The Empire has a "Bounty Hunter Problem"

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When the Empire needs something sensitive or complicated done, they don't call on their special forces or hero units, instead they call Bounty hunters. These are private citizens usually with criminal records and the fact that the empire relies on these individuals so heavily is a troubling sign.
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[@GenerationTech]

Click betterhelp.com/generationtech for 10% off your first month of therapy with our sponsor BetterHelp. Join over 4 million people who’ve met with a therapist on BetterHelp and started living a healthier, happier life.

[@chianghighshrek]

Better help is a scam dont go on there website PLEASE they steal your medical data they got fined by the US government last year for this exact reason they dont even require you to be license

[@chianghighshrek]

Fun fact better help got fined by the US government for stealing medical data and selling it

[@cheaterlpe421]

Hey allen please stop deleting comments saying that your sponsor is not a good company its not a good look for you

[@kittenfan7664]

we know you do the sponsors for money, just let people speak the truth on your behalf.

[@TheThirdTwin]

As others have mentioned, not a good sponsor.

[@hendrikgreiner8449]

I love the idea that Wilhuff Tarkin spends his days flipping through the various R&D Department databases of the Empire thinking about what new project he'd like to steal and claim as his own next!

[@OptimusMaximusNero]

Pretty crazy that the legendary Werner Herzog was in Star Wars. Imagine how AWESOME a movie exploring the madness of the Sith directed by Herzog would be

[@mikewaterfield3599]

I just imagine how things would be with a proper creator behind star wars and no meddling rom the board.

[@itsxico]

werner herzog is so freaking cool!

[@mikewaterfield3599]

@@EvilKikeJewRat I’m shocked KZbin has not tried banning you. Although that badge is hilariously creative. Is it a stunning mountain landscape, or a Hindu symbol of unity co-opted by an Austrian socialist, mass murderer angry that he he couldn’t get into art school.

[@ChickSage]

He would have made a much better star wars movie than those last 3 Rey movies.

[@mikewaterfield3599]

@@ChickSage a drunk, lobotomized, monkey scribbling with its own feces could write something better than the MaReySu trilogy of Dinsney’s “Farce Wars”.

[@nathanmarshall745]

Han Solo thinking the jedi were a "hokey religon" despite being alive during the clone war was always kinda silly to me But people are still accepting betterhelp sponsers so maybe people forget things faster than i believe they do

[@jeffreycarman2185]

At the time of the Clone Wars and immediately before the Clone Wars there were about 10,000 Jedi in the entire galaxy. In the galaxy there were over 100 quadrillion (to say it another way 100,000 trillion) sentient beings. So, although the Jedi are featured prominently in the Skywalker Saga, the constituted, at the height of their influence, a very tiny fraction of the galaxy. It is likely that Han Solo, having lived out his life on Corellia, a highly populated core world that likely was ignored during The Clone Wars, never had seen -or known anyone who had seen, a Jedi.

[@nikoclesceri2267]

The real reason is there was originally three or four decades between the clone wars and the original trilogy before the prequels came out. With how common high tech and high speed the transfer of information is, especially in the core region of the galaxy, you don’t have to see them yourself to know they exist.

[@shadowfox009x]

@@jeffreycarman2185 Hard to believe considering that there was a Jedi Temple on Corellia that was often at odds with the Order and the Temple of Coruscant. The Green Jedi were rather prominent on Corellia. During the Clone Wars, the Corellian Jedi actually put the fate and well-being of Corellia over that of the Republic, and only a handful served in the GAR. It was part of the Contemplanys Hermi which allowed Corellia to stay out of the war. Ham Solo might not have met a Jedi, but he would have seen one in the holonews or at least known of them.

[@Longshot441]

Really dumb honestly. You'd think they would remember or write down what sponsors they wont accept again but hey here we are.

[@westwardstar1686]

Your correct. But the odd part is that Chewbacca had 2 separate interactions with Jedi that Im aware of. When he was captured by Transdoson hunters and teamed up with younglings (TCW) & the battle of Kashyyk. Also kinda heavily implied Yoda had a friendship w/ Chewie prior as he states he has had good relations with the wookies (maybe). And this all takes place before he met Han in canon....sooo unless he never mentioned his past to Han idk ​@@jeffreycarman2185

[@generalveers9544]

Always love this channel for bringing in real world examples like the McDonald’s thing. “Fiction is the lie that tells the truth.”

[@ninjalectualx]

And a sales pitch is the truth that tells a lie

[@persuisixh4804]

@@ninjalectualxFr to both of you

[@rckoala8838]

Sounds a little like the origins of the "Mission Impossible" crew: individuals whose connection to the government can be easily denied.

[@kevingluys3063]

Something I've thought about about the whole enforced "no unauthorized communication" policy with the Stormtroopers is: You are gauranteeing that your soldiers gain no skills outside of the curriculum of their training. How often do the rebels win because of their knowledge of local quirks of the societies and ecosystems they are fighting in that blindsides the Imperials. How many times do you think these things could have been prevented if the soldiers were allowed to talk about things and know that the that street vendor shouldn't be headed that direction at this hour, or that the dew in those bushes becomes like superglue after a rainstorm? And they come from all over the galaxy. What happens if the slime hits the fan and the guy you've been standing in silence with all day turns out to have a thick accent you haven't been able to get familiar with? Sure they all speak basic, but English is spoken in New Orleans and Belfast.

[@BryantVonMiller]

Alan.. Man why did you have to get the sponser from "Better Help" They aren't even licensed therapists, they are a bunch of scammers. Haven't you been keeping up with their scams and hearing the horrible stories of their malpractice and misdeeds?

[@cheaterlpe421]

I saw a comment earlier talking about them selling data to facebook its gone now

[@Brasswatchman]

It's been working fine for me. Then again, I'm actually talking to a licensed therapist through them.

[@lyinarbaeldeth2456]

My man out here applying case studies of fascist and authoritarian governments to Star Wars and showing just how well these things were depicted.

[@themeddite2935]

He also does Anti-CCP news and stuff so

[@AweSean-wv3xo]

they really weren't well depicted ibr bro

[@anarchistangel2314]

​@@themeddite2935which is another authoritarian regime, what's your point?

[@smokedbeefandcheese4144]

@@themeddite2935 that’s kind of weird there’s no communism in Star Wars it’s just like capitalists and fascists fighting till like the end of Time

[@runakovacs4759]

@@themeddite2935Most real anti-fastists also oppose the shithole that is CCP. Authoritarianism must be opposed, no matter what. Self-determination and self-ownership are basic human rights.

[@elijahmadden4057]

My favorite thing about you, Allen, is how you relate lore to real life when you can, like pointing out strategies those in control use to keep people from coming together. Keep rebelling.

[@isaackim7675]

And remember: No disintegration

[@MrDibara]

That one Bounty Hunter: *_"What am I even doing here?"_*

[@benjamindavidson4680]

As you wish.

[@N120Xeno]

Boo😒😒😒

[@nihili4196]

Okay, listen. SW universe has bounty huntes who come from massive families specializing in such operations. It's not Gary, it's as if seal team 6 was privately owned and condenced into one person. A lot of them were doing hunting since they were kids. Look at Mandos here for instance, no amount of military trained for general purpose will be able to match effectiveness of one highly specialized individual in this regard, especially when hunting individuals who are almost as good as they are in escaping unnoticed. Also, look at it that way: it's easier to deny use of bounty hunters than your own military. Any collateral, any stuff seen by public, any difficult questions... You can just say it was rebel infighting or something. But with military you would have to say it was someone inside going rouge. And that's not too sustainable

[@jeffreycarman2185]

3:21 Moff Giddeon wanted Baby Gogurt as a donor, for _his_ clones he wanted to be forced to sensitive.

[@gerstein03]

Okay but Commandant Baelo was an absolute legend for trying to kill Vader and Palpatine by suicide running his star destroyer into a star

[@BennyFromFalloutNewVegas]

Oh no! Allen got stuck in the storm drain near the end of the video!

[@tk-6967]

The Empire had Military Intelligence that worked perfectly fine, the ISB just had more political clout than MI ever did, but that didn't make people like Krennic or MI's Director, Armand Isard incompetent, in fact they were highly competent. Tarkin was also competent, he simply had a flawed outlook. Also, it is interesting how you point out that Tarkin has his ship stolen but omit the reasons why and how it happened; an Imperial traitor was leaking information to terrorist Berch Teller as well as the fact that Tarkin did not have many assets with him at the time, he had only the crew of his ship and a small group of stormtroopers.

[@tk-6967]

14:48 The Empire used bounty hunters for that exact reason, as well as not wanting to waste their own assets on operations. Furthermore, the use of any intelligence services was bound to get politics involved, so for people like Vader, rather than spend forever trying to get intelligence operatives, possibly with their own political motives, to find the rebels, he could simply call the Bounty Hunter's Guild. Not only that, but the idea that the Empire would want to destroy the Bounty Hunter Guild ignores how important the BHG was galaxy wide. By allying with the BHG and offering them good contracts, the Empire more or less made them a non-threat, whereas *outright destroying them would probably just piss off all the major crime syndicates* and thus not allow the Empire not to divide and conquer in order to pick them off individually. This is especially true in the EU because the Rebellion had an official privateer designation, but it is still the case in Canon that the Rebellion could hire/work with mercenaries, criminals and other scum. Just look at the Partisans and Cloud Riders for example, both of those outfits had members who would go on to join the BHG and probably had merc history. Also, the Empire not having the same level of intelligence gathering capability as the CIA, FBI or other major IRL intelligence organisations *doesn't make them incompetent or weak,* because the Empire has *barely anything to go off of as an intelligence model* aside from the emergency wartime Republic Intelligence, which was literally just a weaker version of Imperial Military Intelligence and was run by the exact same people. If anything, the fact that the MI under Armand Isard and the ISB under people like Yularen were able to build up so quickly is rather impressive.

[@shanehudson3995]

The BH were also a denial able assest.

[@nicholaswion846]

@@shanehudson3995 The Empire had little that they needed to deny, the benefits of Bounty Hunters, is that you can massively increase the number of individuals search for your target, and you only have to pay for the one who is actually successful. Plus, if your regular forces find them using standard techniques, you don't have to pay anything. Allen suggested that part of the Empire's strategy was, "Hiring some Bounty Hunters," but the fact of the matter is, you don't hire Bounty Hunters to begin with, you simply let it be known how much you will pay.

[@ryandoughty4773]

If you can not use your own military intelligence assets because they have their own political agendas, then you have a real problem

[@IIIC3YLOCO]

*points at boba* “No disintergration” 😅😂😂

[@jeremiahmorris1852]

The real life equivalent of Star Wars bounty hunters seem to be mercenaries

[@nikoclesceri2267]

And just like real life mercenaries, bounty hunters in SW are just bat shit crazy bad asses

[@dirtydeesenpai]

@@nikoclesceri2267I read somewhere on Reddit about the Nintendo Rom copyright violator guy, how he was dragged from his bed by mercenaries in the Dominican Republic and driven to the Interpol Office.

[@nikoclesceri2267]

@@dirtydeesenpaito be fair, I was mainly talking about the Mercenaries in the Congo during their civil war,.

[@kj07video]

Tarkin actually had The Carrion Spike stolen twice, once by the rebels like you said & once by some random shipjackers on Murkhana.

[@arthurbriand2175]

During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Us used both bounties and mercenaries to make enemy commander have a hard time operating and find safe havens. There were different private security outfits all over Iraq trying to find baathist commanders who had bounties. Remember that Bin Laden and most people on the FBI most wanted list had and have bounties on them and rewards for actionable intelligence.

[@grissom2289]

I often wondered why the Empire was so incompetent. Whether its their unqualified officers, lacking military response, or laughably untrained soldiers. I always just chalked it up to "if the Empire was all-powerful, then the plot wouldn't progress". But it makes sense that Palpatine wanted complete control without having to worry about traitors and conspirators. He didn't want anyone to usurp power from him in any way. Thanks for the video.

[@user-jw4fx3bw8r]

I feel it was mainly due to the fact that the Empire would recruit anyone and give them the most basic training then throw them in armor and give them a blaster rifle. The Empire didn't exactly have a dominant or strong opposing army. All they had to do was round up citizens.

[@wrobel2222]

stop taking betterhelp scammer money

[@g.williams2047]

I think it’s one of 2 things. First, asymmetrical bounty hunters will bring strategies and ideas that highly trained and indoctrinated soldiers (even spec ops) won’t even consider. Second, if something happens with bounty hunters, their connection to the government can be easily deflected because they’re not in imperial gear.

[@Mell-Mell713]

Audio went weird towards end of video

[@rim9732]

Honestly I think one major part of it is the empire is just heavily Armor and Starship focused. They never had really that much good infantry and what ones they did have are always on defense or body guarding it felt. Only a few things you could consider out there doing stuff but often small in numbers.

[@Belial69699]

Quantity over quality

[@pyeitme508]

Bounty hunters be like: "Yeah no sxxx!". 😂

[@AureusSolidus]

Deniable assets are always valuable to any polity. But in the case of Palpatine. Would you want your underlings to learn that you're planning to prevent their upward promotion? Especially before you had secured your continued survival.

[@lukedalton]

But while a valid in universe point, it's still another reason why the empire is a total mess

[@lmoore3rd]

Vader: No disintegrations, it makes a mess and the Roomba droids can't sweep it up.

[@sfkeepay]

This is an excellent analysis. Very enlightening.

[@cbacon22333]

Omg I've wanted this topic to be covered thanks!

[@Freesorin837]

One of the most influential lines I've ever heard came from HBO's Chernobyl: "Our power comes from the illusion of our power." You don't need to put in the time and effort to dominate someone if you can just convince them you already have. Most authority works this way. It's mind over matter.

[@jessereagh3445]

Great video Thanks Allen

[@lucasadskaret4630]

The video came out 5 minutes ago💀

[@DarthNox66]

​@@lucasadskaret4630 So?

[@gr8tbigtreehugger]

Great video - much appreciated!

[@debbralehrman5957]

Thanks Alan👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@jeffreycarman2185]

5:38 bounty hunters have their proprietary tracker devices that are pretty much magic. I am betting that the Bounty Hunters Guild keeps a tight lid on that tech.

[@OldHenryLee]

Thanks for yet another entertaining & interesting upload. ... Twas enjoyed. - 🤘

[@philt2170]

Otter Team 6 - Greatest thing I've seen on the Internet today!

[@Fedaygin]

Woop buenos and good new week to Alan, editor & all fans 🤞🍵🧘

[@VincentTheAtheist]

I guess your allegiance isn't to the Republic or to Democracy anymore.

[@Yacovo]

Thanks for the video

[@keith_root]

Ultimately, the Empire sought out bounty hunters to do their work because they were more competent than the soldiers that were officially on the docket.

[@nicholaswion846]

And the fact that you only had to pay them, if and when they actually succeeded.

[@kyleepratt]

It does seem like the empire had a real problem with finding or creating competency within their ranks.

[@keith_root]

One might say that skilled labor is king

[@jeffreycarman2185]

13:04 it’s abundantly clear that from a personnel management standpoint The Empire clearly was completely incompetent. They had battle-hardened Clone Commandos acting as sentries and prison guards at Mount Tantiss. The Comandos were not even deployed to retrieve prisoners who had escaped.

[@wafflingmean4477]

One of the larger problems (of many) that caused the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire (which became medieval Europe) was that they progressively became more dependant on mercenary armies whom they hired from neighbouring peoples, often after wars with their armies and not doing so well. It was easier to pay your enemies to fight each other than fight them yourself. The issue with this is eventually these mercenaries realise they simply don't need you. Why fight another competent military for your money when they can just... attack you, stealing your land, money and natural resources? The Empire in Star Wars on a smaller scale was facing a similar problem. Their military had declined drastically in competence due to the shift from Clone Troopers to Stormtroopers. Yes this was a necessity to a degree because the effects of Order 66 were wearing off, and so the Clones were becoming extremely dangerous. Fives went berserk when he discovered the chips prior to Order 66, and Palpatine was personally involved in assassinating him to prevent his ace card from being revealed too soon. Fives discovered the chips because he simply believed there was no way to explain Tupp's change in behaviour (caused by his inhibitor chip malfunctioning and prematurely activating) without further investigation. Given that, and the chips wearing off, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the Clones looked back, noticed the same inconsistency in their behaviour and performed the same investigation. And that's without even accounting for the fact that Rex survived and was spreading information about the inhibitor chips amongst the ranks of the Clones. Palpatine was on the verge of losing control of the most powerful military in the galaxy, and having every single one of its soldiers utterly hellbent on killing Palpatine specifically for what he did to them. Countless would have gladly fought to the death just for the smallest chance to take a shot at Darth Sidious. Even a Sith Lord could not have fought the whole Clone army at once. Not even with Vader by his side. So he recruited as many Stormtroopers as possible and started using Clones as expendable cannon fodder, and placing them within larger ranks of Stormtroopers over time in order to split them up and turn numbers to his advantage. But the downside of this is that this rapid recruitment, combined with forcing the Clones aside instead of promoting them into high ranking positions for better command structures and training for the new Stormtroopers, meant the Stormtroopers were nowhere near the level of Clone Troopers. And so to get anything of importance done, Palpatine needed to send in Vader himself or use bounty hunters. This was effective but it was inherently flawed in the short term. Vader was guaranteed to turn on Sidious sooner or later. It's the whole point of the Rule of Two. And sure, Vader's suit was very vulnerable to Sith lightning, but Sidious was old. If forced to kill his apprentice to save himself, only to die a couple of years later of old age, the Sith order and the Galactic Empire would inevitably be destroyed. That's why Project Necromancer was so time sensitive and part of why Luke was so crucial when he was discovered, as Luke would only be strong enough to 1v1 years later, hopefully after replacing Vader as his apprentice. Sidious would be on death's door anyway, and might even have completed project Necromancer, meaning Luke turning on him would inherently be less dangerous than Vader turning on him. And as for the bounty hunters, with Sidious so dependant on them, it was only a matter of time before they would start banding together into organisations that would rival the ISB or Vader's Inquisitors. They'd unionise to extort the Empire. Over the decades and centuries these organisations would grow in power into full blown armies unless serious action was taken to improve the ability of Stormtroopers. But anyone with the experience to train them lacked the incentive. In time, the Stormtroopers would have become unable to contend with a growing number of warlords across the galaxy, and the Empire would likely be forced to only exist on Coruscant and within its surrounding systems.

[@Cowboycomando54]

Why do you think PMC's exist? There are things that need to get done with the highest levels of deniability.

[@kyleepratt]

That and paramilitary forces

[@A_2the_lex]

I think the better comparison for Bounty Hunters in SW vs real life is PMCs PMCs are used commonly used especially for potential skill and keeping distance to ethically/morally questionable actions (less of an issue for a Galaxy wide Sith Empire) but still

[@lukedalton]

But Real Life PMCs are merely a support for the regular army while it seem that in the Star Wars universe if the Empire want to be reasonably sure that a work will be done need to hire the PCMs and not using their own resources

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

I mean the US does use contractors more then the milltary everywhere and the only thing separating them from bounty hunters and mercenaries is a legelly recognized company.

[@robertagu5533]

"Untrained civilians doing Law Enforcement..." EXACTLY what happens when ANY trained Law Enforcement officer Deputizes anyone for any reason.

[@klausernstthalheim9642]

Well america still got a bounty hunter problem.......well atleast in form of pinkerton who raided a streamer house to mug some magic of gathering cards that was sent by Wotc error to early out......well its kinda more like a mix of security, bounty hunter and private army problem

[@Michael-fe8co]

Better help is bad.

[@ratzfatz6880]

4:16 this is the cutest and also the most scary thing I have ever seen.

[@DobleWhiteAndStabley]

I think the reason VADER used bounty hunters, is because he was going after luke. Which I think by this point palpatine specifically warned him against. In this case, hiring bounty hunters that can keep quiet is understandable.

[@sornreed]

The channel has a "microphone problem". 13:58 - 14:54 🤟🏻😜

[@joffreybaratheon4904]

The bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe has a collective guild that contracts are given out in exchange for a portion of the bounty’s reward.. plus if the target is in a area of space where the Empire doesn’t have full control of (i.e the Hutt Space)

[@emory442]

Sidious is looking a lot like Homelander when he takes over Vaught

[@nuggetplayz6793]

Hello

[@CWEditOfficial]

hai 👋

[@DarthNox66]

*There

[@Brasswatchman]

They put in Mount Tantiss? Great callback!

[@blakeetter280]

I’m only four minutes in so sorry if this is covered, but it seems in the bad batch the reason they use voice to hunters is probably that palpatine doesn’t trust his government or his military enough to do this yet. Sure he has the clone shadows but they’ve got limitations and apparently he doesn’t trust them? And in mando the project is being continued by imperial remnants, who aren’t supposed to look coordinated. If they started making large scale efforts to retrieve certain people it would become obvious they have a reason and the resources to do something with them. Two things the new republic wasn’t supposed to know. So I think in both cases the special forces they had just couldn’t be used so it was safer to use outside help who didn’t know what was happening and thus couldn’t betray them

[@johannesbowers7467]

If only Sidious obtained the Secret Jedi Research on Force-Sensitive cloning, and their successful subject Shaak-Ti (yes, ALL of her deaths are canon)

[@sundragon7703]

The use of bounty hunters, i.e. mercenaries, is a time tested human resources tactic in reality and fiction. For hundreds of years, the place now called Switzerland made its money by hiring out "sell swords". Recently, Blackwater supplemented existing forces. Also, the Wagner Group was the mercenary army of the Russian Federation. In the Star Wars universe, mercenaries were basically scouts if hired individually or "attack dogs" if hired as a group. Either way, there were even more expendable than the Imperial Army soldier with less strings attached.

[@guts60]

The only reason I would ever see bounty hunters being necessary is using them for extreme circumstances where you don’t want to waste your elite troops on a suicide mission in the outer rim.

[@John-du2mq]

I beg to differ about bounty hunters. More private citizens should have the opportunity to make money by bringing people in. It will help people because they get paid getting dangerous people off the street and it will force better conduct and performance for government LEOs if they start getting put to shame.

[@imjashingyou3461]

Lol that is plainly naive and ignorant of dozens of real world examples of when its been done and always gone badly. You do not want private citizens trying to do SWAT raids to get someone in. You think Police do a bad job well watch out.

[@comproggi]

Now I need to rewatch Star Wars from a poli-sci viewpoint.

[@dennisd4452]

Watch Andor. Save you some time.

[@TheJasonBorn]

yup

[@GodlessTramp-tq5rd]

*rasp* and remember, NO BETTERHELP SPONSORSHIPS!

[@mattheweaton9111]

Here we go again. Imperial officers were well trained and prepared for their positions. They used bounty hunters for secret or high priority targets. Alone with special forces. The imperial military was great

[@grandmasteryoda6717]

Wow it looks real foggy where you live. I wish I had fog where I live. Unfortunately, it’s sunny every day.

[@Jay-gg7ru]

Missed opurtunity to say 'Bin Dolphin'

[@OriginalMicycle]

13:58 Wow that audio change was JARRING. How did that get through editing?

[@aaronmalay5497]

It also serves Palpatine's goal of everyone suffering all the time to have criminals and the unaccountable escape state power. If you have people who buy into the myth of the order the Empire brings, there's nothing like an unpredictable trained killer rocking up with sanction to really get the fear going. That's Dark Side juice, baybee!

[@equitesloricatus6035]

This is actually more common than you'd think in the intel world for high-end/high-risk jobs. Consider the following. 1. UBL Raid: needs doing, needs doing right, CIA and POTUS send "thoroughbred horses" to get the job done and announce it on TV when it's over. However, I would reccomend looking into the risks and *serious concerns* the US had at the time about a full-blown war with Pakistan if the op failed. Because we *couldn't* deny what happened if it failed. Not with SEALs and high-end American military equipment scattered all over the place. To that end, there was a *huge* support package in place in the event Pakistan went mom's spaghetti if they discovered what was happening. As I've heard in interviews before (namely by Rob O'Neil) the USAF had a plan to essentially "bomb a corridor" out of Pakistan if the op broke bad. 2. Other enemy leaders (lesser known): CIA looks at the situation, finds someone that will do it or can be trained to do it, then pays them to do it. This person is almost always a local, and can be "worked" by CIA case officers for a very long time. Better yet, you pay them wages (or bounties) and supply them with weapons or gear, but you never have to pay life insurance, health insurance, or whatever. Keep their connectivity to the US/Nato minimal, and if (insert bad guy here) ever finds and arrests your guy, you just say "what, no way, bro, that's crazy" if they accuse you of working them. Key things to consider: 1. American CIA employees aren't "agents." they're either "case officers" (who work "agents," which are local assets) or paramilitary operations officers, which are the spookiest of the spooky covert actions forces. See Special Activities Center on wikipedia for more details. 2. Locally cultivated assets or mercenaries are often more effective due to their deniability. SW isn't always grounded enough (IMO) to show this, but bounty hunters and mercs are great for the empire. Because Palpamemes can send private sector shooters to blast up Pantora (Bad Batch reference, but more of an example than a concrete "this is what happened," as I'm not that deep in the story) kill cops, irritate stormtroopers or whatever, understand the mercs don't care why they're doing it, and pay them when the job is done. In an organization like the empire, with *really* sensitive, executive-level, yet largely personal matters, private sector shooters are the way to go. Because, as i said, they *don't care* why they're doing the job, where an ISB agent would be looking at the political angle and (potentially) weighing the empire's needs over that of its head of state. 3. So, there are times when you want the regulars and state servants to do the work, but IRL, most intelligence agencies go out of their way to work locals or non-official cover assets to do their bidding. In a system like the Galactic Empire, this is even better for Palpatine and his personal errands, not connected directly to matters of state.

[@ssrbgangimaribotan6thofthe12]

I think bounty hunters should be thought of more like PMC (Private Military Company), they are usually hired when the job is either completely illegal, so needs to be done in secrecy, or bureaucratically a nightmare to approve and maintained, or logistically too straining to do when you can just hire someone else so you don't need to maintain expensive operation fee to maintain the mission in long run. It also helps that its easy to pin blames to others when you use bounty hunters and harder to connect them to you by the public eyes. Cause the country hunters in star wars are often hired by others too, merchants and mafias. Often times reliable enough cause most of the time the reward only have to be paid when they finished the mission, so no matter how many bounty hunters tries to do the job you only have to pay 1 guy or group that finished the job (unless the risk is too high that you have to pay upfront). And often times a handful of bounty hunters are much more efficient than standard trooper regiments due to their local knowledge, underworld connections, and intelligence network. Something that requires the intelligence department of the empire and the standard storm trooper to cooperate with each other is going to be not only an expensive operation, but also inneficent as fuck cause cooperation between 2 separate departments are going to be a nightmare, even in real life its a nightmare to just make 2 separate departments to cooperate. The only operations that are worth it to be done by the imperial military directly is the ones where they really really need a special force to handle due to the importance and secrecy of the operation is top priority.

[@michealdrake3421]

4:50 You left out possibly the best part of Gary's story: he got his equipment list from 4chan. Before his attempt he posted on 4chan, announcing his intent to kill Bin Laden to avenge 9/11 and collect the reward the US government had put on his head. He asked 4chan for advice on what he should take and everything he had on him, the canteen, binoculars, guns, and especially the sword were all suggested in the thread

[@cameronhermann9400]

The ISB did eventually develop into content people, at least somewhat with their agents, like Kallus from Rebels

[@drewyourhostwiththeghost]

Dude! You make Palpatine sound like Trudeau.

[@matthewpicchu8232]

Parallel power structures and overlapping responsibilities are the bread and butter of authoritarianism. It keeps them dependent on the center for favor and keeps them competing with each other to the detriment of any greater ambitions. Hitler loved doing this, for example with paramilitaries like the SS raising frontline forces independently of the regular military. It’s like that in the Empire too. There are at least three groups which are or can be reasonably tasked to track force-sensitives, the Inquisitors, the ISB, and bounty hunters/contractors (also maybe Vader, but he’s probably kept in the dark about this specific project).. Each is competing for funding and favor with the others, often sabotaging each other in the process. They all stay weak and dependent on Palpatine.

[@SolarinDay]

The Empire was always doomed to collapse under its own weight.

[@onepumpchump1238]

Earliest I’ve been to a generation tech video 😂

[@ZoruaZorroark]

yup, your description of dwane "the dog" is spot on

[@AnkhWolf]

You've got to wonder when the plans Plagueis came up with ran out and Palpatine had to start making stuff up himself

[@mulletmann6558]

every city block should have a Gary to keep the Steve's in check....and may us all rest somewhere in between the lines of sanity once more.

[@dumbguy1007]

Bounty hunters are a cheap and dirty way of completing a task and intelligence agency might otherwise do, you can put one bounty up and get 5 or 6 highly experienced hunters with knowledge of the outer rim and other gray areas and only really have to pay one of them, while eliminating other leads as hunters fail. I also wonder if it's a sith ideology thing, the survival of the fittest and inherent competition in every task, while the imperial officers are embarrassed by the need for bounty hunters and are pushed to work harder to outdo them.

[@Angelo-nd4lg]

Allen staring down Darth Vader: you are incompetent and unintelligent. You're just a boy hiding behind an ugly helmet. Me: bro chill!

[@CDRhammond]

I work as a bounty hunter now and not the dog the bounty hunter type either.

[@Practitioner_Parts]

lol what

[@CDRhammond]

@@Practitioner_Parts Exactly as it sounds I'm now a hired gun willing to do whatever is required of a contract. While Bail bondsman have certain rules they have to follow and have to play nice I don't.

[@t-maswright119]

this is how I think ventress will be introduced in the bad batch

[@kevinbianchi77]

I guess this is what happens when you use Skeletor as a benchmark for what it takes to keep power lol.

[@appo9357]

5:44 Only because we don’t have the necessary equipment.

[@tk-6967]

Palpatine's reasons for being worried about ex-Republic officers wasn't 'irrational' as you described it, because in fact Tarkin, during the events of the stolen ship incident, found out that the main threat to the Empire was in fact not Separatist holdouts/sympathizers but rather the Republic loyalists who had allowed/supported Palpatine's rise. It was only with this information that the Emperor became very concerned about internal treachery, as Berch Teller's group had tried to mask their terrorism under the guise of ex Separatist movements by attacking with battle droids, but closer analysis found that they gained most of their droid assets from Imperial droid scrap yards, none of which had been reported by Imperial officials. So clearly, the presence of the ISB was at least somewhat needed

[@occam7382]

When he says Palpatine's fear was "irrational" he just means in general, not in relation to this specific thing.

[@tk-6967]

@@occam7382 What was he irrationally afraid of though? Certainly not of the Jedi, who you'd imagine he'd be worried about, as it was only a couple of years before he ordered Vader to downgrade his involvement in the purges and to not concern himself too much with Inquisitorial affairs according to the comics. Then, his fear of force sensitive children/acolytes was not really irrational at all, and his interest in them also could have been in that he wanted to use force sensitives for Imperial purposes, such as when the Inquisitors kidnapped children in Rebels.

[@Neonblade69]

Palpatine was also a paranoid guy. He didnt want any of his Force minions to get any ideas and mess up his clones or try to learn his Sith knowledge

[@Big_Boss4269]

Also, bounty hunters (in SW at least) had underground contacts, and could blend in easier in the underworld

[@philly83]

Gary!

[@andreliv3206]

baby gogurt is gonna be my new thing to say about baby yoda

[@luisemoralesfalcon4716]

Well, they needed to get quite a few jobs done.

[@travishutson9012]

This makes me really miss the old generation tech. Persona character used to do.

[@VulpesChama]

Palpatines biggest problem is actually a problem all multi-cultural authocracies face. A thing democracies get around because in their very nature they already account for it. He tries to enforce an extreme centralized authocratic government onto one of the biggest and most diverse nations imaginable. And that is the main thing, the Empire, or the Republic before that, is not a coherent nation. It's even arguable if the Republic even was a nation or much more a conglomerate of thousands upon thousands of nations which compromised to the general benefit of all. And with so many planets involved, some even with multiple different cultures on them but at least culturally different from most other planets, even within just one sector, Palpatine tries to seize supreme power over everything. He eventually reverts to a feudal system, in which the Moffs take direct control over their system, which I assume also means that the governors of planets seize direct control etc. etc. It is a militaristic hierarchy, but it would have ended in a feudal hierarchy after a while, if it would have been given a chance. A totalitarian authocratic governemnt under the iron fist of one ruler does not work on this scale. That's why he kept the senate as main body of the government at first for decades. Because if he had removed it, the Empire would have immediately crumbled and he would've been unable to do anything against it. He would have ended with a much, much smaller territory under his control, it though would have been much more stable. But it gets worse, because while the Empire does have a coherent military force, it does not have a coherent police force. It heavily relies on local security. Because it has to. Because the Imperial Military does not have a force strong or large enough to take over this role on a galactic scale. For indivdual systems or planets, maybe, for a time. But not for every planet. One could say, Palpatine bit off too much too soon. He should have continued to just solidify the Sith' position within the Republic and not directly seize control with the defeat of the Jedi. Yeah, he took a bet on Anakin, but even if Anakin wouldn't have been injured, that bet is heavily flawed. All of this long talk short, Palpatine used or likely used Bounty Hunter, because the Military wasn't large enough to take on all tasks. The local security and police forces were tied too strongly to their regions, they weren't trustworthy enough because they were local. So what remains? Bounty Hunters aren't trustworthy people. But their entire reputation hinges on them completing jobs. They only get hired if they are known to finish jobs. And they can be drawn from anywhere in the galaxy and thus they usually don't have ties that would cause worry for betrayal.

[@In.Gy.]

I wish I were as cool as Gary.

[@isaacvincent8443]

I actually applaud the Empire's use of Bounty Hunters. The Empire encourages group think, which is great for controlling the population of the Galaxy or pumping out Storm Troopers, but heavily discourages out of the box free thinkers. So if you have a job that is best done by said Free thinkers, then you either need to create a subsystem with in your Empire that finds and helps train free thinkers... a dangerous option, as they are the sort that might overthrow or replace you. Or you hire independent contractors who happen to be good free thinkers.

[@FantasyBaseball2]

Yes, Darth Sidious desired power and eternal life. He also wishes to save the galaxy from an outside invasion. The Yuuzhan Vong. The hundreds of Star Destroyers and Death Star were not just made to keep local governments in line, but also to help fend off the Yuuzhan Vong which Sidious foresaw was on its way.

[@berniethekiwidragon4382]

12:20 I feel like we are talking about Hong Kong...

[@sethlindgren8130]

Audio changes at @13:58