How the Republic's most Noble Heroes so Easily Became the Empire's Worst Monsters 

Vader: "Admiral, evacuate that damaged Star Destroyer and ready my shuttle. I have a plan" Yularen: "I have the strangest sense of deja vu..."

Yularen would’ve fit so well in the rebellion. He was smart, had a heart and a respect for the Jedi. Imagine him telling Luke all about anakin’s tactics.

“From my point of view, the Jedi betrayed Yularen”

Rebels: You betrayed the Jedi to the Empire! Former Republic officers: I missed the part where that’s my problem

Its interesting how this plays into the overall theme of "from a certain point of view" in star wars. From the point of view of Imperial officers, their loyalty hasn't changed, nor has their character. They serve the government of the galaxy weather it calls itself Republic or Empire. If anything it is us as the audience who change our percieved alligence, first viewing the separatists as antagonists, then viewing the rebellion as heroes even though they were fighting for really similar things

It's always interesting to me how Tarkin didn't care as much as Yularen was when it came to the Jedi and Clones. Tarkin just wanted to do things his way, which the Jedi disagreed with, where, Yularen, understood that the Jedi where not capable of leading like he could.

1:20 Then there's Rahm Kota who formed his own militia within the Grand Army of the Republic after he refused to lead the Clone Troopers upon having a gut feeling to not trust them at all.

The problem with order that more often than not, it’s usually ruled by fear. Not to say that there shouldn’t be any order but there should always be a limit. As Jay Garrick said “Without limits, we become villains.”

'You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain…' - Mark Carrigan.

Yularen would be tearing his hair out if he found out his new boss was actually Anakin.

After hearing the quote from Mace Windu it makes me think about an alternate universe. What if Sheev was never a Sith and he never had a plan to kill off the Jedi. What if he still orchestrated the whole war and planned on uniting the galaxy under his rule. If he succeeded in such a mighty tasking, what would this look like for the Jedi operating in the Galactic Empire? How would their ideals be challenged? Would they move against their own beliefs to challenge the Emperor openly? Just a thought.

Yularen is the only one I can honestly say I think was good in some capacity. Screed, Romodi and especially the Tarkin bros were pure, Imperial-facist evil right from the get go.

I think you make some fantastic points in this vid. As I was watching, I also thought about the compositions of both sides in the Clone Wars. The Republic was strongly represented by humans. The most powerful voices were humans from the Core worlds. The clone army was exclusively human. Few of the individuals fighting and representing the Republic were alien, mostly just the Jedi generals. Conversely, the Separatist planets were mostly alien, and mostly in the Mid and especially Outer Rim. The leaders of the Separatist Council, like the Trade Federation, Commerce Guild, Banking Clan, etc. were all non-humans. Even the droids were modeled after insectoid species! These commanders, like Tarkin and Yularen, could already have been biased against aliens, and the fact that the Separatists were mostly non-human probably exacerbated those biases. Again, GREAT video!!

The fall of both The Republic and The Jedi Order is a long, long time coming; Palpatine is just the wind that blew the dying trees down

In a way, Sidious didn't just corrupt Anakin. He turned the entire Galaxy to the Dark Side.

1:10 Obi-Wan Kenobi in Clone Armor is awesome especially when he wears a helmet in the 2003 Clone Wars.

5:26 I can imagine Yularen's dismay whenever Generals Skywalker and Kenobi having to deal with Hondo Ohnaka every time.

Either you die a Hero or live long enough to become a Villain

An interesting spin on the Republic officers turned Imperial warlords and moffs

Horrifying, yes, but profoundly and experimentally beautiful, in a perverted sense, yesterday's heroes becoming today's villains. Also, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders sure are a trait of the Empire and other similar groups, huh? Guess they're nearly my kind of people. Nearly.

2:13 Admiral Yularen having to deal with General Anakin's crazy plans and work around it.

They never changed, our perspective of them did. Like with Eren Yeager in attack on Titan, fans ask where this vile monster was. It was always there, we didn't acknowledge them, they were our monsters on our side. But only when you look at them from the other side, as the enemy do u realize just how unadmirable they really are

That may make sense for Screed and Tarkin, but you can't tell me that Yularen didn't give it a second thought when he found out Dodonna defected. He may not have known him personally (idk) but I'm sure the info made its way to him.

When your greatest heroes become your greatest threats. Though yularen he's not really a villain but rather a man who's strong in his beliefs.

I'm not sure if there is a video by yourself or another Star Wars fan, but one thing I have always thought is the sheer horror of the war really damaged people. Anakin was affected by the fact that many saw the Clones as expendable biological robots - and that anger and love began his turn. I would say others who had simply been with the Republic's Judicial Fleet and were now engaged in battles where casualties quickly mounted into the thousands HAD to affect them. Not to mention the millions of civilians who died during the Clone Wars. Has anyone done a deep dive on the sheer shock to the Republic's culture such a brutal war must have created? And how much it FED the Dark Side, each day, every day. Fear, anger, hate ... all powerful fuel channeled by one very powerful Sith Lord.

An overlooked factor with the Empire is that it was much more brutal to its own than the Republic, what with the summary execution of officers. You see this with Captain Needa, who comes across as a decent and honorable man. A lesser example is possibly with Jerjerrod and his discomfort when ordered to fire on his own troops by the Empire. The thing with a regime like the Empire is that twists and deceives and manipulates and coerces and corrupts good men into doing its evil work.

Sometimes I wish Tarkin and Yulaaren got a final 'Oh crap' moment before he died instead of just being a footnote that he got blown up on the Death Star. Lego Star Wars did kinda do something like that for Tarkin though, which I always got a kick out of.

From a story telling standpoint, I feel this trivializes Palpatine organizing a war on both sides, and scaring the people with ever greater horrors of war to give up one freedom after another.

1:00 Aayla Secura: "Alright boys! Let's do this! LEEROY JENKINS!" Commander Bly: "Oh my God! The General ran in! Stick to the plan!"

I think Yularen was kind of stuck in a bind a bit. I think he wanted to do good things. But he probably wasn't as in the loop with all the sinister stuff the Empire did as a faction. Or If he did to an extent I think he also became a bit tired and broken from the clone wars because of how long it dragged on. He could be seen as a sell out in a sense. But Wars can be exhausting and even soul crushing at times especially pro longed ones like the Clone Wars. He probably didn't want to voice his opinions as much and cause problems for the Empire because it was the First time in the Galaxy had a decent amount of stability and order to it, after going through the clone wars . So he probably felt it was just easier to carry out his duties and show his expertise that he could offer the Empire. And by this point he was pretty much an old man out of his prime so he really didn't have the capacity or will to out right turn against the Empire if he saw stuff he didn't like. Having to justify to himself that these are evils that must be done for the greater good of the galaxy. But I think he probably would have been dealing with some internal guilt by turning a blind eye to the Empires worst crimes against humanity and other races. He probably just didn't have the same courage, stamina and Charisma that Paleon had, being able to walk a fine line with in the Empire which allowed him to survive the galactic civil war and broker peace with the newly restored republic. Which allowed Paleon to be seen as just a neutral commander during the Empires reign who just was doing his job . While not actively taking part in terrible things the Empire did Such as Grand Moff Tarkin, and various other commanders . But Yularen didn't have the ability to and with focusing on the ISB department in charge of capturing and or assassinating rebel leaders or other key figures that opposed the Empire. It could work against him he even If he had tried to defect the rebels wouldn't take him in because they would see that he was one the major commanders that over saw the empires counter insurgency department. That basically is responsible for the empires security and the causation of some many rebel leaders mysteriously disappearing or being killed off. He had some potential but he was stuck in a position I think that would have made him feel he had to just stay with Empire and ride things out until he official retires and then to extent he might feel he could explain his honest view of the Empire living on planet that isn't so heavily monitored and watched by the Empire for opposing political and ideological views if he was concerned about such things.

Reminds me of a quote I read once from Malcolm X, which I will paraphrase for this context: "The Republic differs from the Empire only in one way: the Republic is more deceitful than the Empire. Both want power, but the Republic is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Outer Rim's friend and benefactor."

Poor Admiral Yularen :( cool moustache though :D

The biggest exception is Pellaeon, who just felt the Empire was more safe than the Alliance’s methods. Any group needs safety and security for its people, and Pellaeon recognized that the Empire can offer that. Yularen and Tarkin’s primary motivation is their respectful loyalty to Palpatine, even if Yularen was a good man

I always saw that while the thoughts of 'order' were ,during the time of a Republic, an attempt to help against the criminal reaches of the Outer Rim, but the Empire just full on corrupted nearly everyone who served it. Very few Imperials kept any noble ideals at the end of the day, even fewer would go against the grain or try to change things from the inside. Admiral Yularen was in essence corrupted by these thoughts of Order, much like how many good men chose to follow fascist dictators. He kind of represented the likes of the average German Officer within Nazi Germany.

One thing I will mention, Lucas was anti-military. So it makes sense to his world view that Republic soldiers might stick with the empire. I'm sure that isn't the only reason, but the world view of the creator offers insight.

Yularen was actually a good guy. He did his best to do what was right

You'll find that one of the first and most important elements in any military is solidarity and devotion to the institution. Secondary is devotion to the national entity and duty in general. It is how and why decent men continue to serve horrid regimes. There is nothing special at all about the Imperial officers. They are no different from American, Russian, German, etc., professional soldiers. It takes A LOT to break those bonds of devotion.

Another men's hero is another's worst nighmare

You know I mentioned something about Yularen and a few other Republic Heroes becoming evil back in the Yularen video two weeks ago. So I feel honored to have that topic chosen for a video. And yet, I also feel insulted at the end when you said Yularen was never a good man, the other four you mentioned were quite obviously never good and pure evil. Also, videos like this make it hard for me to keep supporting the Republic. But then I remember I watched the Zygerrian arc for Clone Wars earlier today and how much good several Jedi(Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ashoka, Plo Koon), Clones(Rex, Wolfe, Cody), and even some Republic Officers(Admiral Coburn) did to save the Togrua's from slavery and it becomes easier to support the Repbulic again.

Yularen reminds me of Rommel. More of a military leader who had lukewarm opinions for politics but highly valued patriotism

I wonder what happened to that one admiral from the Boba Fett arc in the Clone Wars. Admiral Killian. It showed he had much respect for the Clone troopers, and obviously showed briefly that he had the same opinions about the Jedi like his peers. When Mace and Anakin ordered him and the crew to abandon ship when it was being sabotaged by Boba, Killian disobeyed their orders and chose to stay to set the Venator down on that moon to crash land. Even when he and the two other Clone troopers were captured, held hostage and Commander Ponds was executed to face Mace to meet Boba and Aura on their terms. Killian tried to reason with Boba and believed he was a good soldier when he couldn't bring himself to kill any of the hostages, he knew that this was not he wanted. He knew the kid had a conscience and was trying to help him make the right choice. In the end of that arc, Killian and the Clone Sergent were rescued and freed by Plo Koon and Ahsoka but wasn't seen again after that so far as I know. I would hate to think he was also on the first Death Star when it was destroyed. But by a long shot, if perhaps he survived the Clone Wars when the Republic transition to the Galactic Empire. Killian knew something wasn't right about Palpatine or his Empire, he grew his own conscience about what happened to the Republic, as well as the Jedi as is acting on the inside of the Imperieal Navy to get Intel to help the Rebel Alliance. But like I said, it's a long shot.

Its 1am right now 😂

it's because the republic was always the empire. if you are a separatist, fighting the republic then the republic changes it's name to the empire then nothing really changes for you. for some people the clone wars never ended.

I would really root for the Separatists this entire time. In fact, they should make the Clone Wars TV series this time from the Separatist perspective.

Geetsly's : Well, that got rather dark, but that's what you are here for right? Me : Indeed.

4:20-4:48: Say what you will about Windu, those words of his sure have a lot of merit. Makes you wonder how many well meaning yet altogether too simplistic and therefore inaccurate "slogans" we actually follow in real life without complaint?

This was a nicely informative video.

"Yularen's an Imperial now? But he was the narrator!"

I've seen many a madman throughout history, but Palpatine seemed like he had a good bit of common sense at first. The question that is begged, Why didn't Palpatine approach the Jedi with an olive branch of cooperation and coexistence? We've seen that the Jedi can work alongside the Sith toward a common goal without either of them having to compromise their principles. So why then bother with the insanity so readily shown in canon? One does wonder why do some really messed up stuff when in the long run there's much more to be gained by cooperation. Is shortsightedness truly that much of a problem for people?

Just enjoying life here in the Zakuul Empire, nothing bad could possibly happen here with our immortal emperor taking care of things.

Mace really was a fool in the end

I am just interested, why was the ISD Chimaera allowed to have a non-conventional paint scheme in the Imperial Navy?

I would honestly love a novel following Yularen and examining his justifications and self reflection on his situation, the galaxy, and what his thoughts were on the atrocities of the empire and the chaos of the separatist crisis and the rebellion

Also remember, just because Yularen respected Anakin, didn't mean that he didn't like him. I think Yularen didn't like the Jedi at all period. If so, it's not hard to see why. It's basically saying who made these closed off and narrow minded magical monks in charge all of a sudden who didn't even have the same experiences?

This question become easier to solve when you look at Lucas's interviews where he talked about the politics of Star Wars. OG trilogy was an anti-Vietnam story, with the Empire representing the US, and the Prequels were more or less a retelling of the dynamics that let Hitler rise from Chancellor to dictator. Fake assassination/terrorist attack as justification and all. They became villains the same way that the heroes of WW1 in France became the collaborating despots of WW2 era occupied France, or how the heroes of WW2 became the children murdering monsters of Korea: power is power, and people who value civility/loyalty will do whatever their office/position asks of them. Their boss changed, not their position, so they follow orders.

And that quote from mace shows exactly how far Mace and the jedi fell. Peace is ABSOLUTELY A LIE even in our world, humanity is NOT the only species that has wars, the perfect example of this is Gonbe Chimp war in Tanzania. Where two communities of chimps fought each other. Civilization DOES NOT breed peace, it only delays, stalls and ultimately makes conflicts worse. Mace in that one quote shows his loyalty to the republic, or as he sees it as, "the only civilization". The jedi were wrong.

Well done video. Your editing was perfectly synched to your script. I found it fascinating that so few saw through the veneer of the Republic before its fall. I read somewhere that even Palpatine himself said that the Republic was already an empire, just without the name change. Great display.

It's like the Romans, as Republic turned into Empire it was still Roman and the same people. It's not like they would join the barbarian enemies of Roman civilisation

Isn’t Admiral Yularen the Narrator?

Watching at 1:00am let’s go

Simple: the Jedi were the ones keeping them honest. With most of the Jedi gone, and the only Jedi Councilor on the Empire's payroll being Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, there was no one left keeping the admirals and generals from committing war crimes.

The sad truth is that these men were to easily swayed by the power that they were given, and this in turn made believe that every action that they make was for the betterment of all the Galaxy. The reason why they were good at their jobs was because of the limits of those powers they given during the time of the Republic, and this allowed them to think outside of the box and actually use their talents to achieve great feats of accomplishments, but the Empire remove all limits from those powers and this made men like Tarkin and Yuleran to go straight to the problem consequences be damn. In truth the Empire turn this great men into lazy and unimaginative people who sought to solve everything with overwhelming power, rather than a subtle or even logical solution for any problem.

One has to understand how these people witnessed all those corruption and chaos as the outer rim was at the mercy of a bunch of pirates and other criminals. The presence of an established military order would have been a welcomed sight.

Even if the Republic was inefficient and had problems, the Jedi and the few good senators at least tried to do good. They at least made the effort. Much of Galactic suffering during this time comes from negligence and good intentions going nowhere, not hatred and purposeful evils. Meanehile the Empire went out of their way to do evil things and did them ON PURPOSE, making Palpatine and any Imperials evil. And while many people in the galaxy couldn't access the few good Jedi and Senators, the imperial officers could. They saw the good in individual Jedi and how some of them really did embody the light side of the force. By turning their back on the Jedi,knowing what they were turning their back on, they share just as much responsibility as the Jedi goes for the rise of the empire. Because whatever situations brought them to the choice of staying or leaving, they stayed. They all had a choice. The guy that defected to the Rebels shows this well. They had a choice. And they made their choice. And so they, and the Empire, deserve to be called evil, because that is what they chose to be.

Yularen: "tengo que llegar a fin de mes"

I just have to say, the addition of a decent music lick in the background is great. Idk if this is new or I just never noticed it before, but it totally keeps me listening to the narrator. when I'm watching these vidoes whilst doing other things.

Never thought of it that way. Thanks for this point of view.

2:30 - That is Thrawn, not Palleon. Thrawn never even was a Republic officer. And to those who don't know, Palleon was human xd.

Yularen became popular because they had him narrate all the documentaries.

Good people can't make the hard decisions and sometimes that makes you worse than any enemy could ever hope to be.

If these "Republic heroes" existed during the time of the Great Galactic War and the Cold War during the Old Republic, which side would they prefer to serve? Can anyone please answer me this question because both sides have good potentials for them.

“Uppity Rimmer”……. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I wonder what Yularen's thoughts on the Death Star and destruction of Alderaan were?

I like how you said Captain Pellaeon but showed Thrawn. I wonder how many people caught that?

As a Separatist, I've seen these men for the monsters they really are for a long time now. Power to the Rim! Power to the people! Down with authoritarians!

It's quite common for people in the military to have an attitude of serving their country regardless of what it does. You don't become a successful career soldier without a certain degree of patriotism, as otherwise you probably wouldn't be in a profession where you're expected to be willing to die for your country, but the downside of that is that it's easy to become blinded to any negative things your country does or consider them to not be your concern as your duty is to fight for the good of your nation regardless of what you personally think of the man in charge. "Politicians do politicing, the navy fights" said grand admiral Raeder, a man who over his career served in three navies under very different governments (the Imperial German Navy, the Weimar Republic Navy, and the Nazi Kriegsmarine). There were probably a lot of people like that in the Grand Army of the Republic, who simply kept serving in the Imperial Army and Navy because as far as they were concerned the army/navy was the army/navy regardless of what the government was calling itself, and never questioned their orders because they didn't think it was their business to do anything but carry them out regardless of their morality. Sadly, thats how a lot of evil ends up being carried out: by people who, even if not evil themselves, still end up carrying out atrocities because they were ordered to and didn't consider it their place to oppose orders.

The Senate was the Republic’s and Empire’s most noble hero.

Brief explanation, they were never evil or good, they were officers that they did what it was needed to win and defeat the rebels for being a "desorganized and rebellous chaotic group" that needs to be dealt with no matter what

I hadn't thought of that good job

This is similar to something my great great grandmother lived through. She was born and lived in Germany until 1945 and grew up in Imperial Germany. These people you have listed are just like the people she knew that were heros for Imperial Germany that became some of the worst people that gave the orders in Facist Germany in WW2. I think her quote best served the times well when you boil the events down. "It was the Imperials that made the nazi's and enabled them with there desire to go back to the "golden age" they grew up with and eventually consumed them, tarnishing there past forever. Those like me are the last relics of the empire and when we are gone, the empire will be gone as well, notes in history books, nothing more."

I feel like it’s hard for my view on these characters to have changed since all these characters came into my consciousness as Imperials and only later do you see them as “Republic Heroes.” I think the item is that “heroes” are in the eye of the beholder. To your point, nothing really changes for these individuals. To them, the Empire provided the freedom for them to unilaterally fix what they saw as broken. Someone like Tarkin who was not a traditional Core elite, it’s easy to see how he could see the benefits of the Empire even if he wasn’t one of the leading people shaping it. If him and his brother’s roles were reversed or he’d never got involved with Palpatine, he’d still likely support the Empire because of his world view. I think what’s interesting are the characters that served the Republic and then later the Rebellion. It’s easy to say they’re doing what’s right, but before the bad things became overt, many of them were still complicit in propping up a corrupt system they themselves knew was bad and only wanted to dismantle it when the mask was pulled off. Now those individuals I think provide an interesting case study. Particularly when you think about how many of them fought the Separatists to then turn around and effectively be doing the same thing as Rebels.

That kinda does explain why q lot of the admires who we like in the clone wars stayed with the empire without any doubts

"Republic, empire what is the difference ?" Crosshair,19 bby.

I always thought of them as a-holes you just proved me right. For the rebellion!!! May the force be with you

We always knew tarkin would turn out as an asshole, our first exposure to him was in a new hope, his character was based around that even in the clone wars, but yularen? He was new and original, we had no idea he'd turn out to be an imperial, That was heart breaking

Sometimes I wonder hen it comes to Yularen I wonder if he ever remembered Rex. Because if I can recall correctly there’s an episode in revels we’re Rex and Kanan are in ship And do Is Yularen. Yularen ends up seeing Rex and Kanan as the run threw the hanger bay. It looked as if he was surprised to see him but I don’t know if he recognize him or not. If anyone has some context on this I would love to know.

Unwavering loyalty can bring the noblest men to follow their leaders in any direction.

I feel you should of mentioned the fact that many did also not a feasable choice or alternative to do the most good in the drastic change like yularen does not have the luxury of going to the rebellion when he has a whole house and familly that is supported by his deeds and he knows corruption when he sees it so he stays his tongue and does what he has to do remember that comic where thrawn let the famillies of rebels go and Yularen confronted him and thrawn said innocents would die for the sake of fighting inconsequential rebels and Yularen said yeah thats pretty alright

In numerous ways people were deceived by the lies of Palpatine and his empire, but in other ways the empire allowed some to do what they always wanted to do under the republic, or at least it corrupted/twisted those desires.

Great video

The empire is the republic. Nothing changed.

This movie is nice but it's missing one of the most important aspect of Palpatine. Palpatine was like Vulture that picked upon People's fears, desires, dreams, and believe, and he could twist and warp them to serve his needs, and fulfill his agenda. It didn't matter whetever they were heroes, as Dooku before his fall, and Yularen or villains like Maul and Tarkin. By giving them what they want, by letting they see what they wanted to see, he was taking control over their hearts minds and souls to serve his needs. That was the pinnacle of his evil, that he could ensnare them both to serve his needs

Big kudos for legends material

It's the horrifying reality of warfare as both The Rebellion/Republic and Imperial Empire that Palpatine formed behind the scenes shadow style during the War with Jedi, Clones, Separatists, Droids and Sith was just a plan to leave the inhabitants of The Galaxy in a state of confusion and servitude. Tarkin was straight Evil as an Imperial Admiral but Yularen was an honorable man on the wrong side of the war.

"Dude I have a mortgage to think about."

was there a segment of the mandalorian that talked about how the outer rim had better infrastructure and lower unemployment rate under the empire compared to both the republic and the new republic

Hopefully we see some of this in Andor.

Yularen-intentionally written this way or not-is a clear analogue to your average Prussian Wehrmacht officer. So many of them went along with Shitler even when they didn’t outright agree with him because order and discipline of the chain of command was their highest virtue. Hitler was making Germany great again, the military benefited from the exponentially expanded budge, and until about 1943 they were (apparently) winning. Like Yularen, many of them were personally appealing characters who seemed inexplicably capable of, at best, allowing atrocities to happen (when they didn’t directly take part). That’s part of the myth of Rommel and a few others-how can such apparently chivalrous, honorable men willingly fight for a monstrous cause? But like Kreia said: it’s a tragic thing to fall and even far more terrible to admit it; it’s one thing to become evil, but nigh-impossible to recognize that fall within yourself, for to face the evil you’ve done unto innocents seems a far greater burden than continuing to inflict.

So pretty much those guys were never heroes to begin with just lawful evil fighting chaotic evil due to circumstances. Once the clone wars was over and the Republic changed to the Empire everyone saw them for the lawful evil that they are.

Rip Geetsly’s Gmod so called “Gaming Network”, we the happy few miss u always.