To help differentiate the First Order and their extremism more from the Empire, what if during the opening battle of The Last Jedi, you had two TIE pilots kamikaze the Resistance bombers in order to save the dreadnaught? The first time being the crash that causes the chain reaction that destroys three bombers. The second time could be when the TIE shoots the cockpit of the last bomber, but you could cut it in a way to make it seem like it just flies into it.

For both instances you could insert an interior shot of the TIE cockpit and add some dialogue that you could pull from Battlefront 2. I think adding more dialogue to First Order soldiers/pilots in general could help demonstrate how brainwashed they are to this cause they were raised for.