Emperor Palpatine Deserves The Real Credit For Destroying The Empire
Pop quiz, Star Wars fans: who do you think is most responsible for destroying the Empire? It’s tempting to give credit to Luke Skywalker, the man who redeemed Darth Vader and helped defeat Emperor Palpatine, but you might also nominate Princess Leia, who worked to defeat the Imperials as a politician, princess, and powerful warrior.
But here’s a plot twist: Palpatine should get the most credit for destroying the Empire because his decision to dissolve the Senate at the worst possible time effectively galvanized the galaxy against him.
Relying On The Death Star
One of the fun ironies of the first Star Wars movie is that we hear about one of this galaxy far, far away’s most important political decisions in an offhand comment from Grand Moff Tarkin. When General Tagge expresses concerns that the Senate will object to what the Empire is doing, Tarkin casually mentions that Emperor Palpatine (whose last name is not presented onscreen) has “dissolved the council permanently.”
Tagge asks how Palpatine could possibly “maintain control without the bureaucracy,” and Tarkin responds that “regional governors now have direct control over territories” and that the collective fear of the Death Star “will keep the local systems in line.”
Palpatine’s Mistake
Now, many fans and even official Star Wars authors have opined that Emperor Palpatine building the Death Star was the beginning of the end for his Empire simply because he consolidated so many resources into a single weapon with a major weakness. However, that’s only half correct. While the superweapon was obviously a colossal waste of time and resources, what really signed the death warrant for the Empire was the dissolution of the Senate.
The Politics Of A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Despite how many modern Star Wars fans clutch their Krayt dragon pearls over politics in this fictional universe, the truth is that George Lucas very much had American politics in mind when creating the Original Trilogy. He openly compared Palpatine to Richard Nixon and even said that the Ewoks fighting the Imperials was a metaphor for the Vietnam War…a metaphor in which the American Empire is negatively juxtaposed against the heroic Viet Cong.
The Rebellion Was Fueled By Discontent
With that in mind, you can see the real reason why the galaxy rose up against Emperor Palpatine: they no longer had real representation in this galactic government and rose up against their rulers just like America rose up against the British. In my humble opinion, this is one of the key reasons we see the Rebellion grow so much between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. They go from being a ragtag army with a few snub fighters to spare to a major fighting force with enough frigates and Mon Calamari Cruisers to take on a fleet of Star Destroyers.
From A Loose Band Of Operatives To An Army
Later, Star Wars media, including the film Rogue One and the show Rebels, highlights the idea that the early days of the Rebellion were a pretty direct analog for real-life terrorism. Rebels operated in separate cells so that if one group was captured, they couldn’t give up (voluntarily or under duress) any information about other groups.
My thesis is relatively simple: if Emperor Palpatine hadn’t dissolved the Senate, then these individual cells would have eventually been found and destroyed, allowing the Empire to prosper.
Given An Enemy To Fight
Dissolving the Senate, though, left countless powerful senators without even the illusion of autonomy, and everyone knew they no longer had any legal methods of opposing Palpatine. Therefore, they switched to illegal methods, providing Rebel cells with money, weapons, and anything else they needed in order to fight back against Emperor Palpatine’s tyranny. It was now the only way they could fight back and a better alternative to just laying down their arms and continually letting the Imperials run roughshod over their planets.
Congratulations, You Played Yourself
If you doubt my thesis, all you have to do is look at the majority of the senators’ reaction to Emperor Palpatine dissolving the Old Republic and creating his Empire in Revenge of the Sith. As Padme bitterly noted, “democracy died…with thunderous applause” because most of the senators were extremely happy to keep supporting Palpatine as long as they kept their jobs. Once Palpatine fired everyone, though, he effectively turned the politicians who enthusiastically supported him only 18 years ago into desperate citizens willing to fund terrorists in order to stop him.
None of this is meant to detract from the heroics of characters like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia…they were the sword (laser sword, as it were) of the Rebellion that finally brought Emperor Palpatine down. But those Rebels wouldn’t have any weapons or significant resources without the former senators, none of whom would have helped if they hadn’t been fired. Congrats, Palpatine…not only did you destroy the Empire, but as a so-called master manipulator, you played yourself in the worst possible way.
