>>102437592It would have made for a more interesting dynamic for how the First Order and the characters associated with it would fit into the universe. They wouldn't necessarily all have to be cartoonish bad guys. You've got the 'New Republic' and Mon Mothma coming in basically branding everyone who so much as mopped the floors on an ISD as a war criminal and dismantling the lives of billions of civilians who were living perfectly happy, comfortable lives under the Empire - surely there are gonna be regular folks caught in the crossfire who might see a group like the First Order and think "yeah, I can get behind that"
It makes me think back to those Clone Wars episodes where we got to see life on the Separatist planets, all these people with there own reasons for supporting the CIS cause, unaware that they were being manipulated. It would have been great to see something similar with the First Order - having them be the bad guys, but also making some decent points and having some sympathetic people who believe in their ideas.
Take Finn for example - instead of having him be some brainwashed child soldier, he could have been the kid of some people whose family worked with the Empire and had to flee after the Rebellion. He could have grown up hearing stories about the wonderful life his family had to abandon, seen the First Order coming together to take care of families like his own and protect them from the "persecution" of the New Republic. He could have been someone who believed in the First Order's principles, volunteered for the army, but became disillusioned after working with people like Hux and Kylo and seeing how they were corrupting the FO. Him freeing Poe and joining the Resistance could have been the culmination of a major character arc forcing him to question his deepest beliefs, instead of a decision made at the drop of a hat five minutes into the movie.
