Legend of the Galactic Fascists

Lindsay Ellis just did a video on the ideology of the First Order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAVeyXwy3BE

Right from the title it had me thinking of my own attempt to deconstruct Star Wars vilification of Fascism back in late 2016.
http://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2016/12/star-wars-is-about-fascism-but-is-it-so.html

Lindsay's point much more so then mine was on the ideological vagueness of The Empire/First Order.  And considers that maybe that's the point, real world Fascism is often pretty Vague, or at least we like to define it vaguely, some would argue Mussolini did have more of a philosophy then Lindsay's source gives him credit for.  But that's not an argument I want to have here.

The thing is, I can't help but feel that even with that excuse for the lack of well defined in depth ideology there is still and always has been a key element of Fascism missing from Star Wars.  Even in the Prequels which I like to praise as being more thought out then the rest of it.

Legend of The Galactic Heroes is an Anime franchise I'd been hearing about for awhile before the Reboot allowed me an easy way to start actually consuming the story.  And every glance I got had me going "well that's sure trying to be Anime Star Wars".  (Gundam is also called the Star Wars of Japan, but I've come to genuinely think of Gundam as more analogous to Star Trek.)  In Digibro's old video about Strong Presentation in Anime he talks about how it used Classical Music, and that was exactly why Lucas hired John Williams.

But now that I'm actually watching a version of it.  I feel this very issue is what it's doing better then Star Wars did.

Episode 4 features characters on the Republic side talking about how the first Emperor rose to power.  And that might have been more profound to me if it didn't feel so overplayed, it's easy for me to imagine what that may have looked like, I saw it in Revenge of The Sith.

But then in Episode 5 we suddenly see Fascist tendencies in the Republic, on the side we would have assumed up to this point were the good guys.  The tension caused by our main character refusing to stand was one thing.  The really import event later in the episode was this image.

It looks kind of like the KKK doesn't it, but this group is analogous to a lot of things.

One important thing Folding Ideas video on Triumph of The Will emphasizes was that the massive "army" of Nazis in that film were NOT the official sanctioned Army of Germany, at least not yet.  Even before Hitler was appointed Chancellor this "army" existed acting like a vigilante Mob in the streets harassing Jews and others.  This was pointed out in a recent Albert Einstein biography.

And that's what makes the violent behavior at Trump rallies back during the election so relevant.

This is why the Superhero genre has long been plagued with Fascist implications.  The Graphic Novel of Watchmen features an in universe article from the conservative magazine Rorschach reads comparing Superheroes to the Vigilante activities of the KKK with the intent of defending both.  Another little known fact about the Klan, they actively tried to help enforce Prohibition during the 20s.

Of course what this episode did is bound to make some American Liberals and Leftists uncomfortable, because it associated Fascists with those wanting War with the foreign totalitarian state, not those who think all the Bloodshed isn't worth it.  The people who are usually the most Anti-War people in America will still look at the 30s and 40s and see anyone opposing War with Nazi Germany as Nazi sympathizers and thus bigots.  But the truth is, the actual KKK were the earliest and most hawkish of America's anti-Nazi War Mongers in 1939.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/14/confederate-flags-and-nazi-swastikas-together-thats-new-heres-what-it-means/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.962c401829a9

One of the pillars of Fascism is Nationalism.  And that is why no, it's not absurd to depict Fascists as in conflict with each other.  Mussolini personally hated Hitler.  And many of the same OSS agents who fought Nazi Germany wound up working with European Fascists against the USSR (and other Communists/Socialists) during the Cold War.  And that's why I actually would like to see a good story exploring the Fascist implications of the Captain America character and am sick of seeing it written off by "he punched Hitler", but I don't trust any of these in continuity Marvel gimmicks to do it well.

Back to the main topic.  This is what is missing from attempts to make The Empire or First Order like Fascists in Star Wars.  The Storm Troopers of Star Wars whether they're manufactured Clones or brainwashed child soldiers are not what they were named after, the actual Storm Troopers and Brownshirts were volunteers from among ordinary citizens, not unlike the KKK.

As I've said before, in Audio Commentaries George Lucas talks more about Napoleon III then Hitler or Mussolini.  That makes a huge difference.  Hitler and Trump never had real popular support, Hitler actually lost his election, and Trump failed to win the popular vote, and even the person with more votes then him couldn't get over 50%, and the Election itself had a very low turn out.  Napoleon III didn't need goons acting like terrorists because he really was Popular, he got 75% of the Vote in an Election with 75% turn out among those eligible to vote, America hasn't seen a turn out like that in ages.  I highly recommend Mike Duncan's Revolutions Podcast's episode on Napoleon III's 1848 Election.