the Jedi as being responsible for the Clone Wars while denouncing the Republic, claiming that the democratic union was failing. Although the Jedi Council agreed to invite Tano back into the Order as a Jedi Knight, she decided to refuse and instead find her own path.[159]
Unrestricted power[]
"In hope of a better tomorrow, we cede control of the banks to the Office of the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic."
Invest Wisely poster, promoted by the IGBC to encourage more business with the bank.
Later in 19 BBY,[23] the Banking Clan continued funding both sides of the war, and itsCore Five leaders were convincted of embezzlement by theMuun government, which appointedRush Clovis at the agreement of both the Republic, whose diplomatic service delegation at theBanking Clan headquarters onScipio was led by Senator Padmé Amidala, and the Separatists, whose delegation was represented by Bec Lawise. When Count Dooku secretly threatened Clovis that the Separatists would default on their Banking Clan loans, Clovis raised interest rates on the Republic. Senators Kin Robb, Meena Tills, and Mot-Not Rab expressed outrage at the bank that was amplified when Chancellor Palpatine confirmed that the Separatists did not experience a similar hike in rates.[19]
The Republic delegation was then ambushed by Separatist forces, which arrested Senator Amidala upon Dooku's order. When Bec Lawise protested, claiming that the Separatist Parliament would never approve of the arrest, Dooku personally redirected Amidala'sblaster to fire upon Lawise before abandoning Scipio. Given the support of senators alarmed by the news of the Separatist takeover of the banks, Chancellor Palpatine authorized a Republicinvasion of Scipio, forcing the bank to cede its assets to the Office of the Chancellor.[19]
Stirrings in the Force[]
"Remember… you always have a choice to be better. You always have a choice to… to pick the right path. Even if that choice comes a little late."
In the same year,[23]QueenJulia appealed to the Senate—specifically Jar Jar Binks—for help when members of her rulingBahk-tov Council began to disappear.[161] Although the council was led by the monarch whom it elected, policy decisions could only be made via an unanimous vote of the council, which included members of the pacifistDagoyan Order.[24] The Dagoyan Masters were abducted by the militantFrangawl Cult, but they were defeated by Jedi Master Mace Windu, who had been dispatched as Representative Binks' partner. Queen Julia thus proposed a new era of more friendly relations between the Dagoyan and Jedi Orders.[162]
Already troubled by eroded public faith, the Jedi Order struggled to comprehend the Sith plot behind the clone army, protracted conflict, and centralization of the Republic.
Already bogged by three years of warfare, the Jedi Council was shocked by Dooku's publicgenocide onMahranee and sent Master Quinlan Vos to secretlyassassinate Dooku. Vos teamed up with Dooku'sex-pupil Asajj Ventress, fell in love with her, and, despite Ventress' warnings, succumbed to the singular mission of targeting Dooku—he fell to the dark side and became a deadly Separatist admiral. The Jedi Council realized that the plan was a grave strategic and moral mistake, particularly as Ventress continued making personal sacrifices to save Vos and persuaded him to choose the light. Vos did discover that Dooku himself was the Sith apprentice of Darth Sidious, the name of the Sith Lord whom Dooku claimed was controlling the Republic at the start of the war.[160] Late in the third year of the war,[105] Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker furtherdiscovered that Dooku was the very same "Lord Tyranus"[163] who had hired Jango Fett to be the clone troopers' template and worked with Sifo-Dyas—the Jedi Master who had placed the order for a clone army on behalf of the Republic with the Kaminoans without the Senate's authorization.[1]
Embarking on a spiritual quest where he learned about the Living Force's relationship with the Cosmic Force, Grand Master Yoda accepted that he had a dark side, as with every Jedi. Yoda believed that the Jedi's collective ignorance of their own darkness had already cost them victory in the war, yet he resolved to commit to the light—and nearly uncovered Darth Sidious' identity.[164] The Sith Lord therefore rushed to implement his Grand Plan against the Jedi by instigating theBattle of Coruscant.[105] Separatist forces led by General Grievous kidnapped the Supreme Chancellor from Coruscant, prompting the Jedi Council to recall Kenobi and Skywalker from theOuter Rim Sieges. The act foiled an attempt by Sidious' ex-apprentice, Maul, to lure Skywalker to thewar-torn world of Mandalore and caused Maul—who knew of the Grand Plan—to send hisShadow Collective criminal empire into hiding.[165] Against Jedi ethics, Anakin Skywalker executed Dooku at Palpatine's command at the battle, furthering his fall to the dark side.[149]
Although previous peace initiatives had failed, Padmé Amidala was a part of theDelegation of 2,000,[166] Senatorial representatives including Meena Tills, Tundra Dowmeia, Mon Mothma,[142]Fang Zar ofSern sector worlds includingGhorman,[167] Chi Eekway Papanoida in Riyo Chuchi's stead,[166] andTerr Taneel of theSenex sector—whogathered at Bail Organa'sCantham House office.[168] TheSector Governance Decree—an amendment to the Galactic Constitution of sendinggovernors to coordinate the Republic war effort by procuring any production facilities in their assigned sectors[146]—was passed late into the third year of the conflict and served as the catalyst for the delegation, who planned to present theirpetition to Chancellor Palpatine to let go of his emergency powers once they had reached 2000 signatures.[105] As the Outer Rim Sieges cornered the Separatists, the delegation wanted Palpatine to revoke his Sector Governance Decree and start ceasefire talks.[168]
Dictatorship and tyranny[]
Fall of the Jedi[]
"This war represents a failure to listen. Now you're closer to the chancellor than anyone. Please, ask him to stop the fighting and let diplomacy resume!"
The Jedi Council was concerned that the dark side clouded their foresight and questioned Palpatine's powers in the final days of the war.
Upon Dooku's demise, the Jedi Masters believed that the war would end once General Grievous was captured. The Jedi also wanted Palpatine to step down, given that his term limit had expired long ago and the Senate was due to vote on whether to grant the Chancellor even more emergency powers. Nevertheless, the council focused on theOuter Rim Sieges pursuing the Separatists—at the suggestion of Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, Yoda was diverted todefend theWookiees onKashyyyk.[149] Yoda was burdened by his premonition that an era was at an end throughout the war,[100] but before he left Coruscant, the Grand Master gave counsel to Anakin Skywalker. The Jedi war hero had beendreaming about his secret lover, Padmé Amidala, dying atchildbirth, and Yoda asserted that the young man must let go of everything he feared losing.[149]
Skywalker was not in the mood for political discussion with Senator Amidala, instead focusing on his fear that she would die at childbirth.
Skywalker discussed his worry that the Jedi Order was breaking the principles of the Republic due to the war with Amidala. The senator replied with her concern that the Republic was becoming the "evil" they had been "fighting to destroy." She was questioning if the democracy that thought they were serving no longer existed and thought that the war represented a "failure to listen," pleading Skywalker to use his closeness with Palpatine to call for a return to diplomacy. Skywalker compared her concerns to the Separatists but also admitted that he was irritated—not least by his nightmares, which reminded him of his visions of hismother dying.[149]
Skywalker promised Amidala that he would not let her die and also spoke with Palpatine, who appointed the troubled Jedi as his representative to the Jedi High Council, which in turn troubled the Jedi Masters given that they had elected their own members and were concerned about Skywalker's friendship with Palpatine. The council did allow Skywalker to join—but without the rank of Jedi Master, and, off-record, the masters further tasked Skywalker to spy on the Chancellor. Although Skywalker believed that it wastreason against the Jedi Code, the Republic, and Palpatine as his longtimementor and friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi emphasised that they were at war and that the Jedi's allegiance was to the Senate, rather than to its leader.[149]
Skywalker's friendship with the Chancellor and their strained relations with the Jedi Council reinforced the young man's belief that both Palpatine and himself deserved more powers to finish the war.
Darth Sidious contacted General Grievous on Utapau and ordered him to send the Separatist Council to the hellish world ofMustafar. The Sith Lord then met Skywalker again, telling him that Grievous was on Utapau and expressing his wish for the young Jedi to lead thebattle against the general. Skywalker was glad to hear that he had the Chancellor's confidence and discussed the Jedi Council's spying assignment with Palpatine, who suggested that the masters did not trust the young man and were plotting to take over the Republic. Skywalker concurred that he felt the Jedi Council was disrespecting the Republic's democracy, but he argued that the Jedi were selfless and therefore very different from the Sith who only thought about themselves. The canny politician thus moved on to indicating his knowledge about Sith arcana, catching Skywalker's intrigue with astory aboutDarth Plagueis' study of the power to create life andprevent death.[149]
Skywalker wanted to kill the Chancellor upon his revelation that he was the Sith Lord, but he decided to relay the news to the Jedi Council instead.
When Skywalker relayed Grievous' whereabouts to the Jedi Council, the masters voted in agreement with Ki-Adi-Mundi's proposal to send Kenobi to Utapau instead. Upon the news that Kenobi was fighting Grievous, Mace Windu sent Skywalker to determine whether Palpatine would lay down his powers upon the general's defeat. Ki-Adi-Mundi stated that the Chancellor must lay down his powers, and Windu said that he sensed the shroud of the dark side surrounding the Chancellor himself, suggesting that the Jedi Council might be forced to "take control of the Senate to ensure a peaceful transition" of power. However, Grand Master Yoda warned that such a line of thought could take them down a "dark place." Plagued by the thought that other Jedi were withholding him from gaining a power he deemed necessary to "save" Padmé Amidala, Skywalker was seduced by the Chancellor, who revealed that he indeed was the remaining Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, who had orchestrated the Clone Wars.[149]
Revenge of the Sith[]
"EmperorPalpatine rose to power because he made people afraid. He made people fear theJedi. He called themtraitors. He said they used their mystical powers to subvert democracy and peace, to cause war. It worked, possibly because as much as peopleloved the Jedi, they alsohated them, on some level. It is hard to look at people who have become theirbest selves. It reminds you thatyou have not. The Jedi Order was an enemy of the Empire and needed to be purged—not just from reality, but fromthought. Frommemory."
Angered by the revelation, Skywalker initially wanted to kill the Sith Lord but refrained from doing so. The Chancellor concurred that Skywalker must do his duty as a Jedi to report to the Jedi Council. As Mace Windu learned from Skywalker that Palpatine was Darth Sidious, the Jedi Master sensed Skywalker's emotional confusion and ordered him to remain in the Jedi Temple. Windu and several other council members then went to the Chancellor's office with the expectation of arresting the statesman. Invoking the name of the Republic Senate, they demanded that the Chancellor relinquish his executive powers over the Senate and let the legislative body decide his fate. However, Darth Sidious retorted that he personally was "the Senate" andattacked the Jedi within the confines of his office. The Sith Lord proved a formidable opponent until Windu deprived him of hislightsaber.[149]
The Jedi Master was ready to kill Sidious when Skywalker, frustrated by the Jedi's distrust and anxious about the fate of his wife, barged into the office. Skywalker's request that the Chancellor stand trial was dismissed by Windu, who reasoned that the Sith Lord had control of the Senate and the courts and must be eliminated to prevent the return of the "oppression of the Sith." Skywalker was ultimately lured by Sidious' promise of power and intervened in favor of the Sith, who killed Windu instead. Skywalker surrendered to the Dark Lord, who appointed him as his new Sith apprentice under the name Darth Vader.[149]
Vader's first assignment was tomassacre the Jedi, includingyounglings, in Coruscant's Jedi Temple. The Chancellor thenordered the Republic army todestroy the Jedi Order and summoned the Republic's representatives for aspecial session of Congress. Addressing the Senate Rotunda, Darth Sidious was applauded as he announced the quelling of "the Jedi rebellion"—the man was visibly scarred by the Jedi attack and donned ared[149] Sith robe that showed a portion of his disfigured face[142] as he dropped the voice and mannerism of a kindly senator and declared all Jedi as traitors of the Republic. He thenproclaimed the reorganization of the Republic[149] into thefascist Galactic Empire.[170]
A New Order[]
"So this is how liberty dies—with thunderous applause."
After turning Skywalker against the Jedi, Palpatine declared himself Emperor, casting away democracy and freedom and appealing to senators' desires for peace and security.
The vast majority of clone troopers heeded Palpatine's command and enacted the genocide of the Jedi Order, compelled by theprogrammed chips in their heads, with some justifying their murders through the words "good soldiers follow orders."[171] With the peoples of the galaxy weary of war[17] and many hoping for peace no matter the cost[2] after untold billions had died,[172] Palpatine's proclamation was gladly welcomed by many Senate representatives[149] and the wider galaxy.[166] As Amidala sadly noted in the Senate Chamber, democracy died with a thunderous round of applause. Her husband later went to Mustafar, where heexecuted the Separatist Council and ensured the immediate shutdown of the Separatist Droid Army at the new Emperor's behest.[149]
The war was over, and democratic principles were effectively rolled back on the galactic level with Palpatine's personal dictatorship.[170] The Jedi Purge suppressed the possibility of a Jedi rebellion against theNew Order—though among the handful of survivors were Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who received help from Senator Organa. Kenobi joined Padmé Amidala as she confronted her husband on Mustafar. The Jedi Master affirmed that he was loyal to the Republic and to democracy, but the Vader had been corrupted by his new master's temptation of power and believed the Jedi were in the wrong—he claimed that he had created his own "new empire" of "peace, freedom, justice, and security." Vader even boasted to his wife that he could overthrow Palpatine so that they may rule the galaxy together, but she rejected the offer, realizing that her husband had indeed led the attack on the Jedi Temple and subverted democracy. Vader was defeated in aduel with Kenobi, but he survived to become theEmperor's primary enforcer, clad in fearsome armor; Amidala lost her will to live, but not before she gave birth to the twinsLuke and Leia.[149]
Marred by warfare, the galaxy of the Empire celebrated the end to the conflict and to the Jedi.
The self-anointed Emperor ushered in anera of rule by draconian laws,[2] terror, and oppression,[27] installing an authoritarian military state that was largely controlled by theImperial Starfleet and armies. He appointedGovernor-Generals andMoffs—sector governors who commanded planetary governors and were accountable only to the Imperial executive of high-ranking bureaucrats and the Emperor himself, rather than the war-weary citizens.[2]Grand Vizier Mas Amedda led acelebration of "freedom" from the Jedi "Separatist plots" on assassinating Palpatine, and the Emperor converted the Jedi Temple into his own Imperial Palace.[173] People who remembered the Jedi and were unwilling to die for their beliefs remained silent, becoming afraid and apathetic.[169]
Liberty's lament[]
"It is my duty to act in your best interest and it is why I can no longer condone this unjust occupation. They wish to intimidate us, to scare us, but we shall not cower at their acts of oppression."
―Avi Singh, condemning the Imperial occupation of Raxus Secundus[174]
While the Emperor allowed the existence of anImperial Senate,[175] sixty-three senators who had been members of the Delegation of 2,000 werearrested and charged with treason on the day after the Empire's founding. Senators Mon Mothma and Bail Organa were released, but they found the new Senate disempowered.[168]
The Empire betrayed its promises and quelled opposition with brutal force, imposing a dictatorship over the ashes of democracy.
The Empire beganoccupying the former Separatist capital world, Raxus Secundus, early in its reign. Ex-SenatorAvi Singh addressed a disgruntled crowd inRaxulon plaza square against the Imperial presence imposing itself without the people's consent, but Imperialtanks forcibly cleared the square.[174] Moff Tarkin was remembered on the Colonies planet Ghorman for forcefully landing his cruiser inPalmo Plaza,massacring hundreds of unarmed demonstrators,[176] and he also oversaw indiscriminate mass arrests and massacre on the former Separatist world Antar 4. Although the Empire censored news reports, the media dubbed it theAntar Atrocity, and Emperor Palpatine distanced himself from the controversy by removing Tarkin from the Gotal homeworld. Tarkin was then assigned to themilitary campaign in theWestern Reaches to eliminate remainingSeparatist holdouts. However, the Antar Atrocity also prompted the former Republic Intelligence captainBerch Teller to wage aninsurgency against the New Order.[8]
The Empire rescinded generations-old statutes protectingLegacy worlds from resource-exploitation to strip-minedoonium anddolovite ores for the battle station over Geonosis. Aside from withholding media reports and stationing the relevant scientists across various other worlds—including Dr. Erso at the newly evictedB'ankor Refuge on Coruscant, who was convinced by Krennic that they were working for renewable energy solutions for worlds in need—authorities ensured the project's secrecy by framing companies with limited mining rights to Legacy worlds in the Western Reaches for illegal arms-trading. When Krennic placed Moff Tarkin in the framing of Zerpen Industries in the autonomous star systemSalient, near other autonomous systems of the Corporate Sector, the confrontation escalated intoopen warfare that roused the Imperial Senate. The conflict drew in Krennic's former smugglerHas Obitt, who had been moved by his crew's reactions to the Empire's ecocide of appropriated worlds, and the insurgent Saw Gerrera, whose homeworld of Onderon had been lost to the Empire's control, as well as supporters from other autonomous systems. Tarkin was nevertheless determined to make a harsh example of the Salient system to set the precedent, particularly for governments in the Corporate Sector, that the Empire could revoke autonomy at its pleasure.[86]
The Empire took resources off its worlds without restraint.
Where the Empire applied oppressive force,acts of resistance increased too.[23] Even planets that had been allied with the Republic during the war were militarily occupied by the Empire against the will of their populations, setting the cause for localized armed resistance movements.[177] After helping Has Obitt extricate the Erso family from Coruscant,[86] Saw Gerrera eventually led hisPartisans in battling the Imperialoccupation of Kashyyyk, where the Wookiees were enslaved as laborers.[177] In18 BBY,[23] the farmers who welcomed the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano on the moonRaada mounted a spontaneous but ill-fateduprising, though the survivors were rescued by Bail Organa's secretresistance movement, which Tano joined under the codename "Fulcrum."[178]
Cham Syndulla formed theFree Ryloth Movement as Imperial forces reneged on the Republic's promise to leave their homeworld and exploited its natural resources instead. Senator Orn Free Taa was booed when he told his people to support the Empire in a speech in Lessu, and Cham Syndulla followed by asking his followers to lay down their arms, which received some cheers. However, freedom fightersGobi Glie andSerin, along with Cham's daughter,Hera, procured weapons from the defected "Bad Batch" clonesquad, wary of a newImperial doonium refinery. The Twi'leks were arrested and deemed guilty of treason without trial by the Empire, forcing Cham andEleni Syndulla torescue their daughter.[179] Although Ryloth was designated a "free and independent" protectorate by the Empire, theSyndullas waged aninsurgency against the occupation, which also exploited the planet for its wealth in spices.[180]
Replacing the Clone Army[]
The Senate was shown the military attack on Kamino before the Emperor persuaded it to approve the transition from a clone army to a stormtrooper army.
Around the same time, upon Admiral Tarkin's instruction,Vice AdmiralEdmon Rampart's Imperial forcesdestroyed the Kaminocloning facilities. When the Senate debated theImperial Defense Recruitment Bill thereafter, Rampart explained that the bill would allow the Imperial Military to replace the aging clone trooper veterans inherited from the Republic with soldiers enlisted from Imperial populations. SenatorGani Riduli of the Banking Clan and theCommerce Guild representative backed the bill. Speaking in opposition were Senators Riyo Chuchi, Bail Organa, andTynnra Pamlo—the latter represented Taris and criticized the bill as a plan to unnecessarily build a new military, and they successfully forced the bill to be postponed for multiple debate sessions.[181] The Kaminoan senator Halle Burtoni had been removed from office after learning that Rampart was embezzling funds on theDefense Finance Committee for hisstormtrooper program, and she attempted to live a quiet life on Coruscant after criticizing Kaminoan Prime Minister Lama Su for arrogantly believing that the Empire needed their people's cloning services.[182]
Senator Chuchi persuaded Burtoni to testify before the Senate about Rampart's misuse of government funding and—with the help of the Bad Batch and theClone Underground movement, whose fellow clones were refused representation in the Senate and were fugitives from Imperial service themselves—publicly uncovered evidence ofRampart's fleet attacking Kamino. However, Emperor Palpatine, who had been absent from most Senate sessions and let Grand Vizier Amedda preside alone, personally appeared in the Senate Chamber. He claimed that Rampart had acted without authorization and convinced the Imperial Senate to pass the bill into law, heralding the age of the Imperialstormtrooper.[182] Military service recruits trained in the newImperial Academies, which appealed to young people who wanted to travel off-world or otherwise felt a lack of control over their own lives, especially in the Outer Rim.[17]
The science of medicine was exploited by Imperial experiments on cloned soldiers, unrestrained by the democratic ideals that ended with the war.
Shortly afterward, Dr.Royce Hemlock, whose invasive procedures had violated the democratic ideals of the Republic, headed the ImperialAdvanced Science Division and worked on unwilling clone subjects for the Emperor's secret biological experiments[183] as part of theImperial cloning program, which also included the Zillo Beast, andProject Necromancer. After the Bad Batchscuppered Hemlock'sfacility, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin redirected the relevant funds toProject Stardust.[184] Emperor Palpatine promoted Tarkin toGrand Moff after he defeated the Berch Teller insurgency, which had been disrupting supply stations to Geonosis.[8] A separateinsurgency led by "Nightswan" monitored and sabotaged shipments of doonium,iridium, and other minerals across the Empire, and in the course of countering the insurgency,Mitth'raw'nuruodo—an exile from the Unknown Regions'Chiss Ascendancy who joined the Galactic Empire under the name "Thrawn"—ascended its ranks as a talented naval officer. During his investigation,Commodore Thrawn discovered that the Empire was transporting enslaved Wookiees and discussed Nightswan's intentions, including the rebel's belief that the Empire was gathering material for a secret project.[185]
A populist peace[]
"Need I remind the honorable members that Palpatine maintained the illusion of the Imperial Senate for nearly twenty years after the Old Republic's fall? A tyrant can make anything seem to be 'the will of the people.'"
―Senator Leia Organa, reflecting on the Empire's history in the New Republic Senate[14]
While day-to-day life proved difficult for the average citizen, government propaganda created a narrative that anyone could become successful: SenatorDaho Sejan proclaimed that the Empire was built on prosperity and security, blaming ongoing issues on alleged dissidents and terrorists hiding among the population, and he called on "loyal" citizens to report the alleged foes among them. Sejan promised that such loyalists would have new opportunities in life as the regime expanded across the stars.[186] The Emperor was popular on the ecumenopolis Troithe, which was suffering a slow industrial decline by the time of the Clone Wars.[32] SenatorLud Marroi of Troithe told Mon Mothma that Palpatine was an appealing populist who made tangible changes felt by citizens; he was seen to have cracked down on corporations, ended the war, and promised to end the influence of out-of-touch politicians and nepotistic nobility. However, Mothma recognized that power was simply shifting to Palpatine and his cronies instead of to the people.[187]
Arsin Crassus and other financiers channeled Separatist accounts to the Empire,[13] and the regime absorbed the corporate groups that had backed the Separatist Alliance.[21] The heavily industrialized former Separatist worlds were a boon to the Empire, which nationalized the means of production as part ofImperialization and brought substantial weapons equipment into the fold of the Imperial Military.[4] The InterGalactic Banking Clan feigned loyalty to the Empire, which was blockading their headquarters of Scipio; the corporation secretly funded armed resistance against Imperial rule[188] and was embroiled in violenttrade wars against the Hutt Clan for access tosmuggling routes.[189] The new regime took advantage of the Outer Rim hyperlanes that the Republic had secured with the Hutt Cartel during the war, expanding without due regard to the sovereignty of neutral and independent star systems.[4]
Brutalist base[]
The Imperial Senate continued to operate on Coruscant with increased culpability for the regime's schemes.[4] During the investiture of senators, theOathkeeper led the Senate Chamber in a collective oath-taking that pledged "full allegiance" to the Empire.[190] Oppositional figures such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma were allowed to remain through the existing local electoral processes, but senators were monitored by government authorities, and support for benevolent campaigns were warped by advisors and governors to the effect of furthering Imperial oppression and staining senators' reputations: the Senate's provision of "accomodation and food" forWobani resulted in the Mid Rim planet becoming a prisoner and labor camp, and an employment bill for the Core World Corellia was twisted into turning the[4] civilian[130] Corellianshipyards into an offshoot of Kuat Drive Yards that madeStar Destroyers.[4]
Consequently, Corellia's upper atmosphere was heavily polluted[4] and thebay squids ofUgyir River became extinct,[191] with theWhite Worms criminal gang roaming the streets between factories co-owned by Sienar Fleet Systems and theSanthe Corporation. By10 BBY, Imperial forces were locked intrench warfare with theMimbanese Liberation Army who resisted the Empire's reneging on the Republic's promise of freedom[121] and instead exploiting Mimban for hyperbaride.[122] At the same time, theCloud-Riders were rebellious marauders led byEnfys Nest who waged war on both the Empire and theFive Crime Syndicates, holding them responsible for atrocities.[121]
The Emperor used opaque systems of bureaucracy to manage the Empire's many regions.
The Imperial Palace, the Imperial Inspectorate HQ that replaced the Republic Center for Military Operations, and thearcology complex—the latter housing the newly foundedCommission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR), including theISB Central Office, and theUbiqtorate ofImperial Intelligence—formed the "supreme triangle" of the Federal District.[8] Coruscant's skyline was increasingly dominated by Palpatine's favoredbrutalist aesthetic over the sweeping lines ofRepublic architecture around the Senate,[130] which received additional pressure from the executive.Imperial High Command requested the Senate to revoke theUnknown Alien protocols, which required all contact with undiscovered sentient species to be investigated on behalf of the legislative body, and rumors that the Emperor was working to revoke the protocols circulated within the military.[185]
The Imperial Starfleet earned a fearsome reputation following itsorbital bombardment of the ex-Separatist worldHaruun Kal, which put down thelocal insurrection.[192] While the military and loyal administrators' powers increased, senators' decisiveness and willingness to vote and debate decreased, reflected in declining Senate attendance and reinforcing the Senate's reputation as useless whereas governors could seemingly act without the constraint of politics. However, the Imperial leadership recognized the Senate's residual power: Emperor Palpatine allowed some legislation that hindered his plans to pass despite maintaining a veto, andImperial Naval Regulation 132.CAT.ch(22) restricted ships from firing on escape pods in response to Senate investigations of possible war crimes.[4]
Imperialist ignorance[]
Imperius Unitada ober Totallex
The scholarMadelin Sun observed that the Emperor rose to power by making people afraid of the Jedi—citizens accepted their elected leader's claim that the Jedi, who had powers beyond most people's understanding, were subverters of democracy and peace—and the Empire went on to eliminate memories of the Jedi.[169] History was rewritten. Alternative Republic and Separatist views of the Clone Wars were suppressed and relevant records, including any mention of the Jed, were censored.[4] While older Imperials remembered the Jedi's alleged coup on Palpatine, Imperial teachings dismissed the Jedi as a marginal cult and emphasised the Emperor's promise of uprooting the corruption and inefficiencies endemic in the Republic, restraining local governments and corporate powers alike and reducing petty crime rates.[26]
COMPNOR was formed from theCommission for the Protection of the Republic populist propaganda movement and tasked with glorifying the ideals of the New Order, enshrined in theImperial Charter. Shortly after its drafting, the Empire'sImperius Unitada ober Totallex poster promoted the ideology of "Empire united over all" using brutalist and fascist imagery including a human fist, as the New Order promotedxenophobia against non-human "aliens" as well. Post-Imperialhistorians criticized the twilight years of the Republic for being an era of distractions, with citizens embracing template escapist tales of heroes versus villains when attention should have been focused on corruption in governing institutions such as the Senate. COMPNOR'sSub-Adult Group served as a non-military alternative for young people who did not enlist in the Imperial Academies, training them as loyal administrators for the Imperial bureaucracy.[17]
Rebellions are built on hope[]
Nothing can come of nothing[]
"When do we start fighting back?" "We have." "By walking away?" "We fight to win. That means we lose. And lose and lose and lose…until we're ready."
When the Empire was newly founded, Padmé Amidala'shandmaidenSaché had joinedNaboo's legislative assembly due to her heroism during the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo and been a favorite to be elected to succeed Sio Bibble as the world's governor, yet democracy was subverted asQuarsh Panaka was installed as the Moff of Emperor Palpatine's homeworld.[6] Under Imperial rule, Gungan people were systematically evicted and detained and fled to their underwater cities.[24] During anImperial Army deployment elsewhere,mudtroopers were ordered to round up and execute any people they found. Among the soldiers wasSergeantLear, who deserted the army after rescuing agirl from the scene whom he named "Kleya" while he took on the name "Luthen." Whereas the Empire's victims were arbitrary and actions indiscriminate, the man taught Kleya that their hatred and acts of resistance ought to be used effectively. At times, he treated the girl as his daughter.[193]
On Naboo, Luthen told Kleya to enjoy her desert to keep in mind what they stood to lose and asked if she was sure she wanted to commit to the fight; he told her she had to accept what she was leaving behind and refrained from letting her set off the explosives that he had planted by an Imperial convoy on a bridge.[193] Wullf Yularen, who heroically served Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars,[23] became a leading member of theImperial Security Bureau (ISB), which took on law enforcement powers from local agencies such as Tanivos Divo's Coruscant Security Force; Divo retired during the Imperial Era, and his daughter,Andressa Divo, became a Security Bureauagent who supported the government's increasingly extreme law enforcement tactics.[82]
Governor Tarkin oversaw notorious brutalities that were meant to democratize fear.
While the Empire quelled localized insurgencies, the regime's brutalities encouraged greater rebellion across star systems.[2] Grand Moff Tarkin oversaw theInvasion of Mon Cala alongside Darth Vader and theInquisitors—former Jedi pupils who were corrupted by the dark side and inducted into the Empire. The JediFerren Barr thought that announcing to the wider galaxy that Palpatine's enforcers were former Jedi could have undermined the new regime in its infancy, but he believed it was too late given the Emperor's successful lies. Instead, Barr wanted to dramatize the more readily understood concepts of oppression and freedom by provoking the Empire's aggression on Mon Cala into war, believing that it would stir the people of the galaxy into resistance. King Lee-Char heeded Barr's prophecy that the Mon Calamari would be at the center of the struggle for liberty and mobilizedRaddus and Gial Ackbar's forces, but the Imperial war machine quickly conquered Mon Cala.[194] Consequently, Raddus led an exodus ofcity-ships into space, and thefleet eventually became a backbone of an interstellar rebel movement.[130]
WhenLasan resisted the Empire, itinvaded the world in7 BBY[4] and nearly wiped out theLasat people usingT-7 ion disruptor rifles. The Imperial Senate banned the use of T-7s,[195] which were recalled and destroyed—Senator Tynnra Pamlo personally saw evidence of the atrocity,[130] thoughAlexsandr Kallus, who had ordered thedisruptors to be used against the Lasat, continued as an ISB agent with the authority to override civilian and military orders and commandeer military forces, including Star Destroyers. He was later deployed to the Outer RimagriworldLothal, where a family of rebels named theSpectres had stationed themselves[196] afterraiding Imperial supply ships on Ryloth, Christophsis, Kashyyyk, and Toydaria.[197]
From the brave, the bold, the battered[]
"The Senate increasingly resembles a rigged casino. Given that Palpatine always wins the political games, it seems pointless to play unless you can also secure your own prizes at the same time."
―SenatorDaho Sejan, who was later executed for treason[4]
The Spectres (foreground) opposed the Imperial takeover of Lothal, which shuttered the world's Old Republic Senate (background).
Lothal had been governed from theSenate Building of the planet'scapital until the Imperialoccupation. A growing government bureaucracy at theImperial Complex under GovernorArihnda Pryce supplanted GovernorRyder Azadi and theLothal Senate.[24] Having been appointed by Grand Moff Tarkin to her role,[185] Pryce funneled her world's mineral resources to the Empire's new industrial factories that manufactured military equipment.[24] Although the Empire initially compensated farmers who were displaced by the mining with new homes and jobs for positive stories, the authorities eventually took land by force and threat of imprisonment, forcing Lothalites to shantytowns such asLothal re-settlement camp 43, a slum nicknamed Tarkintown after the Grand Moff.[198]
The planet Devaron in the Colonies region continued as a representative democracy, with the sparsely populated world's economy supported by remittances from off-worldDevaronians—mostlymen. Women dominated the Devaronian government and other leadership roles, including in businesses and the Senate, though the rule of law continued to enshrine gender equality. The people of Devaron were unhappy with the appointment of a human Imperial governor and tacitly approved a significant number of Devaronians to join the Rebellion, prompting the Empire to interfere in Devaronian remittances.[24]Tholoth was also a democratic planet in the Colonies, being led by a head executive chair and a legislative senate in a governmental structure similar to that of the Republic's, but it was methodically Imperialized and its cosmopolitan culture of many species, architecture, and languages was stripped of elements that the Empire deemed foreign to theTholothian species, becoming a mere resort forImperial officers.[15]
The Empire had significant pools of resources to blockade and occupy entire worlds.
The Expansion Region planetIktotch was also a representative democracy. Instead of installing an Imperial governor, the Empire simply imposed a blockade as theIktotchi people were largely isolationist, informed by their cautiousforesight of Imperial tyranny.[24] Elsewhere in the region, the Empire sought to recruit warriors from Thisspias, where Imperial propaganda insisted on the Republic's decadence. TheThisspiasians resisted the Empire, whose governor deposed the Blood Monarch only to provoke more insurrection, with royalists and monarchical abolitionists working together against the Imperial occupation.[15] The Imperialoccupation of Castell led by the "Burning Moff"Ssaria was brutal and provokedPapa Toren, a crime lord who lost atrinket to Ssaria's plundering.[199]
The semi-nomadicVurk people ofSembla in the Outer Rim had a complex system of personal governance and political participation that was often dismissed and underestimated as primitive. Vurks addressed interpersonal disagreements by trying potential compromises to solve the issue, escalating to the community level and becoming casual rules of behavior. Vurks who disagreed migrated to other Vurk communities and were judged by their reputations, which in turn prompted new discussions on mores and consent, always questioning ethical and moral issues to better understand them. Imperials exploited the Vurks as a cheap labor force, and Vurks on other parts of Sembla were sometimes slow to unite against the Empire due to their culture of witnessing and discussing issues on a case-by-case basis.[15]
Upping the ante[]
"Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward."
Democracy was not merely a memory but a hope for Mon Mothma, who continued speaking out for democratic principles in the Imperial Senate until she founded the Rebel Alliance.
In5 BBY, Senator Mon Mothma worked with Luthen Rael and Kleya Marki'sAxis network and redirected funding for the nascent rebellion. Unable to continue drawing money from her family accounts, Mothma asked herChandrilanbanker friendTay Kolma to chair a new "charity" programme. When the oligarchDavo Sculdun found that Mothma had disappeared 400,000 credits, he pressured the senator to arrange for her thirteen-year-old daughter,Leida Mothma, tomarry hisson, in exchange for keeping her funds secure.[200] Axis' massiveheist onAldhani brought the rebellion 80 million credits, and the Empire introduced theImperial Emergency Act and thePublic Order Resentencing Directive (PORD), which would boost Imperial Military and Security Bureau powers to facilitate harsh crackdowns on any act deemed criminal. Senator Mothma decried the directive as a "march towards complete unchallenged authority," which the Senate debated before passing the legislation.[201]
Among the rebels who took part in the Aldhani heist wereCassian Andor andKaris Nemik. The latter appreciated that Andor joined the crew as a mercenary, and he wrote a manifesto,The Trail of Political Consciousness, which advocated freedom as a "pure" idea that emerged spontaneously against the Empire's fragile tyranny, denouncing it as "the mask of fear."[27] Although Andor enjoyed a holiday onNiamos to prevent detection by Imperial authorities, the Empire's reach caught up to the man.[202] Ashoretrooper who wanted to exploit the power he held over civilians[203] arrested Andor on a popular beach because he kept "looking around" and "sweating" as though he had been running. Thelocal courthouse sentenced Andor to six years ofprison labor for various spurious charges including "civil disruption," "anti-Imperial speech," "fleeing the scene of anti-Imperial activity," and "attempted damage to Imperial property."[202]
Do you hear the people sing?[]
"The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness. It is never more alive than when we sleep. It's easy for the dead to tell you to fight, and maybe it's true, maybe fighting is useless. Perhaps it's too late. But I'll tell you this… If I could do it again, I'd wake up early and be fighting these bastards… from the start. Fight the Empire!"
Andor was incarcerated at theNarkina 5 Imperial Prison Complex, where prisoners were increasingly brutalized by guards given the passing of PORD while being forced to construct modular parts[202]—they contributed to the highly secretive Project Stardust.[27] Andor and his fellow inmates realized that prisoners who had completed the sentence were not released but simply moved around to another level of the facility. They organized arevolt in whichfloor managerKino Loy encouraged the people to help each other while they escaped.[200] Cassian Andor fled the Empire's unjust criminal justice system only to learn that his motherMaarva Carassi Andor, a prominent figure of civil society on his homeworldFerrix, had passed away.[202]
Citizens (right) fight for freedom against Imperial oppression.
Andor returned home for thefuneral, which the Imperial authorities allowed to go ahead, having recently installed adirect military occupation after replacing thePreox-Morlana corporation's civil control of Ferrix'sstar system. At the procession, Ferrixians listened to Maarva's recorded speech in which she encouraged her people to fight the "disease" perpetuated by the Imperial "bastards." The strength of feeling for Maarva and the community's freedom was such that the citizens were inspired to spontaneouslyattack the surrounding Imperial armed forces. Cassian himself decided to join the Axis network, undermining the Empire.[27]
Luthen Rael also worked with Saw Gerrera even though he considered the Partisan leader an anarchist borne of desperation, while Gerrera dismissed various rebel groupings as "separatist" or "neo-republican"[204] and criticised Mothma for being passive.[205] In4 BBY, Ferrixians were settling as "toolies" living in amobil-haus and working the farms ofMina-Rau when the agriworld was subject to an sudden Imperial inspection. The Imperials checked for visas and arrested undocumented migrants, andLieutenantKrole abused his position to intimidate and sexually assault residents, spurring adeadly skirmish in whichBix Caleen andWilmon Paak fled with Cassian Andor to join the rebellion.[206]
A new generation[]
"Some individuals have decided that—that the worlds of this galaxy need a defense other than the Empire—a defense against the Empire—" "Anuprising. About time!" "Don't be so happy about it. Do you realize what that would mean? For us, for the whole galaxy?" "Yes, I do. It's still time."
Future senator Leia Organa used her privilege as a princess to run mercy missions that also shored up the rebel movement.
By the time thePrincess of Alderaan, Leia Organa, joined the Empire'sApprentice Legislature in 4 BBY, only forty worlds bothered sending junior representatives to the program given the declining influence of the Senate, but Princess Leia found allies such asHarp Allor of Chandrila andAmilyn Holdo ofGatalenta. The princess had been working as her father's aide in the Senate and learnt from her mother,QueenBreha Organa,[207] who not only raised her but taught other young people such asEvaan Verlaine as Alderaan'sMinister of Education.[208] The young legislator discovered her parents' underground democracy movement when she found Bail Organa'srebel base onCrait. She committed to humanitarian diplomacy, including a visit to Naboo's moon ofOnoam to deliver safety equipment to strikingOnoam miners. The miners told Leia Organa that they could not accept her safety equipment as their Imperial overseers would simply take them to sell for personal profit. Organa met with Moff Panaka and QueenDalné to discuss the issue, and Panaka was assassinated by Saw Gerrera's Partisans immediately afterward. Organa was surprised but hoped that Dalné could serve as Naboo's true queen for a few days or weeks while the Empire attempted to re-establish authority.[207]
The assassination of Panaka was a source of division between Gerrera and various power players of the burgeoning rebel movement, including Bail Organa, who hoped that the Moff might have been open to working alongside them in the future and believed that the Partisans needed to be corralled. After finding that Empire had forcibly displacement ofArreyel's entire population to build factories and collectively punishedChasmeene by poisoning the planet's farmland, Princess Leia entrusted the information with Senator Mon Mothma, her future mentor. Leia later personallyevacuated a rebel base alongside Amilyn Holdo and eventually decided to join her parents' anti-Imperial alliance.[207] She personally delivered threeHammerhead corvettes to Imperial-occupied Lothal under the guise of transporting relief aid. The corvettes were instead "stolen" by the local rebels to bolsterPhoenix Cell.[209]
Lighting the spark[]
"All I sense is evil. Why would they burn Tarkintown?" "To spread fear, make us afraid. The people that lived here just got caught in the middle." "This happened because of us?" "There's a cost for any action we take now, Ezra."
The Spectres' harrying of Imperial forces and supplies to Lothalites in the capital and Tarkintown caught the attention of Agent Kallus.[211] When the Spectres planned to broadcast a call to rebellion on Lothal, their Jedi leader,Kanan Jarrus, wascaptured by Grand Moff Tarkin andthe Grand Inquisitor. Nevertheless, Jarrus' pupil, Ezra Bridger, made his ownbroadcast that inspired people on Lothal and in the surrounding systems to resist the Empire.[212] The Spectres theninfiltratedTarkin's Star Destroyer over Mustafar—where Jarrus had been interrogated for information about the rebellion and the informant known as "Fulcrum"[213]—they destroyed the Grand Moff's flagship and rescued Jarrus with the help of Phoenix Cell. The Grand Inquisitor let himself die rather than suffer for his failures,[214] and the defeat embarassed Tarkin.[215]
Although the action at Mustafar marked one of the earliest rebel victories in theGalactic Civil War against the Empire,[213] it prompted Emperor Palpatine to send Darth Vader to handle the Lothal crisis,[214] with the Empire tightening control over the planet beginning with the torching of Tarkintown,[210] and Mon Mothma was cautious that her and Bail Organa's rebel network had revealed their sector fleet's naval capacity to Imperial authorities.[168] Amilitary lockdown of Lothal was subsequently enforced byGrand Admiral Thrawn and hisSeventh Fleet at Governor Pryce's request, the two Imperials having previously worked together to defeat Nightswan.[185] The Spectre and localLothalite Jedi learnerEzra Bridger vowed to protect his loved ones from the Empire, and he received advice from Yoda not to fixate on fighting to win the war but to think about choosing how to win.[100]
Today Ghorman, tomorrow—[]
"The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil[…] what happened yesterday on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide! Yes! Genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest? The monster we've helped create? The monster who will come for us all soon enough is Emperor Palpatine!"
―Senator Mon Mothma, addressing the Imperial Senate[216]
The Ghorman Front grew increasingly impatient to resist the Empire as Imperial oppression grew increasingly brazen.
As theGhorman Front resisted the Imperial regime in 5 BBY,[217]Imperial Ruling Council officialsSly Moore andArs Dangor cut off the shipping lanes to Ghorman, which Senator Mothma believed face starvation.[218] She backed fellow SenatorDhow in proposing to send a fact-finding mission to "prove" that theGhorman people were simply "requesting their basic rights" but received scant attention from her colleagues, who had called for Imperial decree to handle the situation.[217] In 4 BBY,Director Krennic of an "energy project"[219]—Project Stardust[130]—enlisted select officers tosecure Ghorman for the mineralkalkite, necessary for coating reaction lenses, at the cost of destabilizing the planet core. TheMinistry of Enlightenment's propaganda "weaponized" galactic opinion against the Ghor while the Empire built anarmory in the city ofPalmo,[219] prompting protests against the over-shadowing of theMonument to the Fallen, which commemorated the Tarkin Massacre of fifteen years ago.[176]
ISB SupervisorDedra Meero oversaw Imperial efforts tosecretly incite increasingly violent Ghorman resistance as pretext for a crackdown that would allow the Empire to mine kalkite. To that end, Meero's partner, the bureaucratSyril Karn, was posted on Ghorman to work with the Ghorman Front. The front received help from the Palmo city councillorCarro Rylanz, despite his customary calls for peaceful resistance, and the Axis network.[190] As curfews were imposed on Ghorman, Imperial journalists reported headily on "insurgents" and "terrorists" against "Imperial norms" while Ghorman rebels suffered from disunity over whether to adopt more violent forms of resistance—during an argument,Lezine stressed that they must not let their collective identity as Ghor to be corrupted by the Empire.[220] When Mon Mothma tried to convince fellow senators to back her legislative efforts against the PORD in3 BBY, even SenatorDasi Oran of Ghorman refused to support her, citing his world's vulnerability as a single export economy—requiring the import of everything beside the twill that made Ghorman prosperous—to further restrictions that could be imposed in retaliation by Imperial authorities.[176]
A reflection of the Imperial Senate Building on Coruscant on the night of the Ghorman Massacre
The Empire committed theGhorman Massacre in that year.[23] Rumors of Imperial mining rigs landing in the Ghorman countryside spread to Palmo and barricades were set up in the city's plaza, inviting Ghorman civilians—a few armed with blasters, withone distributingflame jars and another breaking up the ground for chunks of throwable debris, but mostly unarmed—to rally there after calling for a general strike. InexperiencedImperial security troopers from off-world were then sent from Palmo Plaza'sImperial office complex in riot gear to push through the crowd to reach the central monument. When Supervisor Meero was confronted by Syril Karn regarding the Empire's true intentions with Ghorman, she rebutted that he had taken his promotions gladly and attempted to justify her involvement by claiming that it had been developed for years without them. She was nevertheless responsible for relaying the order from Coruscant to proceed: before the riot troops could reach the monument, a hiddenImperial sniper shot one of them, and the panicked troops fired their blasters at the protesters. As the Ghor retaliated, stormtroopers encircling the plaza began firing upon them as well, followed byKX-series security droids that cleared the plaza. The massacre then spilled into the surrounding streets, with surviving rebels broadcasting on open channels raw accounts of the atrocity.[223]
Imperial state media portrayed the event as a failed uprising and hailed the fallen Imperial personnel as heroes who died for peace and security. Senator Oran was soonarrested without charge by stormtroopers before other senators in the Senate Building,[216] and the killing of peaceful protesters who numbered in the hundreds to thousands[4]—which was not reported in the Imperial news networks[216]—was the last straw for Mon Mothma.[130] She agreed with Bail Organa that while he would stay in the Imperial Senate, she would publicly denounce the massacre as "genocide" and then lead the rebels on Yavin 4. During the next day's session of the Imperial Senate, which theOathkeeper convened early and only called senators loyal to the regime to speak, several representatives commemorated Imperial "martyrs" who died on Ghorman. WhenSenior SenatorErveen was called, she yielded her time to Senior Senator Organa to make a Point of Order, invokingArticle 17-252 from the Emperor's Council to yield in turn to Senior Senator Mothma. She made a speech denouncing the Ghorman Massacre and the distortion of truth within the Senate—Emperor Palpatine was the "monster" who would destroy them all. Mothma was thenextracted from the Senate by the Axis network, including Cassian Andor. Although Andor wanted to leave the Rebellion to live with his lover Bix Caleen, she let him go, leaving him on Yavin 4 so that he may dedicate himself to the rebel cause.[216]
Fire across the galaxy[]
"I've been called a traitor for speaking out against a corrupt Galactic Senate, a Senate manipulated by the sinister tactics of the Emperor. For too long, I've watched the heavy hand of the Empire strangle our liberties, stifling our freedoms in the name of ensuring our safety. No longer. Despite Imperial threats, despite the Emperor himself, I have no fear as I take new action. For I am not alone. Beginning today, we stand together as allies. I hereby resign from the Senate to fight for you. Not from the distant halls of politics, but from the front lines. We will not rest until we bring an end to the Empire, until we restore our Republic. Are you with me?"
Mon Mothma formally founded the Rebellion in a broadcast from theGhost after fleeing from Coruscant in the aftermath of the Ghorman Massacre.
Branded a traitor andpursued by Thrawn's Seventh Fleet andTIE Defender prototype, Mon Mothma fled Coruscant with her aideErskin Semaj. They were escorted by Gold Squadron and the Spectres with their home ship, theGhost, to the planetDantooine. Mothma then announced her resignation from the Senate in aspeech broadcast on the HoloNet, expressing her belief that she had exhausted all avenues of defending people's rights and freedoms from within the Senate. She accused Emperor Palpatine for ordering the attack on the Ghormans and called on the people of the galaxy to join her in battle against the "tyranny" of the Imperial regime and "restore our Republic." Disparate rebel groups heeded her call and formally formed theAlliance to Restore the Republic,[224] aiming to restore galactic democracy.[225] Mothma encouraged debate and disagreement in thecabinet of theAlliance Civil Government, which partook inAlliance High Command meetings alongside military leaders on Yavin 4.[130]
The movement was beset with rifts, particularly with Saw Gerrera and his Partisans.[168] The Empire's Tanivos Divo classed Gerrera as a "terrorist" who violated theAlderaan Convention againsttorturing prisoners.[82] When Saw Gerrera and the Spectresconfirmed that the Empire had committedgenocide on the Geonosians, the rebels recovered images of the poison canisters used. Bail Organa thought that the Senate would not be convinced but the evidence could rally more star systems to the rebel cause,[226] and Agent Kallus had begun to sympathize with the rebel cause following arun-in over Geonosis with the Spectres' Lasat member,Garazeb Orrelios,[227] a year prior.[23] The Alliance latersevered ties with Gerrera's group for their brutal tactics and targeting of civilians, which Mothma deemed to violate the principles of theRuusan Armistice and were unjustified even under a state of war.[168] Nevertheless, Gerrera later pressed members of the Spectres to help himinvestigate an Imperial shipment of a giant kyber crystal, with the rebels freeing technicians who suggested that the cargo came from theJedha system.[205]
Thrawn studied artwork associated with the Spectres to guage their motives and vulnerabilities.
Before Phoenix Cell'sbase onAtollon wasdestroyed by Thrawn's fleet[228] in 2 BBY,[23] which necessitated the survivors' retreat to Yavin 4,[228] the Spectres had helped the Rebellion procure aprototype "blockade buster" starfighterdesigned by the master engineerQuarrie[168] in 4 BBY.[23] Quarrie later joined the crew of Admiral Ackbar's rebelflagship, thestar cruiserHome One, alongside theFreemakers family of mechanics.[229] Based on the prototype, Senator Bail Organa persuadedSlayn & Korpil to manufacture the powerfulB-wing starfighter for the rebel cause.[168] Princess Leia was elected as Alderaan's senator after her father stepped down, becoming the legislature's youngest member while continuing her humanitarian efforts.[230]
The Rebel Alliance then sanctioned General Hera Syndulla of the Spectres to lead anAttack on Lothal to destroy Thrawn's TIE Defender program, but the rebels were defeated. With Director Krennic lobbying for more funding to be diverted to Project Stardust, Grand Admiral Thrawn left Lothal to persuade the Emperor on Coruscant to maintain funding for his TIE Defender program. Meanwhile, the Spectres persisted in battling the occupation forces led by Governor Pryce on their homeworld, whichcompromised the TIE program.[233] The Emperor personally tried to lure Ezra Bridger to help him breach into the mysticalWorld Between Worlds and Thrawn returned to take charge of Lothal, but the rebels successfullyliberated the planet in a final battle in which Thrawn was exiled toparts unknown.[234]
Revolutions are built on love[]
Looking up to Stardust[]
"You can stand to see the Imperial flag reign across the galaxy?" "It's not a problem if you don't look up."
Around the same year,[23] the Empire took direct control of HoloNet News, but its outgoing editor-in-chief asked the reporterCalliope Drouth to secretly help the growing rebel movement via the recording droidZox. At theImperial Ball, Drouth learnt from Krennic's subordinates of the Empire's interest in crystals onJedha, which the reporter relayed via hand signals.[236] Indeed, the Mid Rim moon Jedha was a pilgrims' holy site from which the Empire extracted kyber crystals amidst aninsurgency by Saw Gerrera. The Partisans attacked shipments of kyber, which were transported to the Outer Rim planetEadu for refinement at Dr. Galen Erso'slaboratory.[130] Against the urging of Alliance High Command to stop escalating,[237] Gerrera's rebel cell turned theHoly City into a warzone, which orphaned increasingly more children. Realizing that the Empire was willing to bear hundreds of stormtrooper casualties and lost kyber shipments, twoGuardians of the Whills who had supported the insurgency—Chirrut Îmwe andBaze Malbus—led a march of orphans to the shuttle that the Partisans had planned to use as a bomb for theStar Destroyer that had newly parked over the city, forcing the rebels to abandon the plot.[238]
In her obsession with hunting Axis, Dedra Meero had been collating information about Imperial activities, including Ghorman kalkite, Jedha kyber, and Dr. Galen Erso in relation to a top-secret project.Lonni Jung, Luthen Rael's spy in the ISB who had been wanting to keep hiswife anddaughter safe, discovered the project in Meero's files and revealed the information to Rael in the Imperial capital in 1 BBY. Although the ISB tried to stop the leak and finally foiled Rael's front, Kleya Marki ensured she honored her mentor and their rebellious cause. She prevented the Empire from learning more about their network,[193] passed on the information to Cassian Andor, and reached Yavin 4 to join the wider Rebellion alive herself. Assembling short of their required quorum for an agreement, Alliance High Command was initially reluctant to believe Captain Andor's claims when he relayed the information, but he was allowed to meet withTivik, his contact with Saw Gerrera's group.[237] Tivikconfirmed that the Empire was building a "planet killer" based on a message sent by Dr. Erso.[235]
The Empire's weapon of terror was unleashed on Jedha City; among the last reports to the Senate was a "mining accident" on Jedha.
Nineteen years after the Empire's founding, the regime completed its crowning weapon of terror—theDeath Star. After undermining Director Krennic's position for Project Stardust's delays and its spate of information leaks, Grand Moff Tarkin tasked thesuperweapon withtest-firing upon Jedha City, killing the Holy City's residents and pilgrims and shattering the moon. The blast forced the Partisans stationed near thecity evacuated with theirCavern Angels squadron, and Saw Gerrera perished in the blast, but not before he received Dr. Erso's message, addressed to his "stardust"—his daughter,Jyn Erso. Living in the hope of helping her and the galaxy, Galen had planted a secretweakpoint in theDeath Star. Working with Cassian Andor, Jyn decided to help the Rebellion. Although the Alliance had confirmation of the Empire's "ultimate weapon," the Imperial Senate was told that Jedha City was destroyed in a mining accident to prevent defections. Alliance High Command agreed to send Captain Andor and Jyn tocapture Galen for a Senate hearing to expose the Empire's secret, but Galen was killed in action.[235]
The rebel leadership subsequently failed to agree on whether the Alliance shouldinfiltrate theImperial research installation onScarif to secure the Death Star plans directly. Jyn Erso reframed the debate on "what chance" the Rebellion had to "what choice" they had,[235] but senators such as Tynnra Pamlo of Taris refused to let the rebels escalate the war against the Empire out of fear for their people. After arguing with Mon Mothma, Senator Pamlo traveled to Coruscant to publicly decry the Death Star, resign her office, and urge the Rebellion to disband.[130] Nevertheless, Erso's intervention had inspired a group of volunteer rebels to infiltrate Scarif in defiance of High Command. Led by Erso and Cassian Andor, they left Yavin 4 under the code nameRogue One. They were later supported by AdmiralRaddus'Alliance Fleet, beginning open warfare against the Empire. While Director Krennic led a frantic defense of Scarif's base, Grand Moff Tarkin took charge of the Death Star to destroy the base and its entire vicinity of rebels and Imperials. All of Rogue One died in action, as did much of Raddus' fleet, but the plans were successfully transferred to thediplomatic cruiser of Senator Leia Organa as it fled the scene of battle.[235] Later, a rebel propagandaholovid featuring Jyn Erso promptedChass na Chadic to fly with the Cavern Angels and eventually join the Rebel Alliance, and the rebel hero's sacrifice remained a lasting inspiration for the pilot.[26]
Crucible[]
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."
The Emperor dispensed entirely with the guise of democracy and formally instituted direct rule by regional governors.
Despite Senator Organa's legal protection as a diplomat, Darth Vader traced andattacked her cruiser and captured her for interrogation after realizing that the battle station plans had been sent to Tatooine. When Imperial officerDaine Jir warned Vader that news of Leia Organa's detainment could "generate sympathy for the Rebellion in the Senate," the Sith Lord ordered that her ship be filed as accidentally destroyed. Meanwhile, the astromech R2-D2, accompanied by C-3PO, endured the Tatooine heat and enslavement by localJawa scavengers[239] to continue Rogue One's mission, carrying the galaxy's hope in the form of the Death Star plans.[235] R2-D2 convincedR5-D4 help the Rebellion by helping him be sold tolocal farmers,[240] and the rebel astromech, joined by the farmboy Luke Skywalker, delivered Leia's plea from her father Bail to Obi-Wan Kenobi for the Jedi to help the Rebellion.[239]
Soon afterward,[239] Emperor Palpatine formallydissolved the Imperial Senate and transferred direct control of Imperial space to his regional governors.[170] Grand Moff Tarkin declared the Senate's dissolution as the removal of the last remnant of the Republic when theJoint Chiefs of the Imperial Military met aboard the Death Star, which included leaders such asChiefCassio Tagge of the Imperial Army,Colonel Yularen of the ISB, and Darth Vader.[239] The Empire had become astratocracy[130] under theTarkin Doctrine of military governorship[8] ruling by fear.[166] Tagge was shocked by the news of the Senate's dissolution, believing that the legislature, though troublesome, involved bureaucratic hurdles that were necessary to deter dissent.[241]
Bail and Leia Organa had been monitored by Andressa Divo and the ISB, which found evidence of theAlderaanians' links to the Rebellion.[82] With Princess Leia detained aboard the new battle station as a rebel, Tarkin demonstrated its fullfirepower on Alderaan,[239] where billions of beings—including Bail and Breha Organa[242] and Tanivos Divo[82]—were killed as the worldexploded. Tarkin believed that a galaxy-wide fear of the Death Star would silence any dissent.[239]
Guided by figures of the past and leaders of their own making, a younger generation arose to stop Imperial tyranny and restore the Republic.
When Princess Leiaescaped with the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his crew to Yavin 4, the station pursued them, and rebel pilots prepared a daring assault on the Death Star based on their stolen schematics.[239] Mon Mothma decided to travel to Coruscant to surrender to the Empire in the event of Yavin 4's annihilation, willing to publicly disavow the Alliance and her life's work in the hope of sparing other worlds from incuring the Empire's wrath.[242] Instead, at theBattle of Yavin, the Death Star was destroyed by rebel pilot Luke Skywalker with the Force as his ally.[2] Mothma contemplated that as the news of hope spread throughout the galaxy, more young rebels who did not know democracy, regret, or a lover's kiss would rally to the revolution and die by her command.[242]
Remembering Alderaan[]
"You can never undo the wrong, but you can always do right."
Princess Leia later worked with fellow Alderaanian Evaan Verlaine to unitesurvivors of Alderaan's destruction. The gatheredAlderaan Flotilla was attacked by anImperial Star Destroyer over the Inner Rim worldEspirion, which had a multispecies population—includingAlder-Espirions led byBeon Beonel who were descended from Alderaanian humans and theEspirion species. The people were inspired by the princess' speech affirming that "Alderaan survives" so long as the values and voices of wisdom, creativity, and hope survived, and they destroyed the Star Destroyer before joining the Alderaan Flotilla. Expecting the united Alderaanians to find a new world while she herself returned to the Rebel Alliance, Organa then endorsed Verlaine to stand for a fair election as Alderaan's princess.[244]
Tarkin and many of the Joint Chiefs perished aboard the Death Star, and the ISB's role in the war against the Rebellion diminished after the debacle. The historianBeaumont Kin thought that the bureau became known for their failures over the Death Star and the Empire's strategy increasingly favored more power to the Imperial Military.[4] Nevertheless, in the quest to find rebel outposts, the ISB and Imperial Intelligence analyzed data on suspicious activities with reference to population data and used AI predictors to list targets forprobe droids.[82]Task Force 99 "Scar Squadron"found and destroyed arebel outpost in the Outer Rim following a report by Imperial Intelligence, and the elite stormtrooper squad hunted theHeroes of Yavin—Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa,Han Solo,Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO.[245]
The heroes were briefly stranded onHubin, where they metClan Markona. The clan lived largely in isolation and paid tithes to the Empire, which left the community alone as it did not seek Hubin's limited little resources. The clan leaderMarkona had lived through the collapse of democracy and retired after lending assistance to Imperial forces, believing that there was no clear line of distinction between the end of the Republic and the Empire's beginning.[246] Although the Markona were initially satisfied with their isolation, they were inspired by the rebel heroes' defiance and joined the fight against the Empire.[243] As Scar Squadron continued fighting rebels on other worlds, they realized that the Empire had already lost the war of hearts and minds; stormtroopers such as themselves were no longer being hailed as heroes and children cosplayed as the Heroes of Yavin instead. Fearing that they would go down in history as villains rather than heroic "defenders of law and order," Scar Squadron began to massacre civilians.[247]
The Declaration of Rebellion established the legal, democratic conditions for the Alliance to Restore the Republic's war against the Empire.
Conversely, the Rebel Alliance's "Twilight Company" actively recruited ordinary civilians who shared the rebel movement's ideals of freedom and democracy on worlds where they battled the Empire, even though Alliance policy officially forbade the practice. Despite the realities of war, young cadets enlisting in thecompany had the expectation of saving people as heroes of democracy.[248] To counter the Empire's claims that her rebels were anarchists and terrorists who sought to destroy the galaxy, Mothma wrote theDeclaration of Rebellion based on the language of law. The declaration recognized the need for a "Galactic Government" with jurisdiction over all beings who must give up "certain rights and freedoms" to ensure harmony between everyone. Such "power and right to rule" derived from "the consent of the governed" and that "free beings" had the "unalienable right" and "duty" to change a government with a sustained history of "willfully and malignantly" usurping their rights.[17]
The Alliance decried the Empire's abuses, namely the disbandment of the Senate; a policy of human-centric speciesism and genocide; the replacement of member worlds' chosen leaders with moffs and governors; the raising of taxes "without the consent of those taxed;" imposing legal punishments such as imprisonment and thedeath penalty without trial; "unlawfully" taking "land and property;" and excess military expansion for the "sole purpose" of oppression. Refusing "any Imperial law contrary to the rights of free beings," the beings of the Rebel Alliance therefore pledged their property, honor, and lives to destroy the Emperor and his Empire and "make forever free all beings in the galaxy."[17]
What is stronger than fear?[]
"I believe in the Rebel Alliance. I believe in its mission. I believe we will succeed. The Empire will be defeated, and freedom will return to this galaxy. I will not stop until we win, and then I will fight to make sure nothing like the Empire ever returns."
Despite massive losses to the Empire at theBattles of Mako-Ta andHoth, the Rebellion continued to grow as Imperial military abuses against citizens intensified. Facing organizedlocal resistance, MoffGideon oversaw the near-totalgenocide of Mandalore.[23] Whenriots broke out onMilvayne—whichImperial propaganda had touted as an ideal world, heavily policed by thelocal authority without a visible Imperial presence—ministerPitina Mar-Mas Voor said "I daresay Milvayne will be back on track" if the Empire imposed "three years of martial law and a few well-placed bombardments."[250] So concerned was Voor for the Empire's public image that the minister wanted to overthrow the "unlovable" Emperor; ironically, her plot was leaked to the HoloNet before the Empire censored it from the public and executed her.[4]
The Emperor was losing control of the galaxy as the war raged on.
Both the Empire and the Rebellion grappled with the chaos of the criminal underworld, including theSyndicate War instigated byCrimson Dawn[23]—criminal groups competed for the Emperor's favor based on the rumor that he was ending the Empire's informal arrangement with the Hutt Clan under Jabba.[251] LadyQi'ra failed to topple the Imperial regime in her syndicate'swar against the Sith, but the Rebellion continued to grow[23] and learned that the Empire was building asecond Death Star thanks to Crimson Dawn.[252] The scoundrelKay Vess sought a free life between taking on jobs for competing syndicates, in the process helping the rebels foil the Imperial Security Bureau's infiltration of the criminal underworld and gain a codex of ISB files.[253] Citizens watching the HoloNet witnessed a rebelattack on anEmpire Day parade where Alliance forces took care not to inflict civilian casualties, followed by rebel starshipsdamaging a giant statue of the Emperor near Coruscant'sMonument Plaza.[254]
The Alderaan Flotilla was laterattacked by the late Wilhuff Tarkin's protégée,Ellian Zahra. With support from Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa reconciled her duties as a princess, senator, and general after letting Zahra escape and—when she insisted on her obsession to exact vengeance against Organa—ordering the rebel fleet to kill Zahra instead. Thus relieved of the imminent threat and her sense of guilt over the Death Star's destruction of Alderaan, Organa spoke with Beon Beonel of the Alderaan Flotilla. She learnt that the Alderaanians had voted to disband the fleet: they wanted to find new places to call home and live in the wider galaxy, rather than narrow themselves to a singular identity as surviving refugees. While she dedicated herself to the war against the Empire and wished to fight on to prevent the return of tyranny, Organa also wanted a future in which she lived fully "with purpose in peace" and chose to focus onrescuing her lover, Han Solo, from Jabba the Hutt before comitting to battle against Death Star II.[249]
Bothan spies had confirmed that the battle station was being assembled in theEndor system, which prompted Organa to leadOperation Yellow Moon to distract Imperial forces in the farawayCorva sector as the Alliance Fleet gathered in theSullust system. Organa ledNien Nunb,Antrot,Kidi Aleri, andLokmarcha under the ruse of a recruitment run, but with potential recruits' lives at risk, she had herself and her team risk their own lives to ensure others' safety; she believed that the rebels fought not only for the anti-Imperial cause and duty but for each other, with love as an even more powerful force.[255] During the rebel rendezvous overSullust,Tomasso of theSpice Runners of Kijimi told Mon Mothma that the Emperor and his ruling coterie were aboard the new Death Star. Mothma and Tomasso were nearly killed by anassassin of the Empire when they met on Desinta.[256] Unbeknownst to the rebels, the Emperor was luring them toward his best and well-prepared forces, with a focus on turning Luke Skywalker into his new apprentice.[257]
The New Republic[]
Heart of darkness[]
"This is democracy. It is strange. And it is messy. It's not about getting it right. It's about trying to get it right. Yes, it's a bit chaotic. Certainly we will get some things wrong. The Empire? They cared nothing for democracy.[…] But we will listen. To the countless voices crying out across the galaxy, we have opened our ears, and we will always listen. That is how democracy survives. That is how it thrives."
Heroes and friends toppled the Imperial regime after years of intense struggle.
At theBattle of Endor in4 ABY, the rebels befriended thelocal Ewoks and they overcame the Imperial forces together. At the same time, Luke Skywalker affirmed that he was a Jedi and inspired his father's conscience. In an act of self-sacrifice for his son, Anakin turned against his Sith master and killed the Emperor.[257] News of the Emperor's death and the Rebellion's discovery and destruction of the second Death Star inspired spontaneousuprisings across Imperial worlds, withcivil war erupting on Coruscant[13] as Imperials deserted the military in droves. Loyal Imperial forces enacted the Emperor'sContingency, heeding his posthumous instruction to initiateOperation: Cinder—select worlds, regardless of whether or not they were affiliated with the Empire or the value of their resources were devestated. The genocide of billions prompted a second wave of deserting Imperials.[26] Meanwhile, the late Emperor's protégéGallius Rax quickly gathered the bulk of the Empire's military might under Grand AdmiralRae Sloane'sShadow Council, secretly aiming for a final showdown on the Inner Rim worldJakku. In accordance with the Emperor's will, Rax intended to both bring down rebel forces and cull an empire that had failed its Emperor.[258]
While the Empire succumbed to chaotic retreats, mass defection, and infighting, loyalists heeded the Emperor's last command to commit genocide across both rebellious and faithful Imperial worlds.
Among the worlds selected for Operation: Cinder was the Emperor's homeworld of Naboo. Although Naboo's monarchy had been rendered ceremonial, QueenSosha Soruna and GovernorDonta Gesset joined Leia Organa and other rebels inrepelling Imperial forces over Naboo twenty days following the Battle of Endor.[259] As the Rebel Alliance reorganized itself as the New Republic, Naboo became a member of the new democratic state.[122] Mon Mothma served as the Chancellor of the New Republic, reviving democracy with therestoration of the Galactic Senate on Chandrila. Mothma's public relations representative,Olia Choko, gave an interview in which she was assaulted by afruit thrown byGeeska Dotalo. The disgruntled citizen spoke of his homeworld,Gan Moradir, being embroiled in chaos and famine due to the war, and Choko encouraged Dotalo to serve as his world's representative in the Senate. Choko then chastised aNew Republic officer nearby for parading captured Imperial soldiers, stating that the New Republic should not replicate the demeaning acts of the Empire; she believed that mistakes were inevitable in a democracy, which relied on listening to and learning from everyone to survive and thrive.[13]
At the time of his "Iron Blockade" over theAnoat sector, the rogue MoffUbrik Adelhard reached out to the criminal underworld and allied withZeva Bliss' spice runners on the Outer Rim worldKijimi, who were willing to fuel further chaos so as to better their own advantage. Adelhard enlisted hunters to assassinate prospective senators,[260] while the Sith-worshippingAcolytes of the Beyond emerged on Taris and recruited disaffected youths. The Acolytes ledcivil unrest on Corellia in which they destroyedspeeders, attackedPeace and Security officers, looted stores, and mobbed pedestrians. They then attacked New Republic soldiers setting up aid outposts on worlds such as Devaron[258] and targeted leaders such as Leia Organa. Both she and his brother reflected that the fanatics had no understanding of the Force, murdering people to stealdark side relics simply out of their obsessive fascination for the Sith and later as terror agents of Moff Adelhard.[261][262]
Liberty for All, a poster calling on the freedom-loving people of the galaxy to break the chains of Imperial oppression
New Republic Intelligence officerCaern Adan was concerned with the nascent government's national security vulnerabilities from terrorist bombings and precision strikes by starfighter forces such as the204th Imperial Fighter Wing, dubbed "Shadow Wing." Adan formed a dedicated working group targeting Shadow Wing with General Hera Syndulla's support:Alphabet Squadron, led byYrica Quell, a former Shadow Wing pilot who partook in thegenocide ofNacronis during Operation: Cinder.[26] During thewar in theCerberon system, the localChildren of the Empty Sun religious sect endured both Imperial and Republic bombs, and itsleader taught that both sides were "oppressors," with the New Republic differing "in its words, not its deeds." The group believed there would be no "peace through bureaucracy" and only its particular vision of the Force promised "true peace." When Alphabet Squadron discovered the truth of Quell's actions on Nacronis, the pilot Chass na Chadic cynically thought that the New Republic was corrupt enough to knowingly recuit war criminals.[32]
Victory and death[]
"For those who survive, wiping the slate clean is the only way to bring peace. If a record of the Empire's sins exists, it will breed violence for decades."
Wishing to accelerate the Empire's defeat, the New Republic Senate voted for the creation of three newStarhawk-class battleships in addition to the prototypeStarhawk to rival the firepower of Imperial capital ships,[264] whichlost control of Kuat Drive Yards in5 ABY.[23] Chancellor Mothma ordered New Republic forces not to engage occupying Imperial forces on Kashyyyk for subsequentpeace talks with the Empire. Before they collapsed due to Imperial sabotage, Leia Organa led rebel veterans in the unauthorizedliberation of Kashyyyk and the enslaved Wookiees on their homeworld, which briefly made her a political pariah.[258] As Imperial forces were repelled from sectors across the galaxy, surviving forces gathered in the sparsely populatedJakku system, in a remote part of the Western Reaches. Beyond either Imperial or Republic control were theNew Separatist Union and thepirate territories of theSovereign Latitudes of Maracavanya.[263]
ColonelSoran Keize of the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing thought that his forces would lose the war, but he believed that the Republic would be merciless even if Imperials surrendered or deserted to live in peace—he realized that the Emperor keptmeticulous records of his people's complicity on Coruscant, binding even the lowest ranking functionaries of the Empire to the regime's atrocities by guilt, and he was resolved todestroy the Emperor's data banks in a bid to keep his people from retribution. Meanwhile, CommanderWyl Lark of General Syndulla's starfighter squadrons decided to leave the war given the Imperial retreat, believing that it would be impossible to stop all Imperials, and attempts to do so would simply antagonize more ex-Imperials and "breed martyrs."[263] Having completed his preparations, Gallius Rax leaked his forces' location to the New Republic, and the Senate narrowly voted to approve sending the military to Jakku.[258]
At theBattle of Jakku, Adelhard intended for hiscoalition to destroy both Imperial and Republic forces, but the Spice Runners of Kijimi had become wary of Adelhard's power and helped the Republic through their underworld contacts;Eleodie Maracavanya's band of pirates aboard the Super Star DestroyerLiberty's Misrule attacked the Imperials[265] while the Kijimi Spice Runners themselves attacked Adelhard's forces.[266] CommodoreKyrsta Agate's Starhawk brought down the Imperial Super Star DestroyerRavager, and at the battle's end, the New Republic emerged victorious.[258]
Concord in civility?[]
"Democracy is not in need of defense. People are. And it's why we'll keep the ten percent. A peacekeeping force. The rest of our efforts will go toward training the militaries of other worlds. We will be a true Galactic alliance, and not a false one with an authoritarian sun at its center."
Within a year, the signing of theGalactic Concordance ended the Galactic Civil War, with large portions of the remaining Imperial territories being incorporated into the New Republic. A few traditionally conservative worlds of theinner systems' Imperial remnant also surrendered but remained outside the New Republic on the conditions set out in the Galactic Concordance, but the remnant soon collapsed due to its members' disunity.[122] A report for theCommittee of Democratic Implementation stressed that the New Republic should focus not just on new laws but to give citizens an understanding of justice and a system in which laws were consistently and fairly applied.[4] Some worlds chose not to join the New Republic and remained neutral, such as Ryloth, whose freedom fighters had their hard-won independence.[267] The Narquois people sued their Neimoidian neighbors for imposing hundreds of years of serfdom on them, with the New Republic courts handling unprecedented levels of compensation claims.[61] Through elections, the government periodically relocated its capital across member worlds, placating the outlying systems that had seceded from the Republic in the lead-up to the rise of the Empire.[268]
Chancellor Mothma pushed for theMilitary Disarmament Act[268] in the lead-up to the Battle of Jakku, claiming that galactic democracy was "not in need of defense" but "people are" instead, proposing to cut down theNew Republic Defense Force to 10% and divert resources to train member worlds' own local militaries once the war was won. Military control was also redirected from the Chancellor's office toNew Republic High Command.[13] With the benefit of hindsight following the First Order war, the historian Beaumont Kin suggested that the Republic was not ready for demilitarization. Demilitarization was intended to allow star systems and sectors maintain their own defense forces and form ad-hoc coalitions if necessary, but it ultimately undermined the Republic,[4] which maintained adefense fleet but not a formal military by7 ABY. Leia Organa likened the new democracy to being a teenager, where every new crisis felt like the first one.[269] She led politically unpopular campaigns for re-arming the Republic.[268]
A New Dawn, celebrating the restoration of democracy on Chandrila, the first capital of the New Republic.
The New Republic started a de-Imperialization process with ex-Imperial civil servants who were deemed to be low-value and low-risk, fast-tracking their return to important administrative and bureaucratic positions under the new state. Ex-Imperials who committed lesser criminal offenses were gradually released with restrictions on weapon ownership and voting rights, which were lifted when they were judged to pose no potential threat. TheNew Republic Amnesty Program rehabilitated ex-Imperials on Coruscant withdroid counselors while theReconciliation Project attempted to provide healing and closure by pairing ex-Imperials with citizens who had suffered under the regime. The education systems of some worlds also incorporated thememoir of former ISB agent andAlliance intelligence officer Alexsandr Kallus, which reflected on the war from both perspectives.[4]
Underthe Duchess and ex-Imperial CaptainBombardier, theroyal family of Plazir-15 transformed itself into an elective monarchy leading adirect democracy following the Empire's collapse;Plazir-15's charter affirmed the world's pacifism and pluralism, with citizens directly involved in decision-making and choosing to be independent of the New Republic.[270] Around9 ABY,[271] a tannoy announcement at Plazir-15'sdomed city declared that it was the only remaining direct democracy in the Outer Rim. Its society was welcoming of droids, who made up most of the city's workforce while organic beings were largely free to live comfortable lives. The human security chiefHelgait, a long-time supporter of Count Dooku and his vision of "democracy," infected some of the droids'Nepenthélubricants to cause mayhem in the city, but he was stopped by Mandalorians Bo-Katan Kryze andDin Djarin.[270] In previous decades, the advance of the Separatist Droid Army and the Empire's encouragement of prejudice had exacerbated anti-droid sentiment, though the age of Rebellion inspired droid uprisings demanding liberty and equality. Even prominent human rebels treated droids as fellow family members[229] despite a brief galaxy-widedroid plague occurring between Crimson Dawn's war against the Empire and the Battle of Endor,[272] and the New Republic encouraged the trend of acceptance between organic and mechanical beings.[229]
Imperial Remnant threats[]
"You cannot defeat evil once and consider yourself victorious. It is our duty as the New Republic to challenge evil when we see it, no matter how scarred or hurt we are from past conflicts. We either stand for what we believe in forever without limit or qualification, with strength and bravery, or we shall fall to the same elements that crushed the Republic decades ago."
―Senator Leia Organa, cautioning against complacency in the New Republic Senate[273]
Toprotect the childGrogu from Imperial warlord MoffGideon and hisforces, Din Djarin also worked withMarshalCarasynthia Dune of the New Republic. At her Mandalorian friend's request, Dune circumvented protocol to discharge convictMigs Mayfeld. The ex-Imperialinfiltrated the secretImperial refinery onMorak alongside Djarin by ferrying explosiverhydonium fuel to the site, where Mayfeld met hisValin Hess, hiscommanding officer during Operation: Cinder. Detesting the man's sadistic indifference about their lastoperation onBurnin Konn, where thousands of civilians and even Mayfeld's fellow soldiers were slaughtered, Mayfeld killed Hess and destroyed the refinery while Djarin obtained information aboutGideon's cruiser.[274]
The New Republic welcomed captured Imperials such asElia Kane and Dr. Pershing into its Amnesty Program.
Following thecapture of Gideon and his cruiser, several of its ex-Imperials were placed in the New Republic's Amnesty Program. Cloning specialist Dr.Penn Pershing was among the scientists working for the New Republic on Coruscant, though hisparole droid advised him that theCoruscant Accords had since banned cloning.[275] Escaping from New Republic custody, Moff Gideon was able to organize with his forces within the Republic and speak with theShadow Council of otherImperial Remnants.[276] Gideon gathered his forces on Mandalore, wishing to engineer an army using research into cloning, the Force, and Mandalorian technology, but a diaspora of warriors who rallied around Bo-Katan Kryzeousted the warlord's forces from their homeworld.[277]
Around the same time,[23] the Santhe Corporation's Corellian shipyards had been repurposed by the New Republic to dismantle Imperial Star Destroyers and repurpose key parts for the New Republic Defense Fleet. According toRegional SupervisorMyn Weaver, other parts were sold to the shipyard's investors to generate profits for Republic reconstruction projects. However, he and the shipyard workers were secretly Imperial loyalists who shipped the hyperdrive cores to theMorgan Elsbeth, an ally of Grand Admiral Thrawn.[278] Elsbeth used the cores to build ahyperspace ring that delivered Thrawn from his exile to the witches' world of Dathomir.[279] The resulting military campaign was classified by the New Republic.[4]
The New Republic debated issues of defense in a joint committee of senators and armed forces leaders.
New Republic General Hera Syndulla had briefed Chancellor Mothma and theSenate Oversight Committee about herintervention at Corellia's shipyard and raised warnings about the threat of Thrawn's return, but SenatorHamato Xiono led opposition to Syndulla's request for aid.[280] Defying the committee's denial of permission to investigate further, Syndulla and CaptainCarson Teva led a squadron of ships to thehyperspace ring'splace of assembly, where two of Teva's pilots died in a collision.[281] A detachment of New Republic vessels retrieved Syndulla and Teva's squadron, and the general was summoned before theSenate Defense Council. Senator Xiono derided General Syndulla at the hearing, chaired by the Chancellor, and commented that Syndulla's rebellious actions were not appropriate for an established government like the New Republic. When Captain Teva raised Moff Gideon as an example of the threat posed by Imperial remnant leaders, Senator Xiono asserted that Gideon acted alone. Although Xiono wanted to refer Syndulla to acourt-martial, C-3PO interrupted the meeting, relaying Senator Leia Organa's cover-up story that she had authorized Syndulla's mission unaware of the Oversight Committee's prior denial.[282]
In18 ABY,[23]Poe Dameron left his home on Yavin 4 and fell in with the Spice Runners of Kijimi, falling in love withZorii Bliss. Many months later, they helped Zorii's mother, Zeva, arrange theKijimi summit of key players in the galactic criminal underworld to elevate thespice runners' position. However, Dameron's idealism foiled the Bliss' brutal tactics, and he fledKijimi City to join the New Republic, having found Senator Leia Organa's principles resonant.[273]
Fascism festers[]
"In the post-war years people became so determined to look forward that they did not spend nearly enough time looking back at what they had left behind. They tied themselves so tightly to the belief that this should never happen again that they neglected to take the steps to ensure that it could not."
―Beaumont Kin,The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire[4]
Behind machinery and masks, the First Order's fascism took advantage of individuals' sense of insecurity in its ambition to restore the Empire's might.
Not all inhabitants of the galaxy were swayed back to democracy. Aiming to revive the Empire's false glories after a period of hiding in the Unknown Regions, theFirst Order was a fascist junta[283] formed from aselect few Imperial loyalists andGallius Rax's child soldiers who survived the Battle of Jakku as part of the late Emperor's Contingency.[258] The Order came under the control ofSnoke, a secret creation of Darth Sidious'Sith Eternalcult onExegol,[284] and took advantage of the New Republic's demilitarization under Chancellor Mothma to strengthen amilitary more technologically advanced than that of the Old Empire's.[285]
Despite the New Republic's arms manufacturing restrictions, major arms corporations[2] such as Sienar Fleet Systems and Kuat Drive Yards created subsidiaries such asSienar-Jaemus Fleet Systems andKuat-Entralla Drive Yards operating outside the New Republic's boundaries to supply the First Order.[285] The First Order kidnapped children to be indoctrinated and trained for itsstormtrooper program as part ofProject Resurrection, which eventually came under GeneralArmitage Hux and CaptainPhasma's oversight.[85] The Order specifically targeted rebel veterans such asLando Calrissian,[284] whosedaughter was kidnapped in15 ABY. By21 ABY,[23] the Corporate Sector Authority was covertly funding the First Order and had transformed part of its ownSecurity Police into an army.[262]Jinata Security collaborated with the Order on Project Resurrection in the Core Worlds'Jinata system, where the planetVardos was under the control of Jinata Security's leader,ProtectorateGleb.[286]
Senator Leia Organa uncovered that the crime lordRinnrivin Di, whosecartel raided trade lanes around Ryloth, was funded by theAmaxine warriors, who were in turn agents of the First Order. Frustrated by the Senate's unwillingness to take action against the increasing encroachments of the First Order and scandalized by the public revelation that her father was Darth Vader, Organa left politics in the Senate to set up a paramilitary force named the Resistance[14] in28 ABY.[23] Since the Chancellors who succeeded Mon Mothma lacked her charismatic power, the Chancellor remained a largely ceremonial post with little effective authority. The Senate continued suffering from political gridlock between the Centrist faction that wanted to be governed by a strong and centralized executive power and Organa's Populist faction,[14] but in29 ABY, a majority of systems aligned with the Centrist movementseceded from the New Republic and publicly joined the First Order,[38] having been disillusioned with the Republic government's lack of cohesion and the resulting collapse of essential services. Organa had tried to keep the Centrist systems within the Republic, if only to make sure they could be monitored, but unlike the Old Republic Senate under Palpatine's chancellorship, the New Republic Senate chose not to oppose the departure of the dissatisfied systems[2] and welcomed the end of political gridlock.[17]
Cold War in the Borderlands[]
"The galaxy's hard-won peace is at risk. We may only get this one warning, this one chance to take action. I implore you to study my findings carefully, and with an open mind. What we're discovered should transcend petty political bickering, or your personal opinion of me. Unless we want another war—and surely, after the bloodshed that twenty years ago, nobody can want such a thing—we must be on guard. We must come together. We have to act."
―Leia Organa's call on fellow senators to recognize the First Order threat[14]
Cold War tensions emerged as the First Order made incursions in the neutralTrans-Hydian Borderlands between New Republic and First Order space,[287] While Leia Organa remained politically unpopular, the Senate tolerated the Resistance's activities,[268] which monitored the First Order while trying to avoid galactic conflict.[2] The New Republic'sSenate Intelligence Committee dismissed evidence of the First Order's activities as insignificant to warrant action.[287] In31 ABY,[288] Poe Dameron and otherNew Republic pilots ofRapier Squadron joined the Resistance. They had been told by theirsuperior officer that the First Order was not a serious threat following a failedattempt to stop the Order's hijacking of afreighter in which they lost afellow pilot. Leia Organa later tasked Dameron and his colleagues withinterceptingErudo Ro-Kiintor, a New Republic senator of the Centrist faction who had blocked motions to sanction the First Order and increase funding for New Republic forces. Indeed, the Resistance found in the Trans-Hydian Borderlands that the First Order had been transferring large sums of money to Ro-Kiintor via the Corporate Sector Authority and disguised through proxy companies.[287]
Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo of the Resistance further gathered evidence that the New Republic Defense Force was intentionally taking no action regarding the First Order's growth.[289] Indeed, the New Republic simply voiced opposition to the First Order'sblockade of theOtomok system, accepting the Order's claim that it was an internal affair.[290] The Order extractedore fromHays Minor of the Otomok system,[291] tested weapons on the world, and stole its children to bolster the stormtrooper ranks.[290]Paige andRose Tico were young women from Hays Minor who joined the Resistance.[291] Despite New Republic regulations on military equipment preventing newerKoensayrY-wing models from carryingion cannons and bomber ordance launchers, General Organa's group had been acquiring the vessels and modified them to better counter First Order forces[292] together with Slayn & KorpilMG-100 StarFortress SF-17 heavy bombers.[290]
The Tico sisters were among the crew oftwosquadrons of heavy bombers led by Vice Admiral Holdo in acampaign in the Borderlands'Cassander sector againstlocal pirates who were being supplied by the First Order without directly engaging the Order's forces[290] in34 ABY.[23] Instead of heeding Leia Organa's warnings of First Order military build-up, ChancellorLanever Villecham simply focused on promoting New Republic trade relations with the neutral systems of the Trans-Hydian Borderlands and was serving his second year as Chancellor[268] in the same year.[293]
Complacency kills[]
"Not realising that the ideology that had once produced stormtroopers armor was still producing stormtroopers. Chancellor Lanever Villecham resolutely refused to heed the warnings from the likes of General Leia Organa as to what was about to happen."
―Beaumont Kin,The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire[4]
In that year,[23] Resistance spyVi Moradi investigated the new stormtrooper project and came into contact with "Cardinal," who supervised the training of young children. The stormtrooper leader believed that the Republican system of government was "doomed to fail" because sentient beings were incapable of pursuing rational long-term self-interest; he believed it was the First Order's mission to sort the Republic's "mess" by removing "diplomats and lobbyists who don't represent real people with real problems" and "bringing equality to all." Cardinal later became disillusioned with the Order after realizing the brutal and unforgiving nature of Captain Phasma and was rescued by Moradi.[294] The Resistance later placed him on a "deprogramming protocol" in the forests ofCerea that rehabilitated people who had been brainwashed by First Order indoctrination.[295]
New Republic Command[296] later[23]sent the pilotsKazuda Xiono,Mia Gabon, andHugh Sion to deliver secretive intelligence toCommander Poe Dameron of the Resistance. They were directly attacked byMajorElrik Vonreg of the First Order, but Xiono was able to deliver the information to Dameron, and they and Leia Organa learned that the First Order was planning a massive attack on the Republic.[296] General Organa sent her envoy,Korr Sella, to warn the Republic Senate on Hosnian Prime, where she met Chancellor Villecham.[25]
Warnings of the First Order's rise were ignored by the New Republic on Hosnian Prime—its last capital—until it was too late.
However, the entireHosnian system, home the New Republic capital and the bulk of its fleet, wasobliterated by the First Order with a single strike from their Unknown Regions superweapon,Starkiller Base. Although the Resistancedestroyed Starkiller Base shortly after, the Order proceeded to conquer much of the galaxy[268] under a vanguard of zealous young commanders such as the technologist GeneralArmitage Hux.[38] They embracedNeo-Imperialism,[122]whittling down the mainResistance fleet to a single starship—theMillennium Falcon—in a brutalwar,[267] with ex-Imperial elders approving of the resurgence of fascism and militarism.[38]
Age of Resistance[]
Lighting the flame[]
"That's how we're gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love."
Leia Organa served as a fighter for democracy in both politics and the battlefield.
The Resistance comprised not only of Rebel Alliance veterans but those who found friendship among each other in face of the First Order's aggression—such as the aspiring JediRey, the defected stormtrooperFinn, thepilot leader Poe Dameron, and themechanicRose Tico. Although the Resistance sent pleas for help to their allies across the galaxy at theirmost desperate hour, none responded. The galaxy's wealthiest industrialists tried to profiteer from the war while living luxuriously in resorts such asCanto Bight on the Corporate Sector planetCantonica, funding both the First Order and the Resistance's machines of war. Luke Skywalker had gone into exile onAhch-To, believing that the Jedi's legacy was hypocrisy, hubris, and failure in overseeing the rise of Darth Sidious, Vader, andKylo Ren of the First Order. However, Skywalker was spurred from apathy by a persistent Rey, heeding Yoda's advice to pass on his lessons as a Jedi. Kylo Ren continued to reject his family's love when Rey confronted him, thinking of himself as a "monster" of the dark side and fulfilling his ambition to replace Snoke as the First Order'sSupreme Leader. Nevertheless, stories of heroism, such as Amilyn Holdo'sself-sacrifice against theFirst Order fleet and Luke Skywalker'sstandoff against theFirst Order Army on Crait began to inspire rebels with hope across the galaxy.[297]
Ikkrukk was among the hundreds of worlds invaded by the First Order. Although the Resistancedefeated the First Order forces that were destroyingGrail City, Prime MinisterGrist was unwilling to lend further support for fear of First Order retaliation, and some members of her government cabinet were even sympathetic to the new regime and hoped that occupation would benefit the city financially. Later, the Resistance was temporarily sheltered by theRyloth Defense Authority militia, but ChancellorDrelomon'sRylothian government was worried that the Resistance's presence would draw the destructive wrath of the First Order. OnAkiva, which had been the first planet in the Outer Rim tojoin the New Republic, voters removed the incumbent governor in anemergency election in favor of a First Order–affiliated merchant.[267]
The First Order blockaded Ryloth to demand tithes anyway, oblivious to the Resistance's presence. General Organa promised the RDA leader,Yendor Brethen, that she would not ask him to fight his relucatant government or people. However, the government betrayed the RDA, whosebase was attacked by the First Order, yet the Resistance had taken the time to re-gather its forces and evacuate. The group alsostole a list of rebel veterans fromFirst Order–occupied Corellia, intending to recruit them to the cause.[267] TheTah'Nuhna civilization, who remained neutral in conflicts from the Hundred-Year Darkness to the rise and fall of the Empire, were laterdestroyed by the First Order for briefly providing refuge for the Resistance.[298]
Citizens of the galaxy[]
"Where did they get all these fighter craft? They have no navy." "It's not a navy, sir, it's just… people."
―Allegiant General Pryde and AdmiralFrantis Griss, surprised by the Citizens' Fleet[299]
The Resistance was not only led by General Organa but bound by friendship and a sense of family among its fighters.
Spurred by the collective punishment of the Tah'Nuhna, the Resistance sought the support of theMon Cala fleet,pleading KingEch-Char to support their cause. Ech-Char wanted to protect his people from First Order retaliation and refused to support the Resistance, and he also chaired theMon Cala court with the support of isolationist Quarren advisors to order General Organa's group to leave the world.[300] When the First Order arrived, the veteran Quarren leader Nossor Ri sacrificed himself to allow the Resistance to leave the planet alongsideAftab Ackbar's Mon Cala fleet.[301]
The Resistance subsequently relocated to the secluded world ofAjan Kloss. While Kylo Ren's First Order struggled to reconcile either its orderly militarism with mysticism or its youthful vanguard with its ex-Imperial veteran leaders, the tyrannical junta adhered to Palpatine's contingencies when the Emperor resurfaced[38] in35 ABY.[23] He had been resurrected due to the cloning efforts of his Sith cultists on Exegol, which also boasted hundreds of planet-destroyingXyston-class Star Destroyers and supporting forces made from resources secretly funneled by Sith loyalists in the executive boards of Sienar-Jaemus and Kuat-Entralla. Attempting to fuse his cultists' efforts with the First Order to create a "Final Order," the reborn Emperor received steadfast support from the "High Human" ideologueAllegiant GeneralEnric Pryde.[38] Kylo Renrevealed to Rey that she was a descendant of Palpatine, but as the Jedi student of Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker, she accepted that she was susceptible to the urges of the dark side while rejecting the burden of her blood—she instead re-affirmed her bond to her friends and the Skywalkers, including the "good" that she believed still existed in Kylo Ren and her duty as a Jedi.[299]
Ren,sensing the love of his dying mother and inspired by Rey, made the choice of embracing his Jedi self as Ben Solo. Poe Dameron also confronted his complicated past as a spice runner in Kijimi City, with his idealism convincing Zorii Bliss to help oppose the First Order. The Resistance additionally gained support fromCompany 77 after Finn formed a rapport with the group—like him, they were former stormtroopers who had deserted the First Order after refusing to carry out an order to fire upon civilians and were willing to fight to stop the regime's oppression. The Resistance was impossibly outnumbered as it tried to stop the Sith Star Destroyers from launching on Exegol. However, Lando Calrissian assembled afleet comprised of volunteer citizens from throughout the galaxy who heeded the call of the late Leia Organa to help the Resistance movement.[299]
Among the Citizens' Fleet were unaffiliatedfringers and criminals from the anarchy of Kijimi City who championed their individual independence from politics or any authority and had taken the New Republic's limited ability to enforce interstellar law for granted; the draconian First Order roused them from apathy. Despite Kijimi'soccupation anddestruction under Pryde's command, the people of Kijimi were joined by people from other locales, including the royal-bornWilsa Teshlo, a member of the matriarchalVeiled Sorority pirate fleet; theCaracara Squadron mercenaries, who lended defense services to star systems;Kid Malmash of theNebular Kelpie, transporter of political refugees;[38] and the residents of theColossus, asupertanker home to the Resistance spy Kazuda Xiono andhunted by the First Order.[2]
The people joined Rey at theBattle of Exegol, and together, they defeated the Sith once and for all. The people of the galaxy, free at last, then led spontaneousuprisings across the galaxy, burning down the First Order with the hope of building a new future of harmony.[299] Resolving that the people of the galaxy could not afford risk another round of oppression in light of the New Republic's failure, Resistance member and historian Beaumont Kin then wroteThe Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, a book reflecting on the past decades of galactic tyranny.[4]
Behind the scenes[]
Love in the time of democracy[]
"History is fiction, but people seem to think otherwise. The thing I like about fantasy and science fiction is that you can take issues, pull them out of their cultural straitjackets, and talk about them without bringing in folk artifacts that make people get closed minded.[…] By making the film "about" something other than what it's really about. Which is what mythology is, and what storytelling has always been about. Art is about communicating with people emotionally without the intellectual artifacts of the current situation, and dealing with very emotional issues."
George Lucas filmingAmerican Graffiti (1973). His next project wasStar Wars.
George Lucas realized afterTHX's release that "being pessimistic doesn't seem to accomplish anything"[309] and instead wanted to make a light-hearted film that would appeal to the public[310] and "regenerate optimism" for young people who were apathetic to how America was "being ruined."[311] He wanted to make a feature film with a bigger budget that involved soundstages, art directors, production designers and fulfilled the mythologizing role of AmericanWestern genre films that he had grown up watching,[310] thinking that America no longer had contemporary folklore, which he believed through his study of anthropology was necessary for young people[309] and was a way to pass on morals such as "you don't shoot people in the back" and to let people "have the first shot" rather thanshooting first.[312] In particular, the filmmaker wished to make a "fairytale" for "twelve-year-olds" given the "dark" times of the Vietnam War and the Americancivil rights movement,[305] readingJohn Carter of Mars byEdgar Rice Burroughs andJohn Coleman Burroughs,James George Frazer'sThe Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, and fantasy books for inspiration in January 1974. Lucas was also influenced by a host of films in writingStar Wars, includingAkira Kurosawa's Japanese period dramas andFritz Lang'sMetropolis (1927),Michael Curtiz'sThe Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), andHoward Hawks'Air Force (1943).[309]
Lucas instead wanted to explore the underpinning psychological motifs that have been told throughout human mythologies across historical societies and religions. Not only drawing from his interest in narrative literature, popular fiction, and experimental cinema but also influenced by hisChristian Methodist upbringing andBuddhist ideas, Lucas was additionally informed by the writings of anthropologistCarlos Castaneda andcomparative mythologistJoseph Campbell in makingStar Wars as an exploration of what he consistently throughout the decades termed "psychological archaeology."[310][316] Lucas would become friends with Campbell in 1984, inviting him to Skywalker Ranch to give talks, informingStar Wars composerJohn Williams among many others about the crucial role of mythologies such asStar Wars in the development of societies from theNeolithic Revolution to theSpace Age. The ranch also hosted journalistBill Moyers'1988 documentary television seriesThe Power of Myth with Campbell and another TV interview with Lucas about the mythology ofStar Wars in1999, exploring the role of storytelling and motifs of the mythological "hero's journey."[317]
What is art? What makes us human?[]
"You try to keep people from being used or abused and listen to their grievances and try to do what is fair. Some people get upset because they want everything. Some people feel that they deserve to have everything, even though there's no reason for it. They just feel it's their right. That's one of the problems of a democracy. You get these individual voices that are very loud, and very dysfunctional. And if you cater to those voices, you end up with a very dysfunctional society."
Lucas found himself passionate with and talented at filmmaking, which he considered to be a combination of his interests in art and anthropology.
Just as Lucas had a documentary filmmaking background and preferred its spontaneous approach,[319]Star Wars' concept of the Force was the filmmaker's attempt to distill real-world religions.[313] In 1977, he said "The Force is a perception of the reality that exists around us."[306] In 1999'sStar Wars: Episode IThe Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn advised Anakin Skywalker that "your focus determines your reality."[3] Lucas believed that the essence of all religions is compassionate love and thus being able to "let go" rather than give in to greed,[320] using the Force as a narrative and symbolic tool inStar Wars as a "soap opera" about families at its heart.[310] Having just completed the prequel trilogy in 2005, George Lucas asserted in an interview that year that most stories have been made for adolescents as they are more open-minded than adults. In his mind, as "old stories" about "timeless" themes need to be retold to new generations in ways that resonate with them, narrative art is akin to raising children: they need to be reassured that they are part of a community who share "good" and "bad" aspects of human nature, and they need to be taught the consequences of acting on some of those notions, rather than learn everything "the hard way."[302] Speaking with journalistHank Stuever in 2015, Lucas defined art as the communication of emotions; "you get a feeling about something, you get knowledge about something, but you don't know why[…] you gotta go see it."[312] Speaking with his friend and journalistCharlie Rose in2014, Lucas thought that the social status of narrative art had dwindled in the20th century. As part of Lucas' contributions to improving education, he decided to spend much of his retirement from Lucasfilm working on theLucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open inChicago in2025.[321]
Lucas' 1971 filmTHX 1138 features a society that is tightly controlled without people's consent.
Speaking to theSinologistOrville Schell in March, 1999, Lucas called himself a "cynical optimist." He associated himself with the notion ofVictorian era culture andromanticism in the context of a "Midwestern," "warm, fuzzy kind of reality." In that vein, he intended his movies, though contemporized and personalized in "my time" of the 1950s to 1970s, to be "psychological archaeology" exploring from a humanist perspective "ageless" and "universal" themes (without "the only other two universal themes" of violence and sex) regarding the dissonance he found between humanity's intellectual, technological advancements and humanity having the "same" emotional driving points across various societies over a period as long as "3,000 years." Defining humanity, Lucas said that humans' distinguishing feature as intelligent animals is the biological adaptability of the human brain, which could "exchange information" through, for example, narrative art. In his view, the matter of humanity's extinction or survival depends on whether such information is accurate based onStar Wars' premise that "we are both good and evil, and we have a choice."[318] In 1977, Lucas said: "It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different; they have moremidi-chlorians in their cells."[306]
Speaking toTy Burr in 2005, Lucas also said that he believed that "God gave us a brain"—"the only thing we have to survive"—and in line with theDarwinist theory of evolution, humans have a "duty" to use their brains and scientific inquiry to make sense of reality. He was particularly interested in the developing field ofneuro-anthropology "to see our genes affect how we build our social systems, how we develop our belief systems" for society and culture like the psychological motifs of stories from "4,000 years" ago that he put into the modern intellectural context ofStar Wars; humanity's emotional underpinnings have not changed, though the intellectual contexts have.[322]
What creates popularity? What is the role of mass media?[]
"[…] while the psychological basis ofStar Wars is mythological, the political and social bases are historical. I like to take things and strip them down, then use the model and build a different story on it.[…] I was sitting around with a dozen reporters, and the Russian correspondents all thought the film was about Russian politics, and the Americans all thought it was about Bush. And I said, "Well, it's really based on Rome. And on the French Revolution and Bonaparte." It's shocking that these things get repeated through history. The same mistakes get made and the tension between democracy and tyranny is always the same. And we haven't figured out any way around it."
Lucas also remarked on how mythologies explore "good" and "evil" in a conversation televised in2002 withCarrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia Organa, and added that the "hero's journey" of Anakin Skywalker would involve him becoming "a bad person" through "very good intentions." They also alluded to a common opinion in the US at the time supporting "vengeance" for theSeptember 11 terrorist attacks of2001 that sparked the "war on terror" and how Lucas had originally titled1983'sEpisode VI "Revenge of the Jedi" rather than "Return of the Jedi."[315] In his conversation with Schell, Lucas remarked that "one of the weird and more interesting things aboutStar Wars" was that it has been well-received across "many cultures" worldwide. Despite low expectations during the making of the first film, it was a major financial success while Lucas also retained creative and marketing freedoms with distributor20th Century Fox. The entrepreneur fully owned and directed his own franchise company,Lucasfilm. He criticized corporations and especially the media of the United States for answering to nothing but the urge to make more money, which has in his view the effect of making people "disgusted" with their own culture and government and become cynical with "everything."[318]
Skywalker Ranch, Lucas' studio
Speaking about aFrenchman he had met who claimed to watchStar Wars every week in1997,LucasArts presidentJack Sorensen commented: "I don't know if I want to say this in print, but I feel likeStar Wars is the mythology of a nonsectarian world. It describes how people want to live. People all view politics as corrupt, much more so in Europe than here[the United States], and yet people are not cynical underneath—they want to believe in something pure, noble. That'sStar Wars." Sorensen also thought it striking that the franchise's literary elements, while seemingly "uncommercial" and "subordinate to the purely cinematic elements" when Lucas was making his films, had become "the very qualities that seem commercial about it now."[323]
Lucas opined in his conversation with Schell that the American media has a tendency to "devour" information without regard "for the culture as a whole," including those threatening to tear down existing institutions—the filmmaker believed that one problem of democracy was its vulnerability to cater to loud, irrational, and greedy voices, which would prevent society from achieving consensus and render it dysfunctional. The director emphasized his belief that societies cannot exist without common faith. He also acknowledged that his notion that the media should be mindful of theirsocial responsibilities has been taken to the extremity of censorship in Communist regimes such as the Soviet Union, which collapsed in1991, and the People's Republic of China.[318] Speaking with Charlie Rose in2015, Lucas nevertheless expressed appreciation that filmmakers he knew in Soviet Russia had creative freedom to make any film as long as it did not cross political redlines while an American filmmaker was bound by studios that wanted every production to be profitable—Lucas hated to be told what to do[310] and greatly admiredSoviet experimental cinema prioneered bySergei Eisenstein in the 1920s. Speaking with journalistRichard Corliss in2006, Lucas said wanted to experiment with moving images afterStar Wars and said that his "heart" was with the non-mainstream, European government–subsidized films ofJean-Luc Godard andFederico Fellini, and he thought of hisStar Wars earnings as his "own little government subsidy."[319]
What is compassion? What is the role of education?[]
"[…] I'm a very ardent patriot. But I'm also a very ardent believer in democracy, not capitalist democracy. And I do not believe that the rich should be able to buy the government.[…] we got a country based on greed. And as long as you got that, then it's corrupt. And as long as it's corrupt, you're never gonna get a real meeting of the minds on what is best[…]"
During a television interview with Rose in2012, Lucas said that he grew up in 1960sSan Francisco and has been a "very ardentpatriot" of America and also democracy.[324] While democracy and capitalism have been complementary developments in western European societies,[325] Lucas' ideal of democracy is distinct from a "capitalist democracy" where the wealthiest individuals could "buy the government" and hold back political conversations about what is best—he believed that the United States had long been mired in such corruption, with the effect of creating dysfunctional governments like the Republic inStar Wars. Lucas acknowledged that greed arose from "human nature" and blamed "most of the fault" on how media focuses on society. The "sensationalism" and "simple answers" of news media distracts from "the truth," thereby creating a more polarized society where "people are afraid." When Rose pressed him on using his platform to "enter the public conversation," Lucas replied he could simply make movies that entertain people and make them think about the values of cooperation and compassion "that we supposedly stand for."[324] Lucas also criticised the "winner-take-all" culture of legal, financial, and political systems in the interview, instead calling for a society of compassion; when asked whether such an ideal is "democracy" or "socialism," Lucas called it "common sense."[326]
Responding to a question about theAmerican Dream in a1995 interview with theAcademy of Achievement, Lucas made similar comments about a more "mature" and "rational" society where humanity's survival is at stake and education should play a larger role in helpinghuman brains adapt to "human nature's" dichotomy between being "self-absorbed," which he compared tocancer cells, and being a "communal creature," comparable to typical cells that cooperate to keep the larger organism alive. In the same vein, Lucas noted that humans working together should be considered a necessary "way of life" and also good for "business," rather than just "public service" to be done after making an achievement; for Lucas, human cooperation and America's "pursuit of happiness" is comparable to him and his filmmaker friends banding together, helping one's family and friends and strangers, the survival ofhunter-gatherer communities, the start of agriculture, and the creation of cities and societies across human history.[307]
Speaking with Rose about the themes ofStar Wars in relation to2004'sUS presidential election in that year, Lucas expressed his belief that the "current mess" was partly due to a lack of proper studying of the humanities and interdisciplinary learning—in his words, the humanities is the learning of the "why" to complement the studying of sciences as the "how," with storytellers such asWilliam Shakespeare and study of the emotional and psychological motives behind historical leaders of conquest such asAlexander the Great,Julius Caesar,Napoleon Bonaparte, andAdolf Hitler. Attributing modern education's tendency to resort to simple information recall to an assembly line mentality borne of theIndustrial Revolution, Lucas also mentioned his work setting up an educational foundation to promote the cultivation of "emotional intelligence" by engaging with discussion and literature in the manner of ancient Greek philosophersPlato andAristotle's form of tutelage and hands-on learning in the manner ofcobblers' apprentices.[327] Lucas' introductory words to hisEdutopia website declares "education is the foundation of our democracy."[328]
Echoes of history[]
Empire of liberty: a new republic, repressing Native Americans, and Nixon[]
"And here's an interesting thing about democracy: if you don't treat it well, if you don't do your job, especially if you're our representative in the senate, in the parliament, or whatever, the whole thing can go awry, because if you're always bickering and not agreeing on things and doing the people's work—who elected you—a tyrant will come in and take over and do it for you because the people want to get the job done and they will tend to go where the person who's got the most leadership is."
Carrie Fisher as Leia, rebel leader and princess of the people
According to a2024 interview with the broadcasterDeutsche Welle, George Lucas intendedStar Wars to be one movie about the adventures of Luke Skywalker and the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. What became the prequel trilogy originated as a backstory that was constrained by the visual effects technology of the 1970s, and the middle of theStar Wars story evolved into three films.[308] Lucas told theTIME magazine in 2002 that this original trilogy is the story of "Princess Leia and her friends" waking up to the fact that the Republic was the Empire, a "sham" democracy that they must resist.[330] On Han Solo's initial dismissal of the revolution and acting as a mercenary and smuggler, Lucas said in August 1977 that he was just "a free-enterprise small businessman who is trading between systems without benefit of a proper license from the trade unions." The issue of smuggling "was really the result of the Empire, which has such stringent rules about tariffs, and the trade companies, which are so strong, so monopolistic. Most legitimate operators were squeezed out of the business." However, Han Solo did not consider the situation from a political perspective despite the Empire being the "Big Brother," instead treating the regime as any another obstacle.[306]
Theoriginal novelization ofStar Wars published in1976 included an excerpt from the "First Saga" of the "Journal of the Whills" that outlined the fall of the Republic with the "wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights," using the parable of a tree that could "withstand any external attack" but "rotted from within;" with the help of "massive organs of commerce," Senator Palpatine was elected "President of the Republic" with the promise to reunite discontent people and "restore the remembered glory of the Republic," but he "was controlled by the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office," with "governors and bureaucrats" overseeing a "reign of terror" using "the Imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor." The excerpt ends introducing a group of rebels wishing to restore the Old Republic and "cast the light of new truth" across an oppressed galaxy.[331] In early drafts of his film script, Lucas intendedStar Wars to be akin to a saga documented by an observer known asthe Whills, and the plot device later developed into the Force.[332]
Lucas described similar developments when speaking withCarol Titelman inAugust 5, 1977, on the history of theStar Wars galaxy as general notes for Lucasfilm: the Republican Senate had single four-year terms for its Chancellors, but senators was corrupted by intergalactic companies to extend the last Chancellor's term twice due to a crisis and made him Emperor for life; senators were concerned by bloated bureaucracy and rationalized that executive powers could control it, but the Emperor made Senate meetings shorter and less frequent and had actually made the bureaucracy "run amok" in the first place, having control of key bureaucrats through company money. Although "a little over half" of the Senate was not corrupted and tried to oust the Emperor through legal means such as impeachment, many of them mysteriously died, prompting the Jedi Knights to rally for the remaining senators. However, the Jedi could not restore order as they were betrayed and destroyed by Darth Vader.[306] When Lucas metRichard Marquand,Howard Kazanjian, andLawrence Kasdan for a story conference in1981, he explained the tragedy of Darth Vader, and that because the Emperor had been elected, "nobody knew" that he was a bad person and "Richard M. Nixon" was his name.[313]
Lucas compared the Ewoks that defeated the Empire in 1983'sReturn of the Jedi to the Vietnamese who defeated the "American Empire."
Speaking with Hollywood directorJames Cameron in 2012, Lucas also compared the rebels and Ewoks' battle against the technologically advanced Imperial forces inReturn of the Jedi with two cases of the "underdogs" against the "empire"—firstly, the "Viet Cong" that defeated American forces in the Vietnam War, and secondly, the founders of the United States thatdefeated the "English Empire" in America in the late18th century.[333] Appearing in court inCalgary,Canada on a copyright claim about the concept of the Ewoks in1990, Lucas testified that he was also informed by[334] theCoast Miwok people indigenous toMarin County, California, whose population inhabited the land aroundSkywalker Ranch until it was devestated bydisease anddisplacement[335] brought by European colonists, like otherNative American societies.[336]
Road from Rome: Caesar, Napoleon, and Hitler[]
"The whole point of the movies, the underlying element that makes the movies work, is that you, whether you go backwards or forwards, you start out in a democracy, and democracy turns into a dictatorship, and then the rebels make it back into a democracy. That's one of the uber-issues that everyone is dealing with. You've got the personal issue of Anakin and his turn to the dark side, and his children bringing him back to being a human being, but the larger issue is the fact that you've given up your democracy.[…] It came out of Nixon wanting to change the rules so that he could get a third term, and with that—I'm a big history buff—I was beginning to study Caesar. Why did the Roman senate give his nephew a dictatorship when they had gotten rid of Caesar? Why did they do that? After they had a revolution in France to get freedom, why did they create an emperor? I mean, why did they do that? Why did the Germans, after they had a democracy after World War I, turn it into a dictatorship? Why did they do that? That was my initial question 30 years ago. And I'm not really saying why as much as how it gets done, because it always gets done in the same way. And it's scary, the fact that the world has caught up to that theory."
Ian McDiarmid, who likened Palpatine to Slobodan Milošević, and George Lucas, who based the character on Augustus, Napoleon, and Hitler out of concern for American democracy under Nixon.
1999'sThe Phantom Menace launched the prequel trilogy, where Lucas intended to explore how democracies could be eroded and transition into dictatorships through democratic means rather than via coups or rebellions in the real world, paralleled with the story of a good person such as Anakin Skywalker turning into a villain—Darth Vader.[313] Upon the release of 2002'sStar Wars: Episode IIAttack of the Clones,TIME magazine writers asked Lucas about politics inStar Wars, considering Obi-Wan Kenobi's cynicism of political campaign financing to be an echo of US SenatorJohn McCain's role incampaign financing reform; Padmé Amidala's idealistic plead in a deleted scene in the Senate calling the Military Creation Bill "a declaration of war," with violence begetting more violence and resulting in everyone losing their freedom an echo ofUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan's pleads for the plight of thepeople ofPalestine; Anakin Skywalker'srealpolitik about a strong leader resolving the Senate's differences an echo of Roman SenatorBrutus in hisassassination of Julius Caesar. Lucas replied that he described himself a believer in liberal ideals of democracy and suggested a continuity between his films by emphasizing the role of Princess Leia and the Jedi in the original trilogy to overthrow the Emperor.[330] In 2005, actorIan McDiarmid described the character of Palpatine/Darth Sidious as "totally irredeemable," motivated only in accumulating and exercise power for its own sake unlike the psychological complexity of Shakespeare's characters; McDiarmid instead likened Palpatine to theSerbian leaderSlobodan Milošević, who was on trial for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in theformer Yugoslavia.[337]
The 1935 Nazi filmTriumph of the Will. Lucas worried for America's democracy, drawing on historical examples of dictators being voted into power when makingStar Wars.
In anotherAttack of the Clones deleted scene, Count Dooku tells a captive Padmé Amidala that "the democratic process in the Republic is a sham" and the "incompetent" Chancellor had allowed the bureaucracy to become stronger and the Republic's "cult of greed" would eventually lose "any pretext of democracy and freedom." Amidala re-affirms her dedication to the Republic and calls Dooku's Separatists "not government that has been bought out by business" but "business becoming government!"[313] The film'snovelization, written byR. A. Salvatore based a script of Lucas', even includes Dooku telling the business leaders joining the Separatists that their alliance has an "absolute commitment to capitalism" regarding lowering taxation and tariffs, promising "complete free trade" by eventually abolishing "all trade barriers."[341] Lucas decided to replace the scene with Dooku speaking to a captive Obi-Wan Kenobi instead, showing the irony of Dooku sharing most of the Jedi's view that the Senate is corrupt and ineffective and also telling the truth about the Republic being controlled by Darth Sidious—yet Kenobi does not believe Dooku because the fallen Jedi asks him to join him in overthrowing Sidious and taking power by themselves.[342]
Tony Keen wrote in 2012'sStar Wars and History about the saga's connections with the fall of the Roman Republic and compared Padmé Amidala's rebuke of Anakin Skywalker's faith in a benevolent dictator and her belief in a democratic republic with the Roman politicianCicero, who criticized Julius Caesar's dictatorship, supported Caesar's heir Octavian againstMark Antony, and was condemned to death by Antony. The latter andCleopatra,Queen of Egypt,warred against Octavian as lovers until their deaths, allowing Octavian to rule as the first Roman emperor as Augustus. Although contemporaneous Roman records did not distinguish the "Republic" from "Empire," nor did contemporaneous records name the "Weimar Republic" as a separate polity when Nazis came to power in Germany, Keen highlighted that Hitler used theReichstag fire as pretext for suspending civil liberties while Napoleon Bonaparte organized a formal coronation of himself, similar to Palpatine's claim of a "Jedi plot" and declaration of the Galactic Empire.[343]
Writing in the same book, Kevin S. Decker compared thecharisma—and thus capacity to gain and maintain popular support as an apparent "political idealist"— of Count Dooku, whose Sith name was Darth Tyranus, to the ancient tyrantsKypselus ofCorinth andPisistratus ofAthens in theseventh andsixth centuries BC, who both seized power by appealing to marginalized people; "demagogues," according to Aristotle. Decker further compared the Galactic Republic's first Chancellor,Tarsus Valorum[343]—who originated inStar Wars Legends material[344] but has since been introduced to the currentcanon[8]—toSolon, who laid the foundation of democracy by breaking down ancient divisions anddeveloping a rule of law. The author noted that in contrast, the fall of Roman republican practices and also the Roman Empire, which had adoptedChristianity given the enduring appeal ofJesus, left many European monarchies that sought Christian-basedlegitimacy and power deals among theirroyal courts.[343]
Within this medieval context, Decker stated that theSith Code[343]—written byDavid Gaider as a Nazi-inspired perversion of theJedi Code from Legends material,[345] and both codes have since introduced been in the current canon[160][346]—would instruct adherents to be a "manipulativecourtier" of a monarch, yet Darth Sidious and Tarkin go beyond this framework as theItalian Renaissance authorNiccolò Machiavelli advised, obtaining power by being feared rather than loved; achieving effective means even at the cost of Christian virtues. Tarkin expressed disdain for the Jedi Code and implemented a rule of constant militarization and fear under the Empire, while Sidious used coercion and cruelty—much likeQin Shi Huang, the first of theChinese emperors who ruled for over two thousand years until theRepublican Revolution in 1912—though the Sith Lord did not follow Machiavelli's advice to refrain from indiscriminate cruelty and ultimately fails. Decker also added that theconquests of one man could only be enabled by the public, comparing Communist Russia and China'spersonality cults ofJoseph Stalin andMao Zedong to theStar Wars galaxy's "conditions ofcultural decadence, political amoralism, and unrestrained, all-consuming commerce and industry" in the rise of the Empire; the moral leadership of Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Leia Organa follow Machiavelli's praise for Aristotle, Cicero, andJohn of Salisbury's ideas and an ideal republic of a free contitution forcitizens of virtue to advance the common good.[343]
Chinese trade and empire[]
Revolutions of culture[]
Star Wars toys made by a Hong Kong company in Guangdong being packaged in Hong Kong for export to the US in 1982.
Mao Zedong'sCultural Revolution was a period of mass societal upheaval—and restrictions on Western imports such asStar Wars—in thePeople's Republic of China that began to wind down with Mao's death in 1976.[347] Nevertheless, theChinese Communist Party's newspaper, thePeople's Daily, criticized the originalStar Wars film in 1977 as an illusory fairyland that reflected Americans' dissatisfaction with reality. From 1978, Chinese authorities began promoting science fiction literature in an effort to rehabilitate scientific research[348] until thecampaign against "spiritual pollution" such as science fiction in 1983.[349]
Although the prequel trilogy released in China and inspired a generation of ChineseStar Wars fans,[349] the original trilogy was not officially released in China's cinemas until June 2015. In the late 2010s, Lucasfilm made brief forays into officially collaborating with Chinese companies via Disney in the late 2010s withShanghai Disneyland, the ill-fatedStar Wars: Galactic Conflict video game, and the web-novelThe Vow of Silver Dawn.[347] In contrast tomainland China,Star Wars was screened inHong Kong, acolony of the British Empire that not only engaged inentrepôt trade between the West and Communist China but also boasted a booming plastics industry, including manufacturing the firstStar Wars figures during the 1970s and 1980s for England'sPalitoy company and the AmericanKenner company.[350]
A panel of Luke Skywalker's family in a Guangdong comic adaptation ofStar Wars.
When meeting with Chinese Vice PremierGeng Biao in May 1980, President Carter invited Geng to watchThe Empire Strikes Back with thefirst family. Carter told the press that "Geng Bao was on the edge of his seat all the way through the movie. Fortunately, he did not ask me for any of the weapons he saw in the movie"—they shared concerns over theSoviet Union'sinvasion ofAfghanistan and Vietnam'sinvasion ofCambodia and discussed military cooperation as part of a new relationship between the US and China.[309] In the same year, Chinese officials inGuangzhou City of theGuangdong province, which neighbors Hong Kong, obtained a copy of 1977'sStar Wars and summoned the artist Song Feideng (宋飞等) to a private viewing. He was tasked with illustrating alianhuanhua picture book to promote scientific achievement in China. Song found the film exciting and happily received payment for his work, which Zhou Jinzhuo (周金灼) wrote in adaptation of the film and sold quickly under the Guangzhou branch of the Popular Science Press (科学普及出版社). It remained one of the fewStar Wars material in mainland China alongside pirated videos and some broadcasts by local television stations in the late 1980s.[348][351][352]
Star Wars lianhuanhua were published by children's book publishers across China, including the regions ofYunnan in the southwest,Anhui in the east, andInner Mongolia in the north.[353] In October 1980, inChangsha City of theHunan province north of Guangdong, the local branch of thePeople's Press commissionedStar Wars novellas under the editor and veteran translator Tang Yinsun (唐荫荪) with translators Zhang Ruoheng (张若衡) and Chen Yuequan (陈月泉), firstly adaptingDonald F. Glut'snovelization ofThe Empire Strikes Back and then the originalStar Wars with other staff. In October 1986, the publisher started printing its adaptation ofReturn of the Jedi but was performing poorly, and it switched to printing adaptions of the English erotic novelLady Chatterley's Lover, which was hugely popular, banned on the charge of obscenity, and led to the publisher being sanctioned.[354] Around the same time, manufacturing ofStar Wars toys in Hong Kong began relocating to Guangdong amidst China'seconomic reforms and socio-economic uncertainty over the impendingtransfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997.[350]
Hong Kong: city on the edge[]
The Separatists inThe Clone Wars and the British Empire—parliamentary democracy and organs of commerce
While local industries declined, Hong Kong refocused on servicing as an international financial center, being situated at the edge of both Western and Chinese influence.[350] InStar Wars and History, Michael Laver compared the nationalization of theDutch andBritish East India Companies with the Galactic Empire's absorption of the Trade Federation, stressing the giants of commerce could outlive their usefulness to their respective imperial metropole. Katrina Gulliver also wrote in the book thatLondon, as the world's premier financial center and metropole of opportunity in the heyday of the East India Company, was recognized as a modern version of the past dominant cities ofBabylon,Jerusalem, and Rome, developing technological and economical innovations fit for empire hand-in-hand with the widely influencialWestminster model of parliamentary democracy. Gulliver added that London's leading status passed toNew York and the United States in the early twentieth century, in contrast to the long-term dominance of Coruscant as capital of theStar Wars galaxy and Republic.[343]
Further back in time and closer to Hong Kong, Laver's essay inStar Wars and History compares Tatooine and Cloud City in their capacity as ports on the galaxy's political and economic fringe with southeastern Chinese ports such asAmoy (Xiamen) and Canton (Guanzhou). They were geographically far from China's capital city ofBeijing, andpiracy thrived in southern China during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the seventeenth century, pirate-admiralZheng Zhilong and hisfamily's competed with the collapsingMing and risingQing dynasties of China—likened to the fragile Galactic Republic—as well as aEdo Japan and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) inFormosa (Taiwan), which parallel Lando Calrissian as a pirate, Cloud City's Baron Administrator, and rebel general. Laver also compared the Trade Federation's model of having its own trade fleet with the VOC and the British East India Company as "states within a state" away from the European metropole in the seventeenth century; just as Viceroy Nute Gunray oversaw the blockade of Naboo, the VOC imposed many blockades on rival imperial powers such asPortugal andSpain inGoa,Macau, andManila in southeast Asia, while the East India Company was commissioned in England as Spain lost itswar in Europe and the company lobbiedParliament to maintain its monopoly of trade in India, eventually incorporating the land as the heart of the British Empire.[343]
According to Laver, endemic corruption and a "divide and conquer" policy relating to the Dutch and British imperial powers also mirror the state of the Galactic Republic and the Trade Federation's failure, in the case of the Naboo and the Gungans, to dominate the populations separately. The author stressed that in terms of socioeconomic and political ramifications of corporate barons' ruthless pursuit of profit, the Trade Federation's use of military force to advance economic interests most clearly reflects British imperialist companies'Opium Wars against Qing dynasty China, forcing theopium trade through Canton bybeginning the first of many "unequal treaties" with, among other stipulations favoring British merchants'convenience of trade in 1842, the ceding ofHong Kong Island toQueen Victoria ofGreat Britain.[343] A special pack ofStar Wars action figures celebrated the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China—under theSino-British Joint Declaration registered at the United Nations—onJuly 1, 1997.[355]
Slavery and apartheid[]
"The effect of war on the common people is something that Dave and I wanted to explore from the beginning and George really liked the stories where we got into that. It speaks to what's happening in our world today and I think it gives some emotional reality to the battles that makes us care about the outcomes because the lives of the innocents are hanging in the balance."
―Henry Gilroy, speaking in 2008 about the Ryloth trilogy[356]
Peace between the Talz and Pantoran peoples in "Trespass."
Named the "Grand Army of the Republic," the fictional clone forces share its name with the United States'Grand Army of the Republic organization of veterans who had served in theAmerican Civil War against the secedingslavery-basedConfederate States[343]—the fictional Separatist state was identified as the "Confederacy of Independent Systems" inStar Wars Legends material,[357] which was later confirmed by the2010 "Sphere of Influence" episode of theStar Wars: The Clone Wars television series, created by George Lucas.[133] For the2009 "Trespass" episode ofThe Clone Wars, focusing on the Pantorans' war against the Talz, voice actorBrian George's performance as Chairman Chi Cho drew on "some of the uglier voices of theSouth Africanapartheid era" that only ended in the 1990s and the "venom and hatred that we used to hear on the news every night." George also likened his character's hatefulness toethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, the1994Rwandan genocide, theDarfur genocide between 2003 and 2005, and tragically, many more.[358]
The cost of war inThe Clone Wars' Ryloth arc, partly based on the tragedies of Afghanistan
Henry Gilroy wrote the 2009 Ryloth trilogy ofThe Clone Wars while thinking about Afghanistan, particularly on how it was invaded by Soviet Russia and the United States supplied theAfghan mujahideen with weapons to counter the Soviets, and some of theAfghans eventually fought American forces in anotherwar that started in 2001 as part of the war on terror. The first and second episodes, "Storm Over Ryloth and "Innocents of Ryloth," were partly based on battles of the Second World War.[359] According to lead character designerKilian Plunkett, Twi'lek culture was based on the north African nations ofAlgeria andMorocco.[360] The writers took inspiration from the French Revolution for the third episode, "Liberty on Ryloth," which also introduced Cham Syndulla. The character was changed from a Separatist agent lying to his people to a freedom fighter to better suit the plot, and, given that George Lucas had insisted that Twi'leks speak in French accents, executive producerDave Filoni referred to him as the leader of theFrench Resistance of the Second World War.[361]Catherine Taber, who voiced Numa in the second episode, thought that the history of the Twi'leks shared a cultural thread with theIrish people.[362]
In the bookStar Wars and History, Paul Horvath and Mark Higbee compared the economic basis of theStar Wars Confederacy's leadership—battle droid manufacturers such as the Trade Federation—with the economic basis of the American Confederacy—cotton plantations reliant on enslaved labor. Economic interests, coupled with political change—either the despotic Palpatine's rise as Chancellor of the Republic inStar Wars or the anti-slaveryAbraham Lincoln'selection as President the United States in 1860—contributed to the outbreak of civil war, with the summary executions of Jedi echoing the Confederatemassacre at Fort Pillow of surrendering Black US soldiers. The Galactic Empire's promises of peace, violated particularly by the oppression of non-human species until the galaxy's liberation by the Rebel Alliance, was also compared with the post-Reconstruction decades of America'snadir of race relations and the struggle of modern American civil rights campaigners.[343]
The tragedy of Anakin Skywalker
Paul Finkelmen wrote inStar Wars and History that bondage existed in various forms throghout human history, from legal forced labor and concubinage inancient Mesopotamia; descriptions in theBible; and ancient Greece and Rome when limited democratic enfranchisement existed, to transactional chattel slavery in thetransatlantic slave trade; state institutions ofserfdom,gulag systems, and concentration camps; and human trafficking in the modern era. Finkelmen compared slavery's role in separating affected family members with the emotional toll of Anakin Skywalker having to leave his still-enslaved mother behind on Tatooine at a young age, akin to American abolitionistFrederick Douglass' childhood, with Anakin having to carry emotional scars that ultimately prevent him from fulfilling his duties as a Jedi. Finkelmen also compared Luke Slywalker's sense of being held back by his family on Tatooine with Abraham Lincoln's restrictive childhood. Although Tatooine, a world "beyond the line" of Western civilization yet one where Padmé Amidala is shocked to find slavery given the Republic's outlawing of slavery, and particularly Jabba's Palace evokesOrientalist connotations of moral corruption and sexual exploitation inMali,Ottoman, or Indian empires, Finkelmen added that Leia Organa's slaying of Jabba the Hutt echoes theHaitian Revolution in the 1790s, where the "slave" became the agent of their own destiny and massacred their "masters." Highlighting enslavement being the first listed human rights violation in 1948'sUniversal Declaration of Human Rights in the context ofpan-European German extermination camps and slave labor battalions andpan-Asian Japaneseinternment camps andforced prostitution from the early 1930s to 1945, Finkelmen's analysis identified the clone troopers and stormtroopers also as enslaved soldiers and brainwashed cult members, with mindless droid armies being the "ultimate slaves," enforcing pan-galactic bondage of certain despots over others.[343]
Feminism[]
"I think [Padmé] embodies the true meaning of feminism in my understanding of it. It's about having access to all the same things but then making decisions from your particular point of view…[Padmé] has been a leader of many people, but rather than being consumed with the thirst for power…she stays true to her compassion and her belief in democracy and in humanity…"
―Natalie Portman, speaking during the filming ofRevenge of the Sith in 2003[363]
Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala, Queen of Naboo
While filming in2003 forStar Wars: Episode IIIRevenge of the Sith—the final installment of the prequel trilogy which was released in2005—Padmé Amidala's actor,Natalie Portman, said that her character embodies "the true meaning offeminism in my understanding of it" in accessing "all the same things" while making her own decisions and leading many people while remaining steadfast to her values of compassion, democracy, and belief in humanity.[363] In 2012'sStar Wars and History, Janice Liedl compared Queen Amidala's fight for her people's freedom to QueenBoudicca, who led theCeltic Britons'revolt against the occupying Romans. Janice Liedl and Nancy R. Reagin added that women have been "integral to every modern revolution," likening the critical leadership roles of Princess Leia Organa and Ahsoka Tano—a protagonist ofStar Wars: The Clone Wars—with actions of real-world women that could be considered "unfeminine," such as the teenageJoan of Arc leading theFrench to end theEnglishSiege of Orléans in 1429;Charlotte Corday's assassination of the influencial writerJean-Paul Marat after theSeptember 1792 massacres of the French Revolution; the Irish revolutionaryConstance Markievicz's election to theUK Parliament in 1918 and theIrish Republic'sfirst Dáil Éireann assembly in the following year; andDora María Téllez's becoming a military leader and spokesperson of theNicaraguan Revolution in 1979.[343]
Liedl and Reagin further noted that a hairstyle worn by woman supporting theMexican Revolution of 1910–1920 also helped inspire Princess Leia Organa's iconic hairstyle inA New Hope, and the1830 French Revolution paintingLiberty Leading the People features a woman,Marianne, symbolizingFrance andliberty. Liedl further wrote that Padmé Amidala's funeral and the palpably "powerful influence" on those who shared her ideals of the Republic echoes thefuneral ofHawaiian QueenLiliʻuokalani, associated with the indigenous culture ofHawaii following the islands' settlement by the United States. The historian also remarked that Princess Leia Organa's "hands-on role" reflects the leadership of QueensElizabeth I andElizabeth II during the Anglo-Spanish War and the Second World War, respectively.[343] Feminism remains a pertinent theme inStar Wars films beyond George Lucas' time in Lucasfilm.[364]
"Mutually assured destruction" and the war on terror[]
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering."
Lucas acknowledged at theCannes Film Festival in 2005 that the prequel trilogy's tale of democracy's collapse is comparable to the United States' then-ongoingwar in Iraq,[329] and according to journalistMaureen Dowd in2009, Lucas also compared Anakin Skywalker toGeorge W. Bush who oversaw the war as US President and the role of the mentor, Emperor Palpatine, to Bush'sVice President,Dick Cheney.[368] However, Lucas had clarified in 2005 that he had written the prequel story during the Vietnam War, with concerns about theKennedy family and President Nixon and his worry that democracy in America is vulnerable—he believed that politicians' inefficiency prompts voters to elect charismatic "tyrants" who promised to "get the job done."[329] In his 1999 interview with Schell, Lucas had said that "a benevolent despot is the ideal ruler" to "get things done," with the caveat that "power corrupts" and only "a big human" could overcome power abuse.[318] William J. Astore wrote in 2012'sStar Wars and History that the United States was effectively conflicted between the roles of benevolent Jedi—some American units were praised as "Jedi" for their service the wars against the Iraqi despotSaddam Hussein—and imperialist Sith, given the civilian casualties and collateral damage incurred during both the Iraq War and the then-ongoing war in Afghanistan.[343] The conflict ended with the botchedAmerican-led withdrawal atKabul and Afghanistan's fall to theTaliban regime in2021.[369]
Beyond George Lucas[]
Transition to Disney[]
"And George, you know, his increasing need to use politics as a way to express some of his frustration with what was going on in the world is what comes through in the Star Wars [prequels]. And, you know, fans can look at that and determine whether or not they connected with that or not, but certainly George did. That was really important to him. And, you know, that was his prerogative. It was his story. He was using that in a way that was personally meaningful to him."
―Kathleen Kennedy, in an interview about her approach to encouraging creative freedom in Lucasfilm following Lucas' departure[370]
George Lucas (center) in 2012, at the Tuskegee Airmen convention
Just as Lucas had createdStar Wars to address themes about human societies without explicitly referencing issues on which audiences have formed their own prejudices of opinion,[302] the filmmaker had ironically become frustrated withStar Wars fans on theInternet who constantly "yell" about "what a terrible person you are" after developing their own prejudices of opinion on whatStar Wars should be.[371] Following Lucasfilm's release of the 2012 filmRed Tails about theTuskegee Airmen serving in World War II, George Lucas sold his company toThe Walt Disney Company so that Lucasfilm could continue runningStar Wars while he himself focused on experimental filmmaking beyond the "white slaver" mainstream of theHollywood industry[310] that did not believe films starringBlack people had a profitable market outside the United States.[372] Lucas had been planning to return to the independent filmmaking of his college days since at least 2005.[322]
The bookStar Wars and History was published in late 2012, five years after George Lucas had read a copy of Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl'sStar Wars and Philosophy, which was published independent of Lucasfilm, and askedJonathan W. Rinzler—the author ofThe Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film—to arrange a similar volume of essays by relevant academics onStar Wars' historical influences. While the essays were written from the perspectives of their respective authors, they were based on back-and-forth communication with Rinzler as an intermediary with Lucas, who listed various subjects that "became the nucleus for all the essays" and set aside some that were more concerned with political science for a potential future book.[373] A 263-page unpublished book attributed to Lucasfilm and the Wiley publishing house is listed under the title "Star Wars Politics" and datedApril 15, 2013 onGoogle Books.[374]
In January 2013, theObama Administration rejected a 34,435-strongpublic petition for beginning construction on a Death Star because the administration was concerned with budget deficits and "does not support blowing up planets," instead listing the alternative US space-based science, technology, engineering, and math-related achievements and developments in both public and private sectors.[375] TheSeason Three episodes "Heroes on Both Sides" and "Pursuit of Peace" ofThe Clone Wars aired in 2010, addressing banking deregulation at George Lucas' behest[376]—the production schedule of the television series meant they were written three years prior[377]—in 2007, when theGlobal Financial Crisis occurred and laid the ground for democratic backsliding worldwide.[378]
Since George Lucas' departure from Lucasfilm, the company had been directed byKathleen Kennedy, a film producer who had worked closely with Lucas andSteven Spielberg. Kennedy encouraged artists ofStar Wars to make their work personal, noting the earnest authenticity of Lucas and Spielberg's films and particularly Lucas' "increasing need to use politics" in theStar Wars prequels to express his ideas in light of real-world events.[370] Kennedy appreciated the global leverage that Disney has provided for Lucasfilm, which was able to make official in-roads into China andRussia in the 2010s.[379]
Humanitarian efforts[]
The501st Legion was founded in 1997 as aStar Wars fan and volunteer group in support of charitable work worldwide.[380] Other groups include theRebel Legion and theMandalorian Mercs.[381]Lily Meszaros—who played the Jedi Council memberStass Allie in 2005'sRevenge of the Sith—fled from Rwanda following the genocide in 1994 toAustralia. She set up the Rwandan Orphans Assistance Response to provide aid for children in Rwanda,[382] raising funds partly by signingStar Wars autographs.[383]
In2014, Disney and Lucasfilm created theStar Wars: Force for Change initiative in partnership withJ.J. Abrams'Bad Robot Productions to supportUNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, during the production of the 2015sequel trilogy movie,Star Wars: Episode VIIThe Force Awakens. The campaign benefitted the UNICEF Innovation Fund, which was founded by Disney/Lucasfilm and the government ofDenmark to support new Innovation Lab projects. BetweenMay 21 andJuly 25,Star Wars fans were asked to contribute in exchange for a chance to appear in Episode VII, and the partnership raised over $4.2 million dollars from 125 countries in addition to Disney's donation of $1 million.[384] In 2016, UNICEF andForce for Change delivered theMyanmar Social Innovation Lab[385] and a digital care protection system in Cambodia.[386]
In April 2015, Lucasfilm'sForce for Change was announced as a presenting sponsor withUNICEF USA for the UNICEF Kid Power program, which encouraged children in the US to be active and raise funds for nutrition programs for malnourished children around the world.[387]Ashley Eckstein—who voiced Ahsoka Tano in the television seriesThe Clone Wars andStar Wars Rebels—took part in UNICEF's Kid Power program to share the group's work in Afghanistan,Haiti, and theDominican Republic with exclusive content forRebels Season Three.[388] In 2017,Force for Change raised funds for both UNICEF USA andStarlight Children's Foundation.[389] In 2017, the Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF partnered with Disney for the city's first "Star Wars Run" raising funds for children worldwide. In 2018, UNICEF Hong Kong likewise partnered withForce for Change, the 501st Legion fan group, and local companies for a "Star Wars Dress Up Day" on May 4,Star Wars Day withStar Wars merchandise in conjunction with marketing for the filmSolo: A Star Wars Story, which was released inMay 24.[390]
"And so if you make a timeless story likeStar Wars, then it's always going to feel relevant.[…] I just think that we are constantly accusing each other of that[corruption] and trying to overthrow them and become powerful ourselves. It's this never-ending thing."
Neo-fascist stormtroopers salute inThe Force Awakens withStar Wars' return to the silver screen in 2015.
J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan wrote the story ofThe Force Awakens based on the existingStar Wars setting and characters as part of Lucas' tale of hope against the backdrop of cynicism following the Vietnam War. Abrams and Kasdan, the latter of whom also worked on the scripts of the original trilogy, therefore extended the story of "light versus dark" and good against evil rather than make real-world geopolitical or social allegories, though Abrams acknowledged that the rise of the First Order against a benevolent New Republic could be comparable to forces happening then in the real-world.[393] The Order itself was borne of story conversations that included speculation on what might have happened if the Nazis had allfled to and regrouped inArgentina.[394]
Commenting on the television seriesStar Wars Rebels, which aired between 2014 and2018 with himself as executive producer, Dave Filoni discussed politics and evil as a complex matter, comparing the real world's history of democracies collapsing into dictatorships with how a beautiful tree could rot from within and thus, inStar Wars, making everyone a pawn of Palpatine "even without the Empire." Filoni said that the theme ofStar Wars is in Luke Skywalker's message—to "not to be of yourself but to be selfless," finding enlightenment and then inspiring others to act too.[395] The first novel of the new canon continuity,A New Dawn, was written byJohn Jackson Miller and published in September 2014 as a prequel toRebels, which premiered in October. Miller likened theStar Wars galaxy's rapid increase of military production within a period of twenty years under the Empire tocollectivization in the Soviet Union, which turned a predominantly agrarian Russia and the satellite nations that it conquered into an industrial-military powerhouse at the cost of "over 20 million" lives in the interwar period. The author also drew from his experience in studying totalitarian governments states incomparative politics for how the Empire adopts and transforms pre-existing Republic institutions. Miller further compared the fact that the Empire's surveillance apparatus had developed before Palpatine's time to how "surveillance of various kinds has gone on for decades, for centuries," under many governments and commercial entities in the real world, made more apparent with theEdward Snowden leaks in 2013.[396]
The creators ofRogue One credited characters' relationships in face of the cycles of corruption with audiences' sense of resonance.
DirectorGareth Edwards ofRogue One: A Star Wars Story clarified that theanthology movie was written in mid-2014 when asked whether it is significant to "recent political events" during its release inDecember, 2016. Edwards also echoed Lucas' belief that storytelling reflects a "human condition" that remains constant throghout human history; a "timeless" saga such asStar Wars would always resonate with contemporary events given Edwards' belief that humanity is a cycle of revolution against someone in power deemed to be corrupt.[392]Felicity Jones, who played the heroine Jyn Erso, stressed in an interview in the same month that the core ofStar Wars films is rooted in characters' relationships—inRogue One's case between father and daughter, where the filmmakers intended for viewers regardless of gender to want to be Jyn Erso as the main protagonist—which in turn make audiences want the characters to "succeed against the forces of evil."[402] Jones also appreciated that Jyn Erso's focus on her survival and mission rather than having a sexualized appearance fulfilled her perspective on feminism.[403]
Escapism and nostalgia, or confronting oppression?[]
Rights in the West: democratic backsliding[]
The diversity debate[]
The Women's March in January, 2017, protesting the incoming Trump administration, photographed by Kevin Mazur.
In early November 2016,Rogue One writerChris Weitz posted comments onTwitter againstDonald Trump following his victory in the2016 US presidential election and added that the Empire inStar Wars is a "white supremacist (human) organization," prompting retaliatory online criticism. When Disney CEOBob Iger was asked for comment atRogue One's world premiere, he dismissed the media's "story" and asserted that the film makes no "political statements" whatsoever. Iger further said the company was proud ofRogue One's "diverse" casting, "and that is not a political statement, at all."[404]
When journalistSteven W. Thrasher interviewedRiz Ahmed—who played the Imperial-turned-rebel pilotBodhi Rook inRogue One—earlier in July and asked him about the issue of diversity, the actor was happy that Lucasfilm was normalizing diversity inStar Wars yet, when asked about being known known as the firstMuslimStar Wars actor and loud negative reaction against John Boyega's leading role as a "black stormtrooper," Ahmed described the situation as "strange"—"I can understand when John Boyega bristled at that kind of description, because it's putting you back in a pigeonhole." Ahmed said that much of life as an artist "is to transcend the labels people impose on you," but audiences could also feel a strong sense of resonance with another person's appearance, identity, and life experience. As to discussions on how art might be "political," the interviewer mentioned that the label was commonly applied to "artists of color," but Ahmed said that it has more to do withclass distinctions in theBritish context—he thought that the interviewer could be more focused on racial cleavages as anAmerican compared to himself, a Briton who is thus more aware of class cleavages.[405] In February2017, Ahmed raised funds in aid ofwar-tornSyria's refugees with signedStar Wars memorabilia in light of thefall of Aleppo to the Russian- andIranian-backedAssad regime in late 2016.[406]
Women's rights and LGBTQIA+ representation[]
"I like that in theStar Wars world it's rather subtle, but you're seeing a woman as a leader who's not trying to lead as a man.[Rian Johnson is] saying something that's been a true challenge in feminism. Are we going to lead and be who we are as women in our femininity? Or are we going to dress up in a boy's clothes to do the boy's job? I think we're waking up to what we want feminism to look like."
―Laura Dern, speaking aboutThe Last Jedi in an interview in 2017[364]
The Resistance gathers inThe Last Jedi.
DirectorRian Johnson of the December 2017 sequel movie,Star Wars: Episode VIIIThe Last Jedi, was asked about whether it was influenced by nascentpolitical polarization underDonald Trump's presidency, and Johnson similarly spoke ofStar Wars movies as never being consciously "conceived as a political allegory." He believed audiences applyStar Wars on political situations of the day because Lucas' stories have a universal and archetypal power;[407]Laura Dern said that when she and Johnson first discussed her role as Amilyn Holdo, the director spoke earnestly about the power ofStar Wars to explore the complexity of being human, making sense of light and dark and struggles with family via characters and the "hero's journey." Dern was especially pleased that Holdo has a feminine physicality[408] and said that her character reflected "a true challenge in feminism. Are we going to lead and be who we are as women in our femininity? Or are we going to dress up in a boy's clothes to do the boy's job? I think we're waking up to what we want feminism to look like."[364]
Both Laura Dern andOscar Isaac, who played Poe Dameron, said in an interview that they had heard from Rian Johnson about their characters' depiction inStar Wars media beyond the movies and were vaguely aware about Holdo being a "very sexual character"—the September 2017 Claudia Gray novelLeia, Princess of Alderaan had mentioned that Holdo was attracted to species and genders beyond just humanoid humans[207]—and fan enthusiasm over whether Dameron could be aLGBT character. Isaac was glad that "people can see themselves in a hero" from a broad range of personal identities including LGBT andLatino, even if the story does not necessarily nail down any particular interpretation.[409] Censors inSingapore and theUnited Arab Emirates cut a brieflesbian kiss from local releases ofStar Wars: Episode IXThe Rise of Skywalker in 2019.[410]
Between the personal and the political[]
Kelly Marie Tran, John Boyega, and Daisy Ridley
Rolling Stone magazine noted in its cover story ofThe Last Jedi that images and slogans associated with Princess Leia Organa were a common sight during the January, 2017Women's March, held less than a month after Carrie Fisher's death, in response to themisogyny of the newly inaugurated President Trump. Interviewed by the magazine in late 2017,Daisy Ridley described the saga as a "wonderful mix" of what she thought was "somewhat a reflection of society" and "escapism, because there are creatures and there are people running around with fucking lasers and shit."[411] Interviewed byStarWars.com in 2022,Kelly Marie Tran said that she felt her character Rose Tico, introduced inThe Last Jedi, is resonant with her own cultural and personal experience of growing up with parents who were "ripped from the place they lived"—Tran's parents survived the Vietnam War during their childhood and were among theVietnamese boat people who managed to settle in the United States after fleeing their home country at the end of the war, and they made personal sacrifices to raise their family, even initially disapproving Tran's efforts to become an actor as it seemed impossible.[412]
Upon the publication ofChristie Golden's novelBattlefront II: Inferno Squad in July 2017, she expressed in an interview thatStar Wars media had been influenced by the development of mass media and the Internet in the real-world, replying to a question about moving beyond the clear-cut morality of popular culture prompted by World War II. Golden's works explore characters across different factions and points of view, including the Empire'sInferno Squad as acovert operation unit, and the author said that although society is "more polarized than ever," greater opportunities to reach out beyond one's world views meant that it is more difficult to "demonize people and make them one dimensional."[413]
While promoting the final movie of the sequel trilogy,The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm's President Kathleen Kennedy similarly said in 2019 that the modern world has lost the "sense of innocence" of the 1970s and the "black-and-white" sensibility of World War II; contemporary storytelling would reflect the changed society of today. Director J.J. Abrams compared the First Order's origins to a hypothetical scenario of "the Argentine Nazis" actually banding together to continue their pursuit of fascism.[311] Slavery was not welcome in the otherwise criminal setting of Kijimi City, which was not only styled after Kurosawa films but also took inspiration from Nazi-occupiedParis and Michael Curtiz's 1942 filmCasablanca of theMoroccan colony underNazi-collaborationist French control.[414] Abrams also took an approach different from the nostalgia ofThe Force Awakens and focused on how a new, young generation confronts the "debt that has come before," "less about restoring an old age" but "more about preserving a sense of freedom and not being one of the oppressed."[311]
A post from the officialStar Wars Twitter account in the eve of the 2020 US elections
OnOctober 27,2020, one week ahead of theNovember 3United States elections, the officialStar Wars Twitter account posted an image of the word "VOTE"—styled as a blue hologram containing theRebel Alliance emblem in place of the letter "O"—with the text "Make your voice heard."[415] In 2023, Ian McDiarmid compared Palpatine to "a certain contemporary politician" because "the word loser" was likely the worst thing either could ever hear.[416]
Black Lives Matter[]
"You are important. Your individual power, your individual right, is very, very important. We can all join together to make this a better world."
―John Boyega, speaking at a Black Lives Matter rally in 2020[417]
The outbreak of theCOVID-19 pandemic affected people across the world into the 2020s.[418] During theBlack Lives Matter protest in his home city of London in theUnited Kingdom onJune 3, 2020, John Boyega—who played the stormtrooper–turned–Resistance fighter Finn in the sequel trilogy—spoke out against the racism that Black people face even in the democratic world.[417] On the same day, Lucasfilm expressed solidarity with Boyega and his speech,[419] and the actor publicly revealed his frustration with Disney and the wider Hollywood industry's unfair treatment of people of color in an interview released three months later. Boyega highlighted the dissonance between the sequels' initial marketing and the relatively lessened prominence of the characters played by people of color inThe Last Jedi, and he added that he thought J.J. Abrams tried to salvage Disney's mistreatment with his unplanned return to directingThe Rise of Skywalker.[420]
While the original trilogy entered China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution invarious unofficial ways, Lucasfilm officially collaborated with Chinese companies via Disney with the release of the sequel trilogy in the late 2010s.[347] Compared to the original American posters forThe Force Awakens and also Hong Kong's bilingualChinese-English posters,[422] when the movie was released in mainland China in January 2016, the poster design there significantly diminishes John Boyega's character and entirely removes his Latino co-star Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron and the non-human characters Chewbacca andMaz Kanata.[423] In a 2018 interview, Boyega said that he became aware of the racist changes via social media but did not focus on it, instead taking pride of the fact thatThe Force Awakens would be seen by large numbers of people and he would appear throughout the movie.[424] Its premiere inspiritedStar Wars fans in mainland China, who havebeen able to build up sizeable online fan communities and kept up with US-basedStar Wars news via websites such as the unofficial encyclopediaWookieepedia.[349]
Star Wars Day celebration at Taiwan's Presidential Office
When the cover of theTIME magazine in June 2015 featured Taiwan'spresidential candidateTsai Ing-wen with the words "She could lead the only Chinese democracy," state media in mainland Chinese censored the words and compared her picture to a picture of Master Yoda.[425] Tsai was elected President. In 2018, theTaiwan Presidential Office held aMay the Fourth welcome event withStar Wars fans where Vice PresidentChen Chien-jen remarked: "If you all come in peace, I welcome you all as our guests. Today Master Yoda[President Tsai] is absent, but I quote one phrase from Yoda—'size matters not'. Taiwan is bigger than you think."[426]
Both formerChief SecretaryAnson Chan and activistJoshua Wong of Hong Kong compared the city'sPolice Force to the stormtroopers ofStar Wars in their "indiscriminate brutality" against peaceful young demonstrators during the2014 and2019–2020 protests, which reflect concern over violations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the local constitution, and the rule of law that promised true democracy.[427][428] Artwork of the Hong Kong protest movement feature local imagery alongside Hollywood popular culture imagery, includingStar Wars, in what scholars describe as an attempt to reframe Hong Kong in good versus evil terms, especially for citizens who dually identify as localists and cosmopolitans, and also amplify international outreach.[429]
TheStar Wars: Galactic Conflict video game was developed in China and approved by the authorities between 2019 and 2020,[430] and a Taiwanese company would have handled distribution outside the mainland via a subsidiary in Hong Kong that was founded in response to thetrade war between China and the United States[431]—the game was never released amidstvarious irregularities.[432] The official Chinese web-novelThe Vow of Silver Dawn[347] was released between 2020 and 2021[433] to explore theStar Wars galaxyfrom a Chinese cultural context.[347] Among the web-novel's characteristics is the setting of Aakaash system, ruled by a corrupt corporation that isolated itself from the Republic, brainwashed citizens in news media, enforced disappearances, and suppressed the dragon-like Loongren ethnic group.[64]
Russia, information war, and Ukraine[]
A study published in theFirst Monday journal in 2018 reported that a significant number of Twitter posts harassing Rian Johnson overThe Last Jedi are characteristic of troll accounts of the Russian Federation, which manipulate and exploit the politicization of popular culture discourse, particularly misogynistic, anti-gay, andalt-right beliefs, akin to 2014'sGamergate harassment campaign and Russia's electoral interference targeting the United States.[434]
According to anEnglish-language article by the Russian government'sRussia Beyond media outlet in 2015, theZebra youth television program inLeningrad (Saint Petersburg) illegally broadcast dubbed clips ofStar Wars in 1989, but theUS Consulate General allowedZebra to continue doing so.Star Wars was finally released in the Soviet Union in the summer of 1990, and the Communist state collapsed in the following year, to be largely replaced by the Russian Federation. TheRussia Beyond article goes on to mention that a 2001 episode of the satirical television seriesKukly had a puppet of the "recently elected presidentVladimir Putin" play as Luke Skywalker while a puppet of ex-presidentBoris Yeltsin played as Obi-Wan Kenobi.[435] The article neglects to mention that the broadcaster was taken over by the Russian regime that year.[436]
Launched onJanuary 5, 2021 following several months of delay in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,Star Wars: The High Republic is a multimedia project set during a renaissance era of the Jedi and the Galactic Republic, beginning with works primarily by authorsCavan Scott,Claudia Gray,Charles Soule,Daniel José Older, andJustina Ireland.[441] Starlight Beacon is a central setting of the project'sPhase I and is "very closely tied" to New York'sWorld Trade Center and the Twin Towers' collapse in the September 11 attacks of 2001.[442]Phase II features the Eiram and E'ronoh War, for which authorZoraida Córdova researched the World Wars and the Cold War about the cyclical nature of human conflict.[443]Phase III features the Stormwall, which was similarly influenced by the Berlin Wall; Justina Ireland was serving in the US army during 9/11, and as a child, she had happy childhood memories of news about thefall of the Berlin Wall and the supposed end of communism in November 1989. Ireland also said that her fellow authors had also lived through such "touchstone historical moments" that could influence their writing.[442]
Starlight Beacon, a centerpiece inThe High Republic storytelling
In 2024,Daniel José Older retweeted aNovember 21 Twitter post from a reader of hisStar Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic series expressing that the Valo story arc, spanningissues 11 and12 published in the preceding days, felt "like a commentary on current events, specifically about Palestine"[444]—suffering from mass killings amidstanti-government protests in Israel, awider regional crisis, and international controversy since theOctober 7 terrorist attack on Israel in 2023.[445][446] Older later quoted an excerpt of a review of the twelfth issue on Twitter: "InStar Wars The High Republic Adventures #12 Daniel José Older reminds us of a fundamental premise behindStar Wars: Resistance is Perseverance. Standing up for freedom in the midst of colonization and apartheid lies in persistence of hope and persistence of action."[447]
Andor Season One[]
"Our world is exploding in different places right now, people's rights are disappearing, andAndor reflects that.[In the show] the Empire is taking over, and it feels like the same thing is happening in reality, too. I was impressed by Tony's social-realist intentions. He's created a whole new morality. It's very deep and humane—there is grief, mourning, hope, fear. It's not just primary colours here."
―Fiona Shaw, in a 2022 interview on Tony Gilroy'sAndor series[448]
Andor drew from a plethora of revolutionary histories.
WhenAndor showrunnerTony Gilroy was asked about political resonances in the 2022 television series'season one in November of that year, he stated that theAndor was written without contemporary politics in mind, drawing on historical revolutions simply as spontaneous events to drive the characters' adventures—"whatever contemporary resonance it has is usually in the eye of the beholder. Oppression is oppression."[449] In another November interview, Gilroy emphasized that his personal politics are "absolutely not important" to the series' themes and thatStar Wars allows plentiful comparisons to history. As to the "age old question" of "who's a terrorist and who's a freedom fighter," Gilroy wanted every character to "speak for themselves" to make their motives believable and referred the idea of controversial revolutionaries to historical nation-building movements, naming the United States'Thomas Jefferson and South AfricaNelson Mandela and further listing the revolutions of France,Haiti,Russia and the Soviet Union, and the nation-building of Israel.[450] Gilroy also named the FrenchMontagnard, theAfrican National Congress, theIrgun Building in Palestine, and the AmericanContinental Congress. Responding to a comparison with Russia's contemporaneous war against Ukraine, Gilroy remarked on how sad it is that terrible events continue to repeat themselves through history.[451] Theseason one finale took inspiration from the 1966Gillo Pontecorvo filmThe Battle of Algiers, which was based on theAlgerian War of Independence against the colonialFrench government.[452]
Gilroy also likenedAndor's character of Luthen Rael as astart-up company founder[450] and, earlier in September, identified the senator and eventual Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma as a "figurehead of liberal democracy that will fail."[453] Gilroy compared the pre-existing canon role of her as a "still portrait" of a "proper" and "powerful" senator likeUS House SpeakerNancy Pelosi in another interview in the same month and promised thatAndor would "build a real life" behind Mothma's character,[454] and in an interview released in November, he clarified that he was not thinking about Pelosi when writing the scripts.[451]Genevieve O'Reilly, theIrish-Australian actor of Mothma inRevenge of the Sith andAndor, said in an April 2025 interview that she and Gilroy had talked about not placing Mothma in another expositional role again but instead bring a "deeply human" characterisation of the woman to the fore. O'Reilly added that "the tentacles of empire" underpins a large part of human history across the continents and ages, whether it be in Australia,Ireland, America,Africa,Portugal, or France.[455] However, Mothma's character in relation to the real world had also been previously discussed by authors of officialStar Wars material. In 2012'sStar Wars and History, Janice Liedl had likened Mon Mothma toCountess Matilda of Tuscany, who cut off herhusband from her possessions andbrokered a brief peace between theHoly Roman Emperor and thePope, whom she supported.[343] In February 2017,Chuck Wendig, author of the 2015–2017The Aftermath Trilogy which detailed Mon Mothma leading the fledgling New Republic, had described her as a "fairly centrist leader" who proved the difficulty of good governance.[456]
Fiona Shaw, who played Maarva Andor and spoke in an interview released in August 2022, thought that Gilroy's story is a "scurrilous" and "social-realist" take on "theTrumpian world" that was "exploding in different places right now" with people's rights being taken away.[448] Gilroy said that Syril Karn, played byKyle Soller, was aspiring to be part of the Imperial Security Bureau, which he compared to the NaziSS.[454] In April 2025, Soller said that his character showed the "banality of evil"—a phrase fromHannah Arendt's1963 report on thetrial ofAdolf Eichmann in Israel, a SS member and perpetrator of the Holocaust who was apparently otherwise an ordinary man living in Argentina—a unexceptional bureaucrat "desperate to be loved" who would facilitate atrocities for professional promotion.[457]
Legacies of war, colonialism, and authoritarianism in animation[]
In 2020, George Lucas and Dave Filoni reflected on how the clone trooper–focused stories ofThe Clone Wars were very well received by military families.[376] The 2021–2024 television seriesStar Wars: The Bad Batch follows a group of clones handling the Republic's transition into the Empire. Executive producer and head writerJennifer Corbett intended to ground their stories to real-world topics, and the series creators particularly focused on military veterans who "no longer have a war to fight" and find themselves unemployed and in need of support.[458] The 2023 television seriesStar Wars: Ahsoka, created by Dave Filoni, addresses the question of history repeating in cycles through the character ofBaylan Skoll, who says that history "repeats again, and again, and again" in an "inevitable" circle if not stopped.[459]
The May 2023Star Wars: Visions animated short "In the Stars," made by the Chilean studioPunkrobot Studios and set on a world ravaged by the Galactic Empire for its natural resources, took inspiration from the art and culture of the indigenous peoples ofPatagonia in southernChile, using the Empire as an allegory for the centuries of colonial oppression imposed on native people by the Spanish Empire and independent Chile, which did nottransition into a modern democracy until dictatorAugusto Pinochet was forced to step down in 1990.[460] The short specifically honored theSelk'nam people, against whom the Chilean state conductedgenocide.[461] TheVisions short "The Spy Dancer," made by the FrenchStudio La Cachette and set on an affluent world occupied by the Galactic Empire, was inspired by cabarets in Nazi-occupied Paris as well as the performersJosephine Baker—who aided the French Resistance in the Second World War and later the American civil rights movement—andMata Hari—who was executed byFrance for allegedly spying for the German Empire in the First World War. DirectorJulien Chheng was also influenced by his family's history under the genocidal CommunistKhmer Rouge in 1970s Cambodia, particularly how the regime turned family members against each other. "The Spy Dancer" was particularly well-received by audiences in Cambodia and Argentina, which ended its lastmilitary dictatorship in 1983 after losing theFalklands War to the United Kingdom.[462]
Lucasfilm invited animation studios worldwide to produceStar Wars: Visions shorts, with some creators drawing on the heritage of dictatorship.
AnotherVisions short, "The Bandits of Golak," made by theIndian studio88 Pictures and set amidst conflict between the Galactic Empire and native people, serves as a metaphor for the legacy of British colonization and imperialism—particularly mass displacement and religious divides caused by thePartition of India in 1947 in the modern-day states of India,Pakistan, andBangladesh.[463] TheVisions short "Aau's Song" byTriggerfish Animation Studios reflect its creators' love for South Africa's natural landscapes despite the myriad issues "stemming from our recent history" and South Africans' wide range of backgrounds.[464]
Culture war: social media and election fears[]
"It's not lost on me how, the way that these events have unfolded, is also due to the hyper divisiveness of the time that we live in—that is driven, I would say by this point, by echo chambers of thought and algorithms that reinforce our biases, and I think that applies to everybody."
―Amandla Stenberg, in a video discussing the hateful harassment that she has received in 2024[465]
Social media platforms such as Twitter have become battlegrounds of political discontent and division.
Lucasfilm employees and the leads of the sequel trilogy have faced considerable harassment over the years, particularly sexist and racist messages and death threats online. Social media escalated toxic antagonism amongStar Wars communities and have become an avenue for mass outrage influenced by Russian troll accounts.[434] The authorChuck Wendig faced years of harassment following the publication of his novelAftermath in 2015 on including LGBT characters and was dropped byMarvel Comics from hisStar Wars work in October 2018 for his outspoken political comments on social media.[466] This followed an upsurge in an online alt-right mob of theComicsgate movement targeting Wendig onYouTube and Twitter that was joined by Twitter bot accounts.[467]
Lucasfilm issued a statement onFebruary 10, 2021, concerningThe Mandalorian actressGina Carano, saying that "her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable."[468] WhenMoses Ingram shared her thoughts on receiving hateful messages about her role in theObi-Wan Kenobi series onInstagram onMay 31, 2022, she thanked the fans who supported her in light of the abuse. Later that day, the officialStar Wars Twitter account sharedEwan McGregor's video message in solidarity with his co-star, saying that "if you're sending her bullying messages, you're noStar Wars fan." TheStar Wars account made a further statement condemning the abuse, including "If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist" and adding that "There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don't choose to be a racist."[469]
Amandla Stenberg playing the violin solo that John Williams had written for her.
Leslye Headland's 2024 television seriesStar Wars: The Acolyte is set during the end of the High Republic Era, and Headland compared the state of the Republic to theisolationist tendencies of the United Statesbetween the World Wars.[470]Amandla Stenberg, who playedOsha andMae Aniseya in the series, made a music video addressing her exhaustion with targeted online discourse and harassment. She criticized the transformation of the term "woke" forculture war andclickbait purposes, including journalists who sacrifice "truth" for selective "metrics and data" that fuel division.[471] The cast and crew ofThe Acolyte faced racist and sexist online harassment. OnAugust 19, Lucasfilm and Disney informed media outlets that there would not be a second season ofThe Acolyte and offered no further comment. Twitter ownerElon Musk later reacted to the news on the social media platform to suggest that the series is "woke."[472] Stenberg later shared their thoughts on Instagram, calling out the "hyper-conservative bigotry and vitriol, prejudice, hatred, and hateful language" used by "the alt-right" to target individuals, with "echo chambers of thought and algorithms that reinforce our biases" driving the "hyper divisiveness" of online discourse. Stenberg also said "we all exist in the context in all which we live," calling on people to vote in the2024 United States elections and to "challenge us all and challenge myself to continue questioning what it is that I digest and think critically about what shapes it."[465]
Responding to a question about "white men" dominatingStar Wars at 2024's Cannes Film Festival, George Lucas said that most beings in his universe were aliens and his films starred prominent non-white cast members and showed strong women. Lucas further said he intended his universe to show that all people are "equal" regardless of their appearance, gender, or species, with the only form of discrimination being anti-droid sentiment similar to the contemporary development ofadvanced artificial intelligence.[305] Lucas had said in 2020 that theD-Squad arc on existentialism in droids were his favourite episodes ofThe Clone Wars.[376] TheEnglish comic writerAlan Moore had similarly written "Rust Never Sleeps," among several other comics inStar Wars Legends published in1982, on the idea of artificial intelligence's having no rights compared to organic beings. Moore noted in 2024 that British and American culture and politics have, over the decades of the Internet's democratization, become dominated by the adverse effect of fandoms—a sense of ignorance, entitlement, frustration, and complaint where "entertainments may be cancelled prematurely through an adverse fan reaction," "misogynist crusades such as Gamergate or Comicsgate," and elections are treated as a fandom event—which Moore believed has been fueling superficial politics with dangerous effects on thepopulist road to fascism.[473]
Francis Ford Coppola'sMegalopolis compares American democracy to the fall of the Roman Republic.
Lucas' filmmaker friend Francis Ford Coppola's filmMegalopolis premiered at the 2024 Cannes festival, exploring the similar premise that the United States of America is a new Roman Republic and, like Rome two thousand years ago, coud lose its republic and democracy[474] at the2024 US election. Coppola mentioned Lucas as an influence and mourned that journalism and Hollywood industries are "dying," and America's existing "system" of consumerism has been making an unhappy people. WithMegalopolis, he wanted to highlight that humanity is an "extraordinary" civilization of which every person has a creative power, even given their circumstances, to change themselves and their surrounding world for humanity to mutually thrive.[475]
"You take a negative and you make it into a positive"[]
"This is a story that gives me so much fuel to keep going forward, because when I get to bring characters like this to life and they come from me and what that represents it, I hope that it serves as a source of inspiration, representation and for the Venezuelan people to see that it is possible and that it doesn't always have to end in demise and pain."
―Humberly González, in an interview onStar Wars Outlaws and the Venezuelan people's fight for democracy in 2024[476]
As the leading woman of the 2024 video gameStar Wars Outlaws,Venezuelan actressHumberly González believed her characterKay Vess' resilience and struggles reflect the experiences of her people, who hadvoted for democracy and freedom in June of that year but continue to be ruled by a decades-old authoritarian regime. González believed that Vess' story of not giving up serves as an inspiration because "freedom is worth fighting for." She also thought that her separation from her family in Venezuela echoes Vess' story, coupled with her immigrant experience of learning to open up and trust people in the liberal democracy ofCanada to pursue her dream career as an actress, which she learned has been particularly inspiring to otherLatina migrants, people of color, and women.[476]
Billy Dee Williams, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford on theRolling Stones magazine, 1980, photographed by Annie Leibovitz.
Lando Calrissian actorBilly Dee Williams, who had lived through America'sJim Crow era of segregation and been friends with civil rights figureJames Baldwin,[477] was initially concerned about the racialist impression that the "black fear" of Darth Vader, voiced by James Earl Jones, could give in contrast to the "white knight" ofAlec Guinness' Obi-Wan Kenobi, but following 1980's release ofThe Empire Strikes Back, he was pleased thatStar Wars has a clearer symbolism of humanity's darkness as the antithesis of clarity. Drawing on his conversations with directorIrvin Kershner on Japanese philosophy, Williams describedStar Wars as a lesson in truths and consequences about abuse of power, and that the "greatest teacher" is the one who says "Don't follow me, follow yourself. Because within you there is that kingdom, that life, that force."[478] Williams had been aware that his younger sequel trilogy leads faced racism and sexism from online trolls by 2019 and,[479] in an interview promoting his memoir in 2024, said he believes that while the world has been dominated by "a European western value system for centuries," ultimately he does not care about discussing identity politics, saying: "The only thing that's dangerous is lots of stupid people running around and shooting people," and that "you take a negative and you make it into a positive."[477]
"No one goes in a revolution if it's not for love, for a real need of bringing change for a community.[…] It's a love story. There's no revolution without love."
In 2025,Andor andThe Mask of Fear explore the start ofStar Wars' revolution.
According toAlexander Freed, his February 2025 novelReign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear explores the "violent disagreement" of "'ordinary' citizens" in the Empire's early days on the "ideas of democracy, resistance, revolution, and complicity."[484] EditorTom Hoeler further said that the book was informed by political movements in the real world and developed with the same intent as its adjacent television series,Andor, thesecond season of which would be released in April and May.[485] Its trailer, released in February, usesSteve Earle's 2004country punk songThe Revolution Starts Now,[486] which addresses how citizens ought to actively defend American democracy in light of the election and ongoing war in Iraq that year.[487]
Diego Luna, who played Cassian Andor, said in an interview inApril 11, 2025 that revolutions are based on love.[483]Elizabeth Dulau, who played Kleya Marki, said in an interview published onApril 28 that beneath the rigid veneer of her character was "a lot of love" that motivated her to sacrifice her daily life for the rebellion.[488] In an interview withThe Telegraph published onApril 23, Tony Gilroy was asked if there was any order from Lucasfilm to "adjust the depiction of the Empire in light of a presidency that could be seen to mirror it" in light of Donald Trump'ssecond term as US President. Gilroy replied that he would be asking the same question if he was in the interviewer's place but elaborated that his story and characters were based on historical revolutions—such as the Soviet revolutionariesLeon Trotsky and Stalin whorobbed a bank to fund the revolution, or the French Resistance comprisingGaullists, Communists, and theMaquis who hated each other.[489]
In an interview conducted ahead of Season 2's premiere and published onMay 13,Variety asked Tony Gilroy about motifs of unrest acrossAndor, noting how the series "summons images of Ukraine, Gaza, Kabul and Hong Kong" of current affairs "alongside references to the French Revolution,Oliver Cromwell and Nazi propaganda" in past history—Gilroy said that he was writing about all revolutions and insurrections and how he felt that people, including himself, often have a narcissistic and individualistic belief that they are living in a unique time of history despite that not being "the pattern of history." Nevertheless, seeing audiences draw current real-world parallels to the series, such as a sense of authoritarianism threatening democracies like the United States, is a reflection on "if people find history knocking at their door, there's probably all kinds of places they can look for references."[490] On the same day, Gilroy said during a livestream on the officialStar Wars YouTube channel that fascism not only destroys the people that the ideology is used to target but also the people who enact it, referring to Dedra Meero and Syril Karn.[491] Dedra Meero's actor,Denise Gough, expressed in interviews her belief that artists like herself using their platforms to speak up for the Palestinian people is important to keep up a groundswell of support through democracies like Ireland for the rights of other people.[492] When asked about including the word "genocide" in aStar Wars series at the ATX TV Festival ofMay 29–June 1, Gilroy expressed that it is sad that many people could find an immediate emotional resonance with the word;Andor writerBeau Willimon mentioned he also found that people could find the series motivating for their own actions, with Gilroy adding to the cheers of the audience that Willimon himself has made personal sacrifices as president of theWriters Guild of America, East.[493]
InRoss Douthat's interview of Gilroy forThe New York Times that was published onJune 5, the two discussed howAndor focused on the destruction of community and the future of AI. Gilroy said he had discussed AI with people inLos Angeles in the past few days and came across the "terrifying" prospect of amisaligned AI superintelligence killing all humans arriving as early as2027, or alternative dystopic scenarios such as mass unemployment and an AI nuclear race between the United States and China.[494] In a podcast recorded with the hostJon Stewart and historianMike Duncan onJuly 9, Gilroy discussed his use of historical revolutions as a catalog for fictional stories, emphasizing the behavioral aspect of individuals—such as what they fear or the banal selfishness of agents of the state—and integrating them with the journey of a character like Cassian Andor waking up to political consciousness. Gilroy said he had worked on ideals for the future after the revolution forAndor but deliberately left it out; overcoming a common obstacle like the Galactic Empire or the Russian tsarist regime took precedent, ahead of any discussion on a desired future after the fight and without a common goal. Duncan agreed and added that a common feature of revolutions is that they start with ideals and slogans such as freedom and democracy but spiral out of any individual's control, and once they had successfully removed a regime, authority, sovereignty, and legitimacy had to bereconstructed and inevitably lead to the movement's splintering, allowing the influence of power-seeking figures such as Lenin to dominate.[495]
In the same vein, Gilroy said he had adapted the "authoritarian playbook" of "building the enemy you want," giving the examples ofJ. Edgar Hoover with the civil rights and anti-war movements, the British state with theIRA, orBenjamin Netanyahu withHamas, complementing the spontaneous nature of uprisings, such as themartyr of the Arab Spring. The podcasters then discussed the United States seemingly becoming a "tinderbox." Gilroy had thought about some of the audiences' remarks thatAndor has been "predictive" of America in the past six months, with the mineral rights over Ghorman echoing the US' ambitions overGreenland, the migrantion issue on Mina-Rau echoing the USImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency'shardline deportation operations, and the arrest of Senator Dasi Oran in the Senate Building echoing US SenatorAlex Padilla being forcibly detained at a federal press conference. Gilroy added he was surprised a confrontation over an ICE raid had not yet led to an event akin to theKent State shootings during the anti-war protests in 1970 and prompted a declaration of martial law, and he suggested a civil conflict would then perhaps be a desired outcome for the "tech right" likePeter Thiel ofPalantir Technologies who are using Trump as a "host organism" and, as expressed in the interview with Ross Douthat on June 26, would not care if AI wipes out humanity.[495]
Gilroy recalled that the fantasy authorJ. R. R. Tolkien disliked allegories and pointed out that they are different from applicability—Gilroy realized that the audience ofAndor have found the story applicable to many different contexts. Although he was hesitant, especially at the start of Season 2's press tour, to let interviewers associate political labels withAndor, he has felt sadness as people around the world findAndor resonating deeply with their own experiences. The podcast speakers nevertheless expressed hope that the series, having become part of contemporary popular culture, could help people adapt to the changing times.[495]
Daisy Ridley would reprise her role as Rey Skywalker in aStar Wars film being developed withSharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as the director andGeorge Nolfi as a screenwriter. In February 2025, Nolfi noted how George Lucas'Star Wars is "very steeped in broad notions of politics," whereby individuals organize their society against chaos only to have their tools become weapons of oppression, ranging from antiquity to modern times with the Roman Empire and Nazis—but unlike attending a philosophy or political science class or reading the news of today,Star Wars makes sense of reality in an emotionally resonant way.[496] In the same month, Daisy Ridley similarly expressed the idea that allStar Wars movies are political and emotionally relatable, with "the individual versus the big corporation or the big group."[497]
LEGO[]
In the non-canon 2022 video gameLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Padmé Amidala shouts "For the Republic! For democracy!" upon being selected as a player character. During players' space battle against theHome One, CaptainFo Skoolan declares that ship is a part of the Galactic Republic and that the player should "prepare to be shot down in the name of democracy."[498]
↑Ethan Sacks (@ethanjsacks) onTwitter (post onJune 19,2024):"Yes, it's a months [sic] before the events of Phantom Menace. Roughly 33 BBY."(backup link) (screenshot)(Regarding theStar Wars: Jango Fettcomic-book series and in response to: "so i have to know mr. sacks, when would you say this comic takes place in the overall timeline? All I've seen it narrowed down to is 'Between 40 BBY and 32 BBY' since its Valorum's time in office, did you have anything more specific in mind?")
↑363.0363.1Lucasfilm (@lucasfilm) onFacebook (post onMarch 20,2020):""I think [Padmé] embodies the true meaning of feminism in my understanding of it," said Natalie Portman during filming of "Revenge of the Sith" in 2003. "It's about having access to all the same things but then making decisions from your particular point of view…[Padmé] has been a leader of many people, but rather than being consumed with the thirst for power...she stays true to her compassion and her belief in democracy and in humanity...""(backup link)
↑Ahmed Best (@bestahmed) onInstagram (post onJune 3,2020):"I’m so pumped to share #jeditemplechallenge with everyone. The fan response at Celebration last year was the beginning of my return to the galaxy I love so much. #KelleranBeq “The Sabered Hand” is the first Black number one lead of anything #StarWars and that is so very important to me. I’m also a #producer of the show and that makes me doubly excited to bring this thing to you. But as a black man, a black father, a black producer and black artist I have to consider all that is happening in the world right now. Our team has decided to push the premiere of #Jeditemplechallenge until next Wednesday June 10th. Hopefully we can be in a better headspace next week to enjoy this game show. I’ve been a part of this family for twenty years and I’ve felt your support. The excitement behind #KelleranBeq has me bursting with ideas of lore and backstory. Can't wait to share all of that with you. Star Wars fans, I appreciate us."(backup link)
↑ James Coruscanti Diner III (@aDillonDev) onTwitter (post onNovember 21,2024):"The Valo arc in The High Republic Adventures strongly feels like a commentary on current events, specifically about Palestine. Not sure when these issues were written, but some of Ram's internal dialogue rings really true."(backup link) —retweeted byDaniel José Older
↑ Daniel José Older (@djolder) onTwitter (post onNovember 24,2024):"InStar Wars The High Republic Adventures #12 Daniel José Older reminds us of a fundamental premise behindStar Wars: Resistance is Perseverance. Standing up for freedom in the midst of colonization and apartheid lies in persistence of hope and persistence of action."(backup link)
↑Amandla Stenberg (@amandlastenberg) onInstagram (post onJune 19,2024):"Happy Juneteenth 🖤 and to those who are flooding me with intolerable racism—since it took me 72 hours on my laptop to make this song and video, u got 72 hours to respond. and I expect choreo!!"(backup link)
↑Tom Hoeler (@DarthInternous) onTwitter (post):"I may or may not have sent Rebecca some notes based on tidbits in your book that said "ooo let's explore this"(In response to: "I'm choosing to believe that there was just a photo of me on all of your desks for this and the 'do it for him' Simpsons message.")"(backup link)
Main article:The Acolyte#Release and reception
