[Movies] Star Wars: Why is it considered the good guys won in the end?

[Deleted]

Let's take it this way, even assuming Luke and all his buddies are living saints (which they probably are not, but still), the good guys didn't win, did they? I mean just think about it, sure, they managed to destroy the Death Star and kill Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine... so what?

There's 1000 other Darth something waiting to take their place, yes, the good guys won a battle, but the fact remains that the empire still has thousands of ships and planets under their control and the "republic" has very few, if any left. The Jedi order is still destroyed, only being composed of Luke. They still lack an army. I mean yes, they won that battle, but did they really win the war? How?

[Olocan]

Expanded universe explains this for you.. read up =)

[zoefschildpad]

There aren't any other darths, not in that era.

[majik16106]

What he said, tons of books that are considered canon tell the story several generations after the Return of the Jedi ends.

[Gamdwelf]

Pretty much there are lots of books telling exactly what happened after ep 6.

[Deleted]

I see, so in some books it's detailed better? Could anyone give a name to any of these please?

[Gamdwelf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_novels

Have at.

[Eldar45]

Let's take it this way, even assuming Luke and all his buddies are living saints (which they probably are not, but still), the good guys didn't win, did they? I mean just think about it, sure, they managed to destroy the Death Star and kill Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine... so what?

There's 1000 other Darth something waiting to take their place, yes, the good guys won a battle, but the fact remains that the empire still has thousands of ships and planets under their control and the "republic" has very few, if any left. The Jedi order is still destroyed, only being composed of Luke. They still lack an army. I mean yes, they won that battle, but did they really win the war? How?

Only one master and one apprentice, so there are no other Sith Lords anymore.

The most of the Imperial Fleet was at Endor, and it was ripped apart after the Executor *Vader's Super Star Destroyer* was Destroyed and the Emperor dead.

The Rebellion gained a huge following on every planet afterwards, and the Empire couldn't keep up.

Hell, it took another two and a half years for the New Republic to actually take Coruscant.

[snowcrash512]

Let's take it this way, even assuming Luke and all his buddies are living saints (which they probably are not, but still), the good guys didn't win, did they? I mean just think about it, sure, they managed to destroy the Death Star and kill Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine... so what?

There's 1000 other Darth something waiting to take their place, yes, the good guys won a battle, but the fact remains that the empire still has thousands of ships and planets under their control and the "republic" has very few, if any left. The Jedi order is still destroyed, only being composed of Luke. They still lack an army. I mean yes, they won that battle, but did they really win the war? How?

Well if you go with that rule of two deal that they say sith use, then no there shouldnt be a thousand other darths waiting around.

Outside of the movies it was put forward that the emperor was more than just the ruler of the empire, he used his sith powers to influence and control all of his forces in sort of a weak mass mind control, when he was killed they all fell into disarray for a time as the subtle mental influence that the emperor had been pouring out was suddenly gone and they were left to bicker amongst themselves over who should be in charge. The rebels were able to win back worlds and strengthen themselves into the new republic while the empire was going through a period of revolving warlords laying claim and ultimatly failing to unite the remnants of the empire. It was never elaborated in the movies much how the emperor actually used his powers in the darkside to influence his forces into obedience, thats were the expanded universe lore really helps fill in some of the gaps in logic.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't call them saints, especially Han, but they're certainly the good guys, and Vader and the Emperor were the bad guys. How did the good guys win? The Emperor was defeated and Vader was redeemed.

[mickloven]

I see, so in some books it's detailed better? Could anyone give a name to any of these please?

Read the Timothy Zahn books starting with Heir to the Empire (I think that is the first one, its been a long time). The first 5 Zahn books are exceptional.

[ijffdrie]

I see, so in some books it's detailed better? Could anyone give a name to any of these please?

There is an insane amount of them, but the ones that probably built best upon the movies as a sequel was the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn (probably the series with the least detractors).

[Duncanîdaho]

What people have said, it's because of the rule of two.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rule_of_Two

[Tradu]

I'd recommend the X-Wing, Thrawn(and Hand of Thrawn), New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force books out of the ones on the Wikipedia list.

What people have said, it's because of the rule of two.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rule_of_Two

And if you want to learn more about why that rule was created, read the books!(I think theres either 2 or 3 in that series)

[Gamdwelf]

I'd recommend the X-Wing, Thrawn(and Hand of Thrawn), New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force books out of the ones on the Wikipedia list.



And if you want to learn more about why that rule was created, read the books!(I think theres either 2 or 3 in that series)

There were 3, the bane trilogy, was amazing, one of the only sith I can really like, was him so bad ass.

[Deleted]

What people have said, it's because of the rule of two.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rule_of_Two

I haven't read much about this, but as I understand it the rule of 2 does not mean there's only 2 Sith, does it? Sure there's a master/apprentice relationship, but that doesn't mean Vader and the Emperor were the only two. I haven't read a lot of the novels, so it's possible that they contradict me on this, but I'd imagine the "Rule of 2" does not mean it's impossible that there were Sith in hiding when the Emperor died.

But it's a bit complicated, because originally not even the Emperor was a Jedi, and the term Sith didn't exist in the original trilogy.

[Gamdwelf]

Bane destroyed all organized sith but himself, and then took a single apprentice where there were only 2 sith all the way up until Sideous.

[Akeso]

Let's take it this way, even assuming Luke and all his buddies are living saints (which they probably are not, but still), the good guys didn't win, did they? I mean just think about it, sure, they managed to destroy the Death Star and kill Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine... so what?

There's 1000 other Darth something waiting to take their place, yes, the good guys won a battle, but the fact remains that the empire still has thousands of ships and planets under their control and the "republic" has very few, if any left. The Jedi order is still destroyed, only being composed of Luke. They still lack an army. I mean yes, they won that battle, but did they really win the war? How?

I haven't read past what happens after RotJ but about 800 years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, the Darth Bane era had taken precedence within the Sith. The Bane era stated (like in the movies) that there would be no more than 2 at any one point: a Master and an Apprentice.

You also have to think about Palpatine's rise to power as Supreme Chancellor; although he was an almost perfect politician in every sense (he came from a background of politics - he lived and breathed it - before Darth Plageius took him on as an apprentice, in addition to a natural charisma that attracted other powerful, influencial and wealthy beings in social precedings) he also had the power of the Force behind him that swayed the masses when he finally took a seat within the Senate before his rise to the proverbial throne and after his ascension, the disbanding of the Galactic Senate.

The Emporer held the minds of the Grand Moffs who controlled the star systems after the death of the Galactic Senate, so control was easy on a mass scale. However after the death of the Emporer, the minds under Palpatine's influence fell to the wayside and no regular man could keep the Grand Moffs and star systems under control. As always, in fighting consumed the Galactic Empire and the entire organization collapsed in on itself like an imploding star.

[vaeevictiss]

You gotta loot at the fact if you are basing this solely off the movies...all 6 movies were about Anakin. They basically showed Anakin was special, the whole immaculate conception thing. You learn later it was Palpatine who created him. He trained, became powerful, more so than even yoda, because that is what Palpatine wanted. He planed lies in his dreams and Anakin vowed to do whatever it took to stop Padme from dying. In the end, she died, Ankin was fucked up by Obi and became darth vader.

Flash forward 20 years, Jedis are in hiding, Luke shows up...holy shit this is Vaders son. The last movie was called return of the jedi because that is exactally what it was. Vader finally realized who he was and what he did and the love of his son was more powerful than what Palpatine could ever provide. So in a last ditch effort to save his son he threw palpatine into the reactor, but destroying the very suit keeping him alive because of palpatines lightning.

So he basically "returned to being a jedi" with that, and he was able to see his son with his own eyes.

What the movies dont show is that Anakins sacrifice to keep Luke alive, helped luke (and assassin mara jade who tried to kill him but later became his wife lol) open a new training school for jedi's.

the books also take a dark turn when Han, Leia, Chewey and his youngest son Anakin are rescuing the people of a planet whose moon is about to collide with it. A burst of wind knocked anakin back and chewey saved him and put him on the ship. Anakin got at the controls while Han helped a few more people on. Han tried to save Chewey but another burst of wind knocked him back too. There was no time left and they needed to get the falcon out before it was hit so they were forced to leave him behind. He stood there an let out a roar as the moon came crashing down on top of him.

He was regarded a hero, and the Wookies went on to tell of how it literally took a moon to kill him haha. It was still sad to read.

[Deleted]

Bane destroyed all organized sith but himself, and then took a single apprentice where there were only 2 sith all the way up until Sideous.

What about Vader's secret apprentice?
And who's to say there wasn't someone who discovered the secrets of the Sith on his own?