ST Poll: Will There Be An Empire?

I think after Endor, the Grand Moffs take control of the Empire and the military once Vader and the Emperor are gone. They start fighting amongst themselves, and fracturing into warring states. Generals, admirals, Dark Force users allied to the Empire become personal armies to fill the power vacuum as every one with an ego and position of power tries to become the new emperor. After several decades of fighting most of the significant leadership is killed off in open battles, cous, assassinations, etc.

This focus of infighting causes the Rebellion to establish a provisional government called the Resistance to keep reclaiming parts of the galaxy. Of the few fragments of warlords controlling the galaxy, Supreme Leader Snoke manages to take control of one, renames it the First Order in an attempt to reconquer the galaxy, and also finds himself an apprentice to be an enforcer. The provisional government of the Rebellion battles what remains of the Empire for control in a long lasting war of attrition. There is no New Republic yet, just the Resistance, a provisional government which has yet to evolve into that form yet due to lack of strength and stability enough to elect a democratic government.

 

Is The First Order...

a) Fully functional Empire that was never defeated? - NO (We know about the Battle of Jakku)
b) Weakened Empire that is gaining new strength? - YES
c) Imperial Remnant that joins other villians? - YES (Well, it is an Imperial Remnant and Snoke could be "other villains")
d) No Empire - They were defeated and now it's time for something new - YES (I know, I know, The First Order is a new version of The Empire, but at the same time, they are not the empire so therefore must be something new)

 

Uprising trailer shows the Empire did not die at the end of the RoTJ

 

I went with weakened and is gaining strength.

In the previous trilogies you have one dominant faction (Republic or Empire) and smaller resistant factions (Rebels or Separatist), it would be interesting to see a galaxy that has two fairly equal powers.

 

Well at the battle of Endor the Rebels destroyed a Death Star, Super Star destroyer, and a few other regular Star destroyers. The loss of the Emperor and Vader left a pretty large vacancy when it came to leadership.

While those have to be considered to be pretty big losses, it definitely didn't stop the Empire at all. Even after all of that, the Imperial fleet was still significantly stronger than the Rebel fleet, and you know that there had to be some pretty strong military leadership that legitimately hated the Rebellion and wanted to end the threat.

So now that we know that they are currently known to be the First Order, I guess it's safe to say that they're the remnant of the Empire, and obviously there are still Sith involved to some degree.

It's hard to say much from a couple of quick teaser trailers, but the First Order troopers look more professional and focused than the OT ones did. That could spell trouble for the Resistance.

My biggest question is, what role does the Force awakening play in this war? We have some ideas, but nothing is for sure yet.

 

I sure hope there's still an Empire!

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Jakku

No, The Empire was not defeated at the Battle of Endor. But I get the impression from all the official blurb, that the Battle of Jakku was the moment the last Remnants of the Empire were incorporated into the New Republic or destroyed (or exiled? The First Order?).

 

It might just be that after the Rebellion killed the Emperor and Vader that someone more intelligent and rational than Sidious came to power like Thrawn. He was able to locate the Rebel fleet and destroy it all at once. The Resistance is all that remains of the Rebel Alliance. The New Order controls most of the galaxy.

 

I picked the third option. The name change from "Empire" to "First Order" is significant. The First Order's logo is even different from the Empire's.

The Empire as we knew it in the OT is gone, not having anywhere near the grasp on the Galaxy that they once did. The Emperor, Darth Vader, and the Death Star - three of the key components that the Empire had to rule - were destroyed in the Battle of Endor. Things like the Battle of Jakku and whatever is happening in Star Wars: Uprising are the Rebellion cleaning up Luke Skywalker's table scraps.

Just look at Jakku. We see a ton of downed Star Destroyers, but not a lot of Rebellion ships on the ground there. That is also significant, visually.

Obviously, there's still something remaining. There's always going to be evil in the world. There's always going to be despots rising up. There's always going to be a horde of Stormtroopers with nothing to do. I don't know who Snoke is and what his role (if any) was in the Empire, but it's safe to assume he picked up the pieces and, along with Kylo Ren, is attempting to bring a new order to the Galaxy that is a spiritual successor to the Empire.

But, so far, everything we've seen shows a crumbling Empire in the wake of ROTJ and an entity known as the First Order being the bad guys in TFA. They're gone.

The bigger question to me is whether or not there's an actual Republic in place by TFA or if that was a tried and failed idea. No Empire for sure, though.

 

I voted "No Empire...something new."

I think the First Order will be a body attempting to gain control of the galaxy as an authoritarian government. But I am not going to classify it as an Empire. So the first three options are "no's" for me.

 

Perhaps a Mandalorian cult has taken control of a fraction of the Empire, and is using it in the hope of restoring their ancient Empire instead.

 

your vote doesn't matter if you made it after we heard about the first order.

 

Perhaps the First Order is only in the first film. Afterwards the Mandalorians stage a cou and overthrow it for their own agenda.

 

Or Kylo Ren is the lightning rod for a greater threat.

 

Why bring back the Empire? The writers couldn't think of a new enemy for the protagonists?