11 Utterly Ludicrous Fan Theories (That Are Actually Quite Convincing)

2. The Emperor Wasn't Such A Bad Guy

The Theory: Another Star Wars theory, and this time relating to the motivations of the supposedly villainous Emperor. He was actually hugely misjudged, having envisaged his mass-armament of the Empire as a deterent for the coming Yuuzhan Vong Invasion that would happen some 25 years or so after the en of Return Of The Jedi. The Death Star was merely one of his chief defence mechanisms, which he used to suppress the Rebellion as a secondary concern. All of his evil-doing was a long-game strategy: the Senate was a mess and needed forceful leadership, and the Jedi weren't helping. Pro-activity would mean something had to be done, an the Emperor took the tough decision to prepare them for a real invasion the hard way.

The Proof: It all comes down to the Death Star - a weapon so unsuitable to taking out the Rebel Alliance (a force of no-fixed abode), that it failed and was taken out by a single Force-enhanced Rebel. The reason the Death Star featured that fatal design flaw was that it was never designed to take on such meager foe - it was a defence measure designed to take on the Yuuzhan Vong forces, who had the capability of quickly turning planets against their own systems, and who had control of giant worldships of their own.

The Emperor's plan ultimately failed because he misjudged a foe he didn't consider his primary enemies, and who he never sufficiently planned for. And without his hardened defensive strategy, the New Republic failed to save the galaxy and the nearly 365 trillion sentients who died during the invasion of the galaxy.