NFB, if you could find those that’d be very helpful. I’d love to be able to spin it in that direction. The official explanation is just so farfetched. Smuggling spare junk doesn’t lead to the largest fleet in history that exactly replicates an old Star Destroyer model.
Yeah, the whole “They conjured legions of Star Destroyers!” thing needs to go. A thousand Ringwraiths on a desolate lightning planet probably couldn’t build a fleet powerful enough to destroy the entire galaxy. A lost Imperial fleet stashed away as one of Palpatine’s contingencies would make much more sense. The fleet was described that way in some of the early leaks, most of which were much better than the actual movie. I’ll try and post some of that stuff that might be relevant to fan editing.