[quote]What happened to the republic?? Were those planets that got destroyed it??? What planets were they anyway???? Also how did Luke's light saber from episode V get found after being cut off with Luke's hand and falling down a chasm on Bespin??? How did Rey know about mind tricks when she hadn't heard anything but legends about a Jedi named Luke?? Why is the resistance so small and where is the rest of the empire??[/quote] We're led to believe all of the republic and all their ships were located on the 6 or 7 planets that were destroyed. I think the main one was corasaunt. (Not sure on spelling) The Rey thing bugs me. She has only heard stories about Jedi's, which must believed to be legends/myths, yet she just knows that mind tricks are a thing and how to do them? No idea. I'm not sure who's idea it was to minimize the resistance. The wrote fell like 28 years ago? So the resistance has had like 28+ years to figure its stuff out. Plus they'd probably continue from the rebel force considering they even have the same emblem. The empire was destroyed (for the most part) in the battle of jakku I believe. They had lost their two main commanders at once so things were probably a little rocky.

How do you know what planets were destroyed? I only saw 4 get blown up. And if they seriously blew up Corusant, like an iconic place in Star Wars, that would suck.