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

I don't see how following up on a lead makes her the butt of his joke, she is fully aware of what he is saying and offering. She chooses to take the ship and meet up with the other forces. She is the one who chooses Armitage as a protege, she willingly receives help from the other assets. Is it really a joke simply cause Rax provided it and wanted it? She is still the one in charge now, she is not being fed orders anymore since Rax is pretty dead, and everything is not gonna be more or less from the ground up.

More than anything, she decided she agreed with what Rax was doing, at least in an overall sense, and thus seized the position. That was a choice, he made an offer she accepted. That was not really the dynamic before.

 

Page 399 Aftermath Empire End

Rax to Sloane

Rax's final line before death

I mean....At least Rax realized that he was the butt of the Emperors joke ;p

But in all seriousness....Sounds to me that Rax didn't do this as a joke...The serve a higher power....I mean the FO is kinda cultish in that idea...And that's what makes them all scary. They aren't self serving warlords, but they believe in a idea.

And ideas don't go away so easily.

Spoiler

Or more likely than not they all serve Palpatine because that's exactly how he wanted it cuz he's getting ready to Operation Shadowhand the Galaxy and Dark Empire himself

 

@Jid123Sheeve and @vncredleader - okay, I evidently need to explain why I think this is a bad joke.

The joke is based on the depth-of-contrast between Rae's self-image as "Grand Admiral Sloane", ruler of the Empire after Palpatine, and the reality of her role, which was as a dupe in cosplay reading Rax's scripts and commanding absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Rax has played her all along, using the idea that she's the leader to rebuild the Empire (an idea which he invented and tricked her into beleving in the first place, then gave a superficial reality through HoloNet PR stuff, purely in order to enveigle other Imperial factions into his plan).

And now, when Rax only needs Rae to activate the autopilot of the yacht, he plays her in exactly the same way he always has done. Take command of my new Empire.

And she falls for exactly the same line again.

Seeing Rae's indignation earlier in the same novel at how Rax is ruining "her Empire" is pitiful - "her Empire" never existed, and was always a front for Rax. As the bounty-hunter tracking her, watching through her macrobinocs, "she doens't even command a hill of sand".

And she never did.

But Rae? Rae never realises this. Which is why Rax can pull his same old trick on her at the end, and she falls for the exact same ruse again.

So based on that backstory, does Rae Sloane have any real capacity to actually lead the First Order?

Just going to reply specifically to a couple of small points...

(movie-rumour / spoiler stuff here, by the way)...

Spoiler

As far as the actual movies we've seen so far go, Snoke was the one who inherited the FO, and any hard work Rae had put in...

That was always the dynamic. Rax recruited her, explained he had a plan to rebuild the Empire, and made out that he wanted her to be the leader because she had the fleet-command and personality skills he lacked - a choice, an offer, accepted by her (a choice to serve the man behind Cinder, in exchange for a shiny white fake uniform - oh Rae, are you really that stupid?); apparently so, because in reality, she commanded nothing - he then simply used her for his ends, as the diversity-hire PR girl, scripting her speeches and making all the decisions himself, in a scheme in which she was really only an expendable pawn.

And that's still what Rax is doing here.

Now does this make sense?

And do you see why I think exposing this is kind of important?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

OMG... I forgot to share one little detail from Alphabet Squadron that is DYING for further explanation. It is a single, solitary reference, but one with HUGE storytelling potential.

“berserker fleets” tearing through Hutt Space.

(Mind spins with possibilities)

—Adm. Nick

 

I didn't think Khorne existed in the Star Wars Universe.

 

I believe Chuck Wendig referenced a quasi civil war/slave revolt in Aftermath. Hutts fighting each other for territory, slave species uprising, etc. Its like chaos in China in the early 20th century, with folks largely ignoring it in favor of other events (WWI or WWII).

RIPE with storytelling potential.

—Adm. Nick

 

Sounds like we need a logic puzzle grid to figure this out.

If anything could get the Hutts on the New Republic's side, that would.

 

I got the impression that it wasn't Cinder per se, but the same sort of purposeless destruction. Just a fleet attacking ships and leveling planets with reckless abandon.

 

Someone call Jon Favreau quick ;p

 

I brought this up on a another thread kinda but this idea i'm gonna stick with just the NuCanon and the First Order.

I'm curious just how institutionalized the First Order is compared to even the Empire and perhaps the new stack of Warlords will see in the Post RoTj world.

Like, for me when I think of Warlords I think of a very personalized regime, once the Warlord is dead, and i they didn't appoint a successor, that's it...They are dead.

For me am institutionalized group, even if the head is dead (Snoke, maybe Sloane,) the organization still lived. Now obviously Kylo swooped in and took over on a dime, but even if he didn't I wonder if the First Order would have been able to hold it together. Are it's internal organs like High Command and FOSB going to get keep it together even if say Snoke and Kylo and maybe even Hux both kicked it.

Or does the FO crack too and we see FO warlords neck ;p

Just something that i find curious when it comes to these totalitarian states, because even if they have a "Supreme Leader" can they survive the unexpected passing of said Supreme Leader.

 

Have we gotten more information yet on the other 3 new galactic powers: the Confederacy of Corporate Systems, the Neo-Separatists, and the Pirate government? (Am I even remembering their names right?)

 

Nope. The New Separatists, the Confederacy of Corporate Systems, and that pirate government in the Outer Rim have not been touched on since. I've long suspected that many of the New Separatists are the former Seppie worlds that eventually join the New Republic once Chancellor Mon Mothma makes it clear that she's not just copying the Coruscant based old Republic. Hell, as early as a few months post-Endor, Kerkoidia, Separatist stronghold and home to the Retail Caucus, was liberated and joined the NR.

I'd love to see a bit more about both Seppie based governments. The New Separatists seems to be the "true believers" that had genuine grievances against the Old Republic. The Confederacy seems to be the more corporate, industrial, and greedy members of the Seppies. I can totally see Neimoidia, Mygeeto, Scipio, and Muunilinst being part of this group.

--Adm. Nick

 

Pirate government?

Why was it a good idea to scrap the fleets if there was a 'Pirate government' that's big enough to be mentioned as a powerplayer around?

 

This is pre-disarmament. I suspect that the pirate fleet didn't last long. For all it's rush to demilitarize, up through Jakku, the NR underwent a massive military expansion. MC85's, Starhawks, Starfortress bombers, Bunkerbusters, additional MC80's, captured ISD's, increased starfighter forces, etc.

--Adm. Nick

 

Seeing new factions pop up would be interesting and it would be good to see like some legacy of the CIS.

Wonder what the Mandalorians are up to in this era.

 

Weeeeeellll

In Last Shot while I don't know if the "Pirate Government" is still around, the Underworld and Piracy is definitely still making waves.

 

Of course, but so long as the SSD they have is neutralized I think that can be given a pass

 

are you saying that once the SSD is taken out the Republic consider the matter closed and all space travellers n traders have to fend for themselves against the pirates sammer ships?

 

My head canon....The Pirates crashed the SSD they had when one of the pilots had a bit to much to drink that day.

It's a planets rights issue ;p

 

Or a litte too ,much spice.

Seriously...piracy will always be an issue in the galaxy. But pirates running around with an SSD would make any government cringe. Once that is neutralized anti-piracy operations would go back to 'normal'.

 

Umm no.......what the heck does that even mean? The conversation was about the disarmament in relation to a major pirate threat still existing. The point being that it is understandable they would follow through once the only other fleet in being was gone. That has **** all to do with making people fend for themselves, or not getting involved. You don't need a constant flux of starhawks in order to stop small holdouts or gangs of pirates. When you just spent the past year pumping out as many vessels as possible, you can cool the jets and have enough to spare.

Hell we literally see what I am talking about in Last Shot, you know the thing that JID was referencing in the first place. The NR combats pirate threats with their post disarmament fleet, they face some trouble, but are not largely outgunner and they for sure are not doing nothing.

Not needing a progressively and exponentially stronger fleet anymore, does not mean you are considering the threat of pirates to be unimportant. Hell we know the Cargo-Frigate Vakbeor class was designed specifically to combat pirate threats. While it did not do well in the primary market, seemingly not being taken up by the NR, we know the NR had anti-pirate task forces, and likely did not need the Vakbeor specifically cause they had no need for such a ship given they had all they needed already. We know that just 4 T-85s of Rapier Squadron where good enough to serve an effective anti-pirate role in the Mirrin sector. There was at least a NR base there for that role. Nothing indicates the NR just ignored pirate threats, everything points to them having dealt with most and having perfected what they needed to combat stuff like the Guavian Death Gang

No one advocated for the NR doing nothing about pirates, nothing indicates that is the case, and frankly everything we know says otherwise.

Like how did you even get from point A to.......point fegibegvhrbg? The conversation went
"what of the pirate fleet"
"this is pre disarmament so it likely did not exist for long"
"well there is a threat in Last Shot which is after that, thus would they have felt like disarming before it was neutralized?"
and then my point of "the smaller threat was enough that post-disarmament NR can deal with it, thus no worries about needing to wait to disarm so long as the SSD is gone"

NONE of that has anything to do with abandoning spacers or the NR only caring if their is an SSD involved. You literally quoted the convo with the context you seemed to ignore, no offense but when playing devil's advocate, do so against a point that actually exists, not one you pull from thin air. What can be "given a pass" is the need for a non disarmed fleet against pirate threats" that was pretty evident so long as one reads the quotes I was responding to at all.

Well put, an SSD is a crisis and requires the fleet to be ready and actively trying to find it. I think of it like the Bismark or Tirpitz, whereas once that threat is gone, the home fleet can rest easy and individual taskforces can get back to their specific patrols. Genuinely what happened when both those threats ended up neutralized, the standing order to ships to back up the home fleet was dropped, and everything reverted back to specific missions

 

Speaking of disarmament, I wonder what the chances are of New Republic captured Imperial star destroyers lasting to the ST era.

It would be great seeing a surviving one in RoS controlled by the good guys. Once a symbol of tyranny, now one of hope.

It’s such a shame their was a huge reduction of military power for the New Republic. I wish they had a reduction but not one to the extent that happened in the new canon, it never made much sense.

 

I would imagine there are PSFs that may have ISDs in there fleets. There are some rich and powerful worlds out there that could afford them.

I agree on the disarmament. Reduction to 35-40% with 3 or 4 fleets for the NR.

 

I'd love to see someone commenting on the nature of the crisis, Blackadder-style, as a shout-out:

This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you got a moment, it's a twelve-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying 'This Is a Large Crisis'. A large crisis requires a large plan.