it seems RJ forgot his movie is supposed to be part of a trilogy and saga. You don’t create a trilogy and saga by cutting all ties with the past, and having no open story threads for the future. There’s literally nothing to look forward to
My wife says that’s one thing she liked about this film, as a middle film, as opposed to ESB. In ESB the movie just kind of ended, with a very deliberate (and bothersome) cliffhanger. In this, sure there could be more to the story, but there doesn’t have to be. It could end right there with “even if the Resistance dies, there are still (young) Force users and a hope for the future.”
Well, I didn’t. I now have zero interest to watch Ep IX, even though I probably will anyway. In my view the ST is a disjointed mess, with RJ killing all story threads and setups provided by TFA in favour of his own stuff, while providing zero story threads and setups for the future.