Speculation the political crisis in Episode VII?

For starters, there’s nothing wrong with any of the senate scenes throughout the Prequels. The whole idea was to establish how stagnated and corrupt the government body had become. Lucas had two ways of doing this: a) talk about it through mere exposition ( = lame storytelling), or b) actually depict it, onscreen, as experienced firsthand by the characters. He chose b). The scene where Queen Amidala first pleads her case, for example, is constructed in way that specifically illustrates the incompetence of the Republic:

"The Congress of Malastare concurs with the honorable delegate from the Trade Federation. A commision must be appointed!"

"The point is conceded. Queen Amidala of Naboo, will you defer your motion to allow a commission to explore the validity of your accusations?"

Blah, blah, blah ...if you thought this scene was tedious -- the dialogue soporifically didactic -- that was the point. It’s not supposed to be riveting like some courtroom drama; such would’ve nullified the intended effect. The Queen states her grievance only to have the matter dissipated by endless bureaucratic bull****. And yet the scene remains both crucial and, in my opinion, interesting because we’re witnessing Palpatine’s scheme in motion. Even the way it’s constructed visually evokes all these elements: flat wide shots of political figures rambling red tape nonsense as they drift aimlessly across frame in their senatorial pods, in a way that’s almost sleep-inducing, while cutting to key close-ups of Palpatine as he enters frame behind the fixed mask that is the Queen, whispering sophistry into her ear. It’s very precise, well thought-out storytelling. The preceding scene where Palpatine speaks with the Queen in her apartment is likewise executed in a very visual, metronomic manner, maximizing bold compositions and emphasizing key phrases of dialogue with reaction shots that pause ever-so briefly. Beyond all that, honestly, the whole political angle in the Prequels is fairly simplified and straightforward, and really only amounts to a handful of scenes, each clear in their purpose to the story. I never understood what all the bitching was about.

But this brings me to my larger point concerning the storied approach for Episode VII. The OT chronicles the fight for freedom between resistance and oppressor while the PT chronicles the loss of freedom via the mechanization of fascism from within. Therefore, the Star Wars saga as a whole more or less covers all the primary themes classic to the arenas of politics and warfare, which, in-and-of-themselves, are mostly metaphorical to the central mythic conflicts of the main characters; anything more circumstantial, including many of the ideas suggested so far, would just end up dragging the series down too deeply into sociopolitical academics. Only then would Star Wars truly run the risk of turning into C-SPAN or some dense literary work ...or Star Trek. No thanks. The trick is to come up with something fresh that will nonetheless reflect universal truths. Remnants of the fallen Empire as a source of strife doesn’t boast well creatively. I mean, for dramatic reasons, we’ve been there, done that. The Empire’s been blown to bits, twice now. Likewise, having a corruption within a newly formed Republic would just be going back over old territory.

I don’t know, maybe start the new trilogy off without any major wars altogether. I have an idea. If we pick up some time after the events of Return of the Jedi, we can assume the galaxy is at relative peace, criminal underworld notwithstanding. Now, if the New Republic is in political and economic order, naturally, that also means it’s expanding, which can cultivate two major themes that tap into real human history, particularly the history of the United States. The first of which is Manifest Destiny. The story can begin somewhere (or everywhere) just beyond the Outer Rim, with our protagonists somehow caught up in either the commercial expansion of regional governments or the New Republic as a whole, spreading peace and democracy to uncharted systems. There doesn’t have to be a lot to explain this, only what I’ve just proposed, really. Where the conflicts arise concerns peoples and societies of these new systems that may not choose to accept the good will of this New Republic, in turn highlighting not necessarily the political corruption of said Republic (at least not yet) but the moral dilemma of how bad things can happen through genuinely good intentions.

Some entity amidst these new systems might first be presented as a legitimate villain or enemy of some kind, covering an entire film, only to eventually reach a point in the story where our heroes must second guess the wisdom of the New Republic or choose to stand against it by aiding the natives. And within these new systems may hide true agents of evil (the Dark Side, perhaps?) that can further complicate matters. Maybe our heroes are ambivalent to begin with; perhaps one is a rogue while the other a lawful Jedi Knight. Further into the storyline of these newly charted systems can the second major theme come into play, one that was only briefly touched upon during The Phantom Menace: Slavery. You can have the Jedi Order, acting on behalf of the New Republic, attempting to free slaves from evil masters as a simple and immediate conflict that all audiences can rally behind. The filmmakers would have to find a way to keep these premises lean in plot, abundant with action (which shouldn’t be too hard) while equally clear in thematic content; and also tangential to the inner mythic journey of our main heroes. How, exactly? I don’t know ...I’m spitballin' here.

 

It would be similar to real world examples of separation of church and state where nations distance themselves from old conservative ideologies. I'm not gonna get into a religious debate but almost every war in the middle east is due to conflicting religions.

The same can be said about the star wars saga. If you think about it the root cause of all issues in the movies is the petty conflict between the jedi and the sith. Get rid of the jedi and the sith and you essentially solve the problem. An advanced galaxy of people recovering from a ruthless authoritarian power that was formed due to said conflict will inevitably consider this option when creating a new government.

Its something ST should explore imo cause the issues would be a lot of gray area and not the traditional black and white. You would have jedi in disagreement on whether or not they should help the new government. You could have like, a jedi civil war and stuff.

 

Well after Return of the Jedi there would be all the usual problems that come about with the reconstruction of a nation or government after a civil war. Moreover, while the Rebel Alliance succeeds in bringing down the Galactic Empire it'll also be faced with a number of entities that will want to be independent of the government on Coruscant. There are a number of hints that the remains of the Confederacy of Independent Systems joined the Rebel Alliance, with the birth of a New Republic these groups may have been allowed or attempted pressured to leave the New Republic.

There are also groups that according to the EU had independent rebellions against the Empire and no desire to join the New Republic (Mandalore), groups that are attempting to leverage more power for themselves then others (Bothan Space), groups that wished to be independent of the galaxy (Corellia), or groups that may feel disenfranchised or were pro-Imperial (Core Worlds).

All of these are potential sources of conflict even after 30-40 years of reconstruction (or even less with the Imperial Remnant's surrender and peace not coming until 15 years after Endor in the EU).

So there's plenty of potential conflicts, the question remains what it'll be.

 

I always thought the issue of slavery and injustice in the Old Republic was never satisfactorily resolved in the saga. Would the new government succeed in abolishing slavery? Or would the new government be a thin democracy atop a society with deep injustice? Anakin after all never did fulfill his promise to free the slaves. Does his son Luke do so in the Sequels?

 

Attempts by the government of the Galactic Alliance trying to ban assault blasters and light sabers for a "secure society."

 

There should be endless discussions of "Lightsaber Control" after a horrific lightsaber stabbing event in a bar, and Luke who is the President of the NLA will hold up a lightsaber in the air proclaiming "from my cold dead hands". Then Porkins's son Mochel Miore will do a documentary titled "Dueling for Coruscant" which will win all sorts of awards, but at the climax of the movie with Miore goes up to accept his award he will go on that the alliance is fictional and shame on you Mrs. Solo and be booed off the stage.

 

The Republic re-forms but the vast majority of people realize, with the help of the force, that representative democracy is a sham/trick played on the people to fool them into thinking they have some semblance of control over the galaxy when in reality it was the droid building industrialists and Muun bankers that fund legislation and even buy votes to squash legislation that conflicts with their monied interests so the same people who were powerful during the rein of the Empire are still running the show - people who represent an ever expanding system of exploitation which necessitates destruction in order to rebuild and maintain perpetual profits. A system incompatible with actual democracy so the Jedi conceive an economic system which is better suited to the Jedi code called Forcunism and the Sith begin a new cult with a twisted cross as it's insignia in order to fight the Forcunist threat and the Republic is actually on the Sith's side but has to maintain that facade of democracy so they secretly fund the Sith in the war against the Forcunists waiting until the last minute when the Forcunists have the Sith all but defeated to step in and destroy the Sith and then to drop nuclear bombs all over the Sith's allies in order to scare the Forcunists into submission but it doesn't work so the galaxy enters a cold and dark war lasting for about 45 years. Yep.