Books A/V The Last Jedi - Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo (Spoilers)

True. But without Supreme Leader Snoke, its clear under Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and General Hux that the First Order may not do so well. After all, the shock from the Hosnian Cataclysm will wear off and systems will turn on the FO just as quickly as they did to the Republic, Empire and NR.

 

The thing about fascists is that being laughable and being frightening really are not at all mutually exclusive with them.

 

Firstly, all of those labels are entirely true about the First Order. Yes, they had some successes here, and flashed the occasional bit of military competence, but they took 12-20 Resurgent-classes and the single largest ship ever built on a chase after a stripped-down Star Cruiser and its poorly-maintained escorts, and ended up coming away with a Phyrric victory. Even with most of the Resistance dead, the Death:Kill ratio for the FO in TLJ would be hundreds, if not thousands, to one. They're not crippled (though losing the Supremacy must significantly degrade their ability to coordinate and repair), but they took a very visible punch in the nose that has left them bloodied.

 

Well unlike the Separatists and Empire, they won the war.

It's what leaves a bad taste in people's mouth because they have the image of the First Order as the Keystone Cops but they've consistently been pounding away at everyone they face. They lost Starkiller Base to sabotage, yes, but they've won all of their military engagements. It's just the rebels are capable of sacrificing themselves to inflict heavy losses.

 

Both sides have been decapitated now so I feel like Ep. IX's conflict will likely be smaller - smaller in size, much, MUCH larger when it comes to personal grudges and emotions.

 

Just dropping by to say that The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary is an amazing book. Definitely one of my favorite SW books. I'm going to collect the other ones as well.

 

Have we seen them fight anyone with a pulse? The best thing we've seen them do is launch their fighters faster than the Resistance could during the Supremacy's first appearance, letting them cripple the bridge and destroy the hanger of the Raddus. Otherwise, they got out-fought at Takodonna, lost control of the skies over Starkiller, and (just barely) failed to stop the Starfortress assault on the Fulminatrix.

Don't get me wrong: I want the FO to be a credible threat. I hate that battledroids and stormtroopers get used for comic relief in other settings, and I'm glad we've mostly avoided that in the Sequels. I'm just saying that we haven't seen the FO get into a real slugging match yet with an opponent capable of fighting back, and I'm reserving judgement on their military capacity until we do.