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It really was too little to late for Crosshair to turn against the Empire when he realized the truth. And look where that got him now

"It turns out the Empire doesn't take too kindly to desertion." "No kidding." -- Gregor and Echo

Watching this, I am reminded by perhaps one of the best quotes to come out of Battlestar Galactica (2003)...Commander William Adama : There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.

0:54 Did you guys hear that?!? He said "porpoises". Not "purposes". Also, he didn't introduce himself as Alan even though that's the usual intro. THE DOLPHINS HAVE TAKEN OVER!!!! That's not Alan!! That's an impostor!!

Assuming I was a regular Imperial Citizen with no negative feelings towards the empire, i would defect after Alderaan

4:30 I love how detonating the fuel cells would obviously cause a suicidal chain reaction and Gregor just YOLO'S it with no hesitation

"An adversary is more hurt by desertion than by slaughter." - Vegetius

In the Alphabet Squadron books (which I strongly recommend) it has one of the defectors who balked at Operation Cinder who scorns anyone who defected after her. Because if they DIDN’T balk at Cinder then they’re just doing it to save their own backsides.

I definitely would've defected after Alderan or more precisely the destruction of the Death Star, not out of disgust but out of the realization that the Rebels could actually win against the Empire so I wouldn't be as afraid. I'm definitely someone weak to the Tarkin Doctrine, I like being alive

One wonders if Tarkin would have faced consequences for taking it upon himself to destroy a historic Core World, given how much animus it created for the Empire, had he not perished in the battle. Vader was demoted and punished by Palpatine for failing to protect the Death Star. I imagine that as defectors piled up thanks in part to the destruction of Alderaan that Palpatine would have been no more kind to the Moff. His strategy in defending the station was also at fault for its destruction, but since he was dead Vader took the brunt of the Emperor's anger.

Defectors and deserters could be endangering their families. In World War 2 after the massive surrenders of Soviet troops in 1941 Stalin had Soviet soldiers instructed that if they surrendered their families could be subject to punishment. After that date numbers of Soviet troops taken prisoner decreased greatly,

The Military is trained to fight the enemy, when you deploy them against civilians they become the enemy.

“CAPTUN HOWZA” I’m dying 💀😭5:38

I would have defected after I saw the clones retirement plan. I would see that as a major red flag that I would be used and discarded in the same manner.

I love how you do videos on stuff no one else talks about. I’m trying to do more of that.

Wedge Antilles is what I can think of when it comes to Imperial defection. Not a good thing for your side when your former pilots share intel of your tactics in space combat to your opposition; just saying

In the case of Crosshair, I would say that a big thing to would be the care of troops. Crosshair being a bit more authoritarian and "law and order," could have found a place in the Empire for a while. If you weren't causing trouble, then the Empire wouldn't send him to put anyone down. But that type of thinking really works best with Thrawn or Tarkin (I am not saying Tarkin would have treated them properly, but I think he would have treated them like soldiers proper). With Admiral Rampart scoffing at clone loyalty and the lieutenant that Crosshair shot, the Empire basically created an environment that encouraged defection in my opinion.

Massive defecations were common after the destruction of the first death star which was the empires greatest restroom, now due to clogged toilets imperial defections happen everywhere even on the battlefield!

When to defect? When the money and benefits run out

0:54 The Dolphins got him, he's trying to signal to us

The Sith reliance on hate and fear always prove to be it's undoing.

"If I had but one bullet and were faced by both an enemy and a traitor, I would let the traitor have it"

For me, my defection would be Alderaan. That's when you can no longer hide the truth of what happened, your empire just destroyed a habitable planet for the sake of hunting down some rebels. Before that point the Rebels would have likely seemed like a political push, and depending on where I was in the galaxy, I might not have known about a large portion of the Empire's crimes. But Alderaan was a breaking point for a reason. There was a reason a few rebels turned into an entire New Republic after the annihilation of a planet.

This question is like “what point would you defect from Nazi Germany?”

For me personally I feel like I would’ve been very attracted to the imperial military at first, a chance to see the galaxy and fight and go on adventures. But once the Death Star obliterated a planet I think that would be over the line for me and push me to defect. I believe in meeting fire with overwhelming fire, not meeting millions of non combatants with it. I meet aggression with more aggression, not innocents with aggression. At that point I’d probably run off to some shady spaceport, buy myself a ship, and become a smuggler instead, to see the galaxy on my own terms and make credits doing it.

What Imperial defectors do you think had the most impact to the war?

After the clone wars I'd likely be on board understanding somewhat that in a post war galaxy a firmer hand would be needed to get the galaxy under control but as the time goes on and crime against sentients increases doubts about empire would certainly arise but I'd likely see the rebels as the separatists 2.0 believing they're the ones in the wrong but after Alderaan I'd be completely disillusioned with the empire seeing the destruction of a entire planet without warning as barbaric and I'd defect first chance I get with any info I can get.

I would be a Stormtrooper falling off a building on Coruscant 'Kratos style'.

If i learned anything from star wars squadrons is that i'm a brutally effective Tie-Pilot that was named a Flight Baron

Unless something personal happened, like to some on the list, I doubt I'd jump ship or go over the hill before Alderaan, and maybe not after if I had a lot to lose. When it's just your life at stake, youz pays your moneys, youz takes your chances. When it's your families lives, you get a lot more risk averse. The Republic was so dysfunctional even before Palpatine started undermining it that if it wasn't for Tarkin's brain fart fitting so well with the Sith worldview and Palpatine's sadism it might have been generations before you saw widespread uprisings. Palpatine's motto may as well have been that Caligula quote, 'Let them hate so long as they fear.' As it was, the closer to the core the less likely you were to see the dark side (ahem) of the Empire. People don't revolt when their lives are improving. The double whammy of the Death Star destroying Alderaan then being destroyed itself immediately after, simultaneously showing the Empire was both an existential threat and not an invulnerable one, dramatically increased the hate towards the regime and lowered the fear of it. Destroying Alderaan guaranteed widespread insurrection against the Empire. Losing the Death Star allowed it to escalate to open warfare.

that scene when Crosshair finally decides enough is enough is so friggin awersome! when it happened, i shouted "YES! FINALLY!!" too bad it was too little to late as isaac said.

I would love to see obi wan and Cody to reunite at some point. It would be poetic if somehow Cody sacrifices himself for obi wan or to protect Luke.

Before watching, I feel like Alderaan was a major breaking point for a lot of the empire, and hardened or was just ignored

Iden and Del they were immediately flying X-Wing after defected. Lando said "Should be easy for special forces" I mean..a special forces from Imperial Academy defecting is a big deal.

When senator palpatine turned into emperor palpatine is when i would've defected. Being American and having an amendment against such types would be pretty much the exact incentive i would need to do so.

At almost each and every one of your analysis videos I'm taken aback by how good your content is. Thanks Alan.

I really enjoy your videos. The writing and in depth analysis is always well done! Thanks!

I wanna see Cody and obi wan meet each other again after order 66

I think the moment the Empire blew up Yavin 4, I'd be like "What the actual hell?"

Id like to think id defect early but i think blowing up Alderaan would have likely been the tipping point for me.

I'm surprised at the lack of mention of Cara Dune, from "The Mandalorian." She was from Alderaan. And, based on her response to the imperial pilot who gloated about the Death Star blowing up her home world, she was still quite triggered by the memory. She hated imperials so much that whenever Din Drajin wanted her help, she would always refuse to help... right up until the moment that Din told her "imperials were involved." Then, she would change her choice in a second, and almost seem EAGER to help Din in whatever crisis he and Grogu were wrapped up in.

There's a question royalty in balancing a droid arm or a human army. Droids can be reprogrammed like the Clones wars episode and in rogue one. Why didn't that happen more often. Capture separatist or empiral droids and reprogram them even put back together broken droids to work for you. The Rebels captured an empiral Astromec so chipper could take his place.. and the empiral Astromec was already in their favor after 2 minutes

I'll always remember one of the vignette stories from the old West End sourcebooks. I think it was the Rebel Alliance one. An Imperial attack had just cleaned out a Rebel base. Wrecked corridors, bodies everywhere. The Imperials had settled in to clean up any intel to be found, etc. This middle-aged Imperial officer was wandering the corridors, and he was sick of it. He knew his duty, he'd believed in the Empire, set his professional career around doing things like this, but he enough to know these people had died for something and they'd killed them all to stop it. He ends up in the power room for the base, and he hears a noise. He pulls out his blaster to go check. It's a teenage girl, a Rebel, and she's doing her level best to try and push the base reactor to overload. They stand frozen. He knows he supposed to capture her, shoot, her, call for backup, SOMETHING. But he looks into her eyes, and whispers "Hurry up". He calls an alert, and hustles the girl out in the ensuing panic to evacuate, just before the base turns into a massive fireball. They fly off in a speeder, and he realizes he's joined the Rebellion.

Thanks for making content after 10+ years!

Allan: "When would you defect?" *I wouldn't. Glory to the Empire.*

Now that you brought this topic up. It made me wonder why some people are still loyal to the Empire even after its fall. After all, some people moved on to live as part of the Third Republic. And while I know that the Republic is flawed and very awful, the Empire is just as bad if not worse. So why they remained loyal to a regime that is obviously worse than their enemy? At least, Mon Mothma's reign seemed to be good as long as she remained in power. Also, I wondered what Mon Mothma's daughter life was like when her mother became the Chancellor of the Third Republic.

LOL love your nod to Total Recall "Howsa" 😄

The total recall references were a hoot. Nice subtle addition.

Some defect when forced to kill innocent civilians, some when ordered to attack their own homeworlds, most when the very thing they stood for starts blowing up entire worlds, and some simply saw the writing on the wall that the rebellion was winning and just wanted to get off this sinking ship to join the winning side.

What about Tycho Celchu??? He defected after Alderaan’s destruction too, and went on to be one of the core members of Rouge Squadron!

Shoot it's another generation tech and it's ya boy?? Bet ima watch

they're breaking the timeline here.. how could the empire have possibly been that terminally unstable before cassio tagge noticed and before the emperor dismantled the imperial senate? the empire seemed like it was fully functional before the battle of yavin with very little sign of defectors to the rebellion... luke's friends such as biggs and wedge were the exception, not the rule.

I have a question that might make a good video topic; do you think the jedi order would've eventually destroyed itself even without order 66? You're always talking about how the jedi lost their way but do you think it was to the point that the order would've fallen at some point or another had order 66 not taken place?

Never thought about Jan Dodonna was the General Robert E. Lee of Star Wars

When I had Rogue Squadron on the Gamecube, I loved it when, as part of the game's story a member of the 128th interceptor called Lt. Kasan Moor defects and you learn that she'd been trying to do so following the Death Star's destruction of Alderraan.

I would love to see The Bad Batch introduce Kal Skirata and Walon Vau...and the child if Darman and Etain Tar-Mukan.

10:10 notice that a lot of senate pods are empty

I also think of Legends/forces unleashed, General Kota where his entire crew was recruited from the populace. Entire venator defected.

For me, probably be too afraid to break away before there was something to run to! Then, the first chance that presented.

Still sad we didn't get atleast a squad of rebel clones shouting "FOR THE NEW REPUBLIC!" during one of the many ground battles.

I was wondering… when Padme is taken captive in Thrawn Alliances, she thinks to herself that Anakin will at least have som émondeuse on him. But how would he have money, being a Jedi and all. Do Jedi get paid salaries?

My loyalty is to the Empire ❤

I probably wouldn't actually fully defect - that's not my style. Instead, I'd play a long con, working my way up the ranks and into a position of significant influence within the Imperial military structure. Ideally I'd push for Grand Admiral. I'd keep contact with the Rebels minimal, just enough to them to know I'm on their side in as cryptic a way as possible, and for me to know which rebel cells are playing by the rules and which ones are acting against the interests of the greater Rebellion like Saw's Partisans. And I'd use these rogue cells to solidify my apparent loyalty to the Empire, while also eliminating problem elements within the Rebellion. I'd also start working on reorganizing the structure of the forces under my command, putting officers loyal to _me_ first and foremost in commanding positions while giving the ones I can't trust out-of-the-way jobs, or even getting them transferred out. I'd also start trying to plant seeds of doubt among important officials within the Empire, in ways that wouldn't tip my hand to them. Thrawn and Vader would be the top priorities for that. But it'd have to be subtle. To Thrawn, occasional casual comments about the expansionist nature of the Empire and how they haven't had the best track record with respecting treaties, phrased to sound like a simple minor values clash and nothing serious, would likely make him start to consider whether he can trust the Empire to keep his people safe. For Vader, I'd attempt to appeal to his hatred of slavery, letting him know he has an ally on that front - but of course I'd have to tread very carefully in order to avoid setting him off and ending up with a crushed windpipe. However, this is a "know when to fold" type of deal, and if things start to get even remotely dangerous here I'd hold off on any more attempts. If I can get the Empire's greatest tactician and the Emperor's right-hand man on my side, that would be an incredible benefit. But if I encounter anything other than smooth sailing in doing so, I'm not going to force it. I'd also attempt occasional sabotage, but only if I can believeably pin it on an empire-loyal officer. My ultimate goal here would be to continue weakening elements within the Empire not loyal to me, while also subtly assisting the Rebels in ways that give me plausible deniability. I would continue to act as an extreme deep cover agent acting mostly independently from the Rebellion, subtlety manipulating things while everything else plays out normally. Ideally, I'd want to be in a position where I'd be put in command of something REALLY important, like the Imperial fleet at the Battle of Endor, with my own loyal officers involved as much as possible. And that's when I'd show my hand. To use the Battle of Endor as an example, I'd include a Conqueror-class in the fleet, and I'd use it to overload the shields protecting the Death Star II with its own smaller Concave Dish Compound Beam Superlaser. At that point I'd have as many of the Star Destroyers with captains and crews loyal to me as I can break formation and join up with the rebel fleet. If I don't get that opportunity, I'd continue my long con, even into the remnant era. Depending on how things end up (Legends or Canon timeline, or an altered timeline due to my manipulations), I'd either align myself with the Empire of the Hand or "join up" with the First Order. If I end up with the First Order, I'd continue as usual, but my job would end up being so much easier seeing as apparently General Armitage "Dimwit" Hux was able to do so. However, instead of trying to take down the First Order, I'd be working more on trying to reshape the organization into something completely ineffective at its intended purpose, while still keeping it strong enough to turn it against the Final Order and the Sith Cult. Imagine the farce of a battle at the end of TRoS, but when Palpatine starts doing his whole force storm thing, suddenly a bunch of Resurgent-class Battlecruisers show up, their kyber-enhanced shields absorbing the energy of Palpatine's Force Storm, before immediately opening fire on the smaller Xyston-class Star Destroyers, TIE/fos and TIE Barons tying up the swarms of TIE Daggers while TIE Silencers and TIE/sfs make their attack runs against the axial superlasers. And of course, I'd still try to have a Conqueror-class Star Destroyer in my fleet to thin the enemy lines by one-shotting enemy Xystons, or even see if I can sneak a shot at Exogol itself. Massive superweapons like the Death Star might be impractical but people really underestimate the usefulness of a smaller ship-mounted superlaser, especially one that's sensibly designed. If I end up with the Empire of the Hand, my goal is actually going to change a bit. You see, the main issue with Thrawn was that he was massively invested in bringing back the Galactic Empire, he actually wasn't that bad otherwise. If I could somehow convince him to focus on uniting the Imperial Remnants and ignore the New Republic, that's a win in my book. If not, then I'd have to topple him, and I'd do it the same way I planned to do it with the Galactic Empire itself. Of course, my ploys during the Galactic Empire's reign might actually pay off in the best way, and I've got Thrawn and Vader on my side. This would likely avoid both the First Order _and_ the events of the Thrawn Trilogy from occurring after Palpatine's fall. I'm honestly not sure what I'd do beyond this point but it's possible I might actually end up being in a position to take the throne, seeing as Vader has no intention to actually rule (based on various media, when Vader said he wanted to "rule the galaxy as father and son" with Luke, I'm pretty sure he intended to put Luke on the throne) and Thrawn most likely would be more interested in remaining in a military position. And I admit I would take that opportunity, specifically with the intents of enacting major reforms and reestablish democratic processes within the Galactic Empire including an elected executive council as a supplementary executive office to the position of Emperor (or Imperator, as I'd rename the position, since the resulting structure would actually be somewhat resembling the Roman Empire under Julius Caesar), while also maintaining the more decentralized structure of the Galactic Empire but with checks and balances to prevent abuses of power. I would want to step down at that point, but chances are I probably wouldn't as it'd be very difficult to find a successor that wouldn't completely fuck everything up. ...that is unless Leia is willing to take the throne and become the second Imperator?

Best Star Wars ch on YT easy

I think after the dissolving of the Senate, that's enough for me to defect/leave. I don't even know if imperial senators were elected or not, but a power check like the Senate stops the emperor from absolute control.

It really depends on the level of awareness the individual has and the comfort they enjoy within the system, along with the ethicalness of the person in question. I am sure there is an equasion one could create with those variables, but I am not smart (or sober) enough to develop it.

Think it would depend for me. If i was on a mission like siege of Mandalor, unless i was right there next to Rex, probably keep being in it until i saw something akin to the sacking of the temple. Maybe similar situation to Gregor or Howzer

It truly was one of the Empires biggest blunders, Its bad enough dealing we numorous untrained fighters swarming you but when you make some of your best and sometimes elite fighters like Iden Versio defect you effectively hand over valuable assests to your enemy

I just noticed the motorcycle helmet in the background and I'll steal that idea for mine lol

We know the Bad Batch had defective inhibitor chips that made it so that they didn't follow Order 66 but how many other clones had faulty chips and didn't follow the Order?

Ofc

See you at the party Wrick-er!

Being an empire player in x wing, i will assume my position as a pilot officer on my usual pick, a decimator. As a ship with hyper drive ability i think my defection would happen after the explosion of alderon. I'd ideally find anyone else like minded at my local station, get them all on my ship, load up the tie fighter trio i could get attached to my airlocks siting that something didnt feel right today and id need some support craft. And then hyper space towards the outer rim.

“This video will have many different porpoises 🐬” 🤣

Have you done a video over Titan squadron?

My D6 character, currently known as "Dax", enrolled in the Grand Army of the Republic's Academy, and before she was through, Palpatine took over. As soon as she took up her first post, she saw how the new Empire actually operated! She also found out she was force sensitive, a condition punished by... -disappearing and never being heard from again, so she faked her death and ran.

The way you say Hauzer was making me laugh so much

The MILISECOND the Death Star blows up or maybe when Alderan got nuked. That is often marked as the TWO biggest moments the galaxy as a whole woke up.

In the nicest and most respectful way, you remind me of the groundhog from Winnie the Pooh

You had some live action film clips I didn’t recognize. I thought I’d seen every live action film. Edit: Oh! I bet those were video game clips!

What about Slick or the clone left to after attack of clones

could you please make a video about all the star war movies and series

I think i'd start thinking about going awol to some far away place after Alderaan and would join rebels after Yavin because they showed that they can win now

It’s weird that the battle of yavin started a new calendar year. Ya it was important to an extent but idk if other events weren’t equally as dire.

If I was an average member of the Imperial military like a navy crewman it would probably be extremely difficult for me to leave by myself. I think the best bet of someone defecting and getting away safely is through mutiny involving many people. Though I would like to leave after the news of Alderaan and the Death Star became public, the mutiny thing likely wouldn’t be possible until Operation Cinder

"New speeder smell." Ha!

Honestly these videos are great you have really enlightened me about how awful the empire is and how it ties into the real world keep it up Alan!

It depends, on whether we are talking about canon or fanon. Canon wise depending on where I was in the military would depend on whether or not I would defect or not. If on the planet Yaga Minor id probably live my entire life on it serving the empire if i could. Which in star wars was an average 120 years. If anything other than that probably would defect.

The fun thing about TIE Fighter the game, was it showed how to have an Imperial defector who was still an unquestionable bad guy. Harkov was a mercenary at heart who only defected because after Hoth, the Rebels were desperate for experienced officers, and Zaarin was planning a coup.

I was wondering about this, watching the clone wars and rebels shows. Thanks for answering the question of what if, because I got tired of doing it. I'd be part of the first group and would have taken the plans for the, super star destroyer from the first movie with me.

Father of Rebel SpecForce, General Airen Cracken (previously creator of Imperial Storm Commandos)

Ayyy l, i still remember saving Crux Madeen from Corellia right before the Capitol Building for blown up.

As much as I would like to postulate that I would defect early, in all likelihood, I would be too scared to defect before the last timeframe. The risk to the individual and their families was always looming and without the assurances that would later become apparent, it would be hard to rationalize defecting without a clear safety net. Who knows though, there could always be an instance where a situation pushes me to defect or I basically have no choice due to pressing dangers that loyalty couldn't fix.

What is Da Porr-pose of 'his Hid-E-O? From that first minute explained, strangely termed introduction.

Crix Madine doesn't get enough love I don't think, lol. His history is pretty sweet. He formed the Storm Commandos from the Stormtrooper legions in reaction to the guerrilla war the Rebellion was waging against the Empire. Basically fighting fire with fire. After the destruction of Alderaan he defected to the Rebellion where he formed the Special Operations units for them.

I need to see more of the non clone military members of the republic and *edit* early empire

You love referring that Lost Stars novel

Hmm, a concept explored in SW Squadrons.

Dude I was like "he said defecated instead of defected, FINE" then you said porpoises and I got the Bit.