settings and politics and Star Wars

[marycatelli]

The moral schema of Star Wars is simple enough:  Rebellion/Republic good, Empire bad.

There's a certain amount of amusement value, what with the Senate and the other indicators this is like the Roman Republic turning to the Roman Empire, when you consider that Augustus Caesar's seizure of power was for most Romans an improvement.  There had been a lot of violence and trouble with the late republic.

So imagine a youth dreaming of joining the Rebellion, only to discover, slowly, that it's chock-full of those who support the rebellion for the sake of violence and not vice versa, and others who want the freedom to continue oppressing minorities and foreigners as they did in the happy days before the empire came in with all its repressive rules.  Perhaps one of his allies could prove to be an imperial spy, whom he has to, in good conscience, help.

Though, on reflection, one could also play it straight.  The youth dreams of joining the imperial forces and fighting gallantly against its foes, his uncle scuttles the plan because he's needed on the farm, and then a raid from brigands kills both uncle and aunt and frees him to join the fight.

Comments

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

For exactly that historical reason, that's exactly what I did when I ran a Star Wars: Roleplaying Game MANY years ago.

It took a while for the players to twig to this, moored solidly as they were in that “Republic good, Empire bad” mindset - that the Republic forces were basically pirates, and the Imperial forces attacked them for that reason, rather than any “crushing out the embers of troublesome freedom” motive.

The problem is that it's a one-trick pony:  Once the players catch on, they just start supporting the Empire, and you've effectively created a different story setting.

[marycatelli]

Yeah, once the reveal is over, the setting goes on.

[marycatelli]

Though I think piracy is overdoing it a bit. Yes, in the opening scenes, the Rebellion is using a diplomatic courier to carry military information -- naughty, naughty! war crime! -- but on the whole, they only attack military bases.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

But to paraphrase B Franklin's line in 1776,, “'Piracy' is a term invented by the winners, as an excuse to hang the losers.”  In the same play he says, “Rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as 'our rebellion,' it's only in the third person, 'their rebellion,' that it becomes illegal.”  Which the South would bloodily illustrate ninety years later…

What I realized was that that in a Rebellion chronically strapped for everything, local force commanders (a k a  Chinese warlords) would eventually, as mercenary commanders did in the Thirty Years' War, simply “requisition supplies” from the local populations - as indeed does every military force in similar circumstances including the Viet Cong.  Military targets? Remember the WWII posters, “Food is a Weapon!”  A freighter from an agro-planet IS a military target if the bad guys are hungry - or if you are…

[Or as a Bill Mauldin cartoon has one GI saying to the other, “I coulda swore I saw a coupla Krauts usin' that cow fer cover.  Go wake up th' cooks.”]


Update: Consider also “letters of marque,” and how many (in)famous Caribbean pirates were technically “legal” so long as they only attacked Spanish ships - and what the Spanish thought of that “legality.”  The problem was always one of predator ecology - there weren't enough Spanish ships for the pirate population to subsist upon, and what's a desperate captain to do?)

[marycatelli]

Whatever happened in real life, in Star Wars, the rebels attack no one but military targets, and there's no sign they are strapped for anything, let alone chronically. they had no difficulty handing Han his money and giving Luke a fighter.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, I have that last from the role-playing game, but of course 'strapped' is relative, and I agree, we weren't seeing Terminator grunge.  It showed more in their use of Republic-era hardware like X-wings against the new Imperial (T)win (I)on (E)ngine fighters. (There's your Trivial Pursuit question for the day: Now you know what 'TIE' stands for.)