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

Movie or comic?

 

Aren't these faux pro-FO and pro-Empire posts getting a little tired?

sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

If you want the terrorists to win.

 

I think the terrorists would at least be more original and interesting.

sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

Sigh...

sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

Plucky rebels against an oppressive regime!

Seriously, I kind of wish the First Order and NR were in a Cold War situation with heroes on both sides.

Like a certain MMORPG.

 

Jello loves the aristocratic Empire and its pretensions at nobility.

I, hate the nobility and aristocracy so I love the plucky Rebellion against it.

I, however, love the First Order as a bunch of tired dirty down idealogues fighting against the arrogant New Republic.

Jello hates them as terrorists.

 

Seriously...Thread derailed.

Jello...mod-scold yourself...or something.

sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

Sigh...

sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

On a serious note, there's some things I'd like to see in the coming years as we get a more further fleshed out First Order:

1. Behind the Scenes of the First Order Conspiracy: I'd love to see a book set in the First Order from the period of Empire's End to Bloodlines. This would be very difficult to do because there's no way to involve the "Good Guys" since the UK FO remains a secret until TFA. Still, it'd be awesome if we had a story starring Rae Sloane or perhaps a certain Lost Stars Captain trying to do good in the quagmire of conspiracy behind the scenes. I'm imagining something similar to Outbound Flight where Thrawn and the other traditional villains are the protagonists.

2. More scenes in First Order territory: I'd like to see what life is like for the former Centrist worlds as well as what life is like on the world's conquered by the FO. I'd like for something similar to the Sith Empire in The Old Republic but that may be asking for too much. I'm also hoping the Knights of Ren are a real thing which has influence and position. I assume any volume which focuses on Kylo Ren would achieve this.

3. Imperial Nostalgia: I'd like to see why people have decided they want to create something like the First Order, which is "publicly" at least just a Neo-Imperial regime. Like the Golden Dawn party in Greece or other Far Right European groups. We have Mas Amedda and Coruscant as a "Rump" Empire but I'd be interested in seeing who and what are subject to reparations as well as how the people in general are affected. I was intrigued by the idea of a Treaty of Versailles-style crushing of certain systems but Mon Mothma doesn't seem like the person to impose those kind of sanctions.

4. Sympathetic First Orders: We've had a massive number of sympathetic Imperial POV and "Heroes on Both Sides" with them. I'd like to see the same with the First Order. I'm also less than impressed with our only example so far in Terex who seems to be obsessed with the idea the GE is better than the FO in the same way some posters are. Really, I'm hoping for Poe to blow him up soon.

Even so, I'd love a Phasma and Hux book. I imagine we won't get a Kylo Ren book until we get the full new trilogy done.

 

What I would like to see if there are Imperial loyalists/fans who hate what the FO stands for. They reluctantly throw themselves in with the Resistance.

 

What challenges do you guys think that the FO could face in the course of expanding their power?

 

Amusingly, I imagine destroying Hosnian Prime will make their control much much weaker. It will kind of ruin what I suspect was, until then, an extraordinarily successful propaganda campaign at making themselves appear the victim.

 

Oh come now Charles, they may be superlaser-using planet-destroying monsters, but they do have hearts.

 

I should have clarified: in-universe.

 

Jedi Ben

I wanted to get have you elaborate more about the New Republic as portrayed in the NEU/ST. Basically, I'm pulling this from the ETE PM to the thread. I think you and I will broadly agree on the issues we see present in the New Republic, but I'd argue that we've seen some tremendously good things as well. It's definitely more nuanced that we saw in the old EU (the NR was a shiny "city on a hill"), but I still suspect that the remainder of the Sequel Trilogy will be our heroes working to save/restore the New Republic, albeit one that corrects some of it's prior flaws.

--Adm. Nick

 

The strange thing for me Nick is that Bloodline gives me a better picture of the NR than EE, even though both have their bombings, at least it took 24 years of decline to reach that poin. In EE it's near enough Wartol's first resort! Sure, we can conclude that politics isn't Wendig's forte, but that doesn't help with the in-universe events. I would have preferred Wartol had an actual rationality to his differences with Mothma rather some Trumpian desire to have everyone do as he says in a new Empire. I also wanted to see more political skill from Mothma in EE, given the way Bloodline sets her up, but didn't really get that either.

Bloodline in contrast shows us a galaxy that has moved on from the Empire, but not enough not to fear its influence in politics, which is a very subtle but effective line. Palpatine's political MO was: Give me the tools to do the job and it will be done, but everyone knows what he then went onto do with those same tools, this decades on that toxin remains.

I think the overall problem I have is there may be quite a bit of positive achievements but the SW story model isn't built around those, it's built around everything going wrong and falling apart. But, if there really is supposed to be over 20 years of peace then that gives ample reason to have a SW riff on Trek's Articles of the Federation. I think that's needed, but I have no idea if the Story Group would agree.

 

I agree with you, Ben. Star Wars, as opposed to Star Trek, focuses on conflict, so the chances of us getting a story that focuses on the Senate passing meaningful measures is slim. Again, a lot of the problem stems from how TFA setup the New Republic. It will take an ambitious author to craft a story that shows all the successes of the New Republic and not be tempted to foreshadow what we know will eventually happen.

When you consider that the New Republic's best achievements were around directly elected senators, rebuilding worlds devastated by the Empire, and repairing galactic infrastructure, there are easy ways to organically weave these into a story. I want to meet pilots who joined the NRDF because their homeworld was repaired under the New Republic, or worlds that formerly lacked a democratic voice suddenly benefitting from having a say. Meet characters who are successful due to the NR restarting trade and promoting personal freedoms. There are so many ways to sprinkle that kinda stuff into a story without making it the primary focus.

That's my hope, at least. Hopefully the Story Group promotes stuff like that!

--Adm. Nick

 

Honestly, Wartol's policies made more sense to me than Mothma right up until his Bel Iblis' belief she was going to lead the galaxy to ruin by disarming the galaxy and making sure the New Republic had a weak centralized authority.

The thing is....he's 100% right.

 

If he was right and had actual confidence in his views, he wouldn't need to go around resorting to bombing the Chancellor's office.