[Tristis]

I'll address the name of the good race The Skralh Empire. As we have been conditioned when saying "name" Empire usually means that these are the bad guys. I know it is your story and concept but blame Lucas and history for that matter. Galatic Empire=evil, Roman Empire=evil, British empire=evil.

What does all those empires have in common they conquer and made slaves of nations and in the Empire from SW case the whole darn galaxy.

Evil, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. ;)

I like stories where none of the populations as a whole are good or evil and heroes and villains are people with parents who disapprove of their life-choices. :D

[JunkMonkey]

I'll address the name of the good race The Skralh Empire. As we have been conditioned when saying "name" Empire usually means that these are the bad guys. I know it is your story and concept but blame Lucas and history for that matter. Galatic Empire=evil, Roman Empire=evil, British empire=evil.

What does all those empires have in common they conquer and made slaves of nations and in the Empire from SW case the whole darn galaxy.

Whoa! Wait a minute. An empire is automatically evil? (I notice you didn't include the Holy Roman Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire) in your list ) Empires may be politically unfashionable but evil? Only through the blinkers of a modern western Nation State viewpoint could ALL empires be simplistically described as 'evil'.

And it depends where you stand too. On your side of the Atlantic you may have this British Empire = Evil knee-jerk reaction, but over here (Britain) that period of our history (and a very long period it was too) looks much more complex - and we live with the repercussions to this day.

[Tristis]

On your side of the Atlantic you may have this British Empire = Evil knee-jerk reaction...

<sigh> Now be geographically careful here. Some of this side of the Atlantic still flies your pretty flag. Being both Canadian and Irish, I see the British Empire through rather dappled lenses, myself.

[JunkMonkey]

<sigh> Now be geographically careful here. Some of this side of the Atlantic still flies your pretty flag. Being both Canadian and Irish, I see the British Empire through rather dappled lenses, myself.

I did say 'may' :-) but point taken.

[James Carmack]

(I notice you didn't include the Holy Roman Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire) in your list )

Maybe he's thinking of Voltaire's crack about it being "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."

While Willit can speak for himself, I think his point was less that the historical empires are necessarily evil, but that we are conditioned to equate empire with evil and that conditioning has affected FW's conjuration of the Lizzies' mindset.

I am also of the mind that empires are a mixed bag. Even the Galactic Empire wasn't all bad. By God, they kept the trains on time. ^o^