ST A little help regarding the three factions...

I'm still very confused on how the GFFA is governed at this point. You have the Republic, which I'm assuming was spawned from the Rebel Alliance following the Empire's fall, you have the First Order, an Empire splinter group trying to carry the torch...and then you have the Resistance who are on the side of Republic, but aren't actually affiliated with them?

Did the Republic just abandon a section of the galaxy to the First Order? Are they cool with one another (up until the whole annihilation thing of course)? The Republic and the First Order don't seem to be in open war with another and, if they are (were? No clue if the Republic even exists anymore, no one said **** about it) what is the point of the Resistance? Who ARE these guys?

If someone could shed some light on this I'd be very grateful, I think they went out of their way to avoid anything political or too "talky" and the film suffered a bit for it.

 

This probably belongs in one of countless other threads but, this is how I see it, in very generic terms:

First Order = North Korea. Dictatorship with Supreme leader who has cult like status among loyal population and military. Everything exists like it's still 30 years ago.
Resistance = South Korea. Small localized areas that exist near the First Order who are part of the New Republic but have decided to fight still.
U.N. (Rest of the World) = New Republic. They have a truce with the First Order, not to escalate militarily. The First Order is obviously choosing to ignore this, just as North Korea often tries to gin up war and threatens to use Nuclear arms.

The First Order suspects that despite there being a treaty, the Republic is secretly suppling the Resistance with arms. At the end of the film, the First Order destroys the New Republic (U.N.) capitol. And then the Resistance (and perhaps whatever the Republic has) destroys Starkiller base.

 

I think Aftermath helped explain how things might've gotten this way (not in detail, but one can infer). In one Interlude Mon Mothma talks about wanting to cut their military by 90%, I think this might've happened & the Resistance was so frustrated by their ineffectiveness against an obvious threat that they broke off. Whether the NR is secretly arming them is up in the air though at this point in Cannon.

 

I enjoyed the analogy, and I feel it's probably very accurate, but I'm gathering there's actually no definitive explanation as to what the political status of the GFFA is in the new canon?

I haven't read any of the comics.

 

Essentially, the Empire collapsed after Endor. The galaxy rose up in defiance, no longer afraid (fear is what held the Empire together - fear of the Jedi, then fear of the Empire itself) after the leadership was killed and the second Death Star was destroyed. That's what you're seeing at the end of ROTJ. The rebels don't really defeat the Empire, instead they inspire the galaxy to stand up and reject the Empire, causing the Empire to collapse. The Alliance declares itself to be a new Republic and after a few more battles, the Imperials surrender and the Empire becomes a part of this new Republic. Those who refuse to be a part of the Republic and want to see the Empire return flee to outer reaches of the galaxy and under the leadership of the mysterious Snoke, reforms as the First Order.

The First Order exists as a separate entity to what was the Empire and Alliance and is now the Republic. In order to prevent another war, the Republic signs a peace treaty with the First Order, a treaty that forbids the First Order from building up its military. Recognising that the First Order will ultimately break the treaty, Princess Leia wants to act to stop the First Order before it can pose a threat but the Republic refuses, not wanting another war. So Leia forms the Resistance, a private military group, not officially associated with the Republic. However, while the Republic doesn't want to provoke the First Order, many within the Senate do recognise the potential threat and secretly provide support to Leia's Resistance.

Essentially, the First Order is Nazi Germany pre-WWII, wilfully breaking the terms of a treaty while the galaxy chooses to ignore it, at least officially, whereas the secret support of the Republic for the Resistance is somewhat like the US supporting groups fighting against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

 

Here's the issue: NO ONE faction governs the entire galaxy. This is not a galaxy with a galactic hegemon like the Empire or a unipolar power like the Old Republic.

The New Republic and the Empire concluded a treaty after the latter sued for peace. Under the terms of the treaty, the Empire disarmed, but not before a few hardliners fled into the wild regions. These headliners formed the FO.

The New Republic, now having a treaty with the Empire, and having seemingly successfully disarmed the Imperial power, disarmed itself as well. The New Republic then thought the war over and turned its attention elsewhere.

The Resistance was formed and coalesced around a New Republic dissident, Leia Organa, who pointed out the threat from the FO hardliners still existed. They were not defeated. So she leads the Resistance against the FO. The NR takes a dual stance on the issue: refusing to get directly involved but funding some of the Resistance.

But the Resistance is a private force and is not an arm of the New Republic. It is separate. Leia left the NR to lead the resistance. That's why the members of the Resistance refer to the New Republic as just that and not "The Senate" or "The government." The Resistance and NR are two different things.

 

I think more will be elaborated on in Episode 8.

 

Hopefully just a little bit. I don't want a bunch of meetings. Maybe just one or two? One for the Resistance and survivors of the NR and one with the FO and Snoke.

 

Whether or not there even IS a NR anymore is a bit fuzzy.

 

Both the NR and the FO took massive hits in this movie making me wonder whether either will be main players going forward. I think the politics is definitely taking a back seat to a very contained family drama in the ST.

 

Of course there's still a New republic. There are actual worlds still left. The New Republic didn't just have one member world. Hosnian Prime was just where the seat of government was at the time of TFA(as the capital rotates).

So the member worlds are still around. It's just the government that has, presumably, been vaporized.

 

While I am interested in the internal politics of the powers in this new era I hope the next films don't spend too much time on it. I'd rather that be filled out in other Cannon mediums.

 

FO may have taken a blow, but I don't think they're down and out. So the FO is probably Germany, but if this is like WWII playing out then I guess the Resistance might represent early versions of Western Europe that were looking at the threat with Germany at that point, and the NR would have been the old guard prior that was trying to abate the Nazi's but failed to do so. My guess is that there's still members of the NR that are around and they need to regroup now and figure out what to do. They may ally with the Resistance and work to stopping the FO, or the Empire, or what remains of it, may take the FO under their wing and may have been helping them. Some one is certainly going to try to make a grab for power. I'm hoping we see some Unknown region characters showing up, I'm looking at the Chiss here.

 

Seemed they destroyed a small system of planets and, within the context of the film, just seemed very final to me. Even if it were just the seat of authority, cut off the head and all that...

 

Yes, the government seems to be destroyed. But, what about the members worlds? Do they rally? Do they try and rebuild a governing coalition?

I think realistically, they could.

But, this is a big setback for the republic no doubt.

 

Spot on above the Germany analogy, especially since the chancellor of the NR was named after Neville Chamberlain.

 

I'm torn about how I, as the viewer, would want that to go. Both a full scale galactic war and resistance story seem kind of boring/old news to me at this point.

 

I'm not sure another galactic war is what we'll get. That's just a backdrop anyway for the characters to move about in.