SPECULATION State of the Empire

Palpatine was the Empire. His army and military force was a means for him to control the galaxy and have power over it.
He was arrogant and over confident that's why he moved his best forces military leaders to Endor to pull off his trap and destroy the rebels. He put all his eggs in one basket. He thought he was invincible. Do you honestly think he cared what would happen to his empire if he died? This man only cared about himself. He wouldn't care less about the future of his empire.
And you have to realize most of his men joined his empire for one of two things, money or out of fear. With Vader and Palpatine dead the fear factor is gone. And you would have to think with the rebels defeat of Palpatine and a good chunk of his army at Endor they would have taken back control of the banks that Palpatine had control of. Without money to pay the remaining military left, a large chunk of what's left of military would defect. Without the fear factor, no money, why would you choose to remain?

 

But who is the new palpatine? Will there even be somekind of palpatine figure in this new trilogy? Who is the boss sith now?

 

I'm of the mind that there were likely faaaar to many Imperial forces after RotJ for them to just start rolling over. We learned from ANH, that the moffs and admirals bicker like old ladies, so there had to be some drawn out power struggle with weaker and stronger factions doing their own bits of realpolitik. Some might've just out and out joined the rebels. Even 30 years on the galaxy has got to be much more crowded, difficult and complicated place politically than before.

 

I think the remnants of the Empire are now working with the "new republic". I've thought this for awhile and nothing we've seen yet has debunked it to me. Even in the teaser, to me, it looks like those ties are shooting at something behind the Falcon, not at it. And the Flacon doesn't even shoot at them as well!?. I think the bad faction of the stormtroopers will be a group within the much larger force working with their own agenda. That's the group Boyega flees from, not the Empire itself. Also works for Driver leading them...a mask on for bad guy stuff, without for a facade to our heroes and the alliance. Just my thought but I think we won't see empire vs republic/rebels. We've seen that. I think we will see a collection of the 2 combined versus a new evil entity.

 

Star Wars is sci fantasy, it doesn't and shouldn't have to adhere to total realism. The way the movie saga is setup is, first half rise second half the defeat of the empire. To make another sequel that messes with the narrative structure of those movies will only cheapen & trivialize the events and actions of some of those movies, that would be bad writting to hurt what came before. I'm not saying the empire can't or shouldn't be in this movie, they just can't be the major threat or the main villains that still have overall control or the ability to take the galaxy back over on their own. If the emipre is back and is trying to take control again they start to seem more like Commander Cobra and his goons. New trilogy, new enemy faction, I would even be ok with the empire joining up with some other antagonist faction because they're too weak conquer anything by themselves. It would need to be a legitimate organization not just some new sith flavor of the week.

 

Yes I'm convinced the stormtroopers we see ate the bad guys. At least if the script is written in a way that makes sense the rebels eventually took over what was left of the Empire.
Tho I do believe there might be remnants of the old empire that did not join up with the rebellion they are small group like the rebels were in ep 4. Perhaps these remnants still use the old stormtrooper armor. Would explain too the tie fighters that still look like the old ones. No new redesign. A smaller group of Empire remnants would not have the cash flow to have new weapons, new ships etc. Like the rebels in the ot were using older used up ships.

 

I think Lucas putting in the galaxies celebrations in the special edition of ROTJ (specifically the Corrusant toppling of the statue) was to imply the victory was much larger than that. Just my opinion, but I think the dictatorship had come to an end. I think we will see a new government in charge with a (former) rebel leadership group voted into power. Stormtroopers, etc still need their pay cheques so I think they will still be a power but loyal to whoever is controlling the Senate (or whatever we got now). Kinda hoping to see Han and Chewie leading a battalion of stormies into battle.

 

We had a big argument somewhere else where I basically had to explain the rise and fall of the Roman Empire

tl;dr, just because an Emperor gets killed an Empire doesn't fall apart.

 

Star Wars is not Star Wars without some form of the Empire. I agree with the the whole Empire did not fall apart after the battle of Endor. However it was likely very damaged and weakend. The leaders were killed, the upper end military leaders and units killed and with Vader and Palps dead there were likely a lot military people who abandoned now that the rule by fear is gone. However, there was sure to be plenty who would use the loss of top leaders to try to gain power.

Now it is 30 years later and there has time for the empire to rebuild. Whoever took charge wod have had to recruit hard, power hungry people thus now there are fiercer, more determined stormtroopers.

Also during the 30 years new Sith are building there power and at the time of TFA the new powerful Sith and the new stronger Empire are the perfect bedfellows to join together and take on the New Republic for control of the Galaxy

 

I think Emperor Palpatine was planning on living forever. He only needed to learn the secret to immortality.

 

In fact, the very fact that the Emperor and the Empire's top leadership/military figures all died at Endor could make for an even more desperate and chaotic struggle post-ROTJ. It leaves it fairly unlikely that there would be a Tarkin-esque figure left to take the reins in the aftermath, and as the SE shows people pulling down statues of Palps on Coruscant it seems equally likely that the central administration of the Empire is either taken out or at least severely hindered. That leaves a huge galaxy with possibly hundreds of regional Moffs ostensibly all working under the same banner but also working towards their own agendas, and now being presented with a power vacuum that has no overwhelmingly qualified candidates to fill it. It's basically open season, and it's only the breadth and military strength of the Empire that keeps the populace in line.

Of course, this is going to slowly erode over the next 30 years as the Alliance build on their victories and start to establish the New republic, or at least the beginnings of what's going to be in its place. It got me thinking about the rumors of Gwendoline Christie leading this group of chrome Troopers and being hired by Driver - you could imagine an Imperial faction breaking off from the infighting and going mercenary.

And when you think about it, all this would give Boyega's character an added symbolic weight, a Stormtrooper turn his back on the Empire as the Empire itself is losing its focus, its cohesion and possibly its identity. Seems like fertile ground to create a Star Wars hero who's different from what we've know, as well as a humbled but still militarily powerful Empire that seems just asking for some Big Bad Darksider to come along and take the reins...

 

To me the Empire in the ST may be a confederation of Imperial Govs or "Moffs" who were put in charge of sections of the Empire/galaxy.
As in the PT, the group or collection of different interests(banking clan, science & labor, trade federation, etc) may have control of weapons & star ships/places. They might use "private contractors"(mercenaries) rather than Imperial Forces.
I read a few years ago the "Star Wars" galaxy has approx 1000 populated/known star systems.
These systems may not all be aware of the Rebel Alliance or the changes.

 

This is interesting territory, great thread.

For me it comes down to this: has the Saga so far been about bringing down the Empire or fighting off the Sith? Because they're not synonymous, imo. There is some confusion about this, though: I think the PT amassed a lot of haters because it clouded the simple good vs. evil dynamic of the OT by allying it to a political paradigm that can never be as black-and-white as it is was presented as being.

So there is a divergence at the end of EpIII: the galaxy has fallen to a new Fascistic Order AND a Sith Lord is pulling the strings. By the end of EpVI, the Sith Lord is removed. That thread is ended, but the Fascistic Order remains.

A ST is a chance for the saga to complete itself (AND redeem itself). We've been told the ST is about moral ambiguity and difficult choices. My hope is that the ST will explore those themes in order to move away from absolutes of Light and Dark, Black and White, Technological and Natural, Supernatural and Mundane, to instead instil a little more sophistication and make a concerted effort toward the 'symbiotic relationships' hinted at in EpI. That will mean compromise, the heart any real political wrangling, and that will mean a slow bringing together of differing ideologies.

I don't think, however, this will mean the Empire and Republic unite against a common foe. That's been done in the EU and, imho, adding a 3rd point of view would muddy the waters at a time when things need to be settling.

No. More likely TGFFA will unite in pursuit of a common goal. Something important, like bringing balance to the Force in order to maintain the established reality and avert a cosmic shift so immense there would be no winners, only corpses. I just hope if they go this route the obvious allegorical suggestions of the need for environmental reform and spiritual harmony in our own world are explored with poetic subtlety and not made so glaring obvious that they're embarrassing to watch....

 

The Sith is vastly different than the Empire. The Imperial forces like any large army or organization is filled with bureaucrats, logistics, red tape, communications, training, etc.
If the fleet had 1000s of spacecraft or huge reserves of AT-ATs, fighters, bombers, etc then they wouldn't all just stop or fold into the Rebel Alliance.
Storm Troopers & officers aren't Sith. They have little or no connection to Vader or the Emperor.

 

Another consideration is whether or not the wider Empire--the bureaucrats and the Moffs, etc--even knew Palpatine was a Sith. It's impossible to tell from the OT because (as far as I can remember) the only character that ever spoke to Palpatine during the OT were Vader and Luke--and they referred to him as 'My Lord', 'My Master', 'Your Highness', never as Darth Sideous or Emperor Palpatine.

Would it have been strategically wise for Palpatine to let the Senate/Empire know he was a Force user at all?

If we assume the majority of the Empire was oblivious to Palpatine's alter ego (and viewed the Rebellion's claims that there is a Sith at the helm as propaganda), then Palpatine probably would have had to entertain the idea of a contingency even if only to please his minions. There probably was a plan in place--Sideous just never expected it would be needed....

 

I feel these points might come up in TFA as a sub-plot with Leia. Political figures may not know her secret connection to Darth Vader & maybe Luke Skywalker.
The main villian(Plagius) or another scheme may be looking to remove Leia from her position using these factors.