Episode Four of Star Wars opened with the gambit between the battle of Galactic Good against Galactic Evil. This movie would show the first tumble towards ultimate downfall of the Republic. The rise of the Galactic-Spanning Empire who would rule it’s citizens with a literal durasteel fist and a freaking planet-destroying space station begins with The Phantom Menace. The climax of the universal battle between good and evil...
This wasn’t George Lucas’ most popular creative decision. The political scenes made for a very anti-climatic spark for a Galactic-spanning war between the Ultimate Forces of Good and the Ultimate Forces of Evil. Lord of the Rings, even Harry Potter’s big conflicts started with more overtly sinister beginnings: cursed objects and people who believe their blood to be superior to any others.
Yet George Lucas is surely having the last laugh now. Those oh so silly tariffs and boring politics he was derided for turned out to be less worthy of sleeping through and more important than we thought watching on the big (or small) screen over twenty five years ago. The rise of the current US administration is in part because of tariffs: both promises of them and threats of them. Just as Palpatine took advantage of the fear and uncertainty generated by the consequences of tariffs to tighten his grip on the galaxy, so too is the current administration doing the same to tighten its iron fist on the world.
""The Trade Federation’s own rapacious desire for profit over all else – and the deal that they do with the Dark Side, despite their own unease – feels worryingly similar to how the CEOs of Amazon, Meta and Google have all bent the knee to the Trump Administration. The increasing political power of the Trade Federation, and the way that they have stymied the Galactic Senate, brings to mind the way that the legislative arm of the United States has been hollowed out by lobbying and neutered by the richest and most online man in the world.""Jack Bernhardt
George Lucas has successfully drawn frightening parallels to our current situation in The Phantom Menace. If he could predict our course in the first of the Prequel movies, what does that mean for our future? While I doubt anyone has a hidden clone army meticulously trained for the past ten years or a robot army waiting in the wings, wars are an excellent way for authoritarian governments to convince people that giving up their rights really does make them safer. Already US President Donald Trump has spoken of war. George Lucas' Prequels Trilogy drew influence from the politics of its day and history has a disturbing trend of repeating itself.
Are we looking at an orchestrated conflict to gain more power than any leader has before? A Sith Empire rose from the ashes of the Republic. Could a similar fascist Empire rise from the ashes of the United States of America?