Speculation What if the "big assumptions" are wrong, and the Empire is still in control?

Palpatine's son? Really? Yawnarooni.

I'd hope an Oscar winning writer and some other amazing writers can come up with something better than that cop out. What next? Palps created life through the force?


Oh......

 

Imperial propaganda. If they make Palpatine a Martyr to the cause, it might work. Maybe anyway. Didn't they say something like that in Wedge's Gamble and Shadows of Mindor?

 

Something like this! No dominant government in charge of the entire galaxy. Save that for the end of the Episode 10-12 trilogy.

 

Eh, that's just an example of how it could work. My main point is: the Empire could still be in control of the galaxy as Episode 7 begins, and no restored Republic.

 

A way for Summer Dreamer's scenario to work is after the disaster at Endor, the Imperial government sues for peace. They strike a treaty with the alliance to dissolve their military and restore the senate and the usurper Emperor, the one who tried to take over after Palp's death, would relinquish his throne.

So you could have some type of hybrid Republic/Empire. Maybe like the Holy Roman Empire? More like a figurehead emperor and a confederation of planets.

When you think about what happens after an empire's collapse, there's always power vacuums. You would have infighting among the imperial forces that would aid the alliance in pushing the empire to try and force a peace.

The real question is what time period are we looking at with the ST? It's not really plausible to think it would be even 5-10 years after Endor. If they go with a generation later(20-30 yrs),going blue sky and starting over is more realistic to assume.

 

More Empire..... less Gungans!

 

(legions of bashers applaud)

 

Well, there are always Ewoks. Both trilogies have their crosses to bear.

 

Ewoks > Gungans any day

 

mmmmmm.......................barely. There's not a whole lot of difference between small people in furry suits with glassy eyes that are annoying and fully-CG characters that are annoying. Annoying is the common thing here.

 

Stay on topic. Stay on topic.

 

As you can see, that would be impossible.

 

The problem is that the movie will be set (from what we assume) about 30 years after the previous. For The Empire to still be in control or to have a presence, with the same fight in continuation all these years later, however logical or not, would seem narratively disappointing.

 

I wouldn't mind having the Empire in some way shape or form in the ST, although I think they'll not go in that direction.
We as fans have our own expectations and things we take for granted that "must happen" from decades of books and comics. I would much rather have them go their own way and surprise us, so on that count I agree with the general idea of "big assumptions" being wrong.

 

In a post-Jedi TV series I was once writing, the enemy (or perceived enemy) had got their hands on a large volume of decommissioned Imperial weapons and artillery - thus keeping the look of the bad guys much the same while changing their identity and agenda.

 

Cold War. Star Wars style. Chorus was right to suggest looking at history. GL builds his stories from mythology and history. Look at what happened to our world in the post-war years. What kind of power vacuum would there be in the Empire's wake?

 

I don't like the idea of the Empire having a major influence, it kind of kills the point of the first 6. I think it is going to be a peaceful galaxy with a new threat emerging or several factions vying for control to start Episode VII. Considering the clone wars already covered the rush for power from different planets and interests, I hope we see the galaxy under the peaceful rule of the Jedi with a war breaking out near the end. I also think it would be neat to see Luke somehow as a spiritual leader of people (not just the Jedi) as sort of an antithesis to what the Emperor was. Lets see how HE likes it when people rebel against him!

 

The reason there were no Nazi remnants in power in Germany after the war was because the Allies completely occupied every square inch of the country. There was no German government to integrate Nazi holdouts into; the Allies WERE the German government, and they conducted extensive de-nazification processes to weed as many holdouts as possible. All the major figures in government, the law, the sciences, even the arts were either tried for their crimes and/or run through a very discerning screening designed to expose diehard National Socialists and force them out of every walk of life in the country. Even people suspected of being just "fellow travellers," people who didn't endorse the crimes of Nazism but nonetheless still found themselves agreeing with its basic tenets, were forced out of their professions by the Allies, rather than risking their infecting yet another generation of Germans with that racist-militaristic crap. In other words, National Socialism withered and died because its enemies brought overhwelming force to bear (the only thing National Socialism ever responded to), and used it during the occupation without hesitation to rip that philosophy out of Germany by root and branch.

You think the Rebels had anywhere near that kind of overwhelming force? When last we left them, they had committed virtually their entire spacegoing capacity to one battle and lost a significant portion of that capacity during the fight. No, we don't know what's going on during the intervening thirty years (if it really IS that duration in Episode VII), but they still have to gain allies from other sources, organize them, secure Rimward territories and move Coreward, and finally take and HOLD the Core, including Coruscant (because just taking a piece of land from an enemy is relatively easy; holding and keeping that piece of land from an enemy that wants it back is much harder, particularly when that land, strategically and politically, is EXTREMELY important). All of those things were done in the EU, but that required a lot of exposition and even some continuity spackle to get that story told plausibly; in any case, if the EU really is at risk now (and I firmly believe it to be) none of that may matter now.

I don't personally expect the Empire in the ST to be what it was in the OT; that's as foolish as having expected it to be the same in the PT, which it wasn't (though by the end of TCW, it was getting harder to tell the difference between Republic and Empire to the point where the distinction had no practical meaning); I do expect there to be a pro-Imperial faction with an interest at stake (which they even had in the EU), but what they'd do in the new films, I have no idea.

If I had to pick a personal preference (and that's about ALL we can do right now, is just imagine things that probably won't happen in the films at all), I'd say that the overall struggle of the ST would indeed be a continuation of those in the PT and OT: the overall struggle for who gets the government at the end of the day. The PT started with the Republic in charge and ended with it being overthrown by the Empire; the OT started with the Empire in charge and ended with it being overthrown by the Rebels. The ST could start with the Rebels in charge, but how will it end? Who risks overthrowing it now? Just the Imperial holdouts, or factions within the Rebel Alliance itself who may have radically different ideas on the future shape of the galaxy from what we think Luke and Leia might endorse? What's certain is that this time, the ST needs to end, at the conclusion of Episode IX, with a firm, definitive and unambiguous statement that the good guys HAVE won, that they ARE in charge and will STAY in charge, and that the galaxy is truly going to back to whatever passed for normal before Darth Sidious came along (the one thing the EU refused to give us; or they gave it to us and then took it back immediately afterwards...).

 

I would think fragments of the Empire exist, perhaps even controlled star systems each held by a different fleet and controlled by a Grand Admiral or something. But a whole Empire seems unlikely, it would need a central ruler, and as far as we know Palpatine always planned for his apprentice to take his place after he died. Seeing as Vader also died at the same time and the main part of the fleet got destroyed, plans for replacing the Emperor are more likely to have given way to a power struggle in the leadership vacuum. Perhaps there was a conflict between the remaining parts of the Empire.

 

its meant to be sequel...and it will be 30 years...there has to be ties

 

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Didn't the Rebel Alliance start as a group that wanted to restore the Republic? I'm not saying that this means they would have to recreate exactly the governmental structure of the Republic, but that's more or less the aim, isn't it?

As for a "reformed Empire", I don't really see that as having much potential. However, I think the OP had an interesting idea in having the Empire still in control of the galaxy, although I'm not keen on the son of Palpatine and/or marriage to Leia idea. We've all assumed, not unreasonably, that the ending of RoTJ suggests the demise of the Empire, but does it have to?

 

Leaving Human history aside, their is a much bigger force at game in the Star Wars universe, something many of you don't seem to even remotely comprehend. Yoda in Labyrinth of Evil said specifically that the fight between the Republic and the Separatists was a fight between the light side and the dark side, i.e. the Jedi and the Sith, NOT a fight between droids and clone troopers. Once Dooku was killed along with Sidious, Grievous would be the only target left. Once he was captured, you needed to basically shut down all the Separatists dreadnaughts like what Palpatine did in Episode III. The war would be over.

Why should it be any different after ROTJ? It's very clear that several systems freed themselves from the Empire at the end of the film, including Coruscant, Naboo and Tatooine (and mind you: Tatooine was filled with corrupt and vile gangsters, so if they were happy that the Empire ended, then why would the majority of the planets not be?). The Emperor dies, Darth Vader is redeemed, Most of the fleet the Empire had has now been destroyed, it's most prized Admirals (Tarkin, Motti, Yularen, Ozzel, Piett, Jerjerrod) dead. You're saying that some Admiral who didn't even fight in Endor is somehow going to pose a serious challenge to a galaxy turned against them? When most of those admirals and captains probably hated the Empire? When statues of Palpatine were DESTROYED in Coruscant? When what most likely happened after Jedi would be that the Rebels arrive at Coruscant with open arms and re establish democracy and threaten to shut down the remaining Star Destroyers in the galaxy if they don't cooperate?

Going back to the Force, let's not forget that the galaxy was redeemed and brought balance to. That is a paradigm shifting act, a COSMOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL shifting act. People will no longer live in fear, and with the Empire no longer with their cause that brought them into fight (the Sith) what threat are they going to be to the newly restored Jedi?

The only way I can see the Imperial Remnant playing some kind of role in the new trilogy is if, they are an evolution of the military and architecture of the former Empire. Believe me, I don't want to see Stormtroopers in Episode VII. We saw an evolution from clone troopers to stormtroopers in the films. Why can't their be another evolution now, IF WE SEE ANY EMPIRE OR IMPERIAL REMNANT? ( A BIG IF)