Or not, not, not true!

The First World War, for example, was named as early as 1918 per:

http://qi.com/infocloud/the-first-world-war

British Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Charles à Court Repington recorded in his diary for 10 Sep 1918 that he met with a Major Johnstone of Harvard University to discuss what historians should call the war. Repington said it was then referred to as The War, 'but that this could not last'. They agreed that 'To call it The German War was too much flattery for the Boche.' Repington concludes: 'I suggested The World War as a shade better title, and finally we mutually agreed to call it The First World War in order to prevent the millennium folk from forgetting that the history of the world was the history of war.' Between the wars most people did refer to the war as the Great War, even though that had originally referred to the Napoleonic War. In the US, it was ‘The World War’.

Or as late at 1933:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/feb/19/who-named-first-and-second-world-wars

In English, the term "First World War" was used in the book The First World War: A Photographic History, edited by playwright and war veteran Laurence Stallings and published in 1933.

Ok, mind blown - wow!

I remember reading in one of the later Vong books (just give me a moment okay?) that not all the galaxy wanted to be liberated. Leia tells Jacen that only about 5% of the galaxy was ever at war because they were such a fringe group. Plus, the human majority often didn't mind the position of power the Empire ushered in for them.

So maybe after Endor the Empire breaks up but many/most of the human systems recommit to the Empire. This would make for an interesting moral and political dilemma. You can't rescue people from themselves if they choose the Empire and still claim to be an organization founded on freedom. Perhaps the Galactic Civil War has become a more officially human v. alien war, the intimidation of the Empire giving way to open Nazi-like (uh, "stormtroopers" remember?) prejudice. This would be a seriously awkward turn of events for the Rebellion, to fight and realize they weren't wanted by many systems who'd grown to like the Imperial ethos. Now the humans who are part of the Rebellion are a minority and you're less a Rebellion to an oppressive order than a Resistance to the largely welcomed order.

There is a lot of sense in this, the only difference between a dictatorship and a democracy is you need a smaller percent of the population to like you to keep power in a dictatorship. In the UK the next government will be only picked by 35% of the vote and less than half the population vote, in addition the last Labour government frigged the system to give them around 10% advantage by making lots of seats that will vote for them have less people in each and the areas where they vote for the opposition with as much as twice the vote in. Assad, Gaddafi most recently have strong cores that fight/fought in their armies/pay the main stay of the bills and are rewarded by the regime accordingly. Look at Syria and ISIS, there are silly levels of grey in that argument and SW there is basically none if you don't mind a group of saber happy self appointed 'guardians' called Jedi's fulfilling their unknown ends.

this would add a lot of depth to the story

Ugh JJ why!?

I was thinking it might indicate a more philosophical battle with names like that. It's been 30 years since Endor. I'm sure the Empire fragmented. In the power struggle, I'm sure there is one group that won out. Perhaps they are more based on a philosophy than anything else. The First Order....like "order prime". These can be Sith backed remnants of the Empire that are aggressively expanding. The confederation of free peoples that are trying to stop this expansion is called the Resistance, as in resisting tyrannical govt. Very similar to what R22 said when dealing with nazis. So, maybe The Resistance is kind of like NATO? Maybe things are all splintered at this point. There is no Empire and no New Republic. It's a hodge podge of different planets.

I dunno....it sounds cool, though.

I wonder how "art imitates life" the new trilogy will be? Could we see the First Order conducting false-flag attacks against civillians and blaming the Resistance, branding them as terrorists? (to borrow more modern tropes)

Could the First Order exploit media and propaganda to cast doubt on the "empty promises" of the Rebel/Resistance cause, showcasing themselves as the solution to 30+ years of war.

OR

will it be a repackaging of the same old tropes from old-school pulp sci-fi and fantasy? Evil Lord Fistpunch builds an army from within his secret fortress and kidnaps the girl/princess...etc.

People, there's one thing we're losing sight of, what would the T-70's stats be in our favorite starship combat game? My bit of uninformed speculation/wishful thinking:

PVW: 4

AGL: 3

HULL : 4

SHLD: 3

Actions: Target Lock , Focus, Boost

Upgrades: (Elite), Torpedo, Astromech, System Upgrade.

Seems too powerful.

POW: 3

AGL: 3

HULL: 3

SHLD: 3

Actions- Target Lock, Focus, Boost, Evade. (Play up that agility, son!)

Upgrades: I'm good with yours, sans Elite as standard.

So basically what the Defender action bar should have been....

Or, more likely, the Alliance and Empire/First Order are at peace. And the Resistance is essentially the new rebellion that has popped up.

Helped in secret by key Alliance personal, of course...

Conspiracy theories about a fictious universe set in the future but actually a long time ago that are made as new canon over established literature now rendered apocryphal?!

That's, like, so meta dude. [Mind blows fizzles]

Future!?

A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away...

I had to get in on the moral outrage in this thread.. this is only thing I could find that I could reasonably object to.

sorry...

EDIT: bah now that I actually get past the future bit, I see you addressed it. Foiled again!

They'll resurrect Kyle and Jan. I mean, the first EU ship to get into X-Wing was the HWK. That says a lot about its popularity at LFL.

A standalone film or, better yet, a TV series., featuring the adventures of Jan and Kyle would be pretty great!

The First Order?

More likely a sect of the "Imperial Remnant" which was never really given a proper name. I am sure most organizations will not call themselves something the refers to a shadow of their former glory unless there was some sort of zealous significance to it. So Remnant forces were used in the books because it was likely what the New Republic called them. Sort of like when the Bolshivicks took power in Russia all other factions were counter-revolutionist despite what their ideology or allegiances were.

It is obvious that after the fall of the Galactic Empire the "New" Republic was formed in a similar fashion to the Old Republic but with probably more stipulations to prevent a Chancellor from becoming an Emperor again. Though there might still be some forces loyal the the Imperial system after the fall of the emperor it is obvious the leadership is in disarray. So the once united Empire is likely to be splintered as the Alliance switches from a revolutionary military force to a governing political body.