Indeed. But don’t u think by doing the following cuts and changes it would work legitalemty. This is as detailed as I can be currently just off of memory of the movie:
Well either way there’s still the issue of the randomness of the Starkiller showing up halfway through the film
Since this issue is already present with original sequence of events I would ignore this issue.
(and trying to buy it as a threat without seeing what it can do).
Hux’s speech about it is pretty convincing. His acting and utter intensity is felt and it directly is about the power of the base. The combined shots of a star being sucked and the one shot of the sky turning red and the trees burned provides a very majestic introduction to what it takes to power such a weapon and convinces us it has the ability to destroy a system.
The problem with not having the New Republic scenes is there’s a sizable plot hole created - why aren’t people evacuating? Why isn’t the Republic helping the Resistance?
If someone is a viewer, invested in the film and they question this possible plot hole you could saythat the reason the republic isn’t helping the resistance in this specific crisis is due to the fact that only the resistance would know at that point about the weapon and that theres not enough time for the republic to not only send help across the entire galaxy but to get Notified in time also.