So I was thinking about other ways to explain the First Order’s massive power, and I got to thinking about how a small Imperial remnant would have the ability to raise a massive army and man their huge base and fleet. The explanation from the movie was that their soldiers were taken from their families at birth and trained for their roles. This is an interesting idea, and something truly different than the clones and willing recruits of the last two trilogies.

I assume that most of the armies of the First Order are sourced from the worlds still under Imperial control, but presumably some are not. Imagining that there was some low-scale epidemic of kidnapping throughout the galaxy for years is a pretty dark reading of the movie, but one that I don’t think is unwarranted. After all, this is a recurring theme in the movie, with Snoke basically turning Klyo and a bunch of Jedi children from under Luke’s nose. With that in mind, here’s an idea of what a crawl would look like:

The galaxy is in turmoil.
Citizens from worlds across
the New Republic have
mysteriously disappeared.

Among those missing is
Luke Skywalker, last of
the Jedi Knights, and in his
absence has arisen a sinister
Imperial order. Armed with
a weapon of unspeakable
power, this FIRST ORDER
moves to destroy the allies
of the Jedi once and for all.

Desperate to avoid another
deadly civil war, the New
Republic funds a covert
RESISTANCE to counter
these attacks and find
their guardian of peace
and justice amid the
countless stars…

This reading also deepens the theme shared between Rey, Finn, and Kylo, which is abandonment by parental figures, and spills over into The Last Jedi to link into the Canto Bight plot.