>>9648648W40k is the only piece of fiction I know that takes the concept of an Empire and portrays it in a somewhat positive, or at least understandable light. The west loves to jack themselves off to gay, loose, undisciplined, sarcastic mentally teenaged "rebels"/resistance groups and the east can only comprehend "Kingdom good, Empire bad".
So your options for the protagonists to be in a centralized, militaristic, and highly nationalist aesthetic without constantly undermining it are very limited. Also Star Wars is extremely overrated, the OT especially.