Rho TefnutetTo be honest, myself I have never understood Powerplay, as some of its aspects don't really make sense. Why a Federal system would be under control of Patreus, for example? Unless it's widely agreed that Powerplay is not official and not visible to everyone, I fail to see Federal citizens simply accepting Imperial influence inside the systems that are their homes. To me, Powers and Superpowers are existing in their own universes but if someone could explain the in-lore sense for Powers to exists and it allowing very strange combos (like Imperials under Mahon's - so Alliance - control), I would be really glad.
Best way I've seen to make sense of it is how people say things are vs. how they actually are.
Take a real world example from my own country, the United States. We're supposedly real keen on free markets, democracy, and all that lovely stuff? Well, it doesn't take much at all for us to support the worst of the worst when it suits our interest.
Take this fun fact: the top F-14 Tomcat pilot in the world was Iranian.
lol wut? Real life Maverick is Iranian?
Yup, before the Islamic government took over they were staunch allies of ours. We sold them a ton of F-14s and they still have some today. The ace in question became one during Iran's big war with Iraq.
And guess who we wanted to win that war? You guessed it, Iraq. I think we had a falling out with them at some point too...
The endless churning cauldron of bullshit that is politics!