>>213869738
>cartoon villain wants to rule the galaxy
that's fine but it works better when you don't try to couch that in cloak-and-dagger politics involving a trade dispute that has no basis in any reality.
George needed some sort of reason for a pacifist government like the utopian Republic to be goaded into a war, the fabled Clone War which he probably only had an inkling of when he was writing the first trilogy. idk if the books ever expanded on that, it's only mentioned in ANH as far as I remember.
the way it was handled was clumsy and that's all George's fault. he should have paired off with other screenwriters instead of believing himself to be this brilliant scribe. he also should have gotten a competent director. the entire thing smacks of a vanity project, and it suffers for being so.