ST What's next for the Republic and the First Order?

The Republic's capital is completely destroyed as are billions or trillions of citizens. I assume they don't want to stand by and do nothing.

Will it be total war for the Republic now? I hope to see fleet battles.
Can they even respond now that so much leadership has been destroyed on Hosnian Prime?
Will Leia take charge of the Remnants of the Republic?

Does the First Order try to take control of the rest of the galaxy now? Was the destruction of Starkiller base a massive counter-blow causes the FO to collapse back into hiding and focus on Skywalker?

 

There will just rebuild another SKB and destroy Lukes Hideout planet..

 

Yeah, the Republic and the Resistance will be merged now into a single entity, and the galactic cold war will be transformed into a new galactic civil war between the unified Republic/Resistance and the First Order.

However, I think it should be stressed that Coruscant is still out there; "Hosnian Prime" was destroyed actually. Apparently the new Republic had a moving capital, somewhat like the rotating presidency of the European Union, so the political leading class, an innocent planet and part of the fleet were destroyed. The Republic itself should remain.

 

Also, it raises the question that with a seemingly large portion of their fleet destroyed, what happens to the rest of Republic space? Does it stay unified, or in the wake of such a crippling blow to both the bureaucracy, and the military do planets begin to splinter off? Are other factions now created due to the lack of strong leadership? Do member planets secede?

 

Perhaps we'll get something we haven't seen before in SW: more than one major faction.

 

It'd be interesting to see both sides put back on their heels. The First Order reeling from the loss of Starkiller Base and all the personnel stationed there and the Republic/Resistance from losing the political leadership and a chunk of the fleet (which apparently isn't all THAT large to begin with).

But what will probably happen is that the Resistance will remain the only group fighting the First Order until the climax of Episode IX when the Republic will finally join in with them.

Or conversely, maybe a bunch of "secretly" Imperial-sympathetic worlds change sides and the sides become more even, because the First Order is more a well-organized and fanatical splinter group than "the whole of the Empire" from what I'm gathering.

I just hope we avoid giant superweapons from here on out.

 

Small ones are ok.

 

The whole state of the galaxy is a little unclear to me after the movie, but I wonder how bad a shape the Republic really is in right now. The situation right now feels like the reverse of what happened with Return of the Jedi. The Empire lost their leader, which sent them reeling, all of it started coming apart. Some of it survived and managed to rally into the First Order, others were lost to the entity that emerged out of the Rebel Alliance in the shape of the Republic.

Now the Republic lost their Senate, so their leadership, and the First Order might stand in a decent position to grab at least some of the systems that were under the Republic's sphere of influence. Surely the Resistance can't prevent that. One of them said that they had already lost "half" of their fleet during the attack on Starkiller. Although I assume it just looked like their entire fleet size was some 20 odd starfighters and they actually have some more size to them. But I imagine the Resistance, namely Leia, could be approached for taking over, or she could on her own make a move towards rallying the Republic if they really are left leaderless with this. That might give us a strong and more military-oriented Republic and a proper war on the First Order.

 

I believe we will see a Galaxy that much more resembles Europe after the fall of Rome, with dozens or hundreds of regional powers rising up without a strong central control, and with a continued loss of technological capability and rule of law. The Republic can only be a superpower with the Jedi Order as their "nuclear option" to maintain control, and it's going to be a while before there are 1,000s of trained Jedi in the Galaxy again. Particularly if Luke doesn't figure out that Yoda was right about starting training early to prevent Anakin/Ben Solo situations from destroying the order from within.

 

War!

It might be a deadly war of tit for tat now there's no longer this bipolar cold war existence keeping things somewhat stabilized. It's now a multi-polar or even non-polar one.

The main issue now might be both sides don't have the power to completely destroy one another so it's this deadly war of attrition.

 

While this could happen it would still end up being the Resistance and the Republic vs The First Order.

 

Yep. Multi-polarity.

 

Well, I suppose the First Order will have to...Strike Back...

 

one theory I have of what may occur in Episode 8:

Let's consider the involvement and aftermath of Starkiller Base. Yes, its an old and unoriginal idea. However, it was able to destroy the center of the New Republic along with its fleet in the Hosnian system before it in turn was destroyed. So, with both sides seeming to have lost what appears to be their most important assets, does this not open up a possibility that the next movie will be about a struggle in the Force instead of technological superiority?

remember what Darth Vader said in Episode IV?:

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

After all, Max van Sydow's character (Lor San Tekka) did mention in the first scene that he couldn't stand by anymore with the Force out of balance. Also, when Rey asked Maz Kanata to specify which fight Han was running away from, she (Maz) replied it was the fight against the dark side. All this with the introduction of the Knights of Ren dovetail nicely to do a dark side vs lightside themed story.

 

Not if a third player emerges to fill the Republic vacuum.

 

Yes, but what would you have in mind to do so?

 

No idea really

 

How about the Hutts?

 

A Star War between the two.

 

Benicio Del Toro's character!

A new faction to replace the failed FO and NR.

A First Order/New Republic alliance versus New Bad dudes.

 

There were rumors early on of Han commanding a Star Destroyer. Indeed, in Aftermath it's clear the Republic captures many Imperial vessels. I thought it would've been cool to see the old heroes uncomfortably manning the trappings of their old enemy.

 

I agree with this. With the attack on Hosnian Prime, I can't see a reason why the Resistence should continue to exist as a seperate entity from the New Republic, and would continue to exist as an extension of the Galactic Republic in the Galactic North.

Also the Republic could remain for the most part intact, with many of the administration maybe moving back to Coruscant for the time being until a stable government is formed. I know that they did not see the attack coming, but they must have some contingency plans on whether some natural disaster happened to occur on the current Capital or something happens when the government is incapacitated. The New Republic did arise from a very recent war after all.

I was hoping this would be the case in VII, hence the 'Awakening'

But I can also see this happening in VIII.