luckydube56 said:

Nice work.

I actually like the concept of the new enemy built off the old. Kind of like the Romans building their civilization off the Greeks.

I know nothing so take it for what its worth. But there does seem to be a lot of respect being paid to Darth Vader by this new villain. This new empire seems a bit more of a religious bureaucracy. Or maybe just more zealous to the last man.

The old empire was Hitler + Wehrmacht.

The new empire seems Hitler + SS.

If that makes any sense.

The only problem with that ancient symbol being a precursor to the Empire symbol is the Prequels. As darklordoftech rightly pointed out, the Empire symbol is previously the Republic symbol in the Prequels, so it's a symbol of good subverted to be a symbol of evil. I personally don't think Palps would keep a symbol of the old Republic as his new Empire's sigil though, and yet that's what we got in the Prequels. Goody.

I guess it's possible though that Disney/JJ are ignoring the Prequels. JJ certainly did when asked questions at the opening panel of Celebration! :p

The similarities between the designs are difficult to ignore though. Even if they've intended no inferred links between them, at the very least Lucasfilm appear to have seen that symbol and gone "this is cool, rejig it".