I wish we could have a gritty Star Wars series

…where the struggle between the Rebels and the Empire was more about people…

…and less about explosions, and zany aliens…

It would be great to see stormtroopers represented as elite infantry, not clumsy cannon fodder…

…and be reminded that they are human beings as well as soldiers…

…and that they have suffered mightily as the Empire consolidated power.

What would it be like to follow the story of a conscript? Would a poor kid, conscripted into the imperial army, have ever been to orbit?

…let alone set foot on exotic worlds?

Maybe some of them really believe in what the Empire is doing? Maybe some of them just want to go home?

Some of the Rebel soldiers are still true blue heroes….

..but there could be charismatic leaders who are basically terrorists….

…using propaganda just like the Galactic Empire….

…in an attempt to depose the emperor and write themselves into galactic history. (like Tom Zarek from Battelstar Galactica)

…they prey on the ideals of soldiers…

…who believe that the Galactic Empire is a monocultural oppressive regime which must be overthrown…

…and maybe the ends too often justify the means…

The Galactic Empire has worlds that are highly industrialized and densely populated, like Coruscant…

…but there are also worlds that are barren and lawless, like Tatooine…

…suggesting a huge disproportion of wealth and resources between developed and undeveloped worlds throughout the empire.

The Rebel soldiers would basically be defectors from the imperial underclass…

…but many Rebel soldiers wouldn’t fully appreciate the legacy of the Old Republic they are trying to restore…

…and that by eliminating the emperor, galactic power will only transfer from a dictator to hundreds of wealthy senators…

One character of the series could be a kid from the Imperial homeworld, Coruscant, who had received a formal education. S/he joins up with the Rebels because they’re sympathetic to the Rebel Alliance’s mission to build a multicultural senate that represents the galactic community…

…but their dissolutionment upon discovering the unspoken motivations of corrupt and self-aggrandizing Rebel leaders would be a way to examine the hypocrisy of the Rebel Alliance…

Another character could be a poor kid who witnessed the invasion of their homeworld and the indiscriminate slaughter of its inhabitants…

…we see the brutality of the Empire’s campaign through the pain of a character who has lost their home, culture, and identity…

…and we can understand why some of the rebel soldiers are merciless and pragmatic, and think that actions akin to terrorism are completely justified.

How about instead of giant space battles the Rebels realize early on that they’re vastly outnumbered…

…and the only way they can succeed, is to lure the Empire into a brutal war of attrition?

The massive resource-intensive mission to destroy the Death Star could be an against-all-odds assault at the end of the 1st season. where the Empire has forced the Alliance’s hand by locating the secret base on Yavin 4.

…imagine if the Rebel assault on the Death Star was a last ditch effort, and it failed, the Yavin base gets destroyed, and a bunch of characters die Game of Thrones style? Wouldn’t that be awesome?

We could also see the graft, violence, and vice in Mos Eisley…

…and how far the Empire’s reach extends into government of remote worlds like Tatooine….

A less hapless C-3PO could make droid espionage pretty cool.

Maybe we could see how the politics of Mos Eisley as an administrative center, affects the moisture farmers in terms of political representation, taxes, civil rights…

…this would set the table for us to really appreciate a new character in the following season: the badass nephew of a moisture farmer from a backwater planet whose uncanny pilot skills turn him into a war hero and a symbol of hope for the Rebels. Maybe kind of like a Star Wars version of Shepard from Mass Effect. His affair with the Alderaanian Princess leading the Rebel Alliance could provide some political intrigue.

Oh yeah, the Jedi. Taking down a Star Destroyer like a boss.

Thank you for reading! Instead of a cat, here’s Jar Jar getting punched by a stormtrooper. Sorry if this artwork has been posted before, I hadn’t seen it so I thought I’d make an album.