Ok, here's the bar fight I promised. If you missed the first part, you may want to read it first.
Anyway, to further illustrate the problem of confusion, I'm going extrapolate two scenarios. As bar fights. Because I love analogies.
Scenario 1: The New Republic and First Order are at war.
This extrapolation is supported by a few facts.
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| Well, I guess we might as well go start another war... |
- A group of Republic military officers are waging a guerrilla war within First Order territory.
- Last we knew, the galaxy was in a state of war and we haven't been told that state of affairs has changed.
- General Organa, a key figure in reforming the Republic, is involved in the conflict.
- The name "The Resistance" implies that it's in occupied territory.
- If the two powers are NOT at war, then the Resistance is a terrorist group and has given up any moral high-ground, which would be crazy in a movie franchise that has always had GOOD vs. EVIL as a major theme.
- All of the previous movies up till this point have dealt with two different galactic civil wars, so it's a fair assumption that we're again dealing with the same.
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| More MSPaint! |
So if there's a war going on, then the Resistance is a guerrilla military unit operating behind enemy lines on behalf of the Republic and in coordination with the Republic military (a la the French Resistance of WWII), and the First Order is an imperial war machine still bent on subjugating the galaxy.
The Resistance is defending its home and people from a military junta that is actively attempting to subjugate them.
Thirty years later, Empire (now calling itself First Order) is still in the bar, still fighting with Rebel (now calling itself New Republic). Meanwhile, Rebel's nephew Resistance starts kicking Empire in the shins, drinking Empire's beer, and breaking Empire's possessions.
Empire tries to defend its shins, beer, and possessions while fighting Rebel, but Resistance is too small and fast, so Empire pulls out its new, even bigger stick (which it somehow managed to afford after losing two sticks already as well as losing its job), and uses it to club Rebel (who somehow still doesn't have a stick of its own).
Resistance breaks Empire's newer bigger stick, flips Empire off, and runs away.
This extrapolation is also supported by a few facts.
If there's NOT a war, then the Resistance is a guerrilla military unit operating in foreign territory, collecting information and destroying things... Wait, don't we call people who do those things spies and terrorists? But the Resistance are the good guys... And the Republic, who is also supposed to be "good", is supporting them... Huh? Ok. Fine fine. What about the other guys?
Well, the First Order is a military junta who is... well, actually, as far as we can tell, they seem to be minding their own business... Sure they built a ginormous star-eating, planet-destroying base, but for all we know they built that in response to the Resistance's attacks. But more on that after another bar fight.
Thirty years later, Empire (now calling itself First Order) is sulking in a corner of the bar, sipping its beer and brooding. Rebel (now calling itself New Republic) sends its nephew, Resistance, over to Empire's table to steal Empire's beer and break Empire's most valuable possessions.
Empire tries to defend its beer and possessions, but Resistance is too small and fast, so Empire gets up, pulls out its new, even bigger stick (which it somehow managed to afford after losing two sticks already as well as losing its job), goes over to Rebel and clubs Rebel (who somehow still doesn't have a stick of its own) over the head since Empire can't seem to hit Resistance.
Resistance breaks Empire's newer bigger stick, flips Empire off, and runs away.
In fact, throughout the movie, we aren't given a single reason as to why the "Resistance" is in First Order territory spying and committing sabotage. But we are told by General Hux that the First Order is attacking the Republic because the Republic has been supporting the terrorism of the Resistance, which is a sentiment that a lot of people (especially here in the US) can sympathize with. No, we wouldn't launch a nuke, but we also wouldn't just sit and take it forever.
Now this is where it starts to get really confusing, because all of this information does exist. There are official canon answers to every question I've raised... So why didn't they take two minutes to give us those answers in the movie?
Well, besides the general trend of cutting exposition from movies, I think the answers may actually be worse than the confusion and lack of answers... I'm pretty sure that whatever explanations you all have come up with in your heads are far better than the official canon. Except maybe for Starkiller Base. Starkiller Base makes way more sense in the book than the movie. But I've run out of time again, so I'm just going to have to cover "The Real Story" next time.
The Resistance is defending its home and people from a military junta that is actively attempting to subjugate them.
In barfightese:
Thirty years later, Empire (now calling itself First Order) is still in the bar, still fighting with Rebel (now calling itself New Republic). Meanwhile, Rebel's nephew Resistance starts kicking Empire in the shins, drinking Empire's beer, and breaking Empire's possessions.
Empire tries to defend its shins, beer, and possessions while fighting Rebel, but Resistance is too small and fast, so Empire pulls out its new, even bigger stick (which it somehow managed to afford after losing two sticks already as well as losing its job), and uses it to club Rebel (who somehow still doesn't have a stick of its own).
Resistance breaks Empire's newer bigger stick, flips Empire off, and runs away.
Scenario 2: The two powers are NOT at war.
This extrapolation is also supported by a few facts.
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| Blow up a planet and people start freaking out, but eat an entire star and no one seems to care... |
- The Republic military doesn't seem to be officially involved at all.
- It's been thirty years.
- If the war was still going on, surely we would have been told. Seems like it would be a big deal.
- The Resistance attacked Starkiller Base with nothing more than a handful of suped-up x-wings. Surely the Republic would have contributed something if they were at war... Actually, come to think of it, surely they would have contributed something even if they weren't at war... It blew up planets and ate a star for breakfast.
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| Anyone remember when the US supported the Afghani resistance organization that eventually became Al-Qaeda? What a great idea that was... |
Well, the First Order is a military junta who is... well, actually, as far as we can tell, they seem to be minding their own business... Sure they built a ginormous star-eating, planet-destroying base, but for all we know they built that in response to the Resistance's attacks. But more on that after another bar fight.
In barfightese:
Thirty years later, Empire (now calling itself First Order) is sulking in a corner of the bar, sipping its beer and brooding. Rebel (now calling itself New Republic) sends its nephew, Resistance, over to Empire's table to steal Empire's beer and break Empire's most valuable possessions.
Empire tries to defend its beer and possessions, but Resistance is too small and fast, so Empire gets up, pulls out its new, even bigger stick (which it somehow managed to afford after losing two sticks already as well as losing its job), goes over to Rebel and clubs Rebel (who somehow still doesn't have a stick of its own) over the head since Empire can't seem to hit Resistance.
Resistance breaks Empire's newer bigger stick, flips Empire off, and runs away.
The Confusion
Those two stories are way different. One is about a guerrilla army fighting behind enemy lines in one of the most important battles of a war that has lasted 30 years. The other story is about an illegal terrorist group that has been terrorizing a defeated, demoralized, legitimate foreign power for as much as 30 years.
And we're not told which of those stories is the one we're watching, or if we're watching a totally different story. (Those are just the two stories I find most likely.) And it gets really confusing because we have good reasons to believe either case is true.
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| Behold! All the people who couldn't stop two smugglers, a badass but untrained girl, and a janitor from destroying their base... |
But wait! There's more!
Now this is where it starts to get really confusing, because all of this information does exist. There are official canon answers to every question I've raised... So why didn't they take two minutes to give us those answers in the movie?
Well, besides the general trend of cutting exposition from movies, I think the answers may actually be worse than the confusion and lack of answers... I'm pretty sure that whatever explanations you all have come up with in your heads are far better than the official canon. Except maybe for Starkiller Base. Starkiller Base makes way more sense in the book than the movie. But I've run out of time again, so I'm just going to have to cover "The Real Story" next time.
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