Which Empire To Root For?

So I'm reading The Two Towers and it got me in a big LOTR mood. Now I do have a tendency to side with the bad guys in settings and LOTR is no exception, but the trope namer of Rooting for the Empire, the Galactic Empire of Star Wars, never appealed to me. They seemed not only cartoonishly evil, but incompetent. I saw nothing in them that would be alluring.

Now M Ordor isn't so bad, even if it appears worse on the surface. The movies did kinda smurf up some parts by constantly talking about the "Age of Man" coming to an end and constantly portraying every battle as monsters vs. poor humanity. Men have served Dark Lords since the beginning and they aren't doing it so orcs can have better lives.

Anyway, the question. Given only two bad choices, who would you rather side with and why? The Dark Lord Sauron or Emperor Palpatine?

Sauron is much more terrifying than Palpatine, and so are his minions. The Mouth of Sauron? Are you kidding me? Take one look at the guy and squeak out a "I surrender!" if you can. That thing would render me paralyzed if I were to see it in real life. And the Nazgul and the Witch-king of Angmar, jesus christ.

Sauron seeks to enslave all to do submit to his will. This trait is not uncommon with antagonists and thus is not a special one specific to Sauron alone, but the subject of who his minions are, what they are capable of and how loyal they are to him are what make him that much more frightening. Each and every being that comes in contact with Sauron to do his bidding is an extension of himself, making him even more more threatening as an enemy. He is literally an evil force personified that the good people of Middle Earth are working so hard to keep at bay.

As for his resume -

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In the First Age, Sauron was the Lieutenant of Morgoth. That's more or less like being Satan's right-hand-man. You don't get or hold a job like that without doing some pretty foul things. Sauron had some nicknames back then, e.g. Gorthaur the Cruel, Lord of Werewolves. Among his notable actions at this time were his nearly-successful attempt to kill all the Men of the House of Beor (which gave us Beren, and eventually Elrond and for that matter all the Dunedain).

In the Second Age, Sauron decided the world needed a Dark Lord, and since his old boss was cast into the Void outside of time, it fell to him to take up the reins. Or reigns, if you prefer. So he took Mordor and turned it into a vast breeding-ground for orcs. Meanwhile, using a disguise, Sauron lied to and corrupted the ring-wrights of Eregion, and nearly captured and enslaved the leaders of the elves. They found out his plans before he was able to catch the elves though. So since deceit was out, he assaulted and completely eradicated the Noldo kingdom of Eregion. That one was called the "War of the Elves and Sauron". Sauron slew Celebrimbor and took the Nine and the Seven Rings of Power for his own purposes. Feelings were hurt; elves can hold grudges for a LONG time. And, ok, the whole business with the cursed Rings of Power for Men and Dwarves didn't make him any friends, either.

At the end of the Second Age, Sauron lied to and corrupted the Numenorians, leading to their fall. Well, not just their fall, so much as the sinking of their whole island and the eradication of their civilization.

In the Third Age, there was - still - this lovely old forest called Greenwood the Great, which once covered most of northwestern Middle-earth. Sauron made himself a nice little fortress in the southern part of the woods, and his corruption and decay quickly spread. Now that forest is called Mirkwood.

Throughout the Third Age, Sauron's chief lieutenant, the Witch-king, continually assaulted Eriador, eventually bringing about the downfall of the Kingdom of Arnor.

Towards the end of the Third Age, Sauron started moving openly again, and gathered huge armies with which he intended to assault and subjugate all of Middle-earth. That's just not very friendly.

And, ok, Sauron also captured Thorin's father Thrain and tortured him to death, too. That was the last dwarven-ring held by the dwarves. Just adding insult to injury there.

So... on balance, Sauron was not a nice guy.

Senator Palpatine is just a little trouthead with nothing to play with but space and some telekinetic powers when compared to Sauron. The All-Seeing Eye is more terrifying than The Force in the wrong hands. :colbert:

In summation, if you're going to side with evil, do it right.

I think it would be much more comfortable being an Officer of the Empire than a servant of Sauron's. Mordor seems like a much more cruel place than the Empire. I think also you can justify what the Empire is doing a lot more than Mordor - they're bringing order to the galaxy, whereas Mordor's goal is just "destroy earth, live in orc filth".