ST The ST: What Would You Change/Revise?

Popped back on for a relatively concise idea regarding Ben and Rey (separately, not as Reylo). I think the movies would have done well to focus on the idea of the weight felt by the truly gifted force sensitives, like Anakin, Luke, Ben, and Rey.

The movies clearly want us to draw parallels between Kylo and Vader, but they never take the next logical step: showing us the parallels between Ben and Anakin (which is one of my biggest complains about TLJ: that it gets so obviously close to great ideas that it is infuriating that it does nothing with them). The PT doesn't spend too much on this, but it is made clear that Anakin is struggling with being literally the most powerful force user in the galaxy and the weight of that responsibility. While the exact force rankings are no longer canon, Luke and Leia used to be pretty much on par, potential-wise, with pre-Mustafar Anakin/Vader. It's reasonable to assume that Ben is right up there. Thus, we can assume that Ben would have felt much of the same pressure as Anakin, even down to the tension between political leaders in the immediate family (Leia/Padme) and the proper role of the Jedi, and himself, in particular. We should be given some hint of this, that Ben failed in a very similar fashion to Anakin.

Meanwhile, this gives us a perfect opening for the whole 'why are Rey's parents a mystery' backstory. And for why she is so absurdly powerful. Rey would have been Luke's younger and more gifted students, who survives the attack on Luke's academy, thus making her specific parents irrelevant (anyone can be born Force sensitive, after all). Luke, in his 'I don't want to train Jedi anymore' course of action, also has to figure out what to do with Rey. He already has two close family members who could not handle the pressure of being so gifted with the Force, and he blames himself directly for Ben's fall, so he wipes Rey's memory, and sends her off to live in obscurity, so she can live a peaceful life.

Now, if the studio is willing to go 180 with TLJ, we have Luke explain this to Rey during her training, and it is revealed that he didn't pay much attention to what happened to her afterward, and didn't realize that his attempt to give her a normal life went so horribly for her that she was living as a scavenger (this can tie in with the drunk parents backstory, Luke put her in the care of a couple who clearly let him down). Now, she and Kylo have something to bond over, their mutual perceived abandonment by Luke. Loads of opportunities there.

 

1) Have a project for the whole trilogy since the beginning and not only for each single movie separately
2) Do not leave to each director/screenwriter total freedom for their movie (If you do, don't confess it with pride to the media)
3) Don't repeat the plot ideas already seen in previous movies. Try with something new. At first you might earn slightly less, but it will pay off on the long run
4) Be passionate when it comes to world building and expanding the SW mythology. Don't be lazy about the details
5) avoid meta-narrative/self-awareness.
6) Subvertion is fine, but only if it makes sense.
7) make a story that follows smoothly from ROTJ. Letting time pass is recommended, but don't make something too big happen between OT and ST.

 

Pretty much everything

 

1)Have a complete script for the whole ST to look at every character arc in full size;
2)Give the story more or less detailed and adequate premise (its normal for Rebels to fight Empire, its not normal for some organization to out-resource and overwhelm the massive government in such a short time and without any brief description of how was that possible);
3)Have the 1-2 year time skips between all three episodes to give the characters and story the time room for growth;
4)Fix Kylo's character, give him proper anchors to do evil things and make his personality more consistent;
5)Give OT Trio important stuff to do or at least make them act more in the line with their behavior and attitude they demonstrated in OT; Gandalf didnt throw the shadow at Fellowship, so i don't buy writer's excuse about Luke throwing the shadow at all new characters.
6)Make the battles more memorable and exciting; I remember battles of Hoth, Yavin 4, Geonosis, Coruscant in every detail, there is nothing memorable in the battles of SKB or Crait (except some character's stupidity or mom jokes);
7)Give us proper fan service. Make duels more badass and cool looking; Vader vs Kenobi in Ep4 was done in such way purely due to the technology restrictions and concept being unfinished; there is no excuse for ST duels to be so boring and lack of any flavor.

All in all thats it. Other flaws would be cured automatically if LF would have done all stuff i mentioned above.

 

Another ‘quick fix’: Drop the ‘saber Ben in his sleep’ scene (the reasons are self evident). Instead, have Luke be conflicted and regretful over his inability to either see what Ben was becoming or, at least, be willing to accept what he was seeing. Perhaps he’s frozen by inaction or an unwillingness to believe the boy he watched grow up into a man could really turn to the Dark Side. Maybe even Ben’s parents intercede on his behalf - or only one does, leading to their rift - and the family, as a whole, fails due to their inability to face the threat he was becoming.

 

Posted this in another thread but it's more appropriate here. Here is how I would change TLJ in terms of structure without compeltely redoing just some ideas as to how to make the movie more crowd pleasing without changing Rian's vision and what I would expect the story group to be doing!

- 18 months have passed since TFA the Galaxy is in turmoil as what remains of the New Republic clashes with the First Order as most NR ships have been demiliatrized the smaller and more heavily armed First Order are slowly edging them out of the Galaxy, the small but heavily armed Resistance lead by General Leia Organa Solo is the Galaxy's last best chance for freedom

- Resistance Base comes under attack from first order forces space battle plays out much the same way as in TLJ at the end First Order reinforcements appear as does a portion of what remains of the NR fleet. The new Republic has come to make Leia their new chancellor. The two forces clash Leia escapes and Admiral Ackbar dies sacrificing himself for the Resistance

- Hux and Snoke pursue using hyperspace tracking but are limited in the number of ships that can follow and most of their fighters were left behind when Leia escaped

- Cut to the island where Luke has been training Rey she wakes up from a nightmare involving Kylo Ren she has had them for months and she sees the training that Snoke put him through and the negative effect he has had on his mind and how damaged is he.

- Rey is only grudgingly being trained by Luke who refuses to come back to the fight after some trauma occurred between him and Snoke when he attempted to redeem Kylo after he left the Academy it is this failure that had sent him searching for truths about the force

- Rey's story will develop in much the same way as in the actual movie except the connection between Rey and Kylo grows until they can communicate and after seeing what he has been through and what Luke almost did she decides to try and save Kylo and fails just like in the movie

-The Chase scene, The resistance can't escape the FO and Poe disobeys orders to lead a desperate attack on the Supremacy to allow them to escape and fails resulting in multiple deaths General Leia is injured and much of the resistance leadership falls during the attack placing Admiral Holdo in charge and while she wants to put Poe in the brig she can't afford to but she does box him out of her plans. This would allow the conflict in the resistance to be more realistic and the plot can proceed much the same way as in TLJ

- Finn encounters Rose and he tries to steal a ship to follow through on Poe's backup plan, Rose doesn't want to leave the ship but decides to join Finn on their mission to discover the Code Breaker (It would be Lando and Lobot in this case) Once on Canto Bight Finn is focused on the mission to save the only friends he ever has while Rose stumbles upon the fact that Canto Bight is being used by the First Order to broker Weapons deals and Enslaved Children. Seeing an opportunity the stop the first order plans two foil the plot but are captured where they meet DJ in prison and escape (The plot would consider much the same for Finn and Rose from this point on ending on Crait except minus the awful dialogue)

- Luke Skywalker the plot follows much the same route as TLJ except with Luke teaching Rey and keeping his and Kylo's past from her over the months faced with losing the last hope for the Galaxy Luke saves his student making her the Last Jedi much as TLJ but has a heartwarming talk with his sister urging her to lead what remains of the New Republic against the First Order.

- Kylo's story is mainly unchanged except that we see a lot of what has happened to him through Rey's nightmares to expalin who he is and why he has fallen and in the end he choses to stay where he is accepting his role as the new Supreme Leader.

- Snoke leave the story the same except we hear snippets of conversation during Rey's nightmares that help explain who and what he is not fully fleshing out the character but removing him as just a Palpatine stand in.

- Leia and Holdo would pretty much remain unchanged except Leia deciding whether or not to lead the New Republic

- End credits with the Resistance barely escaping as they go to join what's left of the New Republic in the fight against the First Order

So that's my attempt at not changing the essence of TLJ but cleaning it up so we get more background info and we don't have to jump through logic hoops and it ends up pretty much exactly where Rian Johnson wanted it to end. Just an example of how to change the movie to not disrespect the characters and also please fans

 

Changes? I would chuck the entirety of what's been put out and begin again at the original completed script for VII and whatever exists of George's treatments for VIII and IX.

I would differ from GL on one major story point: the killing of Luke (assuming that would have been part of his story). Luke's ultimate fate would have been undefined by the ST and in my mind would remain so, somewhat akin to the way we were never told how Anakin got his scar.

 

Opens the Pandora's Box:

Much as I liked TFA I think it had enough shortcomings that, with God-like powers I would start from scratch:

Main protagonist: This for me would still be Rey (or rather a variation thereto)- I've wanted a female Jedi protagonist leading a SW story for a very long time. I think Kira is a better name because it has two etymologies: 'dark' from the Irish etymology; and 'light' from the Persian etymology.

Kira would be the daughter of Han and Leia. No contest, this is the best story they could have told. As with Lucas's treatments she would have a non-Force sensitive pilot brother. The Jedi Killer would be a separate character. The idea that Han and Leia would raise a monster makes zero sense. Han would still die at the end of VII; I doubt Harrison would have it any other way. But he'd go down fighting, rather than trying to reason with a man baby.

Kira was kidnapped by Snoke as a child and raised as a darksider. When we first meet her, she is fighting alongside the JediKiller. She would fight Luke at one point. We discover who her parent are in VII. When Han confronts her, she discovers the truth that Snoke had kept from her, and wavers. She can't kill him, and we see that she is gradually being reclaimed by the light. The JediKiller however steps in and kills Han. She is distraught and fights the JediKiller, protecting Han's body. Leia steps in at a key moment and demonstrates unexpected Force skills to drive away the JediKiller, until episode VIII. Kira is reclaimed by the light, though hasn't fully beaten her demons. Her love for her parents is evident however, as she begins to remember her early loving childhood.

Overarching theme: the Origins of the Jedi and the true nature of the Force. I came up with the idea in my fanfics for the sequels that the Force is fundamentally corrupted. There should be no dark or light sides, just a single Force that can be accessed by someone sufficiently Force sensitive. The protagonists goal would initially be to train in the Force under Luke, but in the process of doing so, she would discover that something was fundamentally wrong with it. I would retain the Journal of the Whills and we'd have a moment where she makes this discovery, but I'd be wary of making her another 'chosen one'. It could be an accidental discovery that proves to Luke that she is strong in the Force. It would then be her goal to heal the Force- make it whole once more. Perhaps on her heroes journey, Luke is incapacitated in some way that she must do it alone, otherwise his arc would overshadow hers.

Luke: Luke would have a fully fledged academy and his achievements would be apparent for all too see. He would be Kira's main guide from VIII onwards, though they would have disagreements/conflicts along the way. A story with no tension is not a story that interests me. The other Academy students would help her along the way, but ultimately the goal becomes hers alone by IX; she defies Luke and goes alone on a journey to the First Temple. Speaking of which...

The First Temple: would still be a thing, but re-imagined as a dead world full of dangers which the Jedi abandoned when the Force corrupted. Kira would face her ultimate tests here, with the DS and her own internal conflicts. She would face more temptations by the DS but would ultimately triumph. She would fight the JediKiller here, be tricked by him, tipping the balance in his favour resulting in her injury and near death. She would be rescued by Luke who has followed her to the FT.

Snoke: Snoke would still be a thing. Snoke would be truly ancient: a 'fallen angel'- a Whill that was corrupted by the DS of the Force. It would transpire that he is the embodiment of the DS: its will distilled in a single individual. It will then be discovered that there is a similar light sider Whill whom Snoke keeps imprisoned: his life partner. She would be the embodiment of the light side. Kira would discover her at the First Temple and free her. In ancient times, the two of them had experiments in forbidden arts and accidentally corrupted the Force in their experiments. Other Whills had founded the Jedi Order, but now these two were the last of their kind still alive. Kira makes the terrible discovery that they must both die for the Force to be healed.

Leia: would equally be a guide to Kira as much as Luke, but her other major role would be heading the New Republic. We would see the usual space battles I suppose.. assuming Snoke has gathered forces to fight the Republic and wants to take over stuff in a villainy sort of way, but I'd almost see that as a more superficial sub-plot to the more interesting Force stuff. However, Kira's brother would at least play an important part in defeating those Forces. The 'Poe' character could fill this niche as Kira's brother. No bloody Deathkiller StarBase though FFS...

Han and Chewie: Han has handed over piloting the Falcon to Chewie, but when the **** hits the fan in VII and Snoke's forces attack the Republic, he takes over piloting once more 'like old times'. They lead the attack on Snoke's forces at the end of VII, but is contacted by Leia mid-battle saying she can sense the presence of her daughter on the main capital ship. Han peels away from the main battle to confront her. She allows him to land in the main hangar and they have a face off.

Finn: I like the origin story of Finn and would keep it. Snoke's forces would have stormtroopers and the like; I'm fine with that. Finn would still be the 'everyman' in this story, and we'd see him overcoming his personal demons and being the bravest character in the story. He would aid Poe in ground fights and aid the Republic in intelligence regarding Snoke's Forces. He would aid Kira at times as well, to the point of recklessness. This is because he has fallen for her; and as far as I'm concerned KiraFinn is end game. We discover how much she cares about him, when he is injured by the Jedi Killer and she risks her life to save him.

Just a few ideas.

 

Snoke, what they did with him was pretty much the worst thing possible. The idea of the FO being this group of Empire wannabes (although I can totally understand why some wouldn't like that concept) could MAYBE be interesting IF they committed to it fully. Kylo as wannabe Vader and Hux as Tarkin-lite. But if you're going to do that, then remove Snoke entirely. Make those two the co-main villains, that'd be something new in these films. Two young ambitious guys who both want to gain the power of their predecessors and are of more or less equal rank (by contrast Tarkin was clearly the man in charge in ANH). One representing the Force Side of things, and one the more practically military/technology side, but they're rivals against each other (whereas Tarkin and Vader worked pretty well together overall). That could be interesting.

But throwing in this seemingly ancient Dark Siders with nebulous Force Powers that makes him seem even stronger than Vader and Sheev, who knows things that he shouldn't and seemingly can do anything, muddles the waters. And it just immediately causes people to have lots of questions about him that the films had no intentions of answering.

OR if you keep Snoke, make him a non-Force User. He's just an intelligent charismatic guy who was interesting in Force stuff and who could talk people into following him. And it makes Kylo's fall even worse if anything since he wasn't being manipulated by magic powers essentially, he made his own choices. And you also make it so that most people who have nearly as many questions about his backstory since, he's just a guy. AND Kylo killing him like he did works better in this context because not only does it NOT feel like wasted potential (and uber-powerful Dark Siders whom we know nothing about just, gone), but it makes more sense (it's not an uber-powerful Force User being killed because he inexplicably doesn't notice the lightsaber lying six inches from him turning, it's Kylo essentially assassinating a politician/cult leader to take his place). There wouldn't be nearly as much of an anti-climax in this regard.

 

I hated the lightsaber toss and the lack of interaction between Luke and Rey in the opening of TLJ so decided to try and create an alternative opening. Hope you all enjoy it. All feedback welcomed - even negative.

******

Rey holds out the lightsaber and waits for a reaction - any reaction.
But Luke doesn’t move. His gaze is locked onto the weapon. A weapon he hasn’t seen for a long time.

Lukes mouth finally opens...
“Where did you find this?”

Rey stutters “It... it called to me - your lightsaber”

Luke: “No.. my fathers. Why would it call to you? Who are you?”

Rey looks around, hoping for an answer that would make sense. The truth was, nothing did. She couldn’t really remember who she was & why she was abandoned.

Rey: “I’m a nobody. A junker from Jakku.

Luke looks down at his feet as if disappointed with the strangers answer.

Rey’s eyes began to water: “The only reason I left was to flee from the First Order.

Luke smiles sarcastically: ”and you just happened to outrun them”

Rey: I was rescued.. by a stormtrooper.

Luke turns and faces the cliff edge and shakes his head. How had this junker.. this young girl found him?

Rey steps forward “we escaped on the Milennium Falcon”

Luke’s wandering eyes come to an immediate stop.

Luke turns back towards the stranger. He approaches Rey. His gaze locked onto her.

Rey’s unease turns to fear. Is this the same Luke she had heard about on Jakku? The Mythical hero that killed Darth Vader? Were all those smugglers, pirates and pilots telling the truth?

Luke stops in front of her and slowly looks to the lightsaber in Rey’s hand.

Rey could see the pain in Luke’s face. Just for a moment, she hesitates. Her grip tightens. Could she really part with the saber?

Luke points to the weapon: “you think I want this back?”

Luke: “The last time I saw that lightsaber, this happened”

Luke holds up his robotic hand.

“Do you know who did this?”

Rey looks at the mechanical hand
“I.. i’ve heard stories. Some say it was a Sarlaac. Some say it was a Bounty Hunter. I’ve even heard it was Darth Vader”

Luke “My own father did this to me. Only the dark side could cause a man to destroy his son.

Luke looks over the shoulder of Rey. His eyes begin to well up. “I had a choice. To strike him down or save him. Vader was machinery but Anakins heart was underneath all that metal”

Rey’s shock is overwhelming. She goes to speak but what to say? What words can do justice to this news.. this revelation?

Rey’s grip on the lightsaber softens.

“Vader was your father?”

Luke, who now stands at Reys side, leans in to Rey’s ear “Anakin was my father”

Rey: I.. I don’t understand. How could that be?

Luke: You’re a junker from a distant planet. Why would you understand? The greatest threat in the Galaxy was my own father and I was his only hope.

Rey looks back at the saber in her hand and for a brief moment, it all made sense.

Rey: That’s why I’ve come for you. The Resistance can’t win this war without you. If you can save your own father, you can save Ben too.

Luke takes a deep breath, as if the mere mention of Ben’s name was a burden.

Rey: He’s your blood. He needs..

Luke cuts her off loudly “No”!

Luke begins to breathe heavily, “I’m the one person who can’t”

Rey shakes her head in disbelief, “How can that be? You’re Luke Skywalker. If anyone can see the good in Ben, it’s you.”

Luke turns and walks back towards the cliff edge.

Luke: “There’s something you ought to know”

Rey: “Tell me.. what is it?”

Luke looks out to the waters that surround the island and then closes his eyes. He takes one deep breath and then speaks... “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny”
He turns back to Rey, “consume you it will...”

Rey can’t hide her fear. She turns in the slim hope that Chewie and Artoo are there at her back.

She quickly looks back to Luke, “Dark Path? No, no... you saved your father with the light.

Luke: “Wrong.. I saved him with Darkness and the light.”

Luke: “It was the light that saved my father but it was darkness that took Vader down. Ever since that moment, its always been there, growing.

Rey: “That’s why you ran away. To save yourself”

Luke: “I ran away to save everyone else. Especially Ben.”

Luke: “I didn’t realise it at the time but I was slowly turning him into a monster.

Rey: “But there’s still good in him”

Luke: “And there’s still darkness in me”

Rey takes off her satchel and staff and approaches Luke once more.

Rey: “What should I tell Leia? That you can’t help us. That you’ve turned away from the fight? That you wouldn’t even take the lightsaber?”

Luke moves his robe aside and pulls out a black and silver hilt & ignites the red saber.

It was Vader’s.

TBC...

 

Thats interesting reading. Lots of fun stuff in there. One thing though, Rey wouldnt see good in Ben yet. At start of movie she hates ben. She would just be seeking luke to bring him back and help her with the force.

 

Ah, Noted - perhaps I could've replaced it with

"But General Leia.. she says there's still good in him"

Luke: “And there’s still darkness in me”

 

That works better.

 

This. I would have gone further, though, and made the entire film about finding Luke, dropping or replacing the SKB plot. The original prologue, with the passing along of Luke’s lightsaber, and it being a key to finding him, sounds like it would have been a more satisfying approach than what we got.

 

That would’ve worked too, though the spectacle of a planet-sized superweapon being used to blow up one person would have looked really silly and cartoonish. In which case, I wish they’d gone with the “Jedi Killer” weapon that was tossed around in concept art. Or was it a Jedi finder? Whatever it was, a weapon that can detect force sensitives and kill them in a more targeted way.

 

Star Wars Episode 9 will be used as a course correction for the Star Wars Saga. So Disney finally admits without saying that Mr. Johnson took Star Wars to a place where it does not belong. Having said that I would change the way Luke received his father's light saber and have the character treat it with more reveraance. I would also actually give Rey some real Jedi training. Yoda style.

 

-Ditch all the OT nostalgia-riding. Change the Resistance into the New Republic. Have the enemy be more than the Empire 2.0. Maybe a terrorist/insurgent group run by Snoke/Knights of Ren with new designs. ships, technology
-No superweapons
-Get rid of Poe, and focus on Rey, Finn, and Kylo as the big 3.
-Luke's Jedi Order is intact
-Show more political situation. Show Leia's frustration with the Senate's inactiveness
-More otherworldly planets. It's sad when Guardians of the Galaxy has more creativity set in our contemporary galaxy than Star Wars!
-Instead of the TFA marketing to divide PT and OT fans more, compromise with the adventurous tone of the OT, the creativity of the PT, and something fresh to unite the fandom
-Give Luke a lightsaber duel
-If George Lucas's saga was about the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker, then the ST should be about his legacy. Show the turmoil Vader and Palpatine left in the galaxy, and why citizens might be hesitant to trust a "new republic" when the old one was corrupted from the inside.
-Have Anakin's ghost make a brief yet important role. This is his story too, and having Luke, Rey, or Ben speaking to him would be fascinating. What is Anakin up to? Is he suffering? Regretful? How much does he blame himself? If the OT was about the son's forgiveness leading to redemption, is Anakin now struggling with forgiving himself?

 

One big geopolitical thing to distinguish the era from the OT: I would’ve treated the fall of the Empire as the fall of the Nazi Reich, and had the Mandalorians step in to fill the power vacuum, ala the Soviet Union. And they would’ve been the new villains, fighting the New Republic for galactic supremacy. However, they wouldn’t all have been armor-wearing people with jetpacks. I’d have added more variety to both their military and civilian looks.

 

I think definitely setting up the world building and the stakes is a must needed change. You don't need to explain everything, but you need to know what the heck is happening at least in a believable way.

The FO really should have just been a small remnant of the old Empire who have been hiding for the past few decades. Instead of being this large Empire-like military, with apparently unlimited resources, it's comprised of small fighters who are devoted to the old Imperial cause and resisting NR rule. Hell...you could even have called them The Resistance, since they are resisting NR authority. Meanwhile, show who the NR is, and why it's worth preserving or fighting for. Show that the OT was worth something. More so than just a 3 second shot. Leia has been trying to convince wary war torn worlds to join. Mention how she hasn't seen Luke or her son in 6 years and is concerned they haven't been seen. Han has spent the last few years looking for their son, but to no avail. No one ones about any academy destruction. No one knows about Snoke, or the FO/Resistance, or anything.

EP 7 could have been about how this group of dark side warriors calling themselves the Knights of Ren, hit the heart of the New Republic one fatal night. Not with some Death Star SKB, blowing up 5 planets, but just with a strategic hit. A group of dark siders attacking in the middle of the night. The leadership of the NR is gone, and the command structure is in pieces. It comes as a complete surprise and causes fear and chaos to ensue. In the panic some worlds start fleeing for safety, but Leia takes command of her fleet and heads straight into battle. She's fought too long to lose everything now. Then by the end of the movie, their leader, Kylo Ren, broadcasts his intentions to conquer the galaxy. As soon as Leia sees his warriors mask, she realizes it's her own son Ben. She now realizes how bad things are, and that she needs to find Luke.

You could still introduce Rey, have her be our protagonist and go find Luke. You could also give Luke a reason for being on that island, where he's not a coward who just gave up after failing once. Perhaps Snoke seduced Ben knowing that his attachments to his family could be their undoing. Knowing that Ben could sense Luke through the Force, Luke goes into exile and turns his connection off in order to preserve the Jedi Order. He waits on Ahch-to until the Force sense him a new student.

OR....
just set EP 10 a hundred years down the line with all new characters and villains. Mention how Luke's New Jedi Order is finally prospering after the last remnants of the old Empire finally dissolved. Show that the New Jedi Order is still relatively small, a couple of hundred knight or less. You could still have a Rey character, or maybe make the protagonist discover that they are a secret decedent of Luke who was hidden away during the end of the war, by the mother. Or maybe the Last Skywalker is an old old man/woman, and he/she takes on a merlin type role, trying to find the new just King to lead the New Republic. Someone just who can finally unite the kingdom once more and create a New Republic. Make this the goal of the trilogy. This way the Skywalker legacy is a net positive for the GFFA. You could have a few flashbacks of the older OT after ROTJ. But this way the story is about the future.

 

That’s a good one! The difficulty of establishing a democracy post-dictatorship would have been a pretty appropriate storyline.

However, my scenario was a little different, as I was treating the New Republic as essentially the NATO countries post-WWII, and treating the Mandalorians as an expansionist Soviet Union post-WWII. After the fall of the Empire (Nazi Germany), the Mandalorians (Soviet Union) make a big move to control a bunch of star systems and challenge the New Republic (NATO Alliance) for galactic dominance.