ST The First Order in Episodes 8 and 9

Let's discuss the First order here and where you think they will go in the next movies.

 

I think they'll be bad guys.

 

I think the first order will be pancakes with a side of sausage and a cup of coffee.

 

My first order at EPVIII will be a large popcorn and a large cherry Icee for my son and a large Coke to wash down the BBQ Grippo's I'll be bringing myself.

 

I wonder if they are just done and over with.
Snoke used them. It didn't work out.
Hux escaped (to do what?), but most of the Stormtroopers are dead. It's the end of the old world order.

Snoke has new plans.

 

That's definitely a way to look at things. I dunno if they're completely finished though. I would think they have something more than just the single Starkiller base. I mean, it was a big thing but I bet there is more to the FO.

 

I'm hoping that The Knights of Ren assume control of the FO. We've had the Empire already. The FO needs to feel structurally different this time around. These guys were only briefly mentioned in TFA so I'm hoping we see what they're about in this next instalment. Hopefully they aren't simply a bunch of Boba Fetts; cool armour with no substance. Still, when you consider that Ren himself isn't exactly that strong it doesn't give you a lot of hope for his underlings.

 

I doubt that they're gone for good. They wouldn't have had Snoke order Hux to evacuate SKB, or had both him and Phasma survive, OR had them succeed om nuking the capital planet/system of the NR, if they weren't planning on doing anything more with them.

 

Well they are at an advantage over the Republic as it stands. The navy is gone, and while the Starkiller base is gone too, the Republic will pretty much be in a shambles. The FO isn't just run by Snoke, there are others in the region that work with him, so probably we're going to see Leia and whoever remains of the republic trying to pick up the pieces, and then there's the issue of the separatist movement which were opposed to the Republic and may make a move to either help the Republic or bring the Empire into the fold. This is a great time for the FO to make a push to taking over, mainly in Courasant.

 

On the flip side, the FO is clearly nowhere near as large or powerful as the GE was. At no point to they project the same kind of far-reaching power that the GE did:

-They don't have garrisons/troops stationed on multiple planets.
-They don't blockade planets like the GE did in the OT.
-They don't have a huge fleet of SD's, they have a few of them that we can see.
-They tend to act more like a commando force, where they strike quickly without warning, hit you hard and fast, get what they came for, and the withdraw before a proper counterattack can be launched.

And their big gambit has been destroyed. So I think that things will be chaotic on both sides, which may be what Snoke truly wants perhaps.

 

After the loss of Starkiller Base I think they change their tactics in Ep. VIII.

 

Does anybody even bother to read the Visual Dictionary, Before the Awakening, the novelization or the Cross Sections? They make abundantly clear the First Order has entire armies and naval fleets hidden in the Unknown Regions. They have been dropping a lot of hints about the existence of a new class of Super Star Destroyer. Their ability to wage war is only diminished slightly by the loss of Starkiller Base. Which makes sense since you can't rebuild an Empire solely around one heavy artillery piece and its defensive garrison.

 

We're going by what's depicted in the actual film for now. If that comes in later on, then excellent. But it's not here yet.

 

Same. I wouldn't be surprised if they shift to smaller hit and run tactics.

 

They'll still be on the search for Luke.

There might be some infighting between Hux and Kylo. Wouldn't might seeing schism in the First Order that splits with Hux on one side and Kylo and Snoke on the other.

 

Kind of like they were doing before we got the reveal of SKB actually.

 

Hadn't thought it like that but yeah.

 

Ancillary material suggests that the Starkiller was just the "largest deployment of First Order soliders." The implication being that there are other deployments, other bases, etc. So I suspect that they'll be around for a while.

 

They'll be back. I'm sure Hux wasn't the only senior officer to escape. My guess is that they'll be like the proverbial cornered animal. Starkiller Base was their trump card and it failed spectacularly. Now that they have very little to lose, they have the advantage of being able to launch bolder and more daring attacks which will likely force the Resistance and/or The Republic into a rock/hard place situation. Kylo may even steal a page from his grandfather's playbook and try to torture close friends and family in order to drag Luke and Rey into the thick of things so that he may fight them.

 

I suspect in the opening crawl of VIII, we'll learn the FO has expanded its power across the galaxy and has the Resistance on the run.

 

I mean yeah their big weapon was destroyed. But they did manage to destroy the entire NR capital system, presumably killing most of it's major leaders and destroying a big chunk of it's fleet. And we're told in TFA that at least half of the resistance's fleet was lost in the attack on SKB as well. So the situation might become much more chaotic and unstable moving forward. All sides have been battered and injured.

 

I wonder if we'd ever see an uprising within the First Order. Given that Stormtroopers are basically slaves from birth, it's not a leap to have more defect like Finn. Maybe he even ignites an anti-Order 66, rallying a bunch of troopers to switch sides.

 

I hope we see the Unknown Regions and all the First Order fleets of warships and starfighters,massive armies and FO shipyards and bases in the UR in VIII & IX. I hope that Rey,Finn and Poe and the Resistance travel to the UR in Episodes VIII and IX to wipe them all out and encouter alien races and alien armadas. Likely threats that Rey and co. will confront in Episodes X-XII.

 

Depends on the level of indoctrination and the FO grunts being given an accurate depiction of life outside of the FO. Think of North Korea, many of them have bought what they have been told by the Kim family and all they know of life outside of their country is total propaganda. Others know that they live in a country sized prison, but cannot escape and know that any insurrection would be quickly suppressed by the military which is fiercely loyal to the Kims. I would assume that the FO is much the same as North Korea and that Finn is an isolated incident instead of the norm.

 

Not sure if discussed elsewhere but .. one of the details I really liked in TFA, were the little things, like the "commemoration" bands on the sleeves of the FO officers, Has anyone thought or managed to obsessively work out what each of them refer to? They commemorate major battles I think.

Also: How is it possible for the FO not to secretly venerate the former Galactic Empire? I cannot would love to see at least one architectural reference to Sheev (though Iain McDiarmid is very welcome imho, to make as many appearances as he wishes in the ST).