Ok so...

Rebels are now The New Republic

Resistance is a group funded by the New Republic in secret.. So they can carry out strikes, as there is a cease fire / peace.

Galactic Empire is now the Imperial Remenant?

First Order is part of the Imperial Remenant, but operates independently from the rest of the Remenant?

From Aftermath they describe the Galactic Empire as breaking up into essentially splinter cells/warlord groups run by former Galactic Empire generals/captains.

Fast forward to TFA, now where is the Imperial Remenant? Surely it's not just the First Order...?

I feel we got cheated out of seeing a ton of other imperial capital ships ... SSDs, SDs, and many other TIEs than just fighters and variants of fighters.

Still a chance to see Defenders, Avengers, Gunboats, and other Imperial leaders and groups out there, in the next movie...?

First Order is what is left of the Empire.

The galaxy is split between the Republic and the First Order with the Borderlands between them as a neutral zone.

First Order still have ISD but haven't seen any SSD mentioned yet.

There has to be a substantial imperial remnant that is separate from he first order. Why else would the NR fleets not be crushing the First Order? They have a cease-fire with someone.

My understanding is that the Imperial Remnant is fully consolidated into the First Order.

Following the events in the film, its anyone's guess as to whether or not the Republic remains. General Hux seemed confidant that the Starkiller would "Bring and end to their senate and their cherished fleet".

C3P0 later mentions that "without the Republic fleet, we're doomed". It *seems* the Republic has been decapitated.

my one possibly biggest gripe with the film is that we have no idea how big the FO is

we see the one bigass FOSD, and the giant as hell super deathstar (that's no planet...)

and yet, no fleet protecting their greatest military asset

I mean, neither did the empire in ANH but those guys had some serious budgeting issues to blame for that

Maybe JJ wanted the same plot holes as the original.

I think the FO is all thats left, and they just don't have the reasources. I feel like most of the SDs would be border patrol for the "neutral zone".

There has to be a substantial imperial remnant that is separate from he first order. Why else would the NR fleets not be crushing the First Order? They have a cease-fire with someone.

Nope. Just the First Order. That is who the cease fire is with. It is essentially a galactic cold war.

my one possibly biggest gripe with the film is that we have no idea how big the FO is

we see the one bigass FOSD, and the giant as hell super deathstar (that's no planet...)

and yet, no fleet protecting their greatest military asset

I mean, neither did the empire in ANH but those guys had some serious budgeting issues to blame for that

They do have a fleet aside from the one Resurgent Star Destroyer we saw, the Finalizer. A number of other ships are mentioned in the books including that they still have Imperial Star Destroyers around.

My understanding is that the Imperial Remnant is fully consolidated into the First Order.

Following the events in the film, its anyone's guess as to whether or not the Republic remains. General Hux seemed confidant that the Starkiller would "Bring and end to their senate and their cherished fleet".

C3P0 later mentions that "without the Republic fleet, we're doomed". It *seems* the Republic has been decapitated.

Having your entire capital destroyed tends to have that affect. It will be hard for it to restore itself anytime soon.

There has to be a substantial imperial remnant that is separate from he first order. Why else would the NR fleets not be crushing the First Order? They have a cease-fire with someone.

Nope. Just the First Order. That is who the cease fire is with. It is essentially a galactic cold war.

The republic rose out of the old rebellion, the first order came from the remains of the empire. The resistance is a group funded by the republic fighting a proxy war against the first order. It's all in the crawl.

It is not a plot hole, it's everything you need to know for the story to take place.

Is there a Cold War between the republic and first order? Probably but it doesn't matter to Rey an Finn's story.

I wish all of this was explained in the film. It is a bit hollow to just have "good guys" vs "bad guys".

One of the things I liked about the original trilogy, and even the prequels, was the underlying theme of dissolution of the republic and centralisation of power. Not least because that story had real credibility and precedent in the analogy with Ancient Rome - so I could believe in it and even empathise with both sides a little bit more than just the good vs evil thing.

TFA just lacks that depth - shame really.

I suppose the next 2 books in the Aftermath Trilogy will try to deal with that. Life Debt is out in July next year, with Empire's End in summer 2017 (which would be just after episode 8's release). There will be more novels, comics and short stories I suppose in between.

There has to be a substantial imperial remnant that is separate from he first order. Why else would the NR fleets not be crushing the First Order? They have a cease-fire with someone.

Nope. Just the First Order. That is who the cease fire is with. It is essentially a galactic cold war.

So the firing of Starkiller base restarted the war and basically ended it instantly? That's brutal.

I would say the war is just beginning. The Republic is definitely fighting an uphill battle now as most of their fleet was in the capital system but at least the Resistance has a few captial ships and I'm sure other parts of the Republics fleet are out there.

I wish all of this was explained in the film. It is a bit hollow to just have "good guys" vs "bad guys".

That is all we got with A New Hope.

If the FO had a cease fire with the Republic, funding the Resistance is a real jerk move. Probably destabilizing as well. Apparently the NR leadership didn't know about Starkiller Base.

If the FO had a cease fire with the Republic, funding the Resistance is a real jerk move.

Sounds pretty normal for politics and a cold war to me.

If the FO had a cease fire with the Republic, funding the Resistance is a real jerk move. Probably destabilizing as well. Apparently the NR leadership didn't know about Starkiller Base.

or did they?

#falseflag

my one possibly biggest gripe with the film is that we have no idea how big the FO is

we see the one bigass FOSD, and the giant as hell super deathstar (that's no planet...)

and yet, no fleet protecting their greatest military asset

You know how Epic games can go....sometimes you spend all your points on a Starkiller and when it gets focused down, you realize you would have been better off with 100k Tie Fighters. It just seemed like so much fun to field!

As we don't know how big exactly the New Republic is, we don't really know how big their fleet is. While a significant fleet presence will be at the capital, it will unlikely to be the major portion of the fleet.

What cripples the New Republic will be the sudden loss of leadership, similar to the void after the death of the Emperor. It is not how many generals and admirals go warlord, but rether how many that is the question.

As far as I understand, the Resistance is funded by Leia personally - her squadrons of T-70s are not top of starfighters; the Republic have better and have decomm-ed the T-70s.

As we don't know how big exactly the New Republic is, we don't really know how big their fleet is. While a significant fleet presence will be at the capital, it will unlikely to be the major portion of the fleet.

What cripples the New Republic will be the sudden loss of leadership, similar to the void after the death of the Emperor. It is not how many generals and admirals go warlord, but rether how many that is the question.

As far as I understand, the Resistance is funded by Leia personally - her squadrons of T-70s are not top of starfighters; the Republic have better and have decomm-ed the T-70s.

Resistance is covertly funded by the Republic. It was Leia's creation. Republic uses T-85 as standard now.

So.... What happened to the Imperial Remenant?

The Imperial Remenant is pretty clearly defined as being what was left after episode 6, of the Galactic Empire.

Did all the Moffs/Admirals magically join together under the first order banner?

Or is this supposidly a massive plot hole? I find it hard to believe.

I'm still led to believe that what was left of the galactic empire was cut into a few factions..

The Imperial Remnant (independently operating Moffs,etc), and one large sub faction of it being, the first order.

Otherwise to say the first order IS the Imperial Remenant, is to say that they changed names, banners, and structure between episode 6 and 7, THREE times total..

Except the Imperial Remnant is never actually defined or named anymore. The old Imperial Remnant was wiped out with the reset of the canon. The Empire went to hell, Moffs popped up all over, at some point the factions consolidated and became the First Order.

Except the Imperial Remnant is never actually defined or named anymore. The old Imperial Remnant was wiped out with the reset of the canon. The Empire went to hell, Moffs popped up all over, at some point the factions consolidated and became the First Order.

I am strictly speaking of what happened post episode 6, as described in Aftermath...so...

And where is it written or said that the Imperial Remenant spoken of in Aftermath, then consolidated into the First Order?

I have not read or heard of canon saying such anywhere...?