I agree with a lot of Burbin’s takes. I’ve always been more of a TLJ apologist, so that’s how I’ve seen it.

But, I also think it is fair to try and find ways to clarifying things, since apparently these ideas didn’t completely register for a lot of the audience.

I can’t recall how your crawl is worded, but I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change the line, “The First Order reigns.” Yes, the film does state that they will have control of the major systems within weeks, so they are not reigning yet technically. But I feel like these two statements do add to the confusion.

I think a fun way to start the crawl would be with a line like, “Chaos reigns.” Then you could describe how both sides are scrambling to reorganize after the destruction of Hosnian and Starkiller Base. Or replace ‘reigns’ with another word. “The First Order invades.”

Also, I always felt that an angle they could’ve gone with would’ve been to explain that the galaxy at large might not know the Resistance managed to destroy Starkiller Base. So for all we know, the “major systems” might think the FO has a gun to their heads, so might just completely surrender at the threat of total obliteration. So the FO might be motivated to destroy the Resistance so that information can’t spread. It would explain how they would be able to take control so quickly without a major fleet. And then as the galaxy learns the truth post-TLJ, this makes it harder for the FO to maintain control.
On the other hand, this idea could take away from the general focus they have on hope/fear and its relation to Luke and the Jedi.

Regarding the Resistance referring to themselves as Rebels lines, I’m guessing the idea was that “Godspeed Rebels” was something the old rebels would say to each other, but it’s kinda weird since we never heard anyone say that. It would be pretty easy to take out the two instances this is said. I know there are other instances besides this though.