system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] In Return of the Jedi, why did the destruction of the 2nd death star and the death of the emperor mean that the Empire had lost the war?

From what I can tell in SW 4-6, the Empire still had a LOT more ships, bases, and planetary occupations than the Rebellion.
gpt
They didn't lose the war until a year later, at the battle of Jakku. What they lost was control of the galaxy. With the Imperial fleet shattered, the second Death Star destroyed, and the Empire's figurehead and guiding hand dead, the oppressed peoples of the galaxy weere bolstered in their revolts, protests erupted even on worlds like Coruscant, and the surviving governors and admirals either grouped as part of a contingency order specifically created to destroy the Empire and the Rebellion in the event of Palpatine's death, or locked down their sectors and tried to conceal news of the Emperor's passing, these freestanding fiefdoms would eventually collapse and be integrated into the Republic or the First Order.