The ships that are destroyed in the planetary sequence are First Order ones.
Nah, doesn’t Palps tell Pryde to join up with the Sith Fleet? I took that to mean that they incorporated all of the First Order assets into the Sith Fleet and they all became one huge force.
Dude, are you telling me that the central conflict they had been building up for two and a half films (the First Order) was resolved off-screen by a bunch of unknown people whom we never meet? While our protagonists were dicking around with a random side mission?
God, I hate this film.
Why would they move all their assets directly on exegol? That just sounds illogical. It’s not so different that in RotJ, the entire imperial fleet was not all present at the battle of Endor. I don’t think it’s that hard to imagine that a sizeable portion of the first order fleet is regrouped on exegol while the remaining ships scattered across the galaxy remained in place.
So no, it’s not a side mission persay. While in TrOS there’s many things that are nonsensical, I just don’t see this as a reason and if at all, one of the major ones.
You’re right in that it makes sense mechanically - that there could still be First Order ships elsewhere in the galaxy. My point is that I don’t think it’s very satisfying narratively. You have two and a half movies building up the First Order as the primary antagonists, led by Kylo Ren and General Hux; and then the finale isn’t about stopping them - it’s about stopping Palpatine (who was just retconned back into existence for this one film) and his fleet of ships, the command of which was given to General Pryde (a new character introduced in this film). From a story perspective, there’s no buildup to Palpatine, Pryde, or the Sith Fleet, and therefore neither the characters nor the audience have any emotional investment in the battle.
Maybe that’s why, in my head, I tried to recontextualize the final battle so that it did involve the First Order again. Which brings me back to my original point that if the First Order has set up on Exegol, I’d also like to establish that the Star Destroyers are starting to launch.
It’s definitely the case where the big climax of the movie only dealt with the new threat that was introduced in this movie, so the conflict of the previous movies is resolved as an epilogue with Finn’s line “people are rising up all over the galaxy” and the following montage. But to be fair, they do suggest early on that the First Order is struggling to maintain a foothold and they would dwindle on their own, so the main struggle now becomes stopping Palpatine from joining the First and Final Order. Once that’s accomplished and dealt with taking care of the remaining First Order forces spread thin across the galaxy is just the cherry on top.
Even if they might just be “nerfing” the First Order to prop up Palpatine’s forces, I think it pairs well with the ending of TLJ, which was pretty hopeful despite all the preceding tragedies. Specially with the edits on Hal’s Ascendant, which better emphasize the struggles of the the First Order and directly link them to Luke’s actions in TLJ as the spark of hope that ignited flames of rebellion.