[Ghost Spaghetti]

Ok, did anyone understand the whole First Order thing enough to explain it without resorting to non-film material?

[rooster]

Ok, did anyone understand the whole First Order thing enough to explain it without resorting to non-film material?

The opening crawl talked about it. What questions did you have?

[Lord Dave]

Ok, did anyone understand the whole First Order thing enough to explain it without resorting to non-film material?

The Emporer died.
Some guy took power.
Renamee Empire to First Order.

[Ghost Spaghetti]

That's what I assumed, then they started talking about a Republic which was apparently separate from the Republic but backed by it?

[Lord Dave]

That's what I assumed, then they started talking about a Republic which was apparently separate from the Republic but backed by it?

Rebels.

Republic is separate from the Rebels.

[rooster]

Did you even watch the movie, GS?

[Ghost Spaghetti]

I reiterate the points from my opening post:

The biggest problem I had was that I didn't understand the stakes because the sides weren't explained properly. At first I thought that The First Order had simply picked up the Empire's reins, then a Republic is mentioned which is apparently different from both the Resistance and GO, whilst secretly supporting the former's guerilla war. So, is the Galaxy now like Korea with the Republic and FO in control of different parts at an uneasy peace? 

If so, surely the FO's Death Star ripoff would re-ignite a shooting war?  Surely a galaxy-spanning Republic wouldn't have their entire fleet sat in one star system? Why didn't they throw their support fully behind the Resistance? I feel that these were plot holes which would have been easily fixed with a few lines of dialogue and maybe a map of the state of the Galaxy somewhere near the beginning.

[rooster]

FO isn't in control of anything. They're just blowing shit up. Yes, I'm pretty sure it will reignite a war.

None of these are plot holes per se. Just things that haven't been expanded on yet. This movie was mostly focused on the main characters as opposed to the political climate. Aren't there books being written for these movies too?

[Lord Dave]

They probably learned from the prequels to ignore politics.

[Saddam Hussein]

It would only have taken a few extra lines in the opening crawl to clear up what the First Order and the Republic are.

[Lord Dave]

It would only have taken a few extra lines in the opening crawl to clear up what the First Order and the Republic are.

Agreed.  But maybe they don't know yet?  They said "Hey, let's just pretend we know and figure it out later..."

[Snupes]

I liked the movie a lot, but Boyega was really flat. They just kind of played on "loud black man" stereotypes for him.

Also, maybe we aren't supposed to completely know what the first order is yet?

[beardo]

He really didn't strike me as a man who lived his whole life being trained as a Stormtrooper. Sure, we've seen Stormtroopers engage in chit-chat, but I've always been under the impression that Imperial soldiers are supposed to be highly diciplined, no-bullshit sort of people, yet Finn turned out to be just a regular dude.

[Ghost Spaghetti]

They probably learned from the prequels to ignore politics.

All it would have needed was a brief scene where Leia walks into a Rebellion control room (why is she in the rebellion, not a senior figure in the Republic is another question I'd like answered.) where there's a great big hologram map of the galaxy up withthe extent of the Republic in blue and the FO in red.

Or "Say, why can't the Republic help us deal with these FO nutters?"
"They're stretched too thin as it is, when the Empire fell, the FO held a lot of planets loyal to the old regime. All they can do is send us the odd ship."
"Well then, we better get suited up and start shooting TIE-fighters!"

[Particle Person]

I Googled "First Order" and Google showed me my two most recent Steam purchases. W0W

[Saddam Hussein]

This article explains it:

http://www.vox.com/2015/12/21/10634568/star-wars-the-force-awakens-spoilers-republic-first-order

[Ghost Spaghetti]

Cheers for the article, it's similar to what I was able to piece together by the end of the movie.

This is such typical J.J.Abrams lazy writing - introduce some major plot element for the 'cool' factor, fail to provide any in-movie explanation for it, and rely on other writers in tie-in media to plug his plot holes for him.

As soon as I started wondering about the FO and the Republic, I knew that the answer would be something like: "Well, to understand it you need to read the fifteen different tie-in novels, comic-books, games, and prog-rock albums." which doesn't excuse crappy writing.

[rooster]

As soon as I started wondering about the FO and the Republic, I knew that the answer would be something like: "Well, to understand it you need to read the fifteen different tie-in novels, comic-books, games, and prog-rock albums." which doesn't excuse crappy writing.

I think that's Disney's fault, not Abrams'. It's a business.

[Ghost Spaghetti]

As soon as I started wondering about the FO and the Republic, I knew that the answer would be something like: "Well, to understand it you need to read the fifteen different tie-in novels, comic-books, games, and prog-rock albums." which doesn't excuse crappy writing.

I think that's Disney's fault, not Abrams'. It's a business.

He did exactly the same thing with the first Star Trek reboot. The plot didn't make a lick of sense unless you'd read at least a summary of the tie-in comic book. Lost made plotholes a feature, not a bug. I haven't seen much else of his work, but it seems to be a recurring feature of the work I have seen.

[rooster]

He didn't write Star Trek....