4 ms·

Well, that last part can be explained by the Empire being a generic metaphor for oppressive regimes. The Empire wasn't exactly a morally ambiguous character.

fhood 9y ago
I mean, how bad is blowing up a planet really?
- jrs95 9y ago
  I mean, what if that planet has the hidden headquarters of ISIS on it? Better to be safe than sorry.
- Melchizedek 9y ago
  It's the sci-fi version of nuking two cities and firebombing every civilian population center in an entire country.
paganel 9y ago
> Empire being a generic metaphor for oppressive regimes It wasn't always like this. The best example is the Roman Empire in the time of Augustus, with its Pax Romana and everything related to it, which wasn't seen as a bad thing by lots of writers during the centuries that followed it. The second example that comes to mind is the Investiture Controversy from the early Middle Ages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_Controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_Controversy), which saw the Papacy ideologically battling it out against the Holy Roman Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire was definitely not seen as oppressive or anything the like. On a more generic note, us Christian Orthodox use the phrase "The Empire from the Skies" (my not so good translation, here's the wiki article on it in Romanian which literally translates as "God's Empire" : https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Emp%C4%83r%C4%83%C8%9Bia_lui_Dumnezeu https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Emp%C4%83r%C4%83%C8%9Bia_...), and, again, the term "empire" is not seen as oppressive or anything similar, quite the contrary.
- jsgo 9y ago
  unless the parent edited the post (possible), they're saying "the Empire" as in the empire in the movies, not the word "empire" in and of itself.
  - paganel 9y ago
    Could be, or maybe something got lost in translation (am not a native English speaker and as such the "the" might not have seemed very obvious to me).
  - webkike 9y ago
    I am in fact referring to the Empire from Star Wars (thus the capitalization)

fhood 9y ago

I mean, how bad is blowing up a planet really?

jrs95 9y ago
I mean, what if that planet has the hidden headquarters of ISIS on it? Better to be safe than sorry.
Melchizedek 9y ago
It's the sci-fi version of nuking two cities and firebombing every civilian population center in an entire country.

paganel 9y ago

> Empire being a generic metaphor for oppressive regimes It wasn't always like this. The best example is the Roman Empire in the time of Augustus, with its Pax Romana and everything related to it, which wasn't seen as a bad thing by lots of writers during the centuries that followed it. The second example that comes to mind is the Investiture Controversy from the early Middle Ages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_Controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_Controversy), which saw the Papacy ideologically battling it out against the Holy Roman Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire was definitely not seen as oppressive or anything the like. On a more generic note, us Christian Orthodox use the phrase "The Empire from the Skies" (my not so good translation, here's the wiki article on it in Romanian which literally translates as "God's Empire" : https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Emp%C4%83r%C4%83%C8%9Bia_lui_Dumnezeu https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Emp%C4%83r%C4%83%C8%9Bia_...), and, again, the term "empire" is not seen as oppressive or anything similar, quite the contrary.

jsgo 9y ago
unless the parent edited the post (possible), they're saying "the Empire" as in the empire in the movies, not the word "empire" in and of itself.
- paganel 9y ago
  Could be, or maybe something got lost in translation (am not a native English speaker and as such the "the" might not have seemed very obvious to me).
- webkike 9y ago
  I am in fact referring to the Empire from Star Wars (thus the capitalization)