[LORE] What is the stance of those who believe in the empire? [possible spoilers]

[Tesket]

I just finished reading the novel "Revan" and basically it talks about how the sith emperor was basically just a product of adultery that decided to go on a rage rampage and even though he is the 'emperor', in the end he only cares about himself and basically planning to use the empire to destroy the galaxy to make himself immortal. (Sith Logic)

Sith aside, there are several 'good' people in the empire that legitimately believe in the empire, like Talos, Ensign Temple, Vector... but they all just believe a lie tbh. So are they hoping to change the empire from the inside or what?

I don't really like the idea of "you can be an amazing soldier for all your life, but if a family member fails a mission, you and your entire family get executed."

Most of my chars are on imp side, but I'm playing pub side more and prefer it. Though I don't necessarily agree 100% with the jedi code, overall I feel like they are the ones I support.

The game teaches us that society is filled with black and white rules of what is good and bad, but in the end we live in a world full of color and you can't just draw a solid line between good and evil. There are 'good' and 'bad' people on both sides, but in the end I would rather fight for the people who don't promote slavery, torture, and try to destroy the planet because they can't have their way (the Sith are kinda like Republicans in the U.S.)

[inboundpaper]

You can believe in the Empire without believing in the Emperor. Darth Marr has been pretty transparent about the Emperor being pretty silent.

[Skorpionss]

I would be more on the jedi side if their whole mantra wasn't completely retarded... I love being a light side sith ^_^

That and first time I played swtor I was appaled of how the republic felt... I was expecting to see basically good guys but lots of fucked up shit that I disagree with happens (mainly in the trooper and jedi knight stories)... Similar or even worse things happen in the Empire side too ofc but you expect that from them... after all they're supposed to be evil... However the stuff that happens on the republic side is just a slap in the face... So I decided to screw it and main a light side Marauder ^_^

I generally always liked the idea of Empire a lot more even in the movies ... They are only "Evil" because of the emperor if a good guy Sith emperor would rule shit will prolly be different. Even though "canonically" there are no good Sith (saying "canonically" because pretty much anything but the movies aren't canon)

[Tyris Flare]

They are only "Evil" because of the emperor )

Legalized slavery, institutionalized racism, an unelected theocracy with absolute power....the Empire is basically Saudi Arabia if the royal family had Force powers.

The Republic is a democracy. That doesn't mean it is good, but it is systemically "less bad." There's the old quote that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of the others.

Unless you don't believe in democracy and would rather hope you're lucky enough to live beneath a benevolent dictator.

[Mormolyce]

Well in the Star Wars universe the Light side is good and the Dark side is evil, simple as that.

The expanded universe beyond the movies sometimes plays with that concept and portrays individual characters and organisations as more complex - partly for gameplay/story reasons and partly because the longer format and different goals of the creators don't line up with the simple story of good vs. evil that Star Wars is at its core (there is nothing wrong with morally simple stories or morally complex stories, they are just different styles).

I'd say the Sith as portrayed in SWTOR are a little more nuanced than the traditional straight up evil they're normally viewed as. But you can't get around some aspects of their society.

[Tyris Flare]

They mostly get around it by attacking dogma rather than the "sides" of the Force, which is kind of interesting. In other words, Jedi dogma can be erroneous (e.g. attachment is bad) but that says nothing about the actual light side of the Force. An individual Sith can be good by using passion to do good things, but that doesn't validate the dark side.

I actually like the way Zahn hand-waived some of this in Vision of the Future (or one of those books) where the more power someone draws from the Force, the more blind they become to other things (such as prescience). But that never gained a whole lot of traction, mostly because the books at the time were written by a ton of different people without a coherent plan of where to go.

I have a feeling that Disney will be a lot more regimented with EU version 2.0

[WarpedAcorn]

I actually like the way Zahn hand-waived some of this in Vision of the Future (or one of those books) where the more power someone draws from the Force, the more blind they become to other things (such as prescience). But that never gained a whole lot of traction, mostly because the books at the time were written by a ton of different people without a coherent plan of where to go.

Well technically this was also in Episode IV: A New Hope. When Luke and Obi-Wan are talking about the Force, Luke asks if the Force controls them [Jedi] and Obi-Wan confirms this.

BEN
Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force
flowing through him.

LUKE
You mean it controls your actions?

BEN
Partially. But it also obeys your
commands.

This has been the case in other games as well, the one that sticks out in my mind the most is Dark Forces 2 where Kyle Katarn can go Dark or Light, and in the endings he is either depicted as a super serene dude or a very angry mean dude...which is very different from his starting character which is a kinda snarky pissed off rogue.

[WoWGoneBad]

Legalized slavery, institutionalized racism, an unelected theocracy with absolute power....the Empire is basically Saudi Arabia if the royal family had Force powers.

Pretty much summed up my thoughts. The Empire is a racist(in terms of alien species) Elitist government that cares nothing for others and only their personal gain.

From what i have seen of the classes I played neither government can be termed good. They both have serious flaws in their culture that will never be removed.

[May90]

I guess there is no some universal stance of "good" Imperials. For example, my light side Sith Inquisitor believes the Empire to be evil, but she is convinced that Empire is much stronger than the Republic and will win in the end, so, just like Saren in Mass Effect, she fights for the winning side to minimize losses and then, when Empire is finally at peace, she will try to do something to change the system. While fighting Republic, she spends a lot of time helping innocents from both sides and prefers accomplishing anti-Republican objectives with minimal losses (for example, she helped the Republican force sensitives hiding in a cave on Balmorra escape, benefiting both sides).

Also there are those who believe that, while Empire is evil, it, at least, does something, while Republic sits idle, drowning in bureaucracy and voting wars. There are those who thing that Empire has started good, it is just the current "government" that made it into such a totalitarian craziness. There are those who think that the Empire needs people in its ranks doing good things to not let it slip into endless bloodshed. There are those, finally, who just were raised in Imperial military families and don't know anything else: they are good people helping others, but all they know about the Republic is Imperial propaganda, so they truly think that it is OK to live this way.

All people are different. Environment influences people a lot, but there are some strong enough individuals able to do good things in a bad environment.