As evil as the empire seems in the first triology, I like how the expanded universe, and the films that came afterwards went on to show that from their point of view they weren't all that bad. Even if they were headed by the fictional embodiment of cackling evil, the rank and file just wanted order, and freedom from the fear of being captured as slaves for the Outer Rim or murdered by interplanetary cartels, which the previous Republic had ignored for political reasons.