The Star Wars franchise presents a narrative in which the Skywalkers disrupt an evil empire. The reality is Luke and his family have done nothing but destabilize an empire that brought peace to a troubled, war-torn galaxy.

In “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace” the audience is introduced to the Trade Federation, who created a blockade of the planet of Naboo to conduct untaxed business in 32 BBY. They were able to do this because of their standing droid army.

This debacle was at the fault of Finis Valorum, former Supreme Chancellor, whose weak-handed approach with the Trade Federation led to the Republic’s inability to prevent the Trade Federation’s occupation of the planet Naboo.

This event led the Senate to hold a vote of no confidence in Valorum. The senate elected Sheev Palpatine, to replace him as Supreme Chancellor.

Palpatine was an elected leader.

In 25 BBY, The Galactic Republic went to war with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. General Grievous led its droid army all for the benefit of the Trade Federation, all in the sake of paying less taxes.

Count Dooku, head of state for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, attempts to use the guise of corruption to further the goal of the Trade Federation.

Senator Palpatine, knowing the security of the state is most important, created the clone army years prior to the Clone Wars.

This exemplifies Palpatine’s great leadership. He knew if a Republic were to stand, it would need a way to defend itself.

And as we see in the Clone Wars, his thoughts were right and the clones ended up becoming the front line of the war. A war that could not have been won without his clone army.

The Jedi Order, like Valorum, was too weak to do anything but put on a façade of defense. There’s no denying they helped bring an end to General Grievous but the war would have still been won without them.

Inevitably, we see the Jedi Order dissolved because of their lack of ability to prevent the Naboo Crisis and how little they played in the war efforts. This led to the Jedi Order’s betrayal of the Republic.

Palpatine’s mission then became to eliminate the terrorist Jedis who previously made an attempt at his life.

In “Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope” begins with Princess Leia, a rebel spy, under attack. If you remember closely she went through restricted space and was caught having communications with Rebels.

She was talking to a rebel faction. Of course, she would be attacked by the Galactic Empire. She posed a security risk to the Empire.

A Skywalker fighting the stable Empire. This ends up becoming a pattern in the family that intends to destroy an elected regime.

A new hope presents to us the destruction of the Death Star as a positive, but again, don’t forget that the regime was put into power with an election.

We, the audience, are groomed to think of their military prowess as negative. But again, it’s only with the military prowess that they were able to defend themselves from the droid army of the Trade Federation and Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Ever since his election, Palpatine has only attempted to unify the galaxy. He has the right to fight the rebels who seek to destabilize his unified empire.

He is right to fight the Jedi, whose Grand Master Yoda attempted to assassinate him. Master of the Order, Jedi Council and Jedi Masters have all attempted to assassinate him.

The Death Star’s destruction was an easy military calculation. The first Death Star housed more than a million persons on it and more than 200,000 civilians. War is war but this decision wasn’t one supported by a democratic process but a rebel group.

And those millions of deaths were all at the hands of one man; Luke Skywalker killed 1.2 million people with the destruction of the Death Star.

In episode six, “Return of the Jedi,” we see that Darth Vader ultimately ends up betraying Palpatine. Another Skywalker attacking the Empire, the blood lust of this family knows no bounds.

The Skywalkers have killed millions, committed treason, committed acts of terror and destabilized an empire.

I know what you’re thinking, at least the galaxy is better without Palpatine. It’s not. The Republic that came to replace the empire has become so weak. The same kind of weak they were before Palpatine.

A Republic was so weak and ineffective that it has led to a power vacuum in the last trilogy.

Palpatine was the only thing that held a war-torn galaxy together.