Ideas for Alternate Antagonists

I think the imperial remnant which is what the 1st Order is for the most part. Is the best way to go. Threats from "beyond the galaxy" don't really feel like Star Wars to me.

 

Because of the 30 year timeframe, I'd still have an imperial remnant involved, among several other factions vying for power. Outside of the smaller area of New Republic space, there would be a general state of lawlessness, with rampant piracy and gang activity.

Behind a lot of this, would be some shadowy dark side puppet master, patiently waiting for the time to move.

 

It's basically a slightly less 2-sided conflict than what we got...

I can easily imagine that in the years following the Empire's collapse, various systems would declare their own independence, while powerful Hutts and other criminal organisations (e.g. Black Sun), would take over others. The New Republic would have been too weak from their war with the Empire to prevent much of this.

 

I think it would have been awesome to see the Hutt empire in action. They could have used the void created by the fall of the Empire to make the Hutts try to fill the power vacum in the galaxy. As they tried to take over where the Empire was no more, the Hutts could employ all maner of bounty hunters, pirates or gangs to solidify their grip on the galaxy. It would even be an awesome way to give the Sith a rest and use other powerful threats to the Jedi such as the Morgukai or the Anzati.

 

I would have liked it if a new army of Darksiders threatened the galaxy. Something on the lines of what Darth Krayt had done but not related to the Sith..

 

One idea I had was a schism among the Jedi themselves - for example, maybe some Jedi wanted to start using some powers formerly considered "Dark Side" now that the Sith are gone, while others opposed it.

I don't know how well this would've worked, but at least it wouldn't have to discard the return of the Jedi that was clearly implied by, well... Return of the Jedi.

 

I think the 1st Order borrows heavily from the One Sith. Even moreso when Kylo sabre tantrums Snoke and takes the throne.

 

The imperial remnants are probably the only choice that actually makes some sense. But I would have introduced some sort of "cold war type" situation. The First Order is the living reincarnation of the Empire; the Republic tried to defeat it, failing; the Galaxy goes splitted in two big areas; a treaty avoid both sides to fight each other, but hey! It's not due to our total black look that we are called the dark side! So, we bad guys do some very very bad thing, maybe intercept the map to Skywalker on Jakku, attacking a village of Republic allies. This makes the whole situation crash, and a new war start. So, the ST begins...