That’s another issue. Abrams wasn’t actually familiar with the larger lore.

That makes me even more curious about intentionally drawing on them.

The First Order = Thrawn’s Imperial Remnant
The Sith Fleet = The Katana Fleet
Palpatine’s return via cloning = Dark Empire
Kylo Ren = Darth Caedus (his killing of Mara Jade would’ve been a much better reason for Luke’s self-exile, imo. Wonder if it still could be.)
Rey = Jaina, the “Sword of the Jedi” who defeats the fallen Solo…

The fact that all the references were unintentional is so mind boggling to me.