Has anyone else considered how incredibly hilarious it is that, in the first episode of Rebels, they establish the Empire as villains by having two Imperial officers harass a man for selling food without a licence?
Like, yes, by all means, Aresko and Grint were being total dickheads and could have handled the situation way better. It was an obvious display of gross corruption and power playing over a farmer who’s just trying to make a living, but the main focus was on the fact that he needed a licence in order to trade things. It was showing that the Empire was trying to enforce control over everyone – even by forcing farmers to get a licence to sell their crops!! How evil and monstrous!!
……..Except literally every first world country requires that you have a license to set up a stall/shop and sell things? Especially with food? Like, of course you need a license to sell food. Food need to be regulated to make sure it won’t, y’know, kill anyone? And it also needs regulations to make sure it isn’t getting sold at ludicrous prices? Price gauging – it’s a thing, and I have no doubts there were some pretty awful examples of it during, for example, the Clone Wars, where on Lothal there was a drought and a plague that was destroying all of its crops and killing all the wildlife and it’s heavily implied that a lot of people died during this time due to starvation.
Like maybe if they established that it was really expensive to get a license or something I would have understood, but they don’t? So all I can assume is that you just gotta go to an Imperial office and purchase a simple piece of paper? And, in that day and age, on a planet with such a small population, with droids that can run multiple calculations per minute, I find it very hard to believe that he’d have to spend multiple hours acquiring such a license? Like??
But nnnooo, regulating trade you guys,, it’s just,, pure evil,, wow,, I cannot believe the Empire for such a terrible thing,, gosh
Honestly, sometimes star wars just portrays the rebels as the most immature, short-sighted people. Like, “Fuck the establishment!” and then they kill Sidious and it’s like “Now what?”. I mean no wonder Thrawn almost won in the original trilogy. They were all out for themselves and hating on the rules. Like maybe systemic oppression is bad, but you really do need to regulate things people.
The kind of discussions I effing love. I have nothing to contribute. This is perfect. @imperialgradients and @cystemic pretty much sums up why I deflected from the rebellion LOL
Because it happens in real world?? Yes, you’ll need a license to sell foods, but usually the “empire” is abusing their power so it is very relatable?
Heck, a riot did happen in Taiwan because a police man forced a vender away. Things went south and became a nation-wide riot. This is a huge scar in our history (both the government and the people killed a lots of unrelated people, and it became a racial confrontation, which is too complicate to write here) So, the scene in Rebels perfectly showed how the Empire is a dictatorship and how the people are constantly harassed in every small aspect of their lives and are tired of it.
And you can see this kind of bullying from the “city keeper” to common venders in China everyday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyTbZJFZvTEThe venders can be annoying, but the “city keepers” are supposed to be professional (there’re worse video but most of them were censored by China)
So yeah, harassing small venders is what a typical tyrannic government does because the dictator gives the police/military the power to abuse common citizen over small things and the people can’t even make a complaint.
To be honest, the actual crime the farmer got in real trouble for was treason. We never got to see how Aresko and Grint would have treated that farmer dude if it were to only be an issue with selling food without a permit, as farmer dude started complaining about the Empire and was hauled in for “treason.” Which is of course another matter.
I get what you’re saying, @eabevella but enforcing regulations does not define a totalitarian regime. It’s the type of regulation.
Enforcing standards of selling goods? Good regulation.
Enforcing standards that limit free speech? Now that’s more totalitarian.
Military should not be involved in regulating a simple food market. It is either run by the local community or the city hall depending on the scale. It’s like… US soldiers won’t be seen walking in
the Quincy
Market with guns and arresting shop owner who doesn’t renew their shop license. That would be insane. Those civil regulation should be enforced by the food safety department, and if some serious food-related crime was involved (like using fake materials or mass food poisoning), the government will issue a formal warrant to inspect and arrest the shop owner by the police if necessary. What’s shown in Rebels is not what a normal government should do. Back in our dictatorship period, every one needs to get permit to sell (a limited, approved list of) stuffs because we were under war curfew and the military-based government wanted to control/monitor the citizen’s income and business because it is a new government that just took over from the old one and there were many people who were unsatisfied about it. It’s never about setting better regulations but enforcing a tight control over the people and the economy through regulation. And they can arrest you whenever they want with whatever little excuse they made out of the regulation. Yes, proper regulation about people’s affairs is good, but civilian regulation enforced by military force (or military-like police force) is totally not. We who’ve been through dictatorship can smell it even though it’s shown in a comedic way. It’s “haha, I’m glad we don’t live like that anymore.” not “haha, I wonder how bad can that be.”
PS: Back in the days we did get to be “disappeared” or charged with treason if we mouth off
the government, just like that farmer in the first episode and the bar owner in season 4.
Especially the bar owner. I knew he’d be dead dissing that imperial. That’s a nice touch.
A Force Sensitive Phasesixer 