I’ve written so many versions of ‘The Senate is desperate to avoid war’ that I’ve lost count, and none of those versions even get out of the word document phase. It’s a shame since that is probably the best explanation as to why the Republic fails to act.

One problem here that is largely self-inflicted is the big restructure and its effect on the setup. In the original film, the Republic was destroyed in a surprise attack before any of our heroes knew about the Starkiller. In this version, however, not only must we explain why the Republic doesn’t act against the vague threat of the First Order, but we must also contrive some explanation for why they are unable or unwilling to act even in the face of their own impending destruction once the Resistance learns of the Starkiller.

In Restructured, it is only known that the Starkiller is charging, not what its target may be. I changed this to include reference to the Hosnian System, but that does add the issue of why the Republic can’t or won’t act. Of course, even in Restructured the target of the Starkiller would have been obvious, but saying it does add that bit of expectation for the Republic to respond in some way.

In an ideal world, I would have some dialogue indicating that the Republic is sending ships in support of the Resistance attack but show that it is too late for them to arrive in time. Then the crawl for TLJ would indicate that the Raddus and its support ships were those intended for this operation, and now exist as the last remnant of the Republic fleet. The bombers which fail in space combat may have actually won the day against the Starkiller.

JEDIT: I could change the dialogue from the scene where Leia is updated about the attack:

“General, are you seeing this?”
(Subtitled) “The Senate has responded! They are sending reinforcements.”
“But their weapon will be ready to fire in ten minutes! It would take a miracle to save us now.”