Every Moff Was Supposed to Be a Warlord — The 200-State Hydra Disney Erased for Snoke

After the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, the Galactic Empire did not collapse into a single Imperial Remnant. It collapsed into roughly two hundred. Every Moff who controlled a sector kept his sector. Every Grand Admiral who held a fleet kept his fleet. Ysanne Isard ran Imperial Intelligence out of a captured Super Star Destroyer called Lusankya. Natasi Daala emerged from the Maw Installation with four uncatalogued Star Destroyers. Treuten Teradoc declared the Greater Maldrood. Sander Delvardus declared the Eriadu Authority. Warlord Zsinj built a piracy state in the Quelii sector. The Empire became a hydra. Disney consolidated it into one old man on a single ship called Snoke.Hold that contrast in your head while I show you the receipts. The Empire-as-hydra is not a fan theory. It's not a reddit thread. It's not an audience extrapolation. It's a documented commercial publishing arc that ran from May of 1991 through April of 2014, across forty novels, two roleplaying-game sourcebook editions, and eight named authors. The hydra was the canonical post-Endor scenario for twenty-three consecutive years. Disney bought Lucasfilm in October of 2012, sat down with that twenty-three-year body of work, and decided to throw it away. What they shipped in its place was a sixty-something man in a hooded robe on a single throne on a single ship, killed in his chair in the second film by his apprentice. The hydra is in the books. The man on the chair is in the films. The audience has been pointing at the books for ten years.