How important is it really to this story? The First Order is trying to take over the galaxy, the Resistance is trying to stop it. Is a lot more information than that really important to the stories of these new characters? The logistics of the New Republic are no more important to Rey’s story than they are to the Mandalorian’s.
When one of the main characters of the story is the ruler of the galaxy, you should expect to have at least some explanation of how the system works. It’s fine to not explain anything for a small-scale TV show like The Mandalorian, but the sequels have events that happen on a galactic scale, so the movies should at least give us some broad idea as to the political situation.
I mean, Snoke is neither a main character nor the ruler of the galaxy, so I’m not sure that’s the most salient point.
I was referring to Kylo.
I thought we were talking about TFA. I feel like the political situation is pretty unconfusing in both TLJ and TROS.
Yes, but in some ways it is actually worse, since the message is, that even when the Resistance blows up the First Order’s big gun, a major victory in ANH, and the start of the Galactic Civil War, the rest of the galaxy is conveniently too scared, or too lazy to take on what is left of the First Order. Then in TROS these scared or lazy systems, which in TLJ apparently didn’t have the means to resist, or worse didn’t want to, just conveniently come crawling out of the woodworks at the end of the movie in a massive show of force. In other words these systems could have kicked the First Order, which was a lot smaller than the Final Order apparently, out of the galaxy any time they wanted to, but they didn’t because it wasn’t convenient for the story at that time. It’s really quite appalling the way the bigger picture was handled throughout the entire trilogy in my view.
Appalling?
A few wars or rebellions in real life start like this though. It takes time for people to muster the strength and courage to fight, or even the realisation that THEY themselves need to fight (that nobody else is going to do it for them) - and sometimes they may need a final push, or a reminder of how awful it actually is now (or was before) that can stir them into action.
This is not how invasions by a foreign power work. There isn’t a single country that was attacked by the Nazis in WW2, that didn’t put up a fight at least for a while. Most of them didn’t last very long, but that is beside the point. Yet, in the ST we are supposed to believe the entire galaxy just gives up, and allows the FO to overrun them, even though they clearly have the means to stop them, as is evident in TROS.
The story of Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight! 😉) returning to fight the First Order on Crait will have likely have spread throughout the galaxy too given time - to give both hope and belief to people there is a chance, and a need, to fight against those who wish to oppress them.
The destruction of SKB, an actual victory, rather than a symbolic one, should be enough reason to come to the Resistance’s aid. Yet, rather than being the symbol of a new hope, as in the first film, it is met with cynicism, and apathy.
A message from Palpatine… broadcast throughout the galaxy that he’ll be back in charge soon and everyone will have to submit to his will again - backed up by a demonstration of the firepower he now in the Star Destroyer blowing up that planet - could inspire or trigger people to take up the fight too.
Really? And the actual destruction of the New Republic’s capital does not?
It is also made clear in TROS by the Imperial Officer at Exegol that these are just people - it is a fleet of people - who have only just come together to fight Palpatine and his newly announced oppression, and is not an orginised fleet in the way Rebel fleets in the Original Trilogy were.
This is a running theme in the ST. The FO is a fringe government, but they act just like the Empire, and have infinite resources. The Resistance is a military group supported by the New Republic, but they act just like the Rebellion. The rebel fleet in TROS are “just people”, but it is the largest armada, you have ever seen. To me this is why much of what happens in the ST so hollow. Fleets, resources, evil overlords, and Force powers are just pulled out of thin air, or conjured, whenever the script requires it. Lando musters an entire fleet of random people from all over the galaxy in a matter of hours, the way a kid goes home to get his brothers to help him fight the neighbourhood bullies. There’s no sense of time, or scale, and it ultimately ends up feeling totally inconsequential. One fleet that comes out of nowhere destroys another fleet, that comes out of nowhere.