>>101965624>Snoke himself is older than anyone, yet was unseen through all the other episodes.Because he was out in the Unknown Regions, not involved in the rest of the galaxy.
>The First order doesn't have the backing of the Republic, yet somehow they can afford doomsday weapons.They DO have the backing of the same weapon, armor, and ship and vehicle manufacturers the Empire used. And on top of that, they also have a cartel that smuggles material and people out to them, and the material resources of a decent portion of the Unknown Regions on top of that.
>The Rebels should have the backing of the Republic, yet they operate with cardboard and rubber-bands.They don't have the backing of the Republic. They have the moral support of a few Senators, mostly old friends of Leia's, but all their actual support comes from Leia herself, who isn't working with the New Republic anymore because she got outed as being the daughter of Darth Vader.
>According to the ep6 scroll. the First Order grew after Ben had turned, so you can't have the First Order without the school already being gone and Luke already being missing.The actual title scroll says this:
>Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.The First Order itself isn't new, the books all show that it basically started immediately after Jakku, but its growth into what we see in the films is new enough that Leia sees them as a threat, which is what prompts FO agents into outing her lineage in order to discredit her from the New Republic.
