Forget the "plot devices" crap. The movies showed how the things in the Star Wars universe, simple as that. If we're going to discuss the events and stuff of a movie series, then we have to take the "all of it was real"-attitude and go from there. You can't say something like "The Rebels only won because the good guys had to win", if you're trying to create a reasonable debate. The Vietnamese rebels won their war against the great American empire because the Vietnamese were the good guys, wouldn't you say? Or not? I thought so.