Now, Star Wars is not the finest example of world building in even cinematic fiction, much less fiction in general, the retconning that took place between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menaceamounts to vandalism of the lore but there are still elements that are intriguing to look at even with the massive alteration to the original trilogy’s history.

When the first film, Star Wars, takes place the Imperial system and the emperor himself have had their grubby little paws in power for less than 20 years. Luke Skywalker is in effect the age of the Empire itself. We could map this to real-world fascists with Italy, where the OG Fascists came to power in 1922 and were still there in 1942, albeit quite diminished in their geopolitical positioning. The German would not match that run their terrible regime, lasting only about a dozen years before imploding and taking millions of lives with it.

Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox

Let’s look at the Imperial Officers presented to us as characters in Star Wars. Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin is the old man of the group we see on the Death Star with the actor about 64 years of age, the rest of his command staff, is much younger but not young men. The other officers are in their 40s, 50s, with some matching Tarkin in their 60s, career men who dedicated themselves to military service — the military service of the Old Republic now enthusiastic and dedicated officers of the Galactic Empire willing to slaughter millions with the throw of a switch.

Undoubtedly it was the easier path when the emperor came to power to not buck the system, to not stand out from the crowd, to just ‘go along for now’ with the new government, the new administration, after all this won’t last forever. The oaths to the Old Republic conveniently forgotten in the harsh light of self-preservation.

Certainly, this observation has no relevance today.