The empire has good intentions, questionable methods and that is largely down to the leadership the Way I think about is the same as WW2 The Germans: Generally the Troops where cought between a rock and hard place... fighting becuase they were forced to, misguided sence of patriotisim or naively believed their leaders. The Nazi Party however was where evil bred. So the Axis forces where not evil, the average German troop was probably no different to the person he was trying to kill The Allies: Fighting for the Freedom of the world, an easy thing to say and make history when you won. The average solidier as pointed out above was no different to the person in the opposite trench... But theei leaders were not squeeky clean, Churchill let hundreds if not thousands of innocent british civilians die when the Luftwaffer attacked some city in the north of England (think it was norwich), he knew about it because of the Engima machines code was broken, but didn;t want to tip the hat to the germans. Also, in retaliation to that and London bombing the RAF carpet bombed Drezden, a city mostly made of Wood on the far east of Germany that burnt to the ground. It had not been bombed during the war because it had no military significane, then miraculiosuly they found some significance to bomb it. History however questions their motives. So here you have a seemingly good vs evil battle... where both sides commited great acts of compasion and gruesome acts of cruelty. One should always remeber history is written by the victor, which is inveriably the Republic. I personally prefer the empire. The republic is weak. Nothing showed this more than when the Empire/Sith returned, and the Republic instantly fell apart, each planet looking out for its own interests and unable to work together to stop the sith attack. Ideals are great, but conviction is where it lays, and the Jedi, Sith and Empire have it, the Republic do not. Also I know some may point out that he Jedi don't lead the republic, but they do fight for the peace. And Peace kept without emotions such as compassion is as inflexible as the Empires rule would be.