Do you think that would take away from Rey’s agency in that moment? Speaking of the saber, a lot of people have been speculating that Rey will likely build a new lightsaber using the pieces.
It’s a frustrating thing, the whole throne room finale. The will she/won’t she join Kylo was the most interesting thing for a lot of people going into this movie, due to how it actually makes some sense and was heavily implied in the trailer. But when the moment happens and it’s really just a trick for her to go for the lightsaber, I can’t help but feel like the movie is giving the finger to that whole concept. It’s fine if Rey doesn’t have any intention of joining Kylo, but it’s more interesting for her character if it’s a genuine temptation.
Specifically about her agency, I think it’s well established that she will fight to the death against someone like Snoke. This is something that he explicitly says; it is why she must die. The fact that she ultimately runs away after the hyperspace collision means that she’s already decided against joining Kylo, and her closing the door of the Falcon in the final scene would serve just as well for her ultimate rejection of his offer. In short, Rey’s alliance is known after the throne room scene in the original film, making it a suitable end to the movie. But by delaying this moment, it gives more meaning to the last 20 minutes.
You do bring up the issue of the saber though, which is a big issue. The only thing I can think of right now is to have a flashback to the throne room during the Kylo/Luke duel. When Luke says ‘I will not be the last Jedi’, have their grapple for the saber and it breaking, then cut to Rey concentrating on lifting the rocks. Who knows if that has any chance of working though.
Placing the Luke/Yoda scene there is an interesting idea, though I wonder if it would affect the pacing any?
It’s a strange scene which begins on the Force theme while being quite nihilistic. I think it would thematically work right after Kylo talks of tearing everything down, as everything is in tatters.
So you would cut them crash landing into the base and next time we see them, they are already inside, so we just assume they made it back to the Resistance in between scenes?
Yep. It’s a strange bit since it manufactures some drama that doesn’t follow from the previous scene. We assume that Finn and Rose got away in the confusion without being followed, but here they are chased by TIEs and they recklessly endanger many lives by crashing into their own base. There’s nothing really lost by cutting this part in my opinion, and it will help to speed the end of the movie.