kylostahp:

like, give me a First Order that’s equal parts children of Imperial families torn from the Core and children of hardscrabble Far-Rim colonists, half of them nursed on stories of glory now lost forever and half of them on promises of a better life that will never come, and all of them having decided that they’re sick of stories and will change the galaxy with their own hands

give me the children of farmers and miners and factory workers who can’t see much of a difference between the various regimes that have ruled at the shining center of the galaxy while they labor out on the dark fringes, who are either exploited by corporations with their lobbyist fingers still deep in the government or now unemployed thanks to the loss of the Imperial war machine and its endless demand for ships and materiel, and what good is the Rebel’s so-called freedom to them?

give me Imp-Ex children who see the suffering and struggle on the Rim and beyond and burn with frustration that for all the tales of glittering splendor this was the reality even then, that their parents are only interested in reclaiming what was the status quo when they could stand up and do better, bring real order and prosperity

and yes, give me the dark side of that discontent, too: give me Imperial xenophobia taking root even in places humans and aliens have worked side-by-side for generations, give me ends-justify-the-means thinking, give me all the wrong lessons learned from the Empire and applied with brutal efficiency, give me all the things that cause otherwise decent, ordinary people to go along with terrible choices