Exactly what are they resisting? Well, the First Order, obviously. But why are they separate from the New Republic and its military? The New Republic still publicly supports them, that's why Starkiller targeted the Republic's homeworld. So why is there a separate organization supported by the Republic even if not formally a part of it fighting the First Order? For that matter, what is the deal with the First Order? They've risen from the ashes of the Empire, but what does that mean? Do they control all the Empire's former territory? I kind of get the impression they're small and not as powerful, given that aside from Snoke everyone of authority seems so young. But then they must have access to some serious resources to build Starkiller. What about Coruscant? Who runs that these days? It's obviously not the Republic's homeworld, so is it the First Order's? Or does it owned by one of the sides but not a capital anymore?
Well they ould have done a better job setting the scene in the opening crawl. But my best guess is that the years following ROTJ the systems that supported the Rebel Alliance formed the New Republic with some worlds joing it, whilst some worlds remained loyal to what was left of The Empire. At some point it became more of a cold war between the two factions, with The Resistance being those worlds which want to join the New Republic but they fall within the First Order's sphere of influence and the New Republic doesn't have enough military strength to fight and overcome the First Order. But as I said earlier they could have done something like this in the opening crawl The Empire is gone however some wish it to return together they have formed the First Order, those worlds who are under First Order control and wish to join the New Republic have formed a new Resistance. Maybe needs a slight rewrite, but it brings the viewer up to date with events.
They did leave the geopolitical landscape rather vague. Could've been in response to the backlash the prequels received.
Perhaps they did but as I highlighted above you could add a paragraph to the opening crawl to breifly explain the current political situation re: The First Order/Resistance. But perhaps they didn't because they didn't want to tie themselves done too much for futrue films.
You got it. Except that the New Republic had a treaty with the First Order (which is smaller and more rimward than I think you're implying) at the beginning of the movie, and officially it wasn't backing the Resistance. So long as the First Order stayed in its own space, it would have stayed that way - corrupt officials in the New Republic are running the show there. The First Order blew up the capital presumably because they're getting ready to invade. Source: Visual Dictionary for The Force Awakens. And my own theory is that the Empire started building Starkiller Base at around the same time as when they started on the first Death Star. That explains how the First Order built it - they didn't, they just had to finish it up and use it. But *that* isn't from an official source.
According to the novelization, the Resistance is kind of an unsanctioned militia that is dedicated to fighting off the new and growing First Order threat. The New Republic is sufficiently stable that it has (supposedly) gone complacent, and it's governing body is too prone to infighting to act decisively. Leia apparently went rogue, and she thinks that she might be arrested/assassinated if she were to return to Hosnian Prime (the eventually destroyed capital world of the Republic) to present her case for acting against the First Order. Reading between the lines, it appears that the New Republic co-exists with some kind of "Imperial Remnant" (or something... it's not named or even mentioned), and both sides seem to tolerate each other now. The First Order appears to be a powerful rogue faction from within the Imperial Remnant. I'm guessing it's Leia's legendary status that allows her to cobble together the unsanctioned "Resistance against the First Order" (which I'm guessing is the full name of the Resistance). So yeah, the "Resistance" is kind of a weird name. It might make more sense in Episode VIII assuming the First Order/Imperial Remnant launches a devastating offensive against the suddenly headless New Republic.
RunawayStarShip: I have a question for you (and anyone who has read the novelization) over in the thread "Star Wars: The Force Awakens Discussion (HERE THERE BE SPOILERS)", if you would be so kind. Post 300 - just posted minutes ago.
RunawayStarShip: I have a question for you (and anyone who has read the novelization) over in the thread "Star Wars: The Force Awakens Discussion (HERE THERE BE SPOILERS)", if you would be so kind. Post 300 - just posted minutes ago.
I think the better question is what exactly the First Order is. Once that's established, it's easier to pick up what the Resistance is. My assumption is there are essentially two states - the New Republic and the First Order. They're officially at peace so the Republic is supporting the Resistance to stop them (sort of like the North Vietnamese supporting the Viet Cong). I think the implication of the irregular warfare is that the First Order would crush the New Republic in a fight (and, certainly, could crush them in the superweapon department).
Hopefully, they will clarify things in the next two films. I was very confused about the political landscape. I was excited to learn that the "New Republic" is a canon thing now but I couldn't figure anything much else about the political situation of the Galaxy. While politics wasn't extremely important to understanding the events of the OT (it was essentially a band of insurgents against a galaxy-wide oppressive dictatorship), I thought that it was important in the PT to understand how the Old Republic devolved into the Empire through Palpatine's machinations and, 30 years from the fall of Palpatine's Empire, it would be nice to at least be able to understand where things stand, politically (I pay a lot of attention to real world politics, so movies dealing with politics- even Star Wars- don't bother me). With the events of TFA in mind, I'm wondering what exactly is left. Did any members of the new Senate survive? How much of the NR fleet is left? Does the NR still exist now? I was relieved to know that the planet that was destroyed was not, in fact, Coruscant but I hope that the fallout from the destruction of the Hosnian System is delved into a some more later.
Hux's speech states plainly that the Republic is not openly supporting the Resistance but that it is plain to see that the Resistance is only outwardly independent from them for political reasons (see: Russia and the Crimean/Eastern Ukrainian "rebels").
Not only are the political relationships completely muddy, but I didn't even know that the planet the First Order blew up was the Republic capital until I went online after seeing the movie. (And seriously, why isn't the capital Coruscant? That just seems a completely arbitrary change meant to confuse people.) It is not made clear at all and the stakes of the movie therefore feel extremely low. What was this random planet that was just incinerated? What is the next planet on their list? The one thing this movie didn't crib from the original "Star Wars" was the elegance and clarity of simplicity.
So everything is basically leaderless now? The galaxy has lost its central government, and the First Order has lost its main base of operations. The way I'd assumed things to be was the Republic was the pacifist central government, while the Resistance was a group who still believed that the best defense is a good offense. The First Order is simply the remnants of the Empire drawn together under a new, more fanatical leadership.
The Supreme Leader and the First Order as a whole weren't oriented around Starkiller Base, it was just a tool like the first Death Star. The new Republic however is momentarily without a central government and such a loss may have shaken the foundation of it.
To bring order to the galaxy like Darth Vader intended (who cares about Palpatine anyway?) For the Republic, it kind of depends just how limited the writer's scope is in terms of just how big the Galaxy is and just how big and spread out the Republic fleet would need to be for a Galaxy wide (or even part of a galaxy) government body. The Resistance seems to have been supported mostly by a few Senators and planetary governments that felt that General Organa was doing the right thing, but that resulted in mostly a supply of newer model X-wings that are more capable than their Galactic Civil War predecessor. They are I guess suppose to be faster than the older models and have the firepower to take on capital ships (so a cross between the A-wing and B-wing but in the shape of an X-wing).
I am hoping we get books that detail all of this. I can understand them not wanting to put it into the movie. The original trilogy was pretty sparse on politics as well. However this is the kind of stuff I really want to sink my teeth into. I am sure before the next movie we will learn all of this through books and comics.
I'm all for avoiding talky scenes about Robert's Rules of Order. Or scenes of people sitting on a couch in a virtual set. However, I think a line or two would've been able to quickly answer any questions about the Resistance, the First Order and the New Republic.
I think they kept a number of things deliberately vague, either because it isn't terribly important or because it will be explained in the sequels. Still, it would have been nice to get some details on who Snoke is, what his goals are, who the Knights of Ren are, what an "awakening" in the Force is, and why Rey could use the Force with no training. Not that knowing any of this will improve the film (I thought it was terrific, btw), and I realize the first film didn't spell these sort of things out, but this isn't the first Star Wars. It isn't people's first introduction to this universe, so I can understand why people would be frustrated that not a whole lot was explained.
No, it's not "understandable" that the writers left the movie's backstory a confusing, incoherent mess. And you shouldn't be required to dig into ancillary material to make sense of it. A movie needs to work on its own terms. Yes, the OT was spare on politics, but not on exposition. The first film gave you exactly the right amount of information you needed through a couple of bits of efficient exposition. That's all this movie needed. A few lines here and there would have made a world of difference. But they clearly couldn't see the forest for the trees and what they gave us is a sloppy mishmash. It's just lazy and stupid.