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Comment by strictnein | Hacker News Reader

All of this "Empire as the good guy" stuff started out as amusing, but I'm starting to agree with it. One of my favorite takes:

"How to Talk About Star Wars at Thanksgiving With Your Ignorant, Rebellion-Backing Uncle"

http://freebeacon.com/blog/pilgrims-were-the-original-rebels...

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Don't stop with Star Wars. Just about every morality play can be analyzed this way. It's a trope that goes all the way back to antiquity. It's one of the first things I think about when I watch such a movie. Is this political order really something that needs to be destroyed? My answer winds up almost always being 'no'.

My favorite is this treatment of The Dark Knight:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/3insgr/joker_i...

I enjoyed the otherwise-awful movie The Seventh Son because of the playfulness they take with world-building. The heroes and their quests all wind up being a part of the broader political structures of the world rather than those structures being the stakes. I like it when the very plot doesn't take itself seriously.

Saw someone bat around the idea of Ursula being the good side in The Little Mermaid. Strong independent female fighting against the two patriarchal monarchies, etc etc.

It's kind of funny, but my first introduction to the Star Wars franchise was the TIE Fighter game. I really thought Empire was the good guys that fight terrorists. Even today, after learning the truth, I still prefer Empire and "peace and order throughout the galaxy".

Yeah, I could definitely see that. Great game too. Wish they could somehow recreate that magic.

Similar treatment for LOTR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer

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