kontextmaschine:

You know, the rise of the Empire in Star Wars – involving the suppression of an autonomous monastic order, with resistance led by local nobility like the Organa dynasty of Coruscant – doesn’t so much resemble a republic collapsing into dictatorship as feudalism consolidating into absolute monarchy.

I mean the prequels were explicitly about the central government developing the capacity to directly raise an army, rather than relying on the forces of vassals like Naboo