You know, a weird byproduct of the way Disney depicts the New Republic is some very interesting (and likely inadvertent) political messaging. The Prequels depicted (poorly) the failure of a democracy and the rise of totalitarianism, driven by a populace who chose to “elect” an Emperor because they favored security over personal freedom. The Republic failed to resolve the Separatist conflict, embraced a massive war, resulting in an unprecedented military build-up as prelude to a police state. The messaging here is pretty obvious: don’t give your leaders too much power for the sake of security, and be skeptical about the military-industrial complex. It was a pretty typical message for the Bush-era, post 9-11 environment the Prequels were released in.
A decade later, the Disney Sequels come out, followed by all these New Republic based Disney+ shows. And bizarrely, Disney seems to have inadvertently imbued their content with the opposite message. In the Sequels, the New Republic government defunds its military and stubbornly refuses to believe the First Order is a serious threat. Only Leia takes measures to fight the First Order, and she is proven to be right.
Then in the various New Republic Disney+ shows, we see a similar dynamic: New Republic politicians and bureaucrats are constantly skeptical about any military threats to the Republic for some reason. Only our heroes (and an offscreen Princess Leia) take reports of any national security threats seriously. And of course, our heroes (and offscreen Leia) are always proven correct.
So bizarrely, Disney+ Star Wars is giving off something like a neo-conservative pro-war, pro-national security message: “Make sure you maintain a strong military and stay alert for national security threats - enemies of the Republic are everywhere! Don’t be a peace-loving idiot like that Senator in the Ahsoka show - build up your military and increase your defense budget!” The messaging tells us we need a strong military-industrial complex, otherwise our old enemies will regroup and take us out.
Of course, I don’t think this messaging is intentional. It’s just a fluke stemming from poor planning beginning with Force Awakens. J.J. Abrams wanted to do a soft reboot of the OT, which meant resetting the Galaxy back to Empire vs. Rebels. So the New Republic had to go. (J.J. didn’t care how. Just blow it up!) But in order to justify how it was destroyed so easily, the writers concocted this whole backstory where the New Republic government dismantles its military and inexplicably doesn’t take any national security threats seriously. So Leia has to go off on her own and fund a “resistance”. This weird skepticism of national security threats is then carried over into the Disney+ shows.
Anyway, I just think this inadvertent pro-military messaging is really hilarious.