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I think the most political line is "So this is how liberty dies - with thunderous applause." [with all the changes made for the sake of "a safe and secure society", of course.] Anakin's line had me faceplanting - [oh no, he's drunk the Kool aid. He's Palpaltine's double-edged tool.]

I was serving in the US Army just before, during, and after 9/11. I saw this play out, and your criticisms of that time period were also mine at the time. It is refreshing, yet tragic, that I stand vindicated today.

5:40 The makers of Fallout 2 knew what they were doing when they made the American remnant state, the Enclave, into a post-apocalyptic Earth version of the Galactic Empire, complete with its own armored shocktroopers looking like Stormtroopers and even a big bad covered in armor a la Darth Vader, Frank Horrigan.

Have you ever heard the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker???

4:15 George was much more subtle about how he incorporated his political views into Star Wars than some of the Disney people have been. He didn't bash people over the head with politics.

that look on Dooku's face is the look of a man who came to realize far to late that joining Sidious was a bad mistake and Christopher Lee did an amazing job as Dooku

It's pretty normal that Clone Wars or Rebels was the first Star Wars content for people under 25. A lot of people in Gen-Z started Star Wars movies with the Prequel Era.

Lucas more likely got his inspiration from things that had already happened before any of that such as the dictatorial rise of Hitler, Napoleon, and Caesar

Sand is not Anakin’s most famous line…. It’s a toss up between “now this is pod racing” or “this is where the fun begins”

- Master Windu, I think my math teacher is a Sith. - Why do you say that? - Because she deals with absolutes!

For what little it's worth, I completely agree with Anakin Skywalker when it comes to sand.

Brtilliant video. Yeah, I was one of those who enlisted straight out of high school during GWOT & deployed for OIF.

I think to understand where the raise of Palpatine comes from, we need to look further back to change in Rome from a republic to an empire.

Could you do a video on the evolution of weapons manufacturers during the saga please? From the Republic era where they arm secretly an entire clone army to state control during the Empire then lean years under the New Republic where they switched to selling to militant groups.

Your presentation is balanced and well thought out. Star Wars is a mix of left and right politics. Many historical references too. We can all agree Star Wars is an entertaining saga.

You are correct, the early-90s to 2001 i feel was a golden age. Not that today is terrible but back then it seemed like anything was possible.

Yeah. Having been in my 40s during the time, it was pretty obvious that Lucas was commenting on Cheney and Bush. I literally did a political cartoon with Cheney as Palpatine and Bush as "Sky Walker Bush." I'm glad you reminded us all.

Lucas was using the rise of Hitler in Germany for the Palpatine rise to power. Hitler was elected during a period of economic depression and raised it economy on military spending hidden in domestic spending. He took over much of Europe and disenfranchised, enslaved, massacred a group of people that Hitler saw as inhuman (represented mostly by Wookies in the SW Universe.) Much of what Lucas had stated was to reference the period of time that people were discussing his movie when he was interviewed. It's 20/20 hindsight and a bit of revisionism to make his movie match the currently social issues. It's a case of good bye old boss, hello new boss, same as the old boss situation.

I remember that. Everyone around me wanted to invade Iraq out of anger. I was angry, too, I wanted payback, but I didn't think an invasion was the way to go about it. I marched in peaceful anti war rallies hosted by my college English professor, a couple of other English professors, some history professors, and a some poli sci professors. But who wants to listen to a bunch of college students, and intelligent, educated people who are trained professionals in their field from a small, backwater community college in an rural area of California that's easy to skip over? Our strict major rule was "do not heckle the hecklers" while the hecklers were throwing insults at us, bearing down on us, and screaming that we were misguided youth. We did not heckle back. The "misguided youth" were the adults in those rallies. The pro war rallies were mostly attended by military veterans, jackboots, and right wingers - who, sadly, are still the majority in that area. It's mini Trumplandia up there, and it makes me sick. Those of us who saw reason were a minority - still are. If you don't fall in line, you're bullied into falling in line, then you'll do it to keep from being attacked even though it goes against everything you feel is right. The right wingers would shut down anything we were trying to say before we could say it by shouting, throwing insults, calling us "liberal punks," turning the word "liberal" into an insult, and screaming so loudly against anything that wasn't "KILL THEM ALL" that the voices of reason were drowned out by the voices that easily tripled ours. Most of us were teenagers, college kids, and young adults, with a few rational older adults thrown in there who'd learned these lessons throughout their lives - even some who were in the military - and were trying to teach us not to make the same mistakes. I voted for Gore. My dad was pissed. Hell, my family was pissed. Someone spotted me at a pro rally sitting down next to my dad and all the old vets who were standing up wrapped in the American Flag. My dad had given me a small flag to hold. I stayed sitting, but held the flag, because I love my country. I still wanted to believe the angry majority would come to the sane conclusion. I still do. That person asked me why I was there. I told them that I don't agree with any of this. I was there to support my dad, because I love my dad. I told them I loved my country. And I told them that I'm there to show that my side is willing to sit and listen to the other side even if we don't agree. That pissed the guy off. He said I should only be there if I support the cause. My dad probably thought the rally would magically change my mind. I'd already had a left leaning mindset since my preteen years - and maybe before just because of how sensitive and empathetic I am. Seeing other people hurt always upset me a lot when I was little. It still upsets me. I didn't want anyone to be hurt, and I never wanted to hurt anyone. All I wanted was to live in peace with everyone else. Everything shouted in that rally, bolstered by a chorus of cheers, made me want to cry. It was all bombing, hate, destruction, pandering to the vets experiencing in past wars to rile them up, racism, eye-for-an-eye, - everything we're taught as kids not to do in church, and by our teachers. These adults were so hypocritical that I wanted to barf. Why tell your kids to be one thing- to be better people, to be the generation that changes the world for the better - and when we actually try to, you turn around and go, "No! Not like that!" Anger deafens the ears. Unless the things the Angry want to hear are said, they ignore everything else.

Ironically, however, the way Lucas constructed the Republic, with each system doing whatever it wanted, it kind of made something like Palpatine necessary to avoid any infighting. The Jedi didn't squash the infighting, they just tempered it, they didn't actually eradicate parties like the Trade Federation which abused their power. Such a situation justified having a large government take control and essentially nationalize all military under its belt. It was the only proper way going forward to prevent the kind of infighting that destroyed nations like the Holy Roman Empire or Somalia. Especially when the Republic doesn't even enforce its laws against things like slavery; they have laws against slavery but people still buy and sell other people because there's nobody enforcing the law. Whereas we do know that the Empire enforces their laws against drug-peddlers, since Han was forced to abandon a shipment of drugs because an Imperial warship showed up. The only reason the Empire was evil was because Palpatine was evil, but if it was someone else in the throne, like say, Qui-Gon Jinn or pre-fall Anakin, they could've probably made the system work. So ironically enough, Palpatine being the Bush-era centralizer was actually a good thing despite his evil actions against the Jedi and other fringe groups; for the large number of citizens in the core and many other places, Palpatine wasn't their problem; and for many others, he was their savior. Not only that, but the Senate itself gave Palpatine emergency powers to declare war against the Separatists, and they kept re-electing him despite his term limits supposedly having expired. So they did consult the Senate the whole way through with this affair, and the Senate said YES to Palpatine every single time.

Yeah... the strangest thing was watching "Attack of the Clones," and seeing one of the Army's, "Army of One," commercials right before-hand. I was 21 when that one came and, and knew there was a lot of war coming to our world. It was definetly odd, knowing production schedules and how on-the-nose things were.

Our best politics come from Liberals and Conservatives seeing each other's points of view and considering compromises. On some issues its better to be liberal and on some its better to be conservative. On most issues, the best solution is a compromise between Liberals and Conservatives.

Context is everything. Context can take something terribly written and acted and breathe a new understanding into it. Love how you guys focus on the over arking theme and how the real lives of the creator can influence their creation on such a deep level.

How do you confuse "Yamato," and ""Yamamoto?" One was a Battleship, the other an Admiral.

My favorite line was don't make me kill you

The problem I have with connecting the quote with George Bush is that according to the media at the time every big movie was about George Bush and the evidence for that was usually quotes from people who had little or nothing to do with the production of those movies. If the actual filmmakers said something different they were ignored. I don't say this as a support for Bush and the war it's just that I see it as an example of when the narrative becomes more important than the actual facts.

Just like how Warhammer 40K and Watchmen were made by guys who were seething at Reagan and Thatcher, so too was Star Wars made by a guy who was mad about Nixon, to the point where he likens the Emperor to Nixon.

2:07 IJN Battleship Yamato Yamamoto was a Japanese Admiral during the war, Yamato was the Battleship

IIRC, the novelization of Revenge of the Sith also included a reference to Bush's "Axis of Evil" line.

I don't think the fact that the rebels were underdogs is what makes them the good guys, I believe the fact that the empire condones slavery, genocide, and a bunch of other evil shit is what makes the rebels(who oppose those things) the good guys. Were the slaves in America who revolted against the system terrorists? Were the slaves the bad people for going against authority?

The most amazing thing in George Lucas' narrative is the way he ties a complex political conspiracy (Palpatine & Plagueis) into a coherent sub-plot for the Skywalker family saga. It had plausible long game strategy (trade fed, clones, reluctant dictator), moral compromise by the good guys (Jedi council accepts slave labour from child soldiers), and eventually led to an enquiry into PTSD (Kenobi). ... The saddest thing is that it was under served in the original cut, and over shadowed by moody teenagers with attachment issues. Still love it though.... bring on Andor S2

“I find your lack of faith disturbing” is the best annakin line (I realise he was Vader at the time”

@10:20 👏 👏 👏 Thank you Alan. Needed to be said.

I love watching your videos to hear your commentary. I learn so much from you. You help me expand my thinking.

Love your analysis and insight its always a joy to watch your channel

You've always done this, but I love that you have political takes and how they tie into star wars and real life, and they're always factually supported, it's amazing.

I think George Lucas had something he wanted to say, and it happened to be particularly relevant in politics at the time. Like George Orwell, Lucas wanted to warn people about giving up freedom for security (both reiterating Ben Franklin's quote), but unlike Orwell, I don't think Lucas was pointing at any modern western power in AOTC, only once things went down did he apply his already-formed plotline to the USA. Interestingly, around that time were a few movies with messaging against totalitarianism, consider Serenity and V For Vendetta. Serenity also is built from a previous work, that is, the Firefly series, which does not lean as heavily into the politics directly, but still has the framing that sets it up for the movie. Joss Wheadon didn't know about Iraq for Firefly, and depending on production timelines may not have even written the series with the knowledge of 9/11.

I'd say Attack of the Clones isn't really anything new; there were plots in 80s cartoons like GI Joe where a bad guy like Cobra would send agitators to attack their own political candidate to look good, and history is rife with guys like the Austrian Painter, Caesar, and Napoleon who gained power during times of emergency and refused to give it back, so Lucas just combined the two and made AOTC. Also, the WMDs went to Syria; Saddam's sarin gas was sent by him to the Syrians for safekeeping as the Americans came to Iraq. Then when it was found later, Obama would launch a support campaign for the insurgent forces against Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad, whose government kept the sarin gas and used it against rebels.

I dont hate the sequel trilogy for being liberal I hate it for being 2 bad and 1 mediocre movies

Good retrospective. Let’s not forget only a Sith deals in absolutes.

George Lucas only needed to be a student of history to craft the tale of Anakin Skywalker’s fall. From Rome to Germany many Republic’s have fallen though I am sure Germany was the biggest influence with a sprinkling of wised on from America’s founding fathers. I am sure he would point out it was a sad day when he could reference current events in the tale he told.

I love how you are always able to link SW to real life politics.. easily the best SW chanell on KZfaq

4:30 Same with Star Trek. Both Lucas and Roddenberry were very progressive in their worldviews.

4:30, Lucas definitely was far more left than Kennedy, you look at modern star wars and genuinely you cannot tell me that it is more political. It is way more safe and towing a corporate line (excluding Andor).

I still had vivid memories of 9/11 and its aftermath when I saw Revenge of the Sith in the theater. I instantly recognized that line (insert Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at TV meme here)

Just now noticed that halfway through his line, he turns his head slightly to see where Obi-Wan is. Just goes to show that even though he wanted to kill Kenobi, he was still concerned about padme.

An off topic comment, but I thought the ship was called the Yamato not Yamamoto

Day 256 PLEASE DO MORE TACTICS VIDEOS AND STRUCTURES LIKE THE CIS NAVY STRUCTURE AND RANKS

I think there's actually a much more poetic line about politics in Revenge of the Sith that often gets looked over. After Palpatine's speech about "safety and security," Padme says "So this is how liberty dies. with thunderous applause." Which really rings true in the real world. Most dictatorships rise to power on the backs of people they've fooled into thinking autocracy is what they all really want. It's only months or years later the majority of those people begin to realize how badly they'd been played.

Current Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to be Subtle.

Cheney is definitely the emperor mewee

Ah yes, the best moments ate those of heartfell betrayal.

generations tech next time make a what if scenario of what if Anakin Skywalker was trained by the force itself because we all know the force has a will of its own it gave life to shmi Skywalker womb and what we know in called Anakin Skywalker was born created by the midichlorians themselves the real and true creator father of Anakin Skywalker is the force itself what do you think you can do it

The ultimate goal of every country, for the sake of all countries should be world peace and unification.

The original trilogy drew influence from Vietnam and Watergate, and the corruption of Nixon. The prequel trilogy politics drew from the experience of Germany from the 20's through mid 30's. And in a more general level, George Lucas posed an answer to the question, How does a republic founded on the principles of democracy turn into an authoritarian dictatorship? The forces that seek to erode democracy are always present and sometimes when conditions are right as they were in Germany, and any number of countries, dictatorships rise. History doesn't repeat but it sure rhymes. What Revenge of Sith had to say about Germany in the 30's was relevant in 2005 and it even more so today, Because I would argue that the Untied States is drifting towards authoritarian rule because the 9/11 attacks, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan set events in motion that are leading down that path. That particular line speaks to the perils of polarization where one side see all others not with them as the enemy. That's a hallmark of authoritarianism, specially fascism.

Lucas based the Empire on the Nazis. He said as much in interviews. His rise to power was basically the nazi playbook. I mean, even the use of “stormtroopers” and the black, white and red color scheme seemed to back it up.

Obi-wan: Only the Sith deal I absolutes. Anakin: Oh? Then you must be a Sith, why are you challenging me? 😅

4:32 gene roddenberry: am i a joke to you?

I actually used Obi-Wan's line to rib my best friend. I'm a Democrat, he's a Republican, and we stay friends by not discussing politics. I can't remember what he said but I replied with, "Only Republicans deal in absolutes." Have gave me a sour face but laughed after. I did also joke about myself as well. When we were building a Lego Batmobile together I had to keep blowing dust off. By the end he pointed that out and I said, "Well, I am full of liberal hot air." He laughed harder at that one.

I have a friend who was in Iraq. He fell into one of Saddam's WMD chemical disposal pits. He's now disabled, with golf ball size tumors repeatedly forming all through his body. I'd say the WMDs were VERY real.

The prequels showed how important the politics are to the stories.

This makes me wondered what does George Lucas think of Napoleon III, who launched a self-coup to turn himself from the President of France into the Emperor of the French. On the side note, he modernized Paris and successfully formed the second largest and most powerful navy in the world that is behind only Britain at the time. And of course, we know he lost the intervention in Mexico as soon as the American Civil War ended and then the Franco-Prussian War later on. But still, he made quite good progresses for France.

The Empire, I revel in the complement Wa hahaha!

That's because Palpatine isn't supposed to be American, he's supposed to be Augustus, a seeming nobody who "stumbles" into the reins of power during a "crisis" to reform the Republic into the first Roman/galactic empire

People seem to be be conflating Afghanastan and Iraq. Invasion of Afghanistan was almost universally supported, both domestically and internationally. Invasion of Iraq, which happened later, was much more contentious.

George wasn’t a prophet and he wasn’t a prescient political scholar. But he was familiar with things like the rise of Nixon, the Vietnam War, Goldwater Republicansim, the brilliant…insidiousness…of Lee Atwater and the Southern Strategy, and he knew that history is kinda like poetry. It rhymes.

The difference between George Lucas and the "new guard" is George didn't villainize his fans for disagreeing with him or disliking his stories

5:15

I'd say George is what we'd call a classic liberal today. It is very clear a lot of the "right" have taken on old "left" focal points. Aka anti war, free speech, ect.

13 seconds, 11k likes and no views… okay

Pretty much

Curious if by that logic, Lucas would've sided with the Stormcloaks😅

The same thing happened in star trek entreprise. It's got a whole plot line in which earth is victim of a terrorist attack and is forced to do immoral things.

In 2010 the military dug up chemical weapons in Iraq. Those are WMDs.

Yamato? Yamamoto was an admiral

George Washington warned us in his farewell address to avoid political parties, and to avoid long-term friendly relations or rivalries with any nation, arguing that attachments with or animosity toward other nations will only cloud the government's judgment in its foreign policy. He argues that longstanding poor relations will only lead to unnecessary wars due to a tendency to blow minor offenses out of proportion when committed by nations viewed as enemies of the United States. He continues this argument by claiming that alliances are likely to draw the United States into wars that have no justification and no benefit to the country beyond simply defending the favored nation. Alliances, he warns, often lead to poor relations with nations who feel that they are not being treated as well as America's allies, and threaten to influence the American government into making decisions based upon the will of their allies instead of the will of the American people. -Wikipedia This reinforces my belief that we should equally neutral to all nations, trading with all nations and promising not to attack them if they don't attack us, but not promising to defend them if they get invaded unless that nation attacks us as well. America should lead by example and not hypocritically call Russia authoritarian while infringing upon Americans rights.

WOWS is a great game, and have played it since spring 2016. Sadly game has had a decline since they reworked the carriers. On top of it ships that carry planes of their own. Then they released submarines... 😟

I remember watching the Afghan occupation and all the craziness over in the Middle-East as a kid. Back then I thought us Americans were the good guys. It wasn’t until after the occupation that I think who were the true “good guys” is matter of perspective. And with more and more wars these days, we really can’t root for anyone specifically. The Vietnam guys in my family and the Afghanistan guys in my family have very different views. Whereas the Vietnam vets in my family fought for beliefs or whatever they personally believed in, the Afghanistan vets in my family fought purely for adventure or a better lifestyle. That whole shift in thinking made me watch Star Wars in a different lens then before

😮If Bush is Anakin and Cheney is Palps, then Trump is Han.

Yamato was the warship. Yamamoto was the Admiral.

No hate so it’s Yamato and she had 18inch guns other than great video love it (I am a naval /ship nerd since I am in the merchant navy haha)

Anti authoritarianism is not inherently leftist. In fact, quite the opposite.

Maybe Lucas had a force vision.

I call that thinking to much In to it 😂

Kinda ironic talking about Empires and occupations while flying a digital Israeli flag in the BG

I believe we could have an excellent discussion on political issues. Without getting angry. We are free to agree to disagree.

Speaking of unitary executive theory look up Project 2025

2:17 : The Yamoto had 18" main guns, not 16" deck guns. The Iowa class American Battleships at the time had 16" main guns, but the Imperal Navy went a little bigger. Deck guns usually refer to smaller guns on the deck. Anti-aircraft rounds, machine guns, etc. And now it's a giant coral reef.

Nah somebody like Lucas will always see further than somebody who self-consciously tries to be moderate and centrist like you so yes, he saw the cracks in the 90s that folks like you back then never could.

To the point of George Lucas being a leftist, in his day, leftism was about peace activism. Today, in the era of Kathleen Kennedy, leftism is about *identity* activism. Peace activism, while not always appropriate for every given situation, doesn't particularly alienate anyone by its own nature. Everyone can relate to a desire for peace, the nature of the disagreement usually comes down to matters of pragmatism rather than bloodlust. Identity activism, on the other hand, always alienates someone. So I don't necessarily see the complaints about it as contradictory.

Wow

I remember those days, gore did try to come up with all his pregnant and hanging chad theories. It was circus enough

I believe Lucas is also quoted as saying Vader is Richard Nixon. Basically he is part of the “Todays republican is basically Hitler, but tomorrow this other republican is basically Hitler” crowd.

I’d say the best stance to take in conflict is to stay neutral. But of course, if you not with them, you’re against. In truth, you can only choice either or.

Reducing politics to left and right is a bit of an oversimplification (but I get what you're going for with the whole two sides and balance thing). I just wanted to point out that the left/right dichotomy in the US is a bit different than most of the rest of the world, where "liberal" tends not to mean quite the same thing as "left" - that is, it's not an end on the spectrum of "left" right, but something a bit more central than that (again, if we're reducing it to left and right). The US doesn't really have a party that represents the interests of labor for example like many other countries do. The parties the US does have are both very pro-corporate, just each with a different focus. For the record I tried to write this as neutrally as I could but it's political so I expect there will be some disagreement.

10:37 I see what you did there. 😉 This is why I love your channel more than any other Star Wars content creator's.

Yeah I thought the invasion was a bad idea and that the justification was "problematic." Also knew that when Bremmer fired the Iraqi Army, we were done. It was a lonely place to be in the early 00's

The Mussolini model of using legal means to gain authoritarian power were around a lot longer than Star Wars.

Unless lucas is the actual sith puppetmaster.....