Post by gmandam on Jan 6, 2016 18:18:38 GMT -5
I think the main issue lay in the fact that it's much easier for an audience to root for an underdog. So they made the Resistance a thing and destroyed the Republic so that the First Order could be the big bad scary villain. Personally I would've just had the Rebellion lose to the Empire in the end despite their victories, kept the Empire around as the Empire and not bother renaming it, then have the Resistance continuing the fight. Luke can continue to get depressed because reasons and disappear, Han goes back to smuggling, etc.
I feel like this would be unlikely to be the case. The fact that the empire split up when it's head boss and his dragon got killed, leading to the local forces in the area gaining power feels more realistic to me based off what we've seen when you remove a strong leader from a country held together only by fear and the threat of ultimate force. This obviously makes for a poor choice in terms of a Hero and underdog situation however.
A better alternative would have been to flesh out the imperial fragments a bit more and make the republic sound like what I think they actually are in setting. A rump state of the better Empire planets that joined together during the rebellion, surrounded by imperial fragments that fight each-other as much as they fight the new republic. So the fact that they don't send a fleet to wipe the floor with the planet-death-star makes more sense because they don't have the numbers to field for it.
It'd also make the original rebel alliance look like it had succeeded at it's goals, somewhat anyway, and maintains the weakened positions for the good guys by making it look quite clear that yes they are free but they are in deep water and surrounded by sharks.