One of the greatest changes that The Mandalorian has made which I’ve seen very few people talk about, is the continued existence of the Empire. Before Mando, the official canon was that the entire empire was mopped up in about a year, they signed a peace treaty, and then there were 29 years of peace. Which is rather boring and doesn’t leave much room for storytelling in a franchise literally called Star Wars, not to mention the realism of it.

Now, the Mandalorian is set 5 years after Endor, and we can see that the Empire is clearly still alive, organized, and a threat. There were some hints to it last season, with the death troopers and whatnot, but I think the Gozanti in this recent episode confirms it. This presents so many more opportunities for stories, as well as makes a lot more sense. The empire was full of zealots, they wouldn’t just give up and surrender, First Order plan or no.

I do think that Legends dragged out the Empire a bit too long, but I always liked how it was still a monumental task to clean up all the warlords and whatnot. Just because the Rebellion became the legitimate government doesn’t mean they had all the resources to immediately end the empire.