How was the film's backstory confusing and incoherent? I thought pretty much anything you needed to know about the backstory was either explained, or could be easily worked out. It's not as if the story went in any kind of totally unexpected direction with the universe. There was plenty backstory the first film failed to explain. First off, why did a galactic republic turn into an Empire? Yes, you can assume there was some sort of takeover with political machinations involved, but there wasn't even the slightest hint or throwaway line explaining how this happened. Thankfully, it wasn't terribly important to the story. Why was Obi Wan in hiding, and why was he in walking distance of the person who happened to be the son of his former best friend? One could assume he was keeping an eye on Luke, but the script never explains this. I'm sure there is more, but those are just two off the top of my head. Backstory was never terribly important in Star Wars, and was left to the viewers imagination from the very beginning.
I haven't read any backstory and I managed to understand the movie just fine. This isn't Star Trek where you get galaxy maps and political details. It's a SW movie that provided just enough detail to make you want more in the next movies.
The SW TFA Visual Dictionary describes three entities: The New Republic (the government which formed after the events in RotJ), the First Order (remnants of the old Galactic Empire that retreated to a section of the galaxy), and the Resistance (a group of freedom fighters dedicated to fighting the oppression and tyranny of the First Order).
I got sort of the exact opposite impression: the First Order had been poaching resources from what was left of the Empire, and would have been easily destroyed if the Republic had chosen to move against them. Because of their weakness, the First Order built the StarKiller and decided to use it to change the balance of power. There was even a quick line during a scene at the Resistance Headquarters that mentioned how vulnerable they were now that the Republic fleet was no longer available to protect them.
Yeah, I'd argue the expanded universe is precisely the place for that kind of stuff anyway. The plot is understandable. The stuff isn't germane to the plot. For those curious, read a Star Wars encyclopedia. The question I have for that why the Republic didn't take down the First Order then. Why resort to the Resistance? Plus, it was just a general sense considering how terrifying Fin was (although, admittedly, he had a limited perspective). The First Order had all those Star Destroyers and troops, which seemed to give them a massive amount of resources. Regardless, I'd say that, whoever is stronger, absent the Star Killer, I doubt either would completely dominate. That would create the desire for a insurgent army.
The Republic and remains of the Empire had a treaty to basically stay on their own sides of the Galaxy. The peace as held for the most part for decades and the Republic stood down their military and ended the emergency power of the Chancellor granted at the start of the Clone Wars (by influenced suggestion of Representative Jar Jar Binks). However Leia Organa did not trust the First Order. She may not have started the Resistance until after the fall of Luke's Jedi Academy and thus needed something to counter the Knights of Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke's new junta while the Republic tried to stay peaceful. The Republic was likely stronger at this point, which way why one of the first targets was the Republic Fleet. We don't know how strong the First Order's fleet is considering how much they had to have spent building Starkiller Base. We know they've improved their tech, or at least made things not as disposable as the Empire days. Better trained troops, with better gear, and more survivable materials. But who knows how many Star Destroyers?
That's one of the things that doesn't make sense to me about the film. Why is there still a rebellion if the republic was restored? Also one of my biggest criticisms of the film, it feels like the things that happened between films are more interesting than the things that happened in the film. Feels like this should have been Star Wars VIII and Star Wars VII should have been the in between part.
The Republic was restored, but the Empire is not entirely gone. So within First Order controlled space, there is a Resistance to is activities supported by a small number of Republic senators and lead by Leia. A proxy war almost against the First Order while the Republic plays dumb and happy in the peace treaty they have with the remains of the Empire.
I was thinking the events that occurred in RotJ led to a revolution on a galactic scale (the rebels ousting a corrupt dictatorial empire), not a change in administration under a democratic system. In theory, the First Order shouldn't even exist. When the Nazis were defeated at the end of World War 2, they didn't retreat to a remote part of the world, like Antarctica, to establish their own sovereignty. They were eliminated. But there needed to be a strong antagonist for the film to really work.
Abrams did say what would have happened if all the Nazi went to Argentina and got organized? That was were they started, ' The EU still had the Empire falling back with the fleet and various governors loyal to the New Order holding out for decades while the Republic grew to replace the Empire.
That is assuming the Republic is doing anything about the baddies. It's entirely possible it ended up as corrupt and impotent as in the prequels. I agree it would have been interesting to have the first film be about Kylo Ren's origin and Luke going into hiding. I'm not sure why they went this route, but the age of the actors may have played a factor, as well as Ford not wanting a huge part in more than one film. Ideally there wouldn't have been a 30 year gap between Ep VI and VII, but Lucas spent decades refusing to allow films after the originals.
This strikes me as right. Here's a comparable real-world example -- the Resistance is like the Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine or the Crimea. Russia supports the separatists with logistics and military hardware, but officially they're not involved.
I don't see where the confusion comes from. It took me about two minutes of pondering to figure it out. Checking with comments about the new expanded universe showed that my conjecture was in line with what's been established as the backstory.
Pfft that's what they want you to think. We all know that Operation Highjump was when the war really ended. Don't believe the media sheeple