Random Star Wars universe thoughts [spoilers]

[Morrus]

I have a random theory. Mainly guesswork. The movie doesn't do a great job of explaining the political setup of the galaxy, but there is information in other books and thing as. This was crossposted. It's not really spoilers, as I'm guessing at most of this.

So the Republic runs a unified galaxy, and the First Order are a rising threat.

The First Order wipes out the Republic infrastructure with Starkiller Base. Now the galaxy is not unified. Instead of a central government, it's a million individual governments. Kinda like Earth now - no world government, just lots of countries.

So now the analogy isn't rebels fighting against the central government like in the OT. It's Spectre vs. Mission Impossible -- two independent non governmental organisations operating in a fragmented galaxy, one evil and the other trying to stop them. Neither of them run the galaxy.

So the Empire is indeed dead. The galaxy is free. But there are always bad guys in it and the Resistance fights them.

 

[Bishop_]

Something like Harpists vs. Zentharim in Forgotten Realms?

 

[MarkB]

I'm not convinced that the New Republic is a unified galactic power in the first place. In the prequels, the Separatists clearly had legitimate grievances - Palpatine may have fanned the flames, but the Republic's issues of excessive bureaucracy and poor representation were quite real. And those issues would only have been exacerbated when those systems were forcibly re-integrated into the Galactic Empire.

I wouldn't be surprised if the New Republic comprises only a small portion of the systems that once formed the Republic, and has little prospect of significant further expansion in the near term.

 

[Umbran]

I have a random theory. Mainly guesswork. The movie doesn't do a great job of explaining the political setup of the galaxy, but there is information in other books and thing as. This was crossposted. It's not really spoilers, as I'm guessing at most of this.

So the Republic runs a unified galaxy, and the First Order are a rising threat.

I don't think that's quite right. The Republic isn't necessarily a full-galactic thing. It is large - a superpower, yes - but it makes more sens if it isn't a unified galaxy.

The First Order must govern *some* space to have enough resources to build forces. And if they are the *only* other government, then the Republic would have paid more attention to them. It looks like the Republic is the one superpower, and there are a few other smaller governments around. The First Order is an upstart small empire, not yet big enough to be a major threat to the Republic, but the Republic still dislikes them, and so supports the Resistance against them, in First Order space.

So the Empire is indeed dead. The galaxy is free. But there are always bad guys in it and the Resistance fights them.

The Empire is dead. The galaxy is *mostly* free. Don't expect freedom within First Order Space. Or within Hutt-controlled space, for example.

 

[delericho]

Also, in the aftermath of the economically-ruinous Clone Wars, and with the catastrophic destruction of not one but two Death Stars, nobody in the galaxy has any money. And what little they have still seems to be being spent on wasteful military ventures.

Life on Jakku may be close to the galactic norm at this point.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

It's all chaos. Rancors and Banthas living together, that sort of thing.

 

[Umbran]

Also, in the aftermath of the economically-ruinous Clone Wars, and with the catastrophic destruction of not one but two Death Stars, nobody in the galaxy has any money.

Those were what, 50 and 30 years prior to events in this movie? If it takes two generations to recover, that's more than "economically ruinous".

 

[delericho]

Those were what, 50 and 30 years prior to events in this movie? If it takes two generations to recover, that's more than "economically ruinous".

I guess their economies are as stagnant as their technology.

 

[Eltab]

Ignoring the novels (as the new movie does), the most likely "What happens after The Emperor was killed?" scenario is something like Original Traveller's* "Imperial Civil War" adventure module: a half-dozen large successor states (one is the New Republic and the audience is encouraged to root for it) plus countless de facto independent worlds and multiple petty states. Several Imperial Admirals / Generals can build a space to rule; Hutt space is a Thing again. Some other pre-Old Republic nations / races may have reasserted themselves as independent or effectively autonomous.

I wish the movie HAD used the novels, since Grand Admiral Thrawn was a natural BBEG - his master plan has aspects both glorious and nefarious. Good-hearted men can aid him in his endeavors, accomplishing shared tactical goals, even if they dislike his final purpose. He is not a Force-adept, so he's not a complete Palpatine clone. He's trying to emplace himself as somebody else's Grand Vizier (but he hasn't found somebody to be The Boss) rather than rule all in his own name.

* You can now make a good guess at my age.

 

[Staffan]

Ignoring the novels (as the new movie does), the most likely "What happens after The Emperor was killed?" scenario is something like Original Traveller's* "Imperial Civil War" adventure module: a half-dozen large successor states (one is the New Republic and the audience is encouraged to root for it) plus countless de facto independent worlds and multiple petty states. Several Imperial Admirals / Generals can build a space to rule; Hutt space is a Thing again. Some other pre-Old Republic nations / races may have reasserted themselves as independent or effectively autonomous.

I had a similar vague idea for a Star Wars campaign once upon a time that didn't go anywhere. The idea was that the campaign took place maybe 30 years after Endor. The Empire had been weakened and split into multiple successor states, and the New Republic was the biggest game in town. However, there were plenty of worlds that had seceded from the Republic - the Separatists back from the prequels had some valid points, and given that the Republic had been founded on the idea of freedom from the Empire's domination, it would have been hypocritical of them to force worlds that didn't want to remain a part of the Republic to do so. Luke Skywalker had rebuilt something of a Jedi Order, but disassociated it from the Republic and made it more of a pan-galactic thing - individual Jedi may or may not be associated with governments or worlds, but the Order as a whole was not.

It was meant as a setup for an "Agents of the Republic" type of campaign - think Mission Impossible (old-school, not Tom Cruise movies) but in Star Wars.