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[kpopSuperstar]

I know its not the sort of sci-fi that is supposed to make sense, but the premise of Star Wars is so silly that any thought around it breaks the universe.

What I am talking about is the size of the empire. George Lucas wanted to make an all powerful enemy and never put any thought into what he was writing.

The empire is a galactic empire that rules over millions of star systems. Even if the resistance was a million strong, they still wouldnt be a blip of the radar of the empire. Even if 90% of the planets under the empires control was just small backwater planets, the rest of the 10% would still be enough to field hundreds of millions of soldiers.

The empire controlled 1.5 million planets, which means that even if the resistance claimed 5 planets on the daily, it would still take hundreds of years to make a dent in the empire.

I think Lucas was completely ignorant on space and never considered what he was writing. It makes all stories of resistance, like Andor and the original trilogy, pointless. They could realistically never do anything.

 

[AJUMP23]

You underestimate ze Germans.

 

[InterMusketeer]

The rebels succeeding is about as ridiculous as a single emperor ruling over 1.5 million planets.

It was never meant to be taken that seriously.

 

[WhiteWaterM00se]

I know its not the sort of sci-fi that is supposed to make sense, but the premise of Star Wars is so silly that any thought around it breaks the universe.

What I am talking about is the size of the empire. George Lucas wanted to make an all powerful enemy and never put any thought into what he was writing.

The empire is a galactic empire that rules over millions of star systems. Even if the resistance was a million strong, they still wouldnt be a blip of the radar of the empire. Even if 90% of the planets under the empires control was just small backwater planets, the rest of the 10% would still be enough to field hundreds of millions of soldiers.

The empire controlled 1.5 million planets, which means that even if the resistance claimed 5 planets on the daily, it would still take hundreds of years to make a dent in the empire.

I think Lucas was completely ignorant on space and never considered what he was writing. It makes all stories of resistance, like Andor and the original trilogy, pointless. They could realistically never do anything.

He was HEAVILY influenced by Dune and Foundation books. Especially Foundation. The Empire in Foundation is similar to that of Star Wars. Hell, in Obi Wan Kenobi series, they even mention "spice" of Dune books. It is how the "light speed" works.

Anyway, Lucas was HEAVILY influenced by Asimov and Herbert.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

The rebels succeeding is about as ridiculous as a single emperor ruling over 1.5 million planets.

It was never meant to be taken that seriously.

But lets do it anyway.

The emperor doesnt need to personally manage every planet. There must be millions of individual independant leaders under him.

 

[InterMusketeer]

The emperor doesnt need to personally manage every planet. There must be millions of individual independant leaders under him.

And how does he keep them in check? How can he possibly ensure that billions of local politicians, governments, institutes, armies etc. move exactly according to his plans? Plenty room for discontent, rebellion and sabotage.

 

[bitbydeath]

Progress, not perfection?

I don't think they ever thought they could win but taking out those who could use the dark magic or whatever they called it would have been better than doing nothing.

 

[bitbydeath]

And how does he keep them in check? How can he possibly ensure that billions of local politicians, governments, institutes, armies etc. move exactly according to his plans? Plenty room for discontent, rebellion and sabotage.

Think they just blew up the planets that didn't obey.

 

[Doom85]

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station."

I thought this line made it clear what the situation was. The Empire "ruled" the galaxy, but had nowhere near enough troops to maintain a constant presence on every system especially the lower developed ones (notice how Tatooine seemed to have little to no Imperial presence until the Star Destroyer sent troops down looking for the droids, for example). The Death Star was a necessity to warn all systems to stay in line, otherwise, you know, YOUR ENTIRE PLANET WILL BE DESTROYED. Thus, the Empire won't need to constantly monitor every planet, because once they eventually catch word of any planet forming a resistance, they can just go over and wipe it out.

It's why the Emperor had them build another Death Star despite the massive amount of loss they suffered from losing the first one, likewise why the First Order had to build a similar base. Only by having in their possession a planet-killer can they be insured they can actually rule the galaxy.

 

[diffusionx]

And how does he keep them in check? How can he possibly ensure that billions of local politicians, governments, institutes, armies etc. move exactly according to his plans? Plenty room for discontent, rebellion and sabotage.

Like everything else, look to Rome.

Local governors, politicians, etc. had basically total autonomy to run their areas as they saw fit, they just needed to send the taxes and soldiers they needed to send when they were due.

It's not like the USA of today, where if you have one local clerk mistreat a gay person in the middle of nowhere, the feds will swoop in with the full force of the imperial capital immediately.

 

[Hari Seldon]

This is because Star Wars is not sci-fi, it is pop fantasy with space ships.

 

[InterMusketeer]

Think they just blew up the planets that didn't obey.

That's what the Death Star was for, but it got blown up. The second one was destroyed before it could be completed.

Not to mention it was only halfway through ANH that the senate was even abolished. Before then they would have some influence and networking through which they could resist the emperor in secret.

Like everything else, look to Rome.

Rome collapsed too and abandoned large chunks of its empire because it was too hard to govern such remote places, no?

 

[diffusionx]

Rome collapsed too and abandoned large chunks of its empire because it was too hard to govern such remote places, no?

Rome started abandoning provinces after Trajan in around 117 but held an awful lot of territory for an awful long time. Even if the space empire abandoned 100,000 planets at the fringes it still held a lot of territory.

Edward Luttwak wrote a good book on how Rome did this.

 

[Gp1]

We have to remember that the empire has only 18 years between order 66 and Yavin and they inherited the entire republic burocratic structure + the clone army. The entire system was ready.

Besides that, I believe that the empire( or even the alliance after ROTJ) isn't so omnipresent as it appears in the movies. For the "periphery" of the galaxy, the only thing that probably changed was who the planets paid taxes to.

The Rome example here fits very well. The empire, per se, probably only show itself to suppress in force and ruthlessly when shit Hits the fan (that Vader scene in Obi-Wan...)

Even the material after ROTJ show that. The alliance send 2-3 marshalls to deal with a local empire Moff turned crime lord after it's command structure disappeared.

 

[kevboard]

the Empire doesn't rule all those planets, it's more like the commonwealth and the UK... sure King Charles is technically the ruler of Canada, Australia, the Bahamas etc. but in essence they are still independent.

the Death Star is meant to be a weapon to make sure all those "commonwealth" planets don't act up and stay on the side of the Empire.
it's a rule of terror that some planets already stopped following... hence the death star being built so this stops happening.

also a ton of the planets they control will probably be entirely uninhabited and maybe only used to mine resources etc.
they probably control thousands of star systems with zero native inhabitants, and only mining operations happening.
so you can't even equate the Empire's planets with Commonwealth countires... many of these are more comparable with having power over territory, not actual inhabitants. mongolia is a gigantic country, 5 times the size of Germany, but has a smaller population than the city of Berlin.
and the Empire is probably more similar to Mongolia than Berlin here in terms of territory to population ratio. montolia's government rules over a shitton more land than the government of germany, but at the same time only over less than the population of a single german city.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Star Wars is fantasy.

Star Wars is not sci-fi.

NERDS!!

 

[AJUMP23]

The rebels succeeding is about as ridiculous as a single emperor ruling over 1.5 million planets.

It was never meant to be taken that seriously.

Well like when the Roman republic became an empire Octavian didn't rule every location he had people there representing Rome. It isn't that difficult to understand as long as you paid tribute and kept order you were left alone.

 

[GateofD]

was the Empire even that bad? Like okay, the Death Star is 'a bit much' and at the beginning the slaughter of the jedi's wasn't that nice. But how about after they took control. As mentioned, they didn't directly control each planet. I assume they collected a portion of tribute as taxes which makes sense and probably a signpost saying "No more jedis" But anything else? Like at the top level there's the whole sith vs jedi stuff, but the ground and mid floor stuff, how much did it affect the everyday man. They employed a lot of people, so is there info on how much they paid their stormtroopers or supply chain workers, did they offer health insurance. Or was it amazon warehouse level stuff evil. Was the taxes too high?

There's an anime called Crest/Banner of the Stars where an intergalactic empire takes over a bunch of planet systems, they let the planets govern themselves, other than some certain procedures, but ther main goal was just that they collected tax on every trade between planets and controlled space ship ownership, you could lease and have spaceships in your posession, but offical ownership was the empire. they just mainly wanted control of the space portion of space

 

[Trilobit]

Alexander the Great's empire fractured very quickly after he died, so it's not unheard of that if the emperor and Vader died that there would be no sense of unit between the systems. The resistance had a lot of support in the shadows even if we only see a smaller portion due to the short runtime of the movies.

There's also parallels to places like Afghanistan which quickly reverted back to their old ways after USA left the scene. I don't really know a lot about the Vietnam war, but it's likely Lucas' mind was on that war when he created the movies.

 

[Doczu]

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Tsking out the top of the power structure, the creme de la creme was enough to put the whole Empire into turnoil, civil war.

Like all posters before me mentioned - the Empire was just a top level administration set-up that held all those planets in line.

Each planet had an (even minimal) Imperial presesence, each star system had their own government and it fell under a star sector government which was under Palpatines "board of directors" rule.

They dodn't care who ran the planet as ling as taxes were paid and people weren't rebelling.

When the population got too rebellious - the navy and army arrived.
When the governor thought he could be too independent - navy and army arrived with an administrative figure who either installed a new governor or became the new rulling official ready to put the planet into place.

Kill the Emperor, his personal enforcer Vader, the top of the Imperial grand moffs and admirals in one place and everyone feels they can finally "do their own thing". Not joining the New Republic even, just becoming their own warlords and rulers. You get thousands, maybe even millions seperate secession events in one moment that won't be anwsered by imperial force.

 

[sono]

spare is big, like really big. The rebels can hide

 

[Avid Reading Horse]

You thought George Lucas didn't understand how space works? Just wait until you see JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson's "understanding" of space. Your eyes will glaze over in less than 12 parsecs.

 

[Baemono]

If the Republic couldn't "reach" Tatoine (as said by Shmi in Episode I), I doubt the Empire's actual reach include a tight control of each planet/system.

And I read somewhere that for a coup, you don't need millions, a handful of people is enough. So the rebels (which don't necessarily overthrown the Emperor but show resistance to him) are more than enough to be an annoyance (which they depicted as one).

 

[Ecotic]

The Star Wars galaxy has 1.5 million inhabited planets? I guess that's mentioned in a Disney+ show or something. I always figured there was a few hundred notable planets in the galaxy, and maybe a thousand at the most if you consider remote locations in the outer rim.

I base that on eyeballing how many members are in the Galactic Senate chamber in the prequels. And in Episode II when Obi-Wan is on Kamino, the head Kamino guy mentioned there's 200,000 clones ready "with a million more on the way". For the army of the Republic to consist of such a paltry number of clones, it wouldn't imply there's that many planets.

 

[March Climber]

I know its not the sort of sci-fi that is supposed to make sense, but the premise of Star Wars is so silly that any thought around it breaks the universe.

What I am talking about is the size of the empire. George Lucas wanted to make an all powerful enemy and never put any thought into what he was writing.

The empire is a galactic empire that rules over millions of star systems. Even if the resistance was a million strong, they still wouldnt be a blip of the radar of the empire. Even if 90% of the planets under the empires control was just small backwater planets, the rest of the 10% would still be enough to field hundreds of millions of soldiers.

The empire controlled 1.5 million planets, which means that even if the resistance claimed 5 planets on the daily, it would still take hundreds of years to make a dent in the empire.

I think Lucas was completely ignorant on space and never considered what he was writing. It makes all stories of resistance, like Andor and the original trilogy, pointless. They could realistically never do anything.

If anything OP, you just make Episode 7 a bit better by pointing this out. The fairytale at the end of 6 is that the evil is fully defeated and everyone lives happily ever after, but the harsh reality of 7 was that the remnants of the Empire were way too large to simply dismantle and go away. All they simply needed was a new figurehead because they would still outnumber the rebels by sheer number.

The setup was all there for a good trilogy, bolstered by a very unique plot of an ex-stormtrooper as a protagonist.

All of which makes it even more crushing that it's a real, real shame what happened with episodes 8 and 9.

I'll forever feel that Episode 7 was a good setup movie. 8 and 9 retroactively dragged it down optically amongst fans.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

If anything OP, you just make Episode 7 a bit better by pointing this out. The fairytale at the end of 6 is that the evil is fully defeated and everyone lives happily ever after, but the harsh reality of 7 was that the remnants of the Empire were way too large to simply dismantle and go away. All they simply needed was a new figurehead because they would still outnumber the rebels by sheer number.

The setup was all there for a good trilogy, bolstered by a very unique plot of an ex-stormtrooper as a protagonist.

All of which makes it even more crushing that it's a real, real shame what happened with episodes 8 and 9.

I'll forever feel that Episode 7 was a good setup movie. 8 and 9 retroactively dragged it down optically amongst fans.

Its funny, cause you might be able to cobble together a story where 7 is just the empire rebounding because of the sheer size of it, as you said.

But, the resistance essentially defeat the first order by the end of the movie, and in 8, the opening text reads "the first order has taken over the galaxy".

Which makes no sense. The first order lost and then, like a few months later, they have taken over the galaxy? What a fuck is even going on in the new trilogy?

 

[MilkyJoe]

I know its not the sort of sci-fi that is supposed to make sense, but the premise of Star Wars is so silly that any thought around it breaks the universe.

What I am talking about is the size of the empire. George Lucas wanted to make an all powerful enemy and never put any thought into what he was writing.

The empire is a galactic empire that rules over millions of star systems. Even if the resistance was a million strong, they still wouldnt be a blip of the radar of the empire. Even if 90% of the planets under the empires control was just small backwater planets, the rest of the 10% would still be enough to field hundreds of millions of soldiers.

The empire controlled 1.5 million planets, which means that even if the resistance claimed 5 planets on the daily, it would still take hundreds of years to make a dent in the empire.

I think Lucas was completely ignorant on space and never considered what he was writing. It makes all stories of resistance, like Andor and the original trilogy, pointless. They could realistically never do anything.

A) Star Wars is a space opera, not sci fi

2) The war never ended with the emperor, hence every video game, book, comic and tv show set after RotJ

D) Star Wars has been ruined and is dead as a do-do, you should mourn it's passing and move on

 

[kpopSuperstar]

A) Star Wars is a space opera, not sci fi

2) The war never ended with the emperor, hence every video game, book, comic and tv show set after RotJ

D) Star Wars has been ruined and is dead as a do-do, you should mourn it's passing and move on

But they celebrated the victory of the end of the empire at the end of episode 6.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station."

I thought this line made it clear what the situation was. The Empire "ruled" the galaxy, but had nowhere near enough troops to maintain a constant presence on every system especially the lower developed ones (notice how Tatooine seemed to have little to no Imperial presence until the Star Destroyer sent troops down looking for the droids, for example). The Death Star was a necessity to warn all systems to stay in line, otherwise, you know, YOUR ENTIRE PLANET WILL BE DESTROYED. Thus, the Empire won't need to constantly monitor every planet, because once they eventually catch word of any planet forming a resistance, they can just go over and wipe it out.

It's why the Emperor had them build another Death Star despite the massive amount of loss they suffered from losing the first one, likewise why the First Order had to build a similar base. Only by having in their possession a planet-killer can they be insured they can actually rule the galaxy.

But even just 10 planets could field millions of troops, they held a light grip on the galaxy, but they have several planets under total control, that alone would ensure no force could topple them.

The size of it is so immense that blowing up a death star would mean little.

The story they are trying to tell is on the scale if like if 3 guys banded together and tried to topple the US army.

 

[MilkyJoe]

But they celebrated the victory of the end of the empire at the end of episode 6.

They celebrated winning the battle of Endor in a treehouse with some teddy bears

 

[BlackTron]

Planets were all part of the same government that shifted from the Republic to Empire. Dialog indicated that the senate was abolished during ANH, leading to concern that they could no longer exert control through regional governments. Tarkin answered that the Death Star was ready -I don't think it's great coincidence that the senate was dissolved around the same time that the Death Star was ready for its first demonstration. That is why is was important to Tarkin to choose a notable target that would turn heads. He wasn't impressed with Dantooine despite knowing (falsely) that a rebel base was located there. He wanted to project the message: even a well-known, important world of galactic standing like Alderaan will be destroyed for harboring rebel sympathies without a second thought.

Meanwhile, that first Death Star was destroyed rather quickly. Rebels were able to play hide and seek with guerilla tactics and hyperdrive tech.

It's not actually the craziest thing IMO.

 

[DKehoe]

---

Not every planet within the Empire is going to be inhabited. I'd imagine the vast majority won't be. You might have only one inhabited world in an entire cluster of systems. Those few hubs would then serve as control points for much larger surrounding regions.

We know the Republic operated as a functioning government. As BlackTron said, the Death Star solidified a shift from the Republic's cooperative, democratic framework to the Emperor's authoritarian regime. Sustaining that kind of control through conventional military means over the long term would be extremely difficult. However, the Death Star changed that balance. The threat of it appearing in your system, capable of destroying your planet with little effort, would severely discourage resistance. The potential consequences would be too catastrophic to risk defying the Empire.

But ultimately, the story is not focused on the detailed mechanics of governance and that does not make it a plot hole. It's about a group of scrappy underdogs, especially a farmboy from the middle of nowhere, making a difference on the biggest possible scale by standing up for what is right.

 

[MrCunningham]

This is because Star Wars is not sci-fi, it is pop fantasy with space ships.

That's how I look at it too. It's original concept was a mash up of space samurai and space cowboys in a quasi 'Lord of the Rings' setting in space. There's very little explanation to none about how any of the technology works. It just works. The Empire from the original trilogy was vague enough to make them feel oppressive and omnipresent with some vague (before the prequel trilogy) dialogue about clone wars.



As someone who was born in the early 1980's, I Didn't even get to watch the Star Wars movies until the VHS box set was made available in 1995 or so... when I was like 14.

I was also lucky enough to see the 1997 Special Editions for ANH, and Empire at the cinema. I missed out on Jedi. I know people slam the Special Editions. But as a teen, It was a great experience to watch at least two out of three of the original trilogy on the big screen. The CG looked 'fine' for 1997 and I wasn't screaming obscenities at George Lucas for shitting on my childhood, because Star Wars was never really part of it to begin with.

Kinda knew what Star Wars was when I was a kid...as it was referenced in just about everything. But at the same time, I was surrounded by many other mid to late 80's fantasy space cartoons that it all blended together in my head. I do have vague memories of the Droids cartoon and even Ewoks, they were produced by Nelvana Canada, so they did air on TV over here. I even saw Spaceballs on VHS when I was like, 8... long before ever watching the movies they were parodying... It was mandatory viewing because of John Candy.

I was never obsessive over the franchise like some people were. I never bought into the merchandise, or anything like that. Outside of a few games. Rouge Squadron on the N64 was great. I saw The Phantom Menace at the cinema (like everyone else) and had mixed feelings on it. I missed Attack of the Clones... no regrets. I pirated Revenge of the Sith online back in 2004 or 2005, before the movie was out in cinemas. It was a work print. But I did see that one at the theatre as well. Saw The force Awakens as well. Missed the other ones. Oh welp.

 

[Dr_Ifto]

Like any good manager, delegate! GM, UPS, MIcrosoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Walmart, all have a fuck ton of employees. Do you think the CEO cares about what one employee does? Most systems wouldnt care who manages them as long as they are getting the results they want.

Each planet pays a tax that goes to the empire which goes to making troops that interact with said planet. Its like the British Empire. Its illogical to think that a tiny island nearly controlled most of the world, but they did. Just scale that to a universe. It might be easier to control systems that individual planets.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

Planets were all part of the same government that shifted from the Republic to Empire. Dialog indicated that the senate was abolished during ANH, leading to concern that they could no longer exert control through regional governments. Tarkin answered that the Death Star was ready -I don't think it's great coincidence that the senate was dissolved around the same time that the Death Star was ready for its first demonstration. That is why is was important to Tarkin to choose a notable target that would turn heads. He wasn't impressed with Dantooine despite knowing (falsely) that a rebel base was located there. He wanted to project the message: even a well-known, important world of galactic standing like Alderaan will be destroyed for harboring rebel sympathies without a second thought.

Meanwhile, that first Death Star was destroyed rather quickly. Rebels were able to play hide and seek with guerilla tactics and hyperdrive tech.

It's not actually the craziest thing IMO.

Hide and seek and guerilla tactics would do nothing against a galaxy spanning empire. Imagine if earth was under one rule, no resistance could fight it.

 

[BlackTron]

Hide and seek and guerilla tactics would do nothing against a galaxy spanning empire. Imagine if earth was under one rule, no resistance could fight it.

Let me try and drive home a point of my post. It seemed that the Empire timed the dissolution of the Senate with the completion of the Death Star. It seems that the Senate was an important tool to the Empire to "keep systems in line", but they discarded it as unnecessary upon completion of the Death Star.

But the Death Star didn't last long. After the demonstration that was meant to instill the fear in the galaxy that would replace the Senate, it was blown up by Luke Skywalker. Problem: they no longer had the Senate either. They already dissolved it. They could not threaten or bribe any senators into dominating their planets into submission to the Empire because they had already either killed them or sent them home. The local planets were seething and pissed that Alderaan blew up, and the Death Star was gone. They could only get as much loyalty from planets as they personally went to oversee, demand and recruit. While a seething underground resistance built up to take revenge. Meanwhile the Empire rushes to try and make a second Death Star in hiding that drains unbelievable resources.

 

[Raven117]

I'd think about something else, OP

 

[DetectiveBananas]

Empire couldn't handle space bears….Their days were numbered

 

[diffusionx]

But even just 10 planets could field millions of troops, they held a light grip on the galaxy, but they have several planets under total control, that alone would ensure no force could topple them.

The size of it is so immense that blowing up a death star would mean little.

The story they are trying to tell is on the scale if like if 3 guys banded together and tried to topple the US army.

I think Star Wars is cringe, and you can't expect total consistency, but I recommend the book I mentioned above.

When it comes to empire, the perception of strength IS strength. Nobody messes with you because they think they will get BTFO. So that means you can field a much lighter force than one would logically think you would need to defend such a vast territory. You can also offload critical defensive operations to vassal states. The downside of this approach is that once someone messes with you and wins, you kind of get exposed as a paper tiger of sorts because your enemies now see your weaknesses. Of course this is normally a much slower process that takes decades or centuries to play out...

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

Are there really a million planets in the empire or did you just make that up? And it's quite obvious from how the empire is run pretty much a fedual system of sort.

You do as they say or they take over

 

[Solarstrike]

With the amount of galaxies and planets in the universe, the possibilities of the Star Wars story (or Star Trek, or Aliens, Or Predator, anything you can think of) being real, could very well be true.

 

[Doom85]

But even just 10 planets could field millions of troops, they held a light grip on the galaxy, but they have several planets under total control, that alone would ensure no force could topple them.

The size of it is so immense that blowing up a death star would mean little.

The story they are trying to tell is on the scale if like if 3 guys banded together and tried to topple the US army.

The first Death Star held 1.7 million Imperial troops and other personnel. That IS a significant blow, but more importantly, such a feat would draw more people drawn to the Rebellion and shake the indestructible image of the Empire.

The second Death Star held 2.4 million people, on top of the Executor falling as well, it's understandable what was left of the Empire decided to GTFO.

Its funny, cause you might be able to cobble together a story where 7 is just the empire rebounding because of the sheer size of it, as you said.

But, the resistance essentially defeat the first order by the end of the movie, and in 8, the opening text reads "the first order has taken over the galaxy".

Which makes no sense. The first order lost and then, like a few months later, they have taken over the galaxy? What a fuck is even going on in the new trilogy?

This is a really bad recollection of the ST. Nowhere did 7 state that blowing up Starkiller Base defeated First Order. That would especially be ridiculous since at the end of 7, Snoke demands Hux bring Kylo to him to finish his training. What would be the point of that if Snoke no longer had any army?

8 does not begin months later. It begins IMMEDIATELY afterwards. The resistance's base had been located by the First Order in 7 by tracking their recon ship, hence the Resistance's haste to destroy Starkiller Base. So then at the start of 8, the First Order had to send in ships to attack instead meaning the Resistance had to retreat. Likewise, 7 ends with Rey finding Luke, and at the start of 8, it picks up immediately from there.

I think you're getting your memories of the OT and the ST mixed up.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Star Wars is NOT science fiction. It's classic textbook fantasy, with all the fantasy tropes and the subversion of the damsel in distress.

Though the worldbuilding is brilliant, don't expect any logic in the politics involved, starting with the fact that there is "a princess" in a republic, whose only purpose is to subvert expectations.

 

[dave_d]

Though the worldbuilding is brilliant, don't expect any logic in the politics involved, starting with the fact that there is "a princess" in a republic, whose only purpose is to subvert expectations.

I'm always amazed by the number of people who never noticed Leia in the original trilogy is basically a spy and clearly has military training. (She's a better shot than Luke or Han in Star Wars.) Admittedly a large portion of people that think that way loved the sequel trilogy for how it treated women.

 

[March Climber]

Its funny, cause you might be able to cobble together a story where 7 is just the empire rebounding because of the sheer size of it, as you said.

But, the resistance essentially defeat the first order by the end of the movie, and in 8, the opening text reads "the first order has taken over the galaxy".

Which makes no sense. The first order lost and then, like a few months later, they have taken over the galaxy? What a fuck is even going on in the new trilogy?

No, Kylo's regiment lost.

It's funny that the cartoons did a better job of illustrating that taking out the biggest enemy ship doesn't simply end the war.

And again to my point, that's a narrative flaw that part 8 should have expanded upon, but instead it retroactively made 7's ending look worse.

 

[GateofD]

But even just 10 planets could field millions of troops, they held a light grip on the galaxy, but they have several planets under total control, that alone would ensure no force could topple them.

The size of it is so immense that blowing up a death star would mean little.

The story they are trying to tell is on the scale if like if 3 guys banded together and tried to topple the US army.

Feel like planets aren't as densely populated like ours are a rarity.
And then there be a ton of planets that don't have the resources or tech to amass a space fleet.
Jar jars race aren't making space ships

 

[IDKFA]

was the Empire even that bad? Like okay, the Death Star is 'a bit much'

A weapon capable of committing genocide in a single shot.

Yeah, I'd say it was a bit much.

The Death Star was a necessity to warn all systems to stay in line, otherwise, you know, YOUR ENTIRE PLANET WILL BE DESTROYED. .

That always seemed dumb to me. First, taking out a planet might scare the population, but it's a complete waste of a planet. All those resources and tax revenues gone. Resources and funds are surly needed in the Empire due to the insane cost to build not one, but two Death Stars. (852 septillion dollars to build one! https://www.centives.net/S/2012/how-much-would-it-cost-to-build-the-death-star/)

The whole thing is a wildly expensive intimidation tactic.

Wouldn't make more sense to use that money and resources to build thousands of Star Destroyers, Super Star Destroyers, AT-ATs etc?

 

[BlackTron]

A weapon capable of committing genocide in a single shot.

Yeah, I'd say it was a bit much.


That always seemed dumb to me. First, taking out a planet might scare the population, but it's a complete waste of a planet. All those resources and tax revenues gone. Resources and funds are surly needed in the Empire due to the insane cost to build not one, but two Death Stars. (852 septillion dollars to build one! https://www.centives.net/S/2012/how-much-would-it-cost-to-build-the-death-star/)

The whole thing is a wildly expensive intimidation tactic.

Wouldn't make more sense to use that money and resources to build thousands of Star Destroyers, Super Star Destroyers, AT-ATs etc?

Maybe they can use it as some kind of Dark Side fear farm.

 

[Doom85]

That always seemed dumb to me. First, taking out a planet might scare the population, but it's a complete waste of a planet. All those resources and tax revenues gone. Resources and funds are surly needed in the Empire due to the insane cost to build not one, but two Death Stars. (852 septillion dollars to build one! https://www.centives.net/S/2012/how-much-would-it-cost-to-build-the-death-star/)

The whole thing is a wildly expensive intimidation tactic.

Wouldn't make more sense to use that money and resources to build thousands of Star Destroyers, Super Star Destroyers, AT-ATs etc?

Honestly the Empire's methods might be the most appropriate use of this gif ever:

 

[FeralEcho]

If anything OP, you just make Episode 7 a bit better by pointing this out. The fairytale at the end of 6 is that the evil is fully defeated and everyone lives happily ever after, but the harsh reality of 7 was that the remnants of the Empire were way too large to simply dismantle and go away. All they simply needed was a new figurehead because they would still outnumber the rebels by sheer number.

The setup was all there for a good trilogy, bolstered by a very unique plot of an ex-stormtrooper as a protagonist.

All of which makes it even more crushing that it's a real, real shame what happened with episodes 8 and 9.

I'll forever feel that Episode 7 was a good setup movie. 8 and 9 retroactively dragged it down optically amongst fans.

Agreed,honestly 8 was when this franchise died for me. I mean sure I still follow it but the name doesn't hold the same gravitas it did before ep 8 and it's awful awful story and writting came along and butchered everything good about this series. Ep 9 was basically just putting the final nails in the coffin ep 8 already put the franchise in.

The shows are so hit or miss that it's hard to even care anymore.

Ep: 8 also exposed the entire media bias in reviews....

That score is absolutely insane to me for this piece of dogshit and for me instantly nullifies anything good reviewers have to say about popular franchises since they clear have no fucking clue what planet they are on.