I think I'll tackle the big one, today. I'm in the right mood.
Emperor Primacron the 1st wrote:The Empire had one large weakness........Arrogence.
First, the empire, as I saw them in the SW films was pretty much a 'homosapian only club'. There might be alot of humans, but there's a heck of alot of other species out there.
A) Red herring. This isn't relevant to the discussion.
B)Isn't that what the Klingons called the Federation in ST 6?
C) They have good reasons to be arrogant. They control millions of star systems through military might. That's not exactly easy.
Second, they invest alot of resources into massive, giant super ships and monster stations like the Death Star, which the first 2 were blown away by first a farm boy, and pimp.
The first case was an oversight. The second was due to a MASSIVE, complex military operation.
Third, incompetent crews. They could not capture that pile of junk, falchon, and 2 or 3 star destroyers nearly slammed into each other in the process.....plus one of them were lost when they were stupid enough to go into an asteroid field. Takes more than an English accent to be a good crewman.
Aside from pointing out the incredible general incompetance of Starfleet in similar situations (that comes later),
the only person who thought the Falcon was a piece of junk was Luke. It was a dedicated smuggler ship. A smuggler can't last long if the authorities can catch him without effort.
And the fact that Stormstroopers can even hit a few guys 10 feet away with those guns ( it seems they don't even bother aiming ).
Except for those guys on the Tantive IV in the beginning of A New Hope. Or those soldiers on Hoth. Not that people in Star Trek ever miss. It's not like Worf ever misses targets, even WITH computer assistance, or gets out-shot by a barmaid. Oh, wait a second...
Makes me thing that some kinda replication drift occured between the end of the republic and the begining of the empire.
It doesn't matter. Last time I checked, Storm Troopers are NOT the same thing as Clone troopers. Thankfully, the prequels are not considered as altering this previously established fact. It bugged me a lot, too (not that clone troopers don't bug me to begin with...)
And the Jedi's are just as guilty of this. Palaptine, an insanely powerful Sith lord, was able to hide right under the Jedis' noses and no one even knew.
Plus the jedi sticking to really old, outdated principles ( One can't become a jedi after they hit the big one zero, or no loving relationships with other people. ) Qui-Gon, in my opinion, was the only sensible Jedi around, and personaly, the only Jedi I ever liked, since he did not have his nose up in the air like the rest of them.
No argument here. Lucas' Bacteria Jedi were worthless.
Of course, the Empire doesn't rely on them: the Emperor had them KILLED, after all.
Plus the Federation is not full of super beings or warriors with weird, gnarly powers they were born with, but just regular people using their brains, enginuity, and cleverness.
Which is why their warpcores explode when so much as tapped, their defensive systems are full of holes, and their transporters can be blocked by naturally occuring magnetic fields. How clever.
Fourth, the whole quality vs. quantity deal. It seems that everything and everyone, with exception to that crumbling old fossil of an emperor, are considered expendible. You loose a ship of 1,000 crew, another one will simply replace it. And those TIE, with exception of Vader's ( he was smart enough to know TIES were junk, so he made his own. ) are pretty much made from the same metals you make sardine tins with. Same thing where the Empire feels that killing their own officers when they mess up is a luxory they feel they can afford.
Realizing, of course, that they might just have the resource base to be able to do so? If I have an army of six trillion men, a thousand here or there is a drop in the bucket. If TIEs were made from sardine cans, their pilots would die from radiation exposure. Frankly, the fact that they can simply replace a ship with 1000 crew (ten times that of the first Enterprise) shows superior logistics, not a weakness.
While the Empire might have some superior technologies, they seem to lack others. The Stardestroyer weapons did not get the falchon, what's with that?
Lesse, shields and orders not to destroy it, maybe?
And it seems the even bigger ones can be downed with a destroyed bridge tower. Transporters for a start, and medical technology. When Worf got paralyzed, a new spinal column was able to be regenrated....plus with 7 of 9, I am sure the Federation were able to learn a heck of alot from the voyager's time in the delta quadrent, plus what kinda beatings the voyager itself took.
Firstly, that super star destroyer was already under heavy fire. Its shields were already down, among other things.
Secondly, transporters are worthlessly problematic. Again, magnetic fields, and even certain natural ores block them.
Lastly, if by media technology you mean holodecks, notice how often those things go haywire and lead to nearly fatal situations? Besides, who wins: The society with TV, or the society with nukes?
Also, the Federation itself is not an entity of war and domination, but of peace, exploration and diplomacy.
A) This is a military conflict. Against a larger, and vastly more powerful enemy. This just hurts their case.
B)Starfleet still makes up all of the feddies military in the 24th century. How peaceful.
The Empire just conquers and/or destroys. The Federation were able to hold against Klingons, Romulans, The Dominion, the Borg, the Xindi, and so on. The Empire could not even hold back against a band of rebels that were few and scattered. Plus the Federation has existed for well over 200 years, while the Empire lasted for maybe 20-25 years.
The rebels were not 'few and scattered'. In fact, they themselves could defeat the federation with the resources they possessed. Also, note how often repeated conflicts arose between the Feddies and the aforementioned races.
Further, note than in the literature, the Empire was nowhere NEAR dismantled by the death of the Emperor. Which shouldn't be expected, due to its size and structure.
The Empire is comparable to the third reich, which was supposed to last 1,000 years, only lasted about a decade.
Tyranny never seems to last, someone's always gonna get pissed off and not take it anymore. The Empire's idea of using fear as a weapon really skrewed them over in the end.
In a way, though you notice living conditions weren't any better under the Old Republic. Also, I would more closely examine the federations own value system before passing judgement on Feddie society. It's not as great as Picard makes it out to be.
So, yea, the Federation wins I say.
Besides, I think "Live long and prosper" and "to boldly go where no man has gone before" sound alot better than "May the force be with you" or "I have abad feeling about this".
And I'd feel more comfortable having Kirk or Picard in charge of a ship, rather than Osald or Needa.
Opinion, yeah. Logical arguement, not so much. Personally, I'm not a fan of any of 'em.
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