Galactic Empier: Too short a time?

[Crossroads Inc.]

I have been thinking about everything coming out with the prequels and what it means. And so far, the biggest thing is that it appears that the Almighty Galactic Empire ruled for a span of time just less then 20 years.

Now then, I don't know about you, but when I first watched ANH, and hear Luke talk about the Empire, he talks about it as if it was something’s Mighty, unmoving, something Eternal. As a kid, I instantly got a feel that the 'Evil Empire' had been around for hundreds of years. After all, how else could it have spread so far, so vast, with such mighty ships?

Even through RotJ, the destruction of the Empire, it seemed like something that had been in place countless ages had finally come to an end.

Now, with Eps I II and III, we find out that everything took place in just over 20 years... 20? Thats less time then I have been alive! In the grand scheme of things it's a blip, a speck, a smudge in history. We are led to believe that the Empire was something to last forever, but 20 years? Whats up with that?

What are your thoughts on this? Could it have been done any other way?

[McC]

The Nazi Third Reich was to last a thousand years. It lasted less than 10.

[Genii Lodus]

Maybe the Imperial Department of Information (or whatever it's called) just did a really great job of instilling everyone with a sense that the Empire will endure forever etc. If the general public were ignorant or even disbelieving of the Jedi and the Force despite them 'maintaining peace in the galaxy for a thousand generations' who knows what wonders Imperial propaganda managed to pull?

[white_rabbit]

Its been around for the kids entire life.

Seems long enough...

[Stravo]

There's an entire generation (Luke's Age) that grew up only knowing the Empire and the Republic is completely unknown to them. 20 years is a pretty decent go for a government that ruled over a million worlds with an Iron Fist.

[Trooper TK12746]

I thought the Empire should have lasted longer than it did. Although the fact that it was able to build such a powerful space navy in that short of a time is testement to its industrial capacity.

[Cykeisme]

I don't recall exact lines offhand, but didn't Obi-Wan make it pretty clear that the Empire only came into being at around the same time that Jedi Knights were exterminated, which was obviously during his lifetime (since he's a Jedi)?


Whatever the case, I think McC and Stravo make a couple of really good points. There's no reason to have any doubts about the way the Empire is perceived by Luke.

[Noble Ire]

I thought the Empire should have lasted longer than it did. Although the fact that it was able to build such a powerful space navy in that short of a time is testement to its industrial capacity.

Its a testament to the industrial capacity of the galaxy at large when set to a task. The Empire just turned it towards war, rather than for commerce as it had been for the last thousand years. After all, the Empire is completely based off what the Old Republic built up over 25 millenia.

[Illuminatus Primus]

That's completely stupid. Ben Kenobi, maybe in his 70's, lamented the "dark times" and "before the Empire" and fought in the Clone Wars with Luke's and Leia's fathers. It wouldn't make any sense for the Empire and the rise of the Emperor to be much earlier than Luke's birth, because that's when Anakin should have fallen and become Vader.

[Cykeisme]

Indeed, even from ANH alone it's obvious the Empire isn't that old.

As a kid, I instantly got a feel that the 'Evil Empire' had been around for hundreds of years.

Somebody wasn't paaaaying attention.

[Perinquus]

The Nazi Third Reich was to last a thousand years. It lasted less than 10.

1933 to 1945 is twelve years, not less than ten.

[McC]

1933 to 1945 is twelve years, not less than ten.

I was referring mainly to the war years, but you are quite correct.

[Vympel]

I never got the impression that the Galactic Empire was that old from the Classic Trilogy. Obi-Wan's comments to Luke made that pretty clear, and even Biggs Darklighter's comments to Luke (cut from the film, still in the novelization) before he leaves for the Rand Ecliptic make it clear that the Empire has only been around for a few decades.

As for why it didn't last longer, it's because the Emperor was killed. Simple. If he or Vader had lived, it would've gone on. The Empire was held together by the Emperor and the Dark Side. This was made very clear in the RotJ novelization.

It's like what would happen to the Imperium of Man if the Golden Throne broke one day.

[pskouson]

I don't know. I remember when I was in my mid-20s, I though Clinton had been president FOREVER. I am sure some people are feeling like Bush has been president for an eternity. To hear some people talk, these 4 years have been some kind of terrible hell, and those things tend to stretch out in our minds.

Also, I guess more simply, it's all he's ever known. I am 30, and it's only been like 5 years since I figured (deep down) out that my dad wasn't going to live forever.

One last thought on this, anyone read 1984? Couldn't the Empire tweak the educational system to make it seem to everyone like the Empire had been around a lot longer than it really had been around? I don't think it would take a lie about dates or anything, just don't talk about the Republic at all, and the Empire will expand to fill the space.

[General Brock]

Palpatine presented the Empire as a more stable, final and perfected form of the Old Republic. Being able to villanize and eliminate the Jedi Knights, whose power was perceived as something near mythical, despite how few citizens would have interacted with a real Jedi, probably helped that image of imperial legitmacy as much as the Imperial Fleet. My first impressions were that the empire was several decades old, and the Jedi had lasted long enough to be a part of it before something happened to them during or after the Clone Wars. Lucas claims to have been aiming at making a popcorn movie, not a serious drama, so a more drawn out end of the Jedi Order would have been too complicated to pull off.

[Trooper TK12746]

Didn't the Empire start a new dating system starting with the year when Palpatine took control as the Emperor?

[Illuminatus Primus]

According to the Palace archives in Heir to the Empire, they had begun keeping records according to "pre-Empire [founding] date" and "post-Empire [founding] date."

Before that it was "Pre-Great ReSynchronization" and "After Great ReSynchronization" (not incidentally, this is the in-universe date yard stick Publius uses on his website, the Domus Publica).

[Trooper TK12746]

What were those?