star wars - Could Extra-Galactic invasion have been averted with the Empire in control?

As I understand the Rebellion was formed to overthrow the Empire and replace it with a Democratic government. According to http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yuuzhan_Vong the Emperor was aware of the presence of a massive invasion force of extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong after a scouting mission was intercepted by the Aliens.

That was supposedly his real justification for opening hundreds of cloning facilities and recruitment facilities as well as further industrializing the Empire. After the Rebellion overthrew the Empire the Galaxy was sent into an economic depression and was plagued by war. This made it relatively easy for the Yuuzhan Vong to conquer most of the Galaxy for a time.

My question is: Would the Empire have been able to stop or at least hold at bay the Vong long enough to work out a treaty? If this was to occur, how could it have affected the galaxy for the better or worse?

Answer

As with all post-war analysis (AKA armchair quarterbacking) the question is how far into the future you want to look. Yes, in the very short term the death of the Emperor and the rise of the rebellion threw the Empire into turmoil and made it easier for the Yuuzhan Vong to invade. With the Imperial fleet in disarray, both Death Stars destroyed and many petty warlords fighting among themselves for control, the Vong certainly enjoyed vastly more success than they would have had had they faced a coordinated Empire at the height of its power.

Some 365 trillion sentients died during their aborted invasion. Would as many have died with the Empire still in control? Probably not.

Would the Vong have attempted the invasion anyway? Probably yes given the vast distances they'd already covered in order to reach the Galaxy.

The Empire was oppressive and unpleasant (boo!) whereas the New Republic were warm and fluffy (yay!). Would the peoples of the Galaxy have chosen to leave the Emperor in charge in order to avoid trillions of deaths? Almost certainly yes. For the majority of people living on planets inside and outside the Empire, a change of regime probably meant almost nothing to them and wasn't worth dying for.

Comments

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...

Blog

Search This Blog