McFlabbergasty said:
I've always felt that ROTS's changing of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire always felt too much like flipping a light switch. Sure there was political build-up, but on the whole I thought the events felt too forced and sudden.
Personally, my prequel re-write has the Republic dissolve several years before the formation of the Empire. After a clone fleet surprises Coruscant by bombarding the seat of government with orbital fire, the Republic fractures into my disorganized warlord factions.
Ostensibly the Republic remnant factions are allied with each other, but they have little trust for each other. For much of the Clone Wars, the clones rule the galaxy. It is only when the strong-man political leader and military officer Admiral Palpatine steps into the forefront that this rabble of fleets and armies is united into a galaxy-spanning Empire.
On one level, that is a very appealing construct. It allows the storyteller to simply exchange "Empire" for "Clones" as bad guys, making them easily identifiable. It might also lessen the amount of Galatic C-SPAN one would have to do, with a pretty straightforward way for Palpatine to rise to power.
However, I'm not sure I would be satisfied with it. I feel that the theme of "the path from democracy to dictatorship" is a very appealing one, and telling the story of how Palpatine went from Senator to Dictator is one that fits the fall of Anakin Skywalker very well, as a parallell. It's one I'd like to see told. So, my problem with the official version was the execution, rather than the theme.
I think the key to doing this is to take care and build a plausible political setting, which Lucas did not do. In other words, the Republic and the Senate need to function in a convincing fashion.