Star Wars: Is the Emperor Good or Bad?

[Taem]

I'm doing it. I'm invoking Goodwin's Law. OK I guess someone else gets to invoke it after my post. But whatever. :)

The Emperor = Hitler. Sure if you want to be analytical about it Hitler started some public works projects that were great for the country and if the evil rebel alliance hadn't stopped the wonderful axis powers led by Emperor Hitler and Darth Mussolini (or whichever Japanese leader you want to be Vader) his grand vision of a unified Nazi world may have actually gone down in history as a great hero and unifier despite the racial genocide. I'm not going to make all the analogies and comparisons you can find them on the net if you like this is not original thinking by me and I think some of them are pretty obvious.

Most people still think Hitler was evil and many would have thought that even if he had won and if in 2058 (I'm giving it more than 100 years after the war that would have taken a bit longer than it actually did I figure) Earth was ruled by a world government and there was no war it was because Hitler took of the world. I'm not going to bite that the emperor was anything but evil and that his motives were all selfish and evil as well.

Of course my wife and I have had *this* exact argument before also stemming from our Star Wars argument and my response is as follows: Everything the emperor did, he did to strengthen his grip on his empire, not just senseless killing for sport; 1) He killed the Jedi because he knew they were the only force in the universe capable of stopping him, 2) He orchestrated the death of the trade federation leaders because he knew without their support (which he did not have in the end), he would not have half the galaxy, 3) He OK'd the destruction of Alderion because not only was Alderion most likely sympathetic to the Rebel cause, but it was probable the Rebel base was on that planet also.

Now Hitler was insane, performing acts of senseless killing never before accomplished on this Earth before. He reasoning? A mute religious based one out of the highly symbolic Revelations chapter, but was this really his motivation for conquering the world? His actions dictate the authority of a mad-man without cause or purpose other than wanton destruction and brain washing. I don't see the Emperor altering history laws or performing strange surgeries on peoples brains to see if they could make some sort of super soldiers. Palpatine and Hitler share nothing in common save for their desire to conquer.