CWBorne said:
I definitely think showing an outright turn from Republic to Empire is excessive. Its why my current treatment just has Palpatine declaring himself Chancellor for life, and nothing else. The implication of what he's going to do, and how the institution was perverted and corrupted into despotism, works much better in the audience's imagination. then anything shown on screen. In ANH the size of the star destroyer, the stormtrooper's assault, the appearance of Vader; all of that completely tells you what's happened to the galaxy in the 20 years since, all without literally saying anything. Ideally the reaction of going from the third prequel to A New Hope should be one of shock and horror at how bad things have gotten, particularly when we see what happens to Beru and Owen.
Those are all quite valid points! Interesting suggestion. I'll have to think about that myself.