Lit From Endor to Exegol - The State of the Galaxy Discussion Thread (Tagged Victory's Price Spoilers)

Bloodline is a little strange on the subject of Mon Mothma.

• We know that she stood down after becoming ill
• We know that this was probably a while ago because there are references to multiple successors in between her and the present
• We also know she's still alive at the time of Bloodline because she sends Leia a message
• BUT we also know that there is still an expectation that she'll return from her illness and even become chancellor again, because in Lady Carise's speech about creating a First Senator, she directly says 'We cannot wait for Mon Mothma to return.'

So it's a little weird. Does Bloodline even say who the current chancellor is at the time?

 

I always got the impression Denis Lawson doesn't want to be in a cockpit for 3 seconds spouting one-liners. If they gave him a large role, like his own Anthology film 'Agents of the New Republic' or whatever, he might return.

It would be nice to have Wedge and Lando back in 9. The 2 heroes who destroyed the Death Star 2 (and the Empire) back to rally the New Republic.

 

What exactly made the position of "First Senator" different from Chancellor?

 

Greater power to "get things done" - though it's not clear exactly what they would have been.

 

Bloodline is full of such vagueness. We don't even get a reason for why such executive power is required. What exactly would Leia have done, had she been elected First Senator?

 

First Senator basically sounded to me like a chancellor with strong executive powers. More akin to a US president. Of course, seeing as the New Republic Senate is a unicameral legislature, there isn't an exact correlation, but the implication is there. My guess is that the chancellor pre-Bloodline had either stepped down or died, but no formal vote has been held as of the book. Hence why, given the state of politics in the New Republic, there was talk of revising the position before holding the elections.

I'm wondering if the percentage of Senatorial votes needed to elect a chancellor is greater than 51%. We know there was a sizable faction of New Republic members that were unaffiliated with the Populists or Centrists, if they weren't large enough to swing the vote one way or another, perhaps it requires a 2/3 majority or something.

--Adm. Nick

 

Start a war with the First Order, which her son leads. Mother and son put on a show of fighting for the galaxy, and Leia requests emergency power to take a stronger military stance against FO. She gets it, and after Rey kills Kylo-- Leia declares herself Empress.

No this isn't what is happening, but I'm really surprised that no one has excused Leia of doing this yet in the ST. Maybe it will come up in 9.

 

I mean she's basically discredited when people find out who her grandfather is. I wouldn't be surprised if she's accused of wanting to be Empress constantly.

 

I depends on how much time will have been passed between TLJ and IX and how they handle Leias death between the two movies. If she only recently died before the start of IX, i guess the question could be asked. If she's been dead for a relatively long time at that point, i doubt that's a thing to be discussed by the characters then.

 

Like father, like daughter.

 

I was chatting with Jason Fry about the same thing. It is apparent that the FO's main territory is located in the New Territories. I'm sure they have isolated pockets in other regions as well, but the bulk of their holdings in the Known Galaxy appear to be up there.

P.S. I loved the Borosk reference, that made me smile so much!

--Adm. Nick

 

Yeah it seems like the First Order's based around what was Imperial Remnant Space. I think the best guess is that they're the entirety of the New Territories plus the Empire of the Hand region.

 

Is that the former separatist-Centrist territory?

Because it's now known there was no rump Empire after the Concordance, right?

 

Spoiler

I don't think the New Republic will be restored in Episode IX. I think LFL is going for a perpetual war angle for the purpose of always having Super powerful enemy vs underdog story fodder. They can do these types of stories forever.

They will kill Kylo but the First Order will continue. If the New Republic is restored it will only be as a rival government to the First Order.

Empire vs Rebellion Forever.

 

So basically Hydra-style enemy - kill one, two takes its place.

 

I'd be surprised if Disney went this way, tbh. I view the Sequel Trilogy at the trio of films that ends the cycle of war we've seen since TCW. In my mind, this trilogy will wrap up the whole "Empire vs. Rebellion" theme, re-establish the New Republic, and allow the films to move past the government vs. government theme. The post-ST movies will most likely, IMO, focus more on the Force and the rebuilding of the Jedi Order under Rey.

--Adm. Nick

 

I don't know... the OT was about restoring what was lost (Republic and Jedi), and hoping to make the new better than the old. Get the old car running again, and repaint it.

The PT showed how they were lost, but also how flawed they (Republic and Jedi) were. The old car doesn't just need a repaint, it needs to be replaced completely, and didn't work well living in Manhattan anyways.

The ST shows a perfect storm absolutely destroyed the restored, somewhat improved system (Republic and Jedi), with talk about how it was deeply flawed. The old, repainted car has broken down again.


Instead of simply restoring it again, maybe some more improvements, but still flawed, I think the minds behind the ST see this as a chance of completely remaking the system. Kylo Ren is the destroyer of the old, and Rey/Poe/Finn/Rose will be the builders of the new. Instead of redoing the car, replacing a few parts, they decide to just buy a subway pass.


This isn't to gloss over the real reforms the New Republic made... just that something even more fundamental than the placement of the capital and mandated-elections of its Senators needs to change.
Replace the Senate completely.
Replace the Republic completely.


Politically,

1. Maybe it's moving towards a multi-state galaxy split between 200 truly-independent powers in an alliance, with about 50 being equally the most powerful of these new states.

2. Maybe it's moving towards a direct democracy via hyperspace voting.

3. Maybe Hyperspace itself is destroyed in an Episode 9 cataclysm, and only Force-users can guide ships to FTL speeds after the ST.

Etc.

That kind of "thinking outside the box," for an example of real drastic changes.


(For the Jedi:
Rename and fundamentally reform "the Jedi Order" organization, into "the Skywalkers" as a band of mystical wandering do-gooders. Maybe the Force awakens in everyone, and everyone becomes a natural Force-user like Rey. Maybe everyone is cut off from using or sensing the Force.)

 

Sorry for the double-post....

It seems a good time to bring back my post-TFA thoughts... if I'm wrong, and we are going to go with only a soft-reboot of the New Republic, what changes should there be?

(this list was made pre-Bloodline, which showed its pre-secession hyper-partisanship blocking even an election of chancellor... apparently only solved when enough Centrist worlds seceded to join the First Order to likely give the decentralizing Populists just about total control)

it underwent a lot of reforms, according to Aftermath and the TFA Visual Dictionary. These reforms were for both the idealistic loyalists who became Rebel Alliance founders (people like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Padme Amidala) as well as to draw in the idealistic former Separatists who wanted a more decentralized government.

*direct, democratic elections for every Senator (no more appointments)
*worlds were temporarily elected as the capital of the Republic, from Chandrila to Hosnian Prime and likely more (no longer Coruscant-centric)
*a weakened Chancellorship (and no longer called "Supeme")
*equal votes/Senators for worlds
*worlds were given more power, having their own local starfleets and defense forces, with the blessing of the Senate
*a reduced galactic military, passing the http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Military_Disarmament_Act]Military Disarmament Act
*Galactic Concordance with the Empire, which became the First Order, establishing peace while also fiercely sanctioning Imperial worlds in known space
*its foreign policy focus, shortly before the destruction of Hosnian Prime, was improving trade relations with the neutral Trans-Hydian Borderlands
*it occupied a vast territory from the Inner Core to the Outer Rim



Yet, on the other side, it seemed ignorant of the First Order's aggressive intentions. But at least some within it were secretly sending resources to the Resistance, or at least accepting of the Resistance.

Leia also felt her life might be in danger if she went to Hosnian Prime, because of how unpopular she is among her former colleagues in the Senate.

Some Senators were even receiving funds from the First Order, secretly cooperating with it through connections with Corporate Sector Authority and other corporations.

There were also military corporations that were using legal loopholes to fund the First Order, in addition to arming the Republic.

Lor San Tekka says there is a lot of despair in the galaxy.

And after TFA: Hosnian Prime is destroyed, its Senate is wiped out, its galactic Starfleet is wiped out.
​

So if we do return to the New Republic, after the survivors on the Millennium Falcon rally the others (including hopefully some systems with strong planetary defense forces pooling their forces together, able to withstand the siege in-between TLJ and IX), I hope we see:

1. Some way to crackdown on the military corporations and arms dealers (like the ones we saw on Canto Bight, first alluded to in the TFA VD). But how??
2. Some way to crackdown on Senate corruption. But how??
3. A stronger (and more widespread) executive than what the New Republic had, still can't become another Palpatine. But how??
4. A stronger (and more widespread) Republic Fleet, without playing right into the arms dealers' hands. But how??

And more for my own personal tastes...

5. officially eliminate the "Elder Houses" from having any special political status, and make all planetary/system/sector governors democratically-elected just like their Senators are in theory. Enrage the Carise Sindian's of the GFFA!
6. keep the rotating capital (but make it more regular, if it wasn't already)... or just have a mobile Capital (like the FO's Supremacy... just give it hyperspace shields )
7. maybe balance a stronger executive by also introducing a population-based House of Representatives/Parliament... or just have the second legislative chamber be direct democracy/referenda
8. don't sign a treaty with any remnant of the First Order unless it's total surrender

 

I don't agree. The "wars" in Star Wars can be characterized within the story as a form discourse in what kind of galactic government should dominate (not to mention a reflection of the political views of its creator) whether it be corporatocracy, a military dominated dictatorship or the previous status quo. If the Republic is restored I think these issues would still exist and won't go away (much like in rl). Would it be a continuation of the discredited Old Republic, what would be the role of Jedi or of previous institutions like the Senate (which doesn't have a great track republic after both the Galactic and New Republic).

 

Villecham was elected in 33 ABY, according to the SW Databank he was in his second year of his first term when the events of TFA happened.