Evil empire
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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An evil empire is a speculative fiction trope in which a major antagonist of the story is a technologically advanced nation, typically ruled by an evil emperor or empress, that aims to control the world or conquer some specific group. They are opposed by a hero from more common origins who uses their guile or the help of an underground resistance to figha them. Well-known examples are the Galactic Empire in Star Wars, which forms upon the collapse of the more benevolent Galactic Republic and is opposed by Luke Skywalker, as well as the Galactic Empire in Dune, whose Emperor plots the downfall of House Atreides, and is opposed by Paul Atreides.
The concept of an "evil empire" was appropriated from Star Wars by Ronald Reagan, who used it in his 1983 Evil Empire speech to describe the Soviet Union, dramatically raising the stakes in the arms race between it and the United States.
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