The Empire Did Nothing Wrong: a Darth Vader Biography Part 4

Let’s go over the story of Feudal Japan O my brothers, it has much to teach us about Star Wars:

Japan was once a land divided and ruled by Feudal Lords and the Samurai. It wasn’t a untied stated as we know it today but a bloody war was fought to get there. The upper class composed a a warrior elite called Samurai who trained since early childhood in the art of war. They trained their mind and body to be masters of combat. Their swords where second to none, able to hack an enemy in half with a single swing. They also trained their magical energy force called “Chi” and through these mastered “The Way.” The Way was a forced found in all living things (sounds familiar?)

But one day the European barbarians arrived to the coast of their beloved island. These foreigners only had one goal in mind: Subjugate Japan and exploit it for its resources. These foreigners came with weapons than made the mighty samurai blade irrelevant. The Samurai, who had defended the beloved Island from foreigners in the past where no longer a match for this new threat. There had to be a massive innovation in their society and technology if Japan was to survive as an independent sovereign land. But there was one problem: The Samurai and their feudal Lords where stuck in their ways. Their status and power was a direct results from the way society was structured and their training. They wouldn’t give it up.

There was no argument the Samurai and Feudal lords would accept. They claimed that the use of European weapons was effeminate and dishonorable. They claimed that a meritocracy was immoral, and the Feudal system should remain and power would not be shared outside the Samurai class. They are not going to give up their way of life and power.

But it was clear that Japan wouldn’t survive a war against the European barbarians unless there was a reform. What was a patriot to do? Honor traditions and hierarchy for their sake while the deluded Samurai boasted of their superiority in combat despite all evidence showing they are doomed to defeat and inglorious submission at the loss of sovereignty? Tokugawa Ieyasu knew he had no choice than to crush the Samurai by force since they wouldn’t listen to reason and Japans very existence was in jeopardy.

War was waged and victory was his. He united Japan under his rule. Through this he was able to restructure the legal code and social structure. No longer was the Samurai and their sword skills a sign of power, we needed the expertise that would modernize Japan and allow them to prevail against the barbarians of the West instead.

The long road for Japanese modernization started from there and has continued to this day. As Tokugawa predicted, there was eventually a direct confrontation between Japan and the West. Through the modernization process however, Japan defeated Russia and exerted it’s power and sovereignty in the early 20th century. Japan also discarded a concept called “The Way” that was popular in Japan which was believed to be a way of living that manifested their Chi energy and allowed them to win. Instead, Japan would adopt modern European ideas of strategy and warfare in order to prevail.

Do you blame the Emperor for destroying the Samurai and modernizing Japanese culture and military O my brothers? Do you blame him for organizing the islands resources to be able to defend themselves against the foreign invaders by modernizing it’s fleet and weaponry? Any sane man would praise the act of the Emperor and agree that the Samurai had served it’s place in history, but that the world is a changing thing, and in order to retain an advantage they had to go and in fact, the Samurai refusal to abandon their swords and equip the military with modern weapons made them a danger to Japan. The end of Feudal Japan and the Samurai reign was a necessary and praiseworthy action and their refusal to innovate meant they HAD to be forcefully removed from power.

What if I told you, O my brothers, that the Star Wars story was nothing but a retelling of this period of Japanese history?

Anakin and Palpatine talk of nothing more than bringing peace to the Empire. These inward fighting had to END. This is the SAME argument that the Japanese Emperor was making in it’s quest for Japanese unification.

“I have brought peace, justice and security to my new empire” – Darth Vader

“We our combined strength we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy” – Darth Vader

These ideas for order and peace Darth Vader mentions are Palpatines ideas. They also mirror the ideas of the Japanese Emperor

The problem with Star Wars movies my dear brothers is that it’s only one small part of a greater story that the movie watchers have never been exposed too. Once we start reading the book series we discover that just like the Roman Empire protecting it’s boarders from barbarians intended only in financial gain and had no intention of sharing the Roman values were constantly illegally crossing into Roman territory. The galaxy in Star Wars had crossings from beings from other galaxies and it’s boarders had to be protected.

In Star Wars there was a specific race called the “Yuuzhan Vongs” that had sent expeditionary missions to our Galaxy with the intention of conquest.

These enemies have giant fleets of giant Starships there where the size of a planet that had gravity based shields that where impossible for our fleets to penetrate. We also find out that the shields they wear make them immune to light savers and The Force from the Jedi doesn’t work on them at all. All this information is carried out to Palpatine by a character named Throm. There NEEDS to be a MASSIVE renovation in the Galaxy. The Vongs are coming to invade. The old ways of the Jedi, their mental training and mastery of The Force and lightsabers won’t help us. The is the exact history of Japan:

1. Foreign threat (Europeans/Vogs).
2. Society rules by ancient warrior class that holds political power and won’t give it up (Samurai/Jedi).
3. The practices of these ancient warriors are outdated and useless against the foreign threat.
4. They use swords that are now useless against the foreigners but won’t give them up.
5. They’re obsessed with magical mental powers that took years to master but are useless against the enemy (The Way-Chi / The Force)
6. They aren’t going to give up their position of power, and allowing them to remain will mean doom of the Empire and it’s inhabitants (Japan / Galaxy).
7. An emperor rises in an attempt to get the warrior class outof power, modernize their military and defend the empire against the foreign threat.

In in movies we are never given a reason why the Death Star is built. But the books tell us that it was built to DEFEND THE GALAXY AGAINST THE PLANET SIZE SHIPS FROM THE VONGS YEARS AWAY FROM INVADING THE GALAXY! The creation of the Death Star is similar to the Japanese emperor discharged the traditional wooden ships of war and introducing steel ships (something that was argued against by some of the Japanese elite) and used to defeat the Russians.

 

 

But why didn’t Palpatine outright mention this threat and convince them that they needed to unite? Just like the Samurai wouldn’t give up their ways and power neither would the Jedi. Palpatine was a patriot looking to save the Galaxy but had to defend himself against the self interested traitorous Jedi who attempted to murder him without trial. But there was another problem: The general public in a democracy wouldn’t have voted to start organizing resources on a fleet of Death Stars. The Empire had to be created since a unified political entity (like Japan) was necessary to organize the galaxies resources.

In Athens early democracy a silver mine was discovered, the richest mine in Greece. The democracy voted to distribute the wealth among the citizens, but Themistocles knew that the Persian barbarians where going to invade in a few years. But the Greeks wouldn’t believe the Persian threat, it was too far away, it was an unknown thing. Instead Themistocles argued that they needed the fleet to best another Greek rival, which the jealous Athenians agreed to. Themistocles fleet saved Western Civilization in the battle of Salamis, but the resources of the state were only organized against the end by keeping the real threat (Persia) hidden.

An so Palpatine couldn’t outright tell the galaxy of the Vongs threat, but he and Darth Vader (who understood how the Jedi wouldn’t give up their old ways) joined forced to save the galaxy while the Rebels (organized by the Jedi) labored to blow up the ONLY means the galaxy had for self-defense and used their Jedi mind tricks to fool the public that the best interest of the Jedi were theirs, and that the “selfish” Sith had taken power for themselves for the sake of wanting power.

Not only that but the Jedi deliberately caused the Clone Wars, the literal army of foot soldiers and robots created to fight the Vongs where stolen and used to fight each other due to the actions of the Jedi. There were NOT intended to conquer the galaxy (which was already under Palpanines control) but fight the foreign invasion but the Jedi stole half that army and started a civil war. The Jedi terrorists preferred to the the Galaxy burn than not be in power, just like the Samurai.

THE EMPIRE DID NOTHING WRONG!