TFA has tropes played straight, with objects intact. TLJ deconstructed tropes and the objects representing them (the saber and the helmet. Now IX is reconstructing the tropes and objects. Interesting visual metaphors.
On the subject of Kylo’s mask, TLJ only made explicit a point TFA was already making.
That sort of spelling-out kind of strips the subtlety and even dignity from the characters, don’t you think?
If the mask had been destroyed in TFA like the film implies, it would have meant that Kylo has developed as a character between movies to the point where he is comfortable owning his role in the galaxy. Instead the character is devolved and the mask briefly and awkwardly brought back so that we can laugh at its absurdity.
It’s the same for the rest of the characters, honestly.
Finn’s character is regressed almost back to Maz’s castle, where he has no interest in helping the Resistance and cares only for Rey. A reading of TFA where he’s not at least a little willing to help the Resistance would be really uncharitable. Do I even have to mention Rey, who got over her absent parents in TFA only to have that return as her defining character flaw? Or Hux, the human punching bag? Or Snoke, who is now half the character he used to be? The only character who feels like he isn’t regressed is Poe, who was so lightly sketched in TFA that any character change is positive.
I think that this is why, despite all the great aspects of TLJ, it feels so wrong to so many - it feels like the filmmakers had a dimmer view of the characters and tropes than the audience.