I've been distracted by other things as of late and haven't gotten around to enjoying this site as much - let alone working on my rewrite. Awesome to read so many good ideas!

CWBorne, I love your characterization of Palpatine as an outsider businessman/philanthropist. Also your avoidance of over-explaining. What was brilliant about the OT was that it let the audience work things out for themselves.

McFlabbergasty, you're right that many of Lucas's depictions of political developments simply didn't make sense. It is important to avoid getting bogged down in political minutiae. The OT kept things simple. We knew there was a rebellion and an Empire and that was about it. Political developments are important but if they need lots of screen time or exposition to deal with them, it's too complicated for Star Wars. Most we got in the OT were a few comments in the conference room scene and in exchanges between Leia and Vader.

danaan said:

McFlabbergasty said:
Going by your interpretation, it seems Bail Organa inadvertently got the whole military-police-state ball rolling, but regretted that later seeing as he is Rebel-aligned in ANH. He was killed by the monster he helped create.

This adds an interesting layer of complexity to his character!

That's the idea! :)

It definitely is! One of the notions I'm more proud of is that Leia's later effort in combating the Empire is to redeem her (adoptive) father. This echos Luke's later effort with Vader and gives Leia more complex motivations.

Bail is full of good intentions and intelligence (as opposed to the unwitting, fooled, space-filling Jar Jar) but doesn't consider the possible unintended consequences. Bail wants to strengthen the central government to combat real threats. Palpatine exploits this reasonable desire to his own ends. Having a good and prominent senator like Bail central to the consolidation of power helps make it make more sense why so many go along.