the star wars saga is laced throughout with both political and religious conotations.
the religions are the jedi and the sith(good and evil) and the constant struggle between the 2. the jedi are a large organization, they teach passivity, emotional constraint, self sacrifice, and contemplation. the sith teach aggression, using your emotions, and self interest. the jedi attempt to control and limit power, the sith attempt to harness and use all the power. now, whether you feel it is the sith or the jedi that is actually the evil side, thats up to you. personally, its pretty gray, both have their good and their bad. gearge lucas used some old asianic religions to create the basis for the 2.
politics in star wars has to deal with the loss of freedom in a manner that strangely is similar in nature to what is happening in our own world today. i do feel that his writing of Ep 1,2,3 were influenced by these events. frankly, it doesn't take much imagination to go the little bit extra that he did with the emporer. you have the war, during the war, sacrifices had to be made by the people for their own security, and extra power was given to 1 man in order for the decisions to be made more quickly. at first the liberties lost weren't very important, just extra guards on the street, and people suspected of being sympathetic to enemy being either arrested or covertly surveilled. later in the war it was much more restrictive, security checks everywhere, and more guards on the street. to get a really good sense of the political structuring and posturing you should read the books too, the expanded universe give you a lot of depth, and helps you learn the characters better.
i am also a really big fan, if you couldn't already tell, im reading on my 68th or 69th star wars book atm, have watched all the movies, many of the documentaries, and played almost all of the games. i like how they are writing the jedi in the newest post Ep 6 books, really makes things interesting, and after the New Jedi Order books, you never know what to expect, that series was really unpredictable.
palpatine is an intersting character, but i haven't read any books that go much further into the character than the movies do. i personally would like to see a book written specifically about him. i would also like to see an entire line of sith books starting when they went into hiding, going over the influence they had in the direction of the republic, i think it would be cool.:jam:
what can i say, im a nerd
Drekmed
