One thing that could help the ST as a whole would be making the First Order into more of an Imperial remnant who is hellbent on reclaiming the galaxy but isn’t really in a position to do so. They destroy the Republic capital, but that was basically the sum of their might. Once SKB is destroyed, it’s only the lack of the New Republic’s fleet that allows them to pose a threat. In TLJ, they would visually be downgraded in their firepower and shown to be fledging and even wounded due to the loss of their main base. In TROS, they’d be desperate for Palpatine’s old imperial fleet he stockpiled, because it’d give them a huge leg up.