Jack Barbour
Star Wars
18 April, 2026
Was The Empire Better?
In the original trilogy of the Star Wars movies, George Lucas designed the story to follow the classic story plot of a large evil government or army overpowering the good and true of the world. This classic plot automatically puts the Empire at a disadvantage to the viewer, being portrayed as the enemy. But the question we all ask…Was the Empire Better?
The Star Wars Galaxy, also known as the ‘Skyriver’ Galaxy by a species known as the Nagai, is a large and diverse area. It features thousands of diverse cultures and ways of life. The idea made by the Republics(Old, Galactic, and New) is similar to the idea of the free world. Trying to promote democracy, sentient rights, and a free society is a good idea, but they aren't being realistic. The Star Wars galaxy is too big and complicated to govern on these ideals. Too many cultural backgrounds to navigate. It's good for just the human race, because we incline towards these ideals, or just for one species, but not for a whole populated galaxy inhabited by millions of different species. In contrast, the Empire promotes a simpler and more cross-species understanded idea. They rule and govern through fear and power. This is not saying that these are good statutes, but more that they are realistic for the society in the Skyriver Galaxy. The idea of power and fear is an emotion and way of life shared and understanded by all species in the galaxy.
The second point of this argument is another good one. The Republics centrally were driven by ambition and self-centeredness. The Empire had lots of this too, but you could take advantage of this way more in the society of the Republics. The Republics fractured the galaxy. The main attention focused only on Core Worlds or other systems of significant purpose. The Empire however united the galaxy under one banner. They paid attention to every part of the galaxy, because a threat to their power could come from anywhere. The Empire valued a term called the ‘Pax Imperialis’. This shows how the Empire had peace(pax), but kept it by the second part — Imperial. Imperial rule exhibited their new kind of peace, Pax Imperialis, through methods of unconditional compliance and fear of breaking the peace. It proved very effective. The Empire basically adopted the ‘you shoot me, then I shoot you’ ideal. If you don't stop the Empire, then they leave you alone. Some might say “Well, if we don’t stop the Empire, then they would've just built the Death Star without resistance.”, but actually the real reason was to stop the Rebellion. Grand Moff Tarkin, governor of the Outer Rim territories says "Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station." This clearly means that the whole purpose was to crush any form of resistance. If the Rebels simply gave up, Alderaan would have been saved, many thousands of soldiers on both sides, and saved the roughly 250,000 non-combatant civilians on the Death Star. Also including over a million on the 2nd Death Star.
The John M. Jennings - Economic of the Death Star article says “A Washington University systems engineering professor, Zachary Feinstein, took the Lehigh analysis a few steps further. He calculated the total cost, including labor, non-steel items, R&D and the like, is much higher. His analysis was based on the total cost to construct a recently built aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford. Scaling up the Gerald Ford’s $17.5 Billion cost, the Death Star would cost $193 QUINTILLION (193×1018) or about 178,000 times the cost as $850 Quadrillion figure.”
This shows that it would take about 833,000 years to complete a DS 1 style Death Star, taking 142-170 times the total recorded length of human existence. For comparison, if all of human history was 1 centimeter, the time it would take to build a Death Star with Earth’s current technology would be 1.4 meters long. The DS 2 was even more. Now imagine after all of that work, the galaxy having been stripped to the absolute bare minimum of all natural resources, some random flyboy from the desert came and blew both of them up. That's what the Rebels did. When John F. Kennedy, a President of the United States, was assassinated, the stock market dropped 3% after the news was published. Now imagine that both of those Death Stars were just built—taking thousands of years of hard impossible labor, blew up — tons of political and government officials as well as the nation's leaders plus over 1 million innocent civilians were all killed, and you're saying the Galaxy was better off for it. Millions — maybe even billions of civilians of the Empire were thrust into debt, bankruptcy, and helplessness.
In the SW Legend’s New Jedi Order Series — Agents of Chaos: Hero’s Trial, Han Solo’s unpleasant relative, Thracken Sal-Solo says that the Empire would have stopped the Yuuzhan Vong. This is correct. Han Solo says in contrast: "That's not what the Empire would have done, Commander. What the Empire would have done was build a super‑colossal Yuuzhan Vong‑killing battle machine… They would have called it the Nova Colossus or the Galaxy Destructor or the Nostril of Palpatine or something equally grandiose… And you know what would have happened? It wouldn't have worked… a hotshot enemy pilot would have dropped a bomb down there and blown the whole thing up." What Solo says here is completely untrue. The Empire was not actually known to just send a “super-colossal” weapon of mass destruction to deal with the threat. Actual Imperial protocol says that the Empire puts Deep-space sensor arrays along hyperlanes that can detect an enemy before it even reaches a populated system. If an enemy such as a Vong force were detected, a Sector Group would be notified. Sector Groups are battle forces that defend and patrol certain areas of the Empire. A Sector Group typically contains 2-4 Imperial-class Star Destroyers, 20-30 escort ships(Frigates, Corvettes, Picket Ships), multiple TIE-fighter Wings, and garrison forces from the worlds in the affected sector. This is only protocol for a small threat such as a rebel cell, illegal gangs, etc. If a capable military like the Yuuzhan Vong came, multiple of the Empires Fleets would be deployed. These Fleets(in the Vong’s case) would include 2-6 ISDs, 72+ TIE-Fighter Wings, and Interdictor Cruiser to stop the enemy force from escaping, a Super Star Destroyer. This task force would also include 4-6 Victory-class Star Destroyers, 8-12 Carrack cruisers, 4-8 Lancer frigates, 6-10 Strike-class cruisers, and multiple corvettes such as the Raider-class or the CR90-type. We're also forgetting the key to this Task Force's success. Support and Logistics ships. These include Gozanti-class carriers, Container Transports, Repair Tenders, Fuel Barges, Medical Frigates, etc. IMPERIAL SECTOR FLEET
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[COMMAND]
Grand Moff / Admiral
|
v
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| COMMAND BATTLE GROUP |
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|
v
Imperial I/II Star Destroyer
(Flagship)
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| | |
v v v
STARFIGHTER WING ESCORT SCREEN SPECIAL WARSHIPS
---------------- -------------- ----------------
• 6 TIE Wings • 4–6 Victory SDs • Interdictor Cruiser
• TIE Interceptors • 8–12 Carrack Cruisers • Immobilizer‑418
• TIE Bombers • 4–8 Lancer Frigates • (Rare) Super Star Destroyer
• Recon TIEs • Corvettes / Raiders • Electronic Warfare ships
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| SUPPORT GROUP |
------------------------------
• Gozanti Carriers
• Fuel Barges
• Repair / Medical Frigates
• Cargo & Supply Transports
This is the classic composition of an Imperial Sector Fleet.
This shows that the Imperial military prowess was way better than the New Republic. The Imperial Navy was extremely powerful. The total fighting force is estimated to include 2.4 million warships, 25,000 ISDs, 1 million TIE-fighters(not including the other classifications like the TIE-bomber, INtercepter, etc.), and over 1 trillion naval personnel. The New Republic however has a Navy consisting of about only 1,000-2,000 capital ships, 20,000 total warships, thousands of fighters, and millions of personnel. If the Empire was in power instead of the New Republic, the Yuuzhan Vong would’ve lost. This all shows that with the Empire, ~ 370 TRILLION deaths could have been avoided.
All these points come together to show the effectiveness of Imperial rule. The Rebels were the real villains, being the true source of over 400 trillion deaths after they defeated the ‘evil Empire’.
Works Cited
Jennings, John M. “Economics of the Death Star.” John M Jennings, 17 December 2019, https://johnmjennings.com/economics-of-the-death-star/. Accessed 18 April 2026.
Luceno, James. Star Wars: The New Jedi Order — Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial. New York, Del Rey, 2000. Accessed 18 April 2026.
Shell, Adam. “Stock impact of JFK murder steep but short.” USA Today, 21 November 2013, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2013/11/21/stock-market-reaction-to-jfk-assassination/3662171/. Accessed 18 April 2026.
Wallace, Daniel. Star Wars: Imperial Handbook – A Commander’s Guide. Standard ed., vol. 1, San Francisco, California, Chronicle Books, 2014. 1 vols. Accessed 18 April 2026.
