Don't Be Afraid of Politics

There are some deleted scenes from The Force Awakens that will likely be in the home release that do explore, to a small degree the nature of the New Rupublic, chiefly through one of the characters we briefly saw before the planets of the New Rupublic were destroyed.

You are right that Abrams and Lucasfilm decided against fleshing out the politics of The Force Awaken because of the negativity fans and critics hold towards the prequel trilogy, and you are also right that the New Rupblic should have been fleshed out a little more in the theatrical release.

However, the First Order did not destroy the New Republic out of fear, they did so to assert their dominance as the ruling force in the galaxy. The First Order are much more powerful than the Empire ever was; they are not restrained by politics or the rule of two. The First Order, like the Nazi's nearly 100 years ago seek dominance, total and utter dominance with those below them to be destroyed. A lot of people complained that the Starkiller base was just another Death Star, but while essentially they are right it is like comparing a one man canoe to a trans-atlantic cruiser. Had the movie embraced the Starkiller base and inferred the evolution of the new weapon from the old then maybe some would have been less critical.

I agree with your post Durpster, aside from your misreading of why the New Republic was destroyed. The Force Awakens is a good film, defintely better than the prequels in recapturing the magic of the originals but this new sequel trilogy has a way to go yet before impacting on the awesomeness of A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back. But remember it still has us guessing as to who the hey Rey and Snoke are, not even the original trilogy created that much mystery.

I actually think it was a little bit of both since when Star killer base was recharging for its attack on the Resistance someone mentioned that without the Republic's fleet they had no chance insinuating that had the New Republic known in some sense that an attack was coming they could have mustered some type of defense, and possibly stopped or lessened the casualties.

I don't know that I agree the First Order is more powerful that the old Empire, since the empire had pretty much absolute control over the galaxy with small rebels popping up here and there. The First Order however had at least two adversaries that were close to in in terms of power those being the Resistance who actively fights them. and the Republic who at least one must assume has a whole set of planets under their will. The first order also appeared more off set. They used informants from gangs to keep them up to date whereas the empire had legions upon legions of star destroyers to track people down. We'll have to see in the next movie how the New Order looks since it was is Episode V Empire strikes back that we saw how strong the empire was even without the Deathstar winning and beating the rebels at every turn throughout that movie.

As for the Rule of Two in contrast to what Snoke does, I don't know if I agree. While the Rule of two kept the Sith numbers low only the very best were in that rule with every single member taking on either multiple or the very best of the jedi at their time. In contrast Snokes Knights of Ren don't seem as threatening when Kylo their leader is beaten back not only in the force but in a lightsaber duel with someone with no training that we have seen. Contrast this to Maul arguably the weakest of the movie Sith and he took one two Jedi at once killing the master before falling to the Padawan due to his arrogance and toying with Obi Wan rather than finishing him off.

I think the First Order might offer a lot and could really expand the force bringing in a 3rd party not associated with the Jedi or Sith with their own set of teachings and powers, but so far that hasn't really been expanded on.

When I look back at it Star Wars have always been about politics for example how a democracy can fall into a dictatorship and how that dictatorship does what it wants to keep its power.  The politics were maybe a bit more up front in the prequels than in the original trilogy.

To me Palpatine was a bit like the rules in the Roman Empire that used what they could to keep their power. I am not very well read about the Roman Empire but I could imagine something like this going on there.

The characters were better in the original trilogy so that helped but they were worse in the prequels so they stole the focus from the important things (namely Palpatine and his tricks to gain as much power possible).

When I saw the first order in Star Wars 7 it felt like an intro so I guess that we will see more about them in the next movie. The First order was interesting so I am looking forward to see what becomes of it.

the politics were boring ****