Started thinking about Empire and Jedi today.
ESB was so radically different and full of new and shocking ideas compared to SW77.
ROTJ was less bold, less original, and had far less to say, just wrapping things up quick and efficient, and throwing an extra “Surprise you’re related to someone!” that kinda comes out of nowhere.
Now I look at the ST and here George’s words again… it echoes. Like jazz.
I think this one threw more curveballs than ROTJ. Palpatine returning is pretty big. Finn being Force-sensitive is also technically new, even though it was teased a lot at in TFA. Force diads was a new concept.
Maybe it’s just that I’ve known it as long as I’ve seen Star Wars, but I feel like Leia being Luke’s sister isn’t as big of a reveal as Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter. Rey’s backstory is something that was a huge mystery and made out to be so important in TFA. In ROTJ it feels like it’s something just tacked onto Leia’s character.