At a certain weird level, the thing about "Talia good, Vaklu bad" comes from the Tales of the Jedi comics, where the Jedi set up the new monarchs in the first place, and Talia was supportive of the Republic.If you want things to get better, you need affirmative action for gradual change which the people control. Overall, the government being unpopular is not justification for violently overthrowing it with a dictatorship. Generally speaking, most military coups become "popular" in the first place by paying lip service to everything the people dislike about the current government, meaning that they will remain largelty unopposed until they are in power, at which point, anyone who realises that the junta are not fulfilling their promises will be quietly (or loudly) removed. A noteworthy example that can be seen in media was Idi Amin's coup and dictatorship over Uganda. Also note that even in the last century, many "corrupt, unpopular governments" were overthrown by "popular rebellions", which swiftly turned out to be even worse.
What with all that, its really stretchin' things some to put him and Queen Talia on the same ethical level. There's also that much of Vaklu's 'popular support' for his secessionist agenda came solely from his Goebbels-like manipulation of the news media, to the point where the population of Onderon believed that the Republic was committing unprovoked acts of war against Onderon solely because Vaklu's puppets were falsely claiming such. Um, General Vaklu was allied with the Sith, having opponents to his coup and their families quietly murdered, snatching reporters and random citizens off the street to be imprisoned or executed without trial, and (if you pick that particular quest option) contracting the player character to selectively assassinate, intimidate, or mindwhack various pro-Talia military officers so his own people can move into their positions.So did you skip through most of the plot developments related to Vaklu?.It's at least not nearly cut and dry as most other Light/Dark Side decisions in the game, and yet the "right" choice is to prop up the corrupt, unpopular government by helping them brutally pacify a popular rebellion. The two sides of the conflict seem to be given pretty equal footing I suppose that the General is supposed to bring to mind Franco or Pinochet or some such, but you're flat out told several times that the people seem to largely resent the current government and are anxious for change, and the General seems like an alright guy, as far as the leaders of military coups go. More puzzling is the choice between supporting the Queen and the General on Onderon.
Um, Czerka has been known to be corrupt, evil arsehats.Ironically, despite Czerka's claims, it is actually their plan which is short term in the end. I'm pretty sure it was also stated that restoring Telos to the way it was, was necessary to restore the planet's connection to the Force.It's plainly obvious that they're painted as a faction of Corrupt Corporate Executives. Furthermore, Czerka has been shown to deal in slavery, trade with the Sith (KotOR 1), hire bounty hunters, and conduct corporate sabotage. thing, (Of which I highly doubt) It's far more likely that they were operating of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. Rather than it being a Canadian vs U.S.