What would have happened if we DIDN'T fight the civil war? (split-off)

Quote: Wizard

I'm not sure if it the movies that changed or me.

You did.

The first three movies (Eps. IV, V and VI) are highly simple adventure stories without any deeper meaning. What made them unique, at the time, were the visual effects, the design of the ships and uniforms (including Darth Vader), the in-story living mythology, and the characters. Other than that, they're a perfect example of how a teenager thinks adults are like (especially in the dialogue).

The plots are extremely simplistic, reducing a complicated set of political and military factors to the destruction of one installation and the killing of one person. Lucas tried to get more depth in the prequels (Eps. I through III), but kept going off on tangents, to the point we're never sure who's fighting whom or for what, not to mention the nominal good guys employ living slave soldiers.

The characters are odd, because the central hero typically is a Disney type who has things happen to them, rather than one who shapes events. Consider Luke: 1) The droids with the Death Star plans and the message for Kenobi fall in his lap, 2) He's reluctant to go with Kenobi, but the Empire kills his family and destroys his farm and house, so he's free and even eager to leave, 3) Kenobi tells him he's a Jedi and trains him, 4) He does choose to rescue Leia and to join the attack on the Death Star, but in the latter he goes on the offensive only after the first wave fails, and then relies on Kenobi's ghost to tell him what to do. We see a similar progression, minus the training, with Rey in Ep. VII (she pretty much has a light sabre forced on her), and to a lesser extent with Jyn in Rogue One (Jyn begins to shape events after she views the message from her father).

The rest of the characters are more akin to free agents, though we never learn much about their motivations or ideas. Leia fights the Empire, fine. Why? Because she fights the Empire. And the same goes for the bad guys.

But Lucas was skilled, or lucky, and picked charismatic actors with a high cool factor (I think he got lucky in Ep. IV, since his latter picks in the prequels were nowhere as good). They were a big hit with audiences, and have remained so for almost 40 years.

Rogue One is the first adult SW movie, IMO. We see people talk about their motives and ideas, we see Galen face a no-win moral dilemma (he does the best he can, but there's no way he can emerge unscathed morally), we see Jyn decide a course for her life, and so on. We also get to see division and disagreement among the good guys (and the bad guys, too), and we finally get character conflicts to go with the adventure story.

We got some of this in Ep. VII, starting with Finn as a renegade Stormtrooper. but not nearly enough.

Quote:

and I've questioned whether the civil war was worth fighting over.

So you'd have been ok with a repressive proto-fascist regime neighboring your country for the past 150 years?

Quote: Nareed

So you'd have been ok with a repressive proto-fascist regime neighboring your country for the past 150 years?

The 11 states of the confederacy have about 1/3 population of the USA today and are a powerful economic force. But I think the Wiz is questioning if the country would have collapsed on it's own in the 1870's and been reabsorbed into the Union without a war.

Quote: Pacomartin

The 11 states of the confederacy have about 1/3 population of the USA today and are a powerful economic force. But I think the Wiz is questioning if the country would have collapsed on it's own in the 1870's and been reabsorbed into the Union without a war.

It depends on a lot of things. Chiefly among them whether the European powers would have recognized the CSA or not. Had Lincoln simply let them go, what would have stopped France and Britain from recognizing this new country? France would have had to, actually, in order to bolster their puppet in Mexico.

What you'd likely end up with would be more war later on.