One of the biggest concerns fans had about Disney acquiring Star Wars in 2012 was the possibility that Star Wars movies and TV shows would be radically changed under this new leadership. One specific worry was that, given that the new leadership was Disney in particular, the franchise would be way less action-packed and, at times, brutal, because Disney is heavily associated with kids. Many would argue that Disney has actually made major changes to the franchise; there’s been plenty of backlash to that effect.
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However, the concern that Disney was going to completely change tonally and skew its content toward a much younger audience has largely been proven wrong. Sure, there are shows like Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, but for the most part, Disney Star Wars hasn’t deviated from the darker, heavier tones the franchise has long had. In fact, Star Wars movies and shows have become even darker in certain ways under Disney’s direction, including with the changes made to George Lucas’ original trilogy Empire.
Star Wars Has Increasingly Shown The Horrors Of The Empire
One of the most significant updates in the Star Wars franchise since Disney’s acquisition has been the depiction of the much crueler side of the Empire overall. Perhaps the best example of this was Andor. In season 1, the show contained a host of horrifying events that were carried out not by some of the Empire’s biggest villains—namely, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and even Tarkin—but simply by Imperial officers in general, even those who weren’t particularly high ranking. This included the brutal torture of Bix Caleen.
Season 2 became even darker. In fact, Bix was the center of yet another horrifying Imperial attack, this one including an assault attempt on Bix by an Imperial officer that had nothing to do with the burgeoning Rebellion. The most horrific of all, however, was the Ghorman Massacre, which saw the slaughter of countless peaceful protesters without any regard for the loss of life or the fact that the Ghor hadn’t been acting in a violent manner.
The Original Trilogy’s Empire Wasn’t As Evil
Obviously, the Empire was evil; this isn’t meant to say otherwise. After all, early in A New Hope, the Death Star is used by Vader and Tarkin to blow up an entire planet, all while Princess Leia helplessly looks on. Yet, it’s important to note that this was done at the hands of Tarkin and Vader. As mentioned, Tarkin, Vader, and Palpatine were the most evil villains of the original trilogy. The average Imperial, however, seemed like little more than a lackey with horrible morals.
The cruelty of the average Imperial is something that has been depicted over time, particularly in Disney’s Star Wars movies and shows, such as Andor, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and even shows like Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Star Wars Rebels. Recently, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord has entered that conversation, revealing how dismal it was to live under the Empire even when one wasn’t an active rebel or a Jedi survivor, such as with Lawson, who was desperate to keep the Empire off of his planet.
This Is One Of Disney’s Best Changes
Making the Empire more broadly a crueler and more brutal system has been one of the best things that Disney has added to the Star Wars franchise. The insidiousness of multiple layers of the Empire, from the Imperial Inquisitors to the low-ranking Imperials stationed on planets across the galaxy, has painted a much better picture of just how evil and destructive the Empire was.
Even controversial shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi have made massive strides in this depiction of the Empire, such as by revealing a youngling who had been killed under Imperial rule, not to mention the fact that Reva was ready to torture little Leia (and, shows like The Bad Batch revealed that even when Force-sensitive children weren’t killed by the Empire, they could end up experimented on like lab rats). Importantly, this has only made the original trilogy even better, not undercut it.
By revealing the brutalities of the Empire overall, it makes the battle and ultimate victory against the Empire in the original Star Wars trilogy all the better. In fact, more subtly, it also addresses one of the major complaints about those movies, which is that the Rebellion didn’t exactly take the loss of life into account either when they chose to blow up the Death Star. Granted, many fans have never found that to be a problem, but the revelation that many ranks of the Empire were pure evil makes it clear that the rebels weren’t exactly killing innocents.
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