I love this movie. I used to have nightmares from this movie, but not about the werewolf. I had nightmares from the nightmares of the main character. Yeah. Weird and awesome.

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Ancient Rome!!! And Star Wars…

Ok, hear me out. In Star Wars, the political system was a republic of free planets. These free planets talked over issues, tried to resolve them through debate, and then they would vote on the issues. We see this in The Phantom Menace and they reference this political framework throughout the rest of the films. The evil begins with the Emperor becoming a dictator and making the Senate pretty much useless. 

Ancient Rome began as a monarchy with a senate (the Latin origin of this word means an old man, men). The king would ask for advice but didn’t have to use it. After a couple of jerk kings, Rome became a Republic. Yeah, that’s right. A Republic.

The Senate would advise two men (consuls) who shared power for only a year at a time. This was to prevent one man from having too much power. Now there is a lot more to it than that. These were typically rich, aristocrats looking after their own interests and to hell with the poor. But this Republic, thanks to Julius Caesar, became an Empire, ruled by, you guessed it, an Emperor.

Interesting historical note: Julius Caesar was never an emperor. He maneuvered himself into the position of dictator for life. It was his successor, and the boy he had adopted, Gaius Octavius Thurnius, after a bitter fight with Marc Anthony, who became the first Emperor of Rome, turning Rome into an Empire. 

Did George Lucas model the Star Wars political universe, the main reason for antagonism, on the political system of Ancient Rome? I don’t know. But the similarities are striking.

Ancient Rome rules!

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