Anyone who says TFA was nothing but “pure fan service,” go watch Avengers, come back, look at this picture and tell me if you still think that
My ideal Sequel Trilogy would have centered on a group of young new leads and their adventures together, with the old generation forming either mentors operating on the fringes of the story or outright antagonists.
Specifically, I would really have dug a trilogy where Leia/Mothma/Rebellion leadership has formed a new regime which is hailed as a return to the Old Republic but lays bare the inadequacies of such a system. Despite this Leia clings to the dream of the Rebellion and vengeance against the Empire and goes further and further to justify her increasing oppression. Han is estranged, crippled by emotional and physical wounds suffered by fighting beside Leia for thirty years, and secretly hates everything he has become. Similarly, Luke has tried to replicate the Jedi order but finds that their strictures fail to capture the essence of the Force. It is up to our new heroes to break free from these systems which have so trapped our old heroes turned adversaries and forge a new path.
It’s deeply frustrating to see the actual ST come so close to this and time and again miss the mark.