Star Wars: The Force Awakenskick-started theStar Warssequel trilogy, but the movie actually began with a simple lie that’s very easy to miss. Every episodicStar Warsfilm begins with an opening crawl, containing knowledge necessary to understand the plot of the film. Some of these yellow, scrolling opening crawls contain more info than others, depending on the gap of time between it and the previous film.
Logically, this means that the first film in each trilogy has the opening crawl with the most new information. Unsurprisingly, then,The Force Awakens, taking place 30 years afterReturn of the Jedi, has the opening crawl with the most new information of them all. The crawl tells us Luke Skywalker has vanished, theFirst Orderhas risen, and that Leia leads the Resistance with the support of theNew Republic. That last point, however, is a lie.
The Resistance Is Incorrectly Described In The Force Awakens Opening Crawl
The New Republic & Resistance’s Relationship Is Complicated
The opening crawl forThe Force Awakensestablishes the Resistance, led by Leia, and includes a single reference to the New Republic.The line says that the New Republic supports the Resistance, something that is canonically untrue. In fact, the Resistance’s connection to the New Republic is a much more complicated situation than the line leads audiences to believe.
The New Republic Didn’t Really Support The Resistance
The Resistance Is Made Of Ex-New Republic Personnel
The New Republic didn’t really support the Resistance – at least, not in any meaningful way. In reality, the entire reason that the Resistance existed in a separate capacity to the New Republic Defense Fleet was because of core disagreements between the groups. The Resistance was founded by senator Leia Organa to combat the rising tide of the First Order, which she thought the New Republic was blind to.
Upon the revelation that Darth Vader was her father, Leia was ousted from the New Republic political scene, and was forced to work more outside the government. This ousting happened during her arguments that there was some sort of shadowy organization rising in the galaxy, which ended up being the First Order. Following these events, many in the New Republic dismissed Leia as a warmonger, trying to militarize the New Republic much like her father had been so involved with theGalactic Empire’s military.
7 Details Star Wars Has Revealed About The Rise Of The First Order
The Star Wars sequels are light on exposition for the First Order, but canon material has gradually revealed how the faction rose to power.
Thus, claiming that the Resistance is supported by the New Republic is just not true.They received some resources from the government, but were not anywhere near an official part of it, and operated wholly separate from it, though there were some Resistance sympathizers in the New Republic government and defense fleet. If the Resistance actually had the full support of the New Republic, it wouldn’t even need to exist.
The Resistance’s Actual Story Is Much More Interesting Than The Film Lets On
The First Order’s Secession & The Cold War
The canonStar Warsstory, mostly told in books and comics, actually tells a much more interesting story for the Resistance. The Resistance was founded by Leia in 28 ABY, and only about one year later, in 29 ABY, the First Order’s base of planets in the New Republic formally seceded. This established a formal section of First Order space and New Republic space, leading to a tense Cold War between the two.
Espionage, covert missions, and more occurred throughout the galaxy as powerful players vied for control. The First Order was now formally established and continued to expand by building up its military, while the New Republic was too sluggish and bogged-down in bureaucracy to do anything about it.This left the Resistance as the only organization opposing the First Order, not supported by the New Republic, but working in opposition to it.
Star Wars: New Republic Timeline Explained
The New Republic Era is a brief period of galactic history, but it’s vitally important to Star Wars. Here are all the key galactic events!
This story has been told in only a few specific places inStar Warscanon. The animated seriesStar Wars: Resistanceand thePoe Dameroncomic series, helmed by Charles Soule, take place during the Cold War, but other than that and a few other smaller stories, the era remains largely untouched for the time being. A new, larger scale story set during this time period could really tell a fascinating politicalStar Warstale, but thanks to some odd phrasing inThe Force Awakens' opening crawl, many audiences don’t even know about it at all.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Cast
Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes place 30 years after the fall of the Galactic Empire. It follows Han Solo and new allies, including Finn and Rey, as they confront the rising threat of Kylo Ren and his army of Stormtroopers while seeking the elusive Luke Skywalker.
