TLJ has none of that mystery because it picks up literally where the previous installment leaves off, and that’s J.J.'s fault because he just had to have his dramatic ending and couldn’t tell a complete story
I really, really disagree with that and I don’t understand why its become such a common argument for TLJ.
Rian wasn’t forced into anything by JJ, especially not making TLJ to pick up right where TFA left off, mere seconds later.
There was no reason Rian couldn’t have done a time jump, and he should have. Even if by only a month or two; the time jump between TPM and AOTC was 10 years and it benefited greatly from it from a storytelling perspective. Literally every other Star Wars film has had a time jump. Yes JJ put in a cliffhanger ending instead of rounding it off, but the story still could have gone in any direction.
Rian was definitely forced to do certain things based on the way things had played out in TFA, but a lack of a time jump isn’t one of them.
I wouldn’t say he was forced to write a certain way because of what J.J. did, I just think that J.J. left things so open-ended that Rian was allowed too much leeway to take liberties with things and it leaves the two movies feeling a bit disconnected.
Had J.J. laid down some more concrete foundations and had anyone actually had a plan as to where the saga was going to go and where it would end up, it would all make more sense.