RotJ question(s)

After it's all said and done, what is to become of the empire? Is it now a republic again... or is there still more work to be done. And are there really gungons at the end of the movie?

 

the empire eventually crumbles and becomes a replublic again, and yes there really are gungans at the end of ROTJ in the Naboo background.


CLone

 

without the emperor, the empire was fragmented between proud warlords. everybody wanted authority. it eventually was 'destroyed' when the peace treaty was signed between the new republic(known as rebels to the empire) and the empire.

 

Ehh...Empire was still hanging around after the treaty. Wasn't until some 5 years into NJO before they decided to unite into the Galactic Alliance to fight the Yuuzhan Vong.

 

To go with the EU, then the above tells you what happened.

From a reality standpoint (ie outside of the GL fantasy land), the Regional Govenors still have "complete control". They would unleash their forces on any world that saw the death of the Emperor as an invitation to join the rebellion, and every govenor would be pitted against every other govenor as they tried to seize power for themselves.

All the rebels really did was remove all central authority and plunge the galaxy into a Civil War, the likes of which we can't even imagine.

 

And also with that said, it can also be inferred that due to the celebrations seen on Bespin, Tatooine, Naboo, and Coruscant, that the people revolted against the Imperial presence there and won their independence, or, if not by the time shown in the ending montage, would eventually. Star Wars is interesting in that it only shows the events circling the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. The Saga begins with the current incarnation of the Republic existing for 1,000 years already and it ends even though the Galactic Civil War isn't over. It's interesting in that the beginning isn't really a beginning and the ending isn't really an ending. We're just seeing a 36-year glimpse of a galactic history.

 

The Republic has technically been around for 20 or 25 thousand years. The 'thousand years' part I think is referring to the Republic's peace time they've had since the great Sith war.

 

Long story short,

The rebel alliance grew and became the New Republic. They captured Coruscant, and thus it became the Republic's capital once again. By 5 years after the battle of Endor, the Empire only controlled 1/4 of the space it once did. 10 years after that, the Imperial Remnant (now a relatively small corner of the galaxy) signed a peace treaty with the New Republic, thus officially ending aggression between them.

This is all EU of course, so it's up to you to decide if you consider it canon.