Are we still determined to keep the “silenced all communication” thing from Trevorrow’s script? I feel like it doesn’t have much relevance here, and it’s contradicted by Lando’s message reaching the entire galaxy.
I think the novel uses this to explain why there are so few members of the Resistance and how the First Order gained so much territory in the year since TLJ. And it gives a little bit of weight to Poe’s comment to Zori about no one listening, it wasn’t because they weren’t listening it’s because the First Order stopped them from listening.
It does; it actually says that there ARE other major Resistance groups, but the First Order’s near-total control over communication makes connecting with them and coordinating between them nearly impossible. Given that we know Hux has a cut line complaining about how ‘flames of rebellion burn across the galaxy’ as Kylo Ren chases ‘a ghost’, I suspect at some point the line about the other groups and the communication silencing was also explicitly stated within the movie.
The problem, as always, is that JJ Abrams has a fatal aversion to exposition, even when it’s desperately, desperately needed.
Man, I’ve been really on the fence about the novel but it sounds like it might be a good read.