Do you think Rey’s yellow lightsaber should be removed altogether from the final scene in this franchise? She has truly brought balance to the Force, Darth Sidious and his followers have been destroyed once and for all, the Skywalker bloodline is now extinct (no, Rey doesn’t count as a biological Skywalker), and tyranny has come to an end, so the Jedi have already served their purpose and now no longer have a reason to exist.
I think this is a fair question. If this is suppose to be an ultimate victory, then maybe. If you’re stressing that fascism and tyranny can rise when you least expect it and do-gooders have to remain vigilant, then maybe not.
For me, I hate the idea of an ‘ultimate victory.’ I’d like to hope there’s a deleted scene or something that stresses it isn’t that, otherwise I’m still not sure what to do to convey that idea. I saw a clip with JJ before the movie came out where he said something like the fight against the dark side is a constant struggle, so I was really disappointed with how the film concluded. But the fact that he feels that way does give me some semblance of hope that there’ll be something along those lines in deleted material.
Regarding Ben and Rey’s kiss, I think some people didn’t like it because they felt it wasn’t set up. While I think it was (“I offered you my hand once”), I don’t think it was set up as explicitly as Han/Leia or Anakin/Padmé. Both pairs talk about their feelings explicitly, whereas the Ben/Rey romance could be written off as a special connection. According to leaks, in the deleted scene of Kylo Ren’s confrontation with the Oracle, the Oracle would’ve mentioned his feelings for Rey. Maybe Kylo could be given new dialogue that makes those feelings clearer. I’ll have to go through Driver’s filmography and see what kind of dialogue we have to work with.
I’m of the opinion that the romance was obvious, but they definitely wanted it to be a lingering question until the big kiss. I’d definitely prefer an establishment of the fact earlier, if there is a deleted scene that does that like you say.