These lines elicit a microcosm of the moral travesty that is the Imperial will to power. Krennic: “Well, you have to start somewhere.” Galen: “You’re confusing peace with terror.” We were this close to providing peace and security for the galaxy.” Krennic: “We’re on the verge of greatness. Politically speaking, Star Wars is realism, whereas Star Trek is idealism. The former has a pessimistic (realistic) view of centralized government, but the latter harbors a romantic positivism for big (interstellar) government. Star Wars presents a Hobbesian state in an Orwellian context, whereas Star Trek supports a Rousseauian government in a Kantian milieu. ultra-liberal) vision of expansive federal powers via its United Federation of Planets. Star Wars sees its Empire, and even its Old Republic, as draconian and corruptible and exhibits a dystopian perspective of consolidated bureaucratic power. Yet as all the movies progress the totalizing Empire is revealed for what it really is, a mechanized malevolence empowered by an otherworldly darkness set violently against all things good, true, and beautiful.Ĭontrast this political disposition with that of Star Trek’s. This interplanetary Leviathan appears on the surface level as a shiny, pristine, galactic police force supposedly in power to establish peace and justice, though completely on it own terms. Like the original trilogy, Rogue One displays the menace of an authoritarian State–one that is so universal and omnipotent to get away with frequent massacres having assumed control over the entire galaxy by enforcing its will through terror. One motif running throughout the Star Wars mythos like midichlorians through the Skywalker lineage is that power corrupts, especially when concentrated in an imperious regime or sovereign and is in direct opposition to the moral order of the universe (a la the Force) and therefore must be fought against by all freedom-loving beings. My response, unabashedly taken from Jedi Master Yoda himself, “Everything.” “What does that got to do with anything?” you may ask, parroting the impudent Anakin soon-to-be Dark Lord of the Empire. Scott of the The New York Times said, “ Masquerading as a heroic tale of rebellion, the true spirit of Rogue One is Empire all the way down.” From the debut of Director Krennic’s formidable Death Troopers to the uncanny reappearance of Grand Moff Tarkin in all his vainglory, and finally, to the disturbing yet bedazzling spectacle of Darth Vader’s stylized evisceration of numerous ill-fated rebels, Rogue One artfully demonstrates the villainy, vanity, and insurmountability of the Galactic Empire. However, the real focus of this Star Wars Story is the Empire. Rogue One championed the heroics and grit of the Rebel Alliance, while also exposing their moral foibles.

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