Failure of the Rebels/Resistance

I stumbled upon a great critique of the Rebellion:

“If you think about it, the Rebellion from the original trilogy didn't do a very good job of things.

They bring down the Empire and yet within a generation they go down in flames and the even worse "1st Order" rises to power.

Maybe they should have just let Vader and the Empire run things and call it a day.” (ELS, Yahoo).

The remarks of ELS makes a point. The Empire is reborn rather quickly as the First Order and it is obvious the FO has major revenues and tech.

The Rebels/Resistance are fighting a hopless battle. The Empire/First Order brings order to the Galaxy, and the Resistance simply brings suffering and death (they call it sacrifice, I call it “self slaughter”). The truth is before Luke appears at the end of TLJ, when Leia says “the spark is out, hope has run out,” (paraphrase), that is how it needs to be. All this revolting against the Empire is in vain. Eventually the gaalaxy will see the romantic rebellion is bankrupt when the heroism wears off, and the reality sets in that the rebels can’t even maintain a Republic for long.

Feel free to disagree with me, but the Rebellion is a dream, and in the end the galaxy will take Han’s old disposition and just focus on making s living and tolerating the imperial inspections.

 

I like how you delved into not all planetary systems would want to join the New Republic/Rebellion, and would instead be content with Imperial rule. I would have loved to see planets in total willful submission to the Empire (perhaps TROS will feature one?)

Your concept that the rebels achieved freedom for the galaxy by offering a choice, Empire or Republic, oppose to eliminating the Empire/First Order is very intriguing. Having s choicr is freedom, not eliminating the Empire. I want to revist this.

 

A happy note for me is the First Order annhilates, obliterates, and destroys the Rebellion once and for all! My hope is that it ends in darkness, with the Empire prevailing and civilizing the galaxy. I suspect however that JJ will go ROTJ and have the Rebels/Resistance win as you say.

But how it should end is that the whole story flips and you discover the Sith are good (see Book of Sith) and the Jedi are the villians.

The truth is Rey will join Kylo as Supreme Mistress and Dark Lady!



On a more serious note you brought up revolution and the Second Order rising to quell it. History shows us revolutions/rebellions are like bonefires that burn out; often the end result is the revolutionaries settle into tepid hierarchy and end up becoming “the very thing they swore to destroy.” (Kenobi). Its the whole we tear it down and for lack of ideas or vision for the aftermath we rebuild what we tore down.

That is why I say the Rebellion is romantic, not realistic. It plays on the notions of self righteousness, self determination, and self protection. The rebel feels their cause is just and all sacrifices are seen as heroism, when they are tragedy, because sooner or later the rebels will fail and the empire will rise again.

 

The Rebellion is like Visigoths, Ostogoths, and Vandals who sacked Rome (Western Empire) and when they are done they end up coming under Rome reborn (Roman Catholic Church) and apply imperial law under their Medieval system (The Inquistions). The fact is the Republic only works if each individual wants to take responsibility as a citizen, know the laws and obey them; most sentients would rather be told what to do and leave the responsbility to a governing power (Emperor and Imperial aristocracy). The fact of the matter is the rebels enjoy rebellion, but have no clue how much disicipline and hardwork it will be to help systems move from submission to autocracy to democracy. The rebels are “trying to fly when they haven’t learned to walk.”

To your point the ST is depicting The First Order/Empire as incompetent and lacking calculated precision. We need a New Vader to put them “back on schedule.” Kylo needs to allow Hux to fill in on a administrational role, and leave himself to being like Snoke, The Puppet Master.