I’ve been thinking a lot about our dissection of the events in the ST, which we were talking about earlier, and I’ve thought about a simple revision that would go a long way in better setting the stage for what we actually see in this movie, and better connect with both TFA and TRoS.
I think we can all agree that the biggest outlier is the bit about Snoke “deploying merciless legions” to take control of the galaxy, I think this single line is what has made a lot of people overestimate the power and reach the FO had, as it’s been misinterpreted to imply they just swiftly took over the whole galaxy immediately. However, as we discussed, that’s not what we actually see in the films.
Now here’s the simple change I propose:
“The First Order reigns. Having decimated the peaceful Republic, Supreme Leader Snoke now gathers his forces to seize military control of the galaxy.”
Now, instead of the immeasurable reach of Snoke’s “legions”, it’s implied that the First Order’s resources have a limit. Moreover, this helps to imlpy that the fleet that gives chase to the Resistance consist of a sizeable chunk of the Fist Order, most if not all of it, as Snoke was in the process of gathering everything he has to scheme a takeover (a takeover that hasn’t happened yet, as Rey says, it would be weeks before they take over the major systems, if left unopposed). The idea of Snoke gathering his forces also pairs perfectly with what we last saw of him in TFA, as the last thing he does is instruct for Hux and Kylo to regroup with him. And it also subtly implies that the destruction of the Starkiller did make a dent on the FO’s resources, as now they gotta “regroup and go back at em”, as Poe puts it.
So basically, Snoke is gathering his remaining forces, planing to take over. He believes there’s no one left to oppose him, as the Republic’s destroyed and he has sent Hux to “snuff out the Resistance once and for all”. But Hux fails, so now Snoke takes the fleet he’s amassed and personally launches an all-out attack on the Resistance to make sure they’re wiped out for good (while also manipulating Kylo to find Skywalker and thus end the last bit of hope in the galaxy).
Also, I don’t think “The First Order reigns” should be removed, I think that statment is key. Not only does it clearly establish the stakes, as the First Order is now the more powerful faction at play, but also establishing the idea of the First Order “reign” is absolutely key to Kylo’s character journey, as his whole plot in this movie revolves around overtaking the “reign” of the First Order, and his whole motivation in TRoS is about mantaining that “rule”. As I’ve said before, that statement was never meant to imply the FO already has control over the galaxy, and with the change I propose, it makes it clear that taking over is Snoke’s plan, but not something he has accomplished already.
As for the rest of the crawl, I think there’s a reason why it hadn’t been changed in all this time, and that’s because it’s pretty good, I don’t think it needs to be altered any further. It would’ve been nice if there had been some remains of the Republic show up in VIII and/or IX, but they don’t. You can imagine that there are remains of that government that the FO wants to take over, those planets that blew up can’t literally be all there was, but they don’t really play a role as far as what we actually see in the movies, so it seems pointless to try and clarify in the crawl that not all of the Republic was wiped out.
