I think anyone who enjoys Rogue One more than TFA or any of the OT films just wanted a simple and original story filled with fun characters and nice explosions. Doesn’t matter if the plot is inconsistent and certain things are glossed over or that most of the characters are paper thin because Rogue One is a fun ride overall.
Speaking of inconsistent plot and glossed over things, TFA pretends that plot is about finding Luke while in reality it is about destroying death star. R1 has nothing anywhere this scale.
That has nothing to do with my complaint about Rogue One.
Speaking of paper thin characters, Krennic and Cassian are by far more interesting and complex than any of the “paper thin” character in TFA.
Two standout characters in a film filled with underdeveloped characters. TFA’s characters in general were more fleshed out. You don’t have to like Finn, Rey, Kylo or this version of Han and Leia but we knew far more about them than we did about most of the characters in Rogue One. That includes Cassian and especially Director Krennic. He was a competent and entertaining villain but there isn’t much character development there. His rationalization of using terror to instill piece is great but was glossed over and aside from that there’s nothing much to say about his character in terms of actual depth. I’ve already gone into detail over why Kylo Ren is complex and have pointed that he will be given even more layers as the ST moves forward. Cassian was interesting and we got to know about his backstory and how he views the Rebellions more questionable actions but I felt there could have been more to him or that his moral ambiguity was made a larger focal point. If we compare him to Rey however he seems underdeveloped in comparison as we know certain things about Rey’s backstory, we have seen a myriad of emotional states from her, we have seen actions that show us what type of person she is, we know the pain that dwells inside her, we know her hopes etc. We definitely didn’t get much of that with Jyn. Aside from the sub plot with her father (which was well done imo) and her being angry about being abandoned by Saw Gurerra which has caused her not to expect people to be there for her about she is just as underwritten as the others.
I think you should stop finding lame false explanations about R1 and TFA in order to feel better. You should face the fact that R1 is simply good and TFA is crap. Those of us who like R1 and dislike TFA simply accept this truth.
I like Rogue One but it’s definitely more entertaining than well written. I personally can’t say the same for TFA.