Also I needed to add that it really bugs me that people have to answer other people's questions using stuff from the novels/"current" EU. Having some explanations for critical aspects of the film (literally everything involving the New Republic/Resistance/First Order dynamic, etc.) being restricted to outside material is a failure of storytelling in my opinion. I mean ultimately Disney doesn't give a shit because the spectacle draws the crowds, then they can get money from the nerds who go out and buy the world-building EU stuff. One of my major complaints with the film is that the world-building is really poor compared to the OT. I mean Tatooine alone has more character and is more well-defined than any of the multiple locations of TFA.
Then again this is a fan-base that gets excited over characters that aren't actually characters (Phasma, the infamous Boba Fett lol) which Disney can then use to sell merch. I mean I don't even understand the Poe love, he's barely a character except he's like, cocky or something? and he's an ace pilot. Also gay I guess, which just reminds me of creepy shipping fandoms in anime/manga except now it's mainstream (I don't have a problem with that, just no shitty love triangle because the gay person loses 10000% of the time). Though the reaction to an interracial gay relationship in Star Wars would be something to behold.
Honestly I could probably write waaaay more in terms of ANH/TFA comparisons but I've already spent far too much time writing about this topic lol. Back to AoE2!