Uhh... Welcome to Earth. We have jet planes that can get you anywhere on Earth in less than a day, but there are still plenty of places on Earth that are remote and undeveloped. It's not a question of travel time, it's a question of where people prefer to live and put their resources into developing. That's not going to be evenly distributed or proportional to distance. I can leave my city and drive 100 miles up I-71 and reach an even bigger city, but most of the places in between those two cities are more sparsely populated and more rural. What, being against totalitarianism and genocide doesn't count as being about something? Of course it's always been a pretty straightforward good-vs.-evil adventure story for kids, as JD says, but the Empire is pretty obviously based on the Nazis, and the whole thing has a consistent anti-fascist stance.
Exactly. And people on Earth can get quite stuck where they live. Within the US, you need money to move around. Internationally, immigration requirements provide additional barriers. Just because you can get anywhere in less than a day in theory, that doesn't make it practical. For many people, movement around the planet is never practical.
Restating your argument unchanged does not suddenly make it more right. Your assertion that an anti-fascism story cannot make a meaningful statement is absurd -- just take a look at the news headlines right now.
For me, the interesting distinction between the Empire and the First Order is that the latter was a massive, entrenched political bureaucracy that became corrupt, ineffective and fell under the control of a charismatic dictator. While The First Order on the other hand is a Military Junta in the making. Military officers in exile, rebuilding what they see as an improved version of the old Empire with all of the military strength and dominance but (in theory) none of the political or bureaucratic weaknesses. The only wrinkle there is Snoke. For some reason, at some point they turned to a powerful outsider for leadership. To me this suggests that the First Order had a leadership problem from the outset. An impasse of ideology among the senior figures that prevented a stable council or dictator from maintaining control. How Snoke pulled that off is still something of a mystery, though I surmise he took advantage of them when they were at a low point...which means if it wasn't for him, the last remnant of the Empire could have died and melted away out in the unknown regions that the Republic would have gone on, none the wiser.
Not a fan. Force repelling animals, lame Lando knock off, a poor ending, stupid take on clones... pretty much all of it is meh in my book. I was more a fan of the Dark Horse stories. All of the old novels imo were bad.
It was basically the first go at any new Star Wars after the 10th Anniversary, so it was bound to have some issues, but otherwise is was more or less the best thing ever when it came out, since it was the restart Star Wars needed at the time. As for Snoke. Aside from his Dark Side powers, he also seems to be the First Order's route into the galactic economy, judging by his bling. Allowing the First Order to rebuild better and larger ships than the old Star Destroyers they ran off into the Unknown Regions with. Though I suspect we will get some more and hopefully better information in the First Order as "Resistance" continues.
Or Snoke just used his Force powers. He might well have had the ability to decapitate the regime single-handedly, not because they were weak per se, or divided, but because he was strong. With prescience he would know when and where the regime could strike and precisely what they should undertake to snowball into a threat capable of unseating the New Republic. Military leaders who had only conventional means at their disposal might never be able to compete with that. Having the Force with him would have always given Snoke an edge.
This is probably part of the truth, as the in fighting of different factions would eventually tear it apart. Snoke's rise is actually similar to Thrawn's from Legends in that a very charismatic leader steps in to a power struggle and creates a whole new threat.
While that all sounds reasonable, it doesn't account for how Snoke was able to convince a bunch of grasping, ambitious Admirals, Generals and Moffs to relinquish power to some random sorcerer from the back of beyond. Also remember that Palpatine being a Sith was still a very well guarded secret, so it's not like they figured "well it worked well the last time!" I mean it's a bit of a leap from "hey this guy is useful" to "let's give him supreme power!" At least with Thrawn he was already a very high ranking Imperial officer with a proven reputation for competence. Snoke for all we know was an utter nobody as far as the First Order was concerned. There's a very important part of the story we're missing here...or the creatives just didn't think it through logically. We'll see.
I'm just speculating, mind you. But I can see Snoke storming a top-brass round table and slaughtering admirals and generals, despite all their defenses, until those that remain accept his genuine offer of greater power than they ever realistically dreamed, if they swear loyalty to him, and then immediately and remotely Force-choking any to death who dare double-cross him, until those still alive at that point fall into line.
That doesn't really seem to be Snoke's style. He's a very manipulative character, so brute force would be a last resort. Besides it wouldn't work; he's still mortal and there are limits to what a force user can do. Openly assaulting the First Order stronghold would bring a ridiculous degree of firepower to bare on him and by the time he'd be done there probably wouldn't be anyone left alive to rule over. So, I think it's more likely he very slowly insinuated himself into the First Order's upper echelons before making a political move. Possibly helping Hux Jr. assassinating Hux Sr. in the process.
Maybe, but when his guard wasn't down, Snoke seemed extremely powerful to me, possibly even more powerful than Sidious, just as a vague impression of ability admittedly based on little evidence. Besides, I wasn't talking about assaulting a stronghold from the outside, just a soft inner target of generals, say sitting around arguing. Snoke could probably insinuate himself inside the facility by mind-control powers without shedding any blood. Holding the leaders themselves hostage seems like a great way to get them to do your bidding. With prescience Snoke would know precisely when they were most vulnerable.
Spoiler Hux Sr was killed in a plot devised by Hux Jr and Phasma. Snoke didn't factor into any of it at all.
Ah that's right. I remember Hux wanting to kill off the old man and it seemed implicit that's what would have happened by the time of TFA, but I couldn't remember if they actually depicted it in the novel.