Originally Posted by
traen
Because of the movie, obviously.
Its very easy to portray an evil character. Ugly look and demonic laugh is all you need.
Its not about actions. In movies the guy who is running around killing people could be a maniac or a hero.
The empire is not evil and the resistance is not good.
Its all about your point of view.
If you are with Empire, the republic are terrorists. They kill innocent people loyal to empire. The easiest example is USA. Obama is the emperor, Osama is the evil terrorist.
If you are with Republic, the empire is evil power. They invade your planets and make you work for them. Think about Iraq that was invaded by evil US army.
Or USSR. For ussr citizens it was the place with free education, free health care, free place to live for young families, without unemployment and poor people, without people being shot and with really low crime rate. And USA for them was the place where capitalists exploited people as slaves, barely paying them and making billions. For them they were good, and usa was evil.
For USA citizens their country was the place of freedom abd big opportunities where you was able to become rich and famous and get millions if you are lucky. And ussr for them was the place where government used people as slaves. For them ussr was evil and usa was good.
Both of them thought that both countries want to invade each other and... i don't know... kill all children and women? I'm still not sure what americans and russians were afraid of.
But the truth is that no one is evil. The "evil empire" can't exist. It will kill itself eventually. Its all about in what you believe. Some obvious values like hard work, honesty, love, sincerity, devotion, compassion, intellect - they are the same in all countries.
Personally I think that republic is the real evil. They are classical terrorists that kill innocent people and destroy your country's property, rebels, that must be punished.
The empire is not bad. It just cares about its own integrity. Without rebels the Empire would be a peaceful place without wars and useless murders.