At work a few weeks ago I had an idea for a recontextualizing of TFA’s backstory that might be doable in a fanedit?
While the Empire was still around, there were two factions in the Rebellion:
Mon Mothma’s faction was made up mainly of Old Republic bureaucrats and Senators who didn’t end up in the in-group when the Empire took over, who wanted a return to the old regime and a full restoration to the Old Republic as if the Empire never happened.
Leia’s faction was made up mainly of Outer Rim people who really felt the brunt of the Empire, and want an entirely new, third system, their biggest argument being that the Empire didn’t come out of nowhere, it exploited the flaws and weaknesses of the Old Republic. In their view, the Republican governmental system inevitably leads to the Empire.
After the Battle of Jakku, where the last of the Imperial Remnant was finally defeated and the New Republic took complete control over the galaxy (which I’d push later into the timeline, well after the Mandalorian*), the tensions between these two factions in grow in the New Republic, now that the common enemy is gone for good.
Mon Mothma dies eventually, and a fresh young Senator (Hux) takes over her faction. Hux looks like he could be her son, but I don’t think that could be pulled off in a fanedit. Maybe I’m wrong, though.
Civil war eventually breaks out, Leia’s faction becoming the Resistance, and Hux’s faction becoming the First Order. The First Order’s Imperial appearance would not be addressed at all, letting the audience fill in the blanks on the implication that the Old Republic aligned faction, and the Old Republic itself, was always inherently fascistic.
The Rebels v Empire aesthetic of the ST would be justified with the theme that the Old Republic was the true problem all along, and
Before the war, though, Hux begins to fall for the spell of a Rasputin-like figure, aka Snoke. Not entirely certain in all that, but this backstory seems to imply that Hux would be the head honcho, leaving no room for Snoke or Kylo. Rasputin Snoke is the best way to fit him (and his adherent Kylo, who Hux views as having no purpose in the First Order) into this backstory.
Snoke could also be involved somehow else, or Hux could be involved somehow else, although Senator Hux is much more believable to me than Senator Snoke.
I’d also like to somehow cut out Starkiller Base, although that’s moreso because I don’t like a Death Star III. If that didn’t work (or if I never end up doing this and someone else wants to take a crack at it, but does like Starkiller Base), this isn’t really central to the idea. I can see how Starkiller Base could be worked into the backstory.
The Last Jedi would be changed minimally, only to fit in with the new backstory. I’d personally like to cut out TRoS entirely, or at least reduce it significantly, but that has nothing to do with the backstory.
*In the New EU, the Battle of Jakku takes place a year after RotJ (5 ABY) but the Imperial Remnant is still kicking around in the Mandalorian (9 ABY). It’s not completely insignificant politically in-universe, but from a storytelling standpoint, it’s robbed of significance.
I’d push it to maybe 15 ABY (or maybe not since that’s the year Rey’s born, and I have no way to make that relevant) and have it be when the New Republic finally sweeps away the last remnant.