I loved TFA, but something about the “rebellion” or “resistance” or whatever it is just feels “small.” I don’t really know why. It seems like they’re even more ill-equipped and scaled-down than they were in Empire, and this is odd. It bothers me somehow.
There may have been a movement by the New Republic to completely dismantle the Rebellion in the years after ROTJ. They may have only been building a new covert force in the past few years in response to the growing threat of the New Order. Leia and Ackbar are the only members of the “old guard” that seem to be present.
I don’t think we saw too many older pilots like we did in the OT? Of course, with some aliens it’s not easy to tell.
It will be interesting to see if any Republic ships survived and join up.