In The Force Awakens we saw some Senators on balconies or something as they were getting nuked.
That is the one and only piece of evidence that a post-Empire world existed. And now it doesn’t exist, because they were nuked in TFA.
Otherwise it’s exactly as if the Empire never lost power. Perhaps an orderly off-screen transition of power from Palpatine to Snoke occurred in this universe.
It was a complete soft reboot. Somehow they’ve convinced fans to insist that the First Order is just a small little imperial remnant despite all evidence to the contrary.
My biggest issue with TFA is the whole First Order/Resistance thing.
Like… who are they resisting and why? Isn’t the Republic doing anything about these new imperials… why are the resistance hiding and doing stuff secretly when Leia should (probably) be in good stead with the new republic…
It just didn’t make sense and I had to switch off my brain and tell myself “ok, there’s the empire gain and the rebels again and just deal with it”.