Most Disappointing / Satisfying Aspect of the Sequel Trilogy? — Page 17

I don’t think Carrie’s passing had much to do with it at all. I think Trevorrow couldn’t come up with a version of the story where he could redeem Kylo, and that’s what caused the split. None of his drafts have it, and the Jack Thorne draft that does have it… he probably didn’t want his name on that once he read it, because shortly after it came in, he was gone. Most of the other aspects of the two approaches share similarities (which is probably why Trevorrow got the credit he got, even if Abrams and Terrio really did page one rewrite it) but the only really big difference is Kylo.

I do believe the wedge issue was Lucasfilm execs believed this story needed to have the redemption of its bad guy, and the writer/director they initially hired to deliver that ending didn’t feel the same way. The guy they got to replace Trevorrow not only would do it, but he’d resurrect Carrie Fisher in order to get it done. Oh, and he ALSO directed the biggest domestic earner of all time, whereas the other guy just made Book of Henry.

That probably seemed like a pretty brilliant move in September 2017.

liamnotneeson said:

The more I sit on it, the more I really hate Rey Palpatine. I really hate it- I wouldn’t even use hate to describe how I feel about what Johnson did to Luke in TLJ but I hate Rey Palpatine. The force dyad properly elaborated on would have been fully sufficient to explain Rey’s OP-ness, in my opinion. Rey being from nowhere was in retrospect completely in line with the Star Wars ethos and if episode XI had kept with it, and I think it would have allowed that fact to sit well with audiences.

Rey Palpatine never really sat right with me, even the first time I watched it. Once fan edits start coming out of TROS, whatever edit I chose will need to have Rey Palpatine scrapped, no exceptions, but that’s just my taste and my preference. Rey Palpatine will never be canon to me.

This is coming from someone who overall enjoyed the sequels, so don’t accuse me of being a Disney hater or whatever. I understand why JJ did it, and I strongly disagree

JJ loves copying, even the bad. RotJ had a useless convoluted heritage twist (Leia Skywalker), so TRoS does the same.

Of course that’s not the real reason but I find the parallel amusing.

And yeah, I’m pretty sure Fisher’s passing had nothing to do with Trevorrow leaving.

Colin Trevorrow confirms the recent leaks of concept images for Episode IX were from his planned version of the film…

https://twitter.com/colintrevorrow/status/1220607283094224897?s=20

“Yes, this is from Duel of the Fates. But I’d never kill R2…he just took a bad hit. Happens to all of us.”
 

RogueLeader said:

That’s a fair point, Dom! And I do think I would’ve preferred that image of Hux stabbing himself with a lightsaber as the First Order falls apart in the background. Maybe suicide would be too dark for a Star Wars movie, but I think it would’ve been a cool way for him to go out. I don’t think Hux had to have been a Force-wannabe to a lightsaber on display in his office or something.

I had similar thoughts about the Knights of Ren. You could have one that is the most prominent Knight, could’ve been Matt Smith, and he sort of becomes the de facto leader once they depose Kylo or Kylo turns back to the light. Not only could you give him the Palpatine make-up, but you could layer his voice with Ian McDiarmid’s. It could sort of sound like Palpatine’s voice when he baptizes Vader in Revenge of the Sith.

It is a shame that Trevorrow couldn’t work around Carrie’s passing. I liked the idea of the First Order pretty much blocking all communication, and using some device on Coruscant to send a message to the galaxy. Obviously they couldn’t do that message after Carrie passed, but I think it would’ve been a good opportunity for Poe to step up as leader. Imagine Leia sending a message to the galaxy was the plan, then she dies and the Resistance feels hopeless, but after some kind of optimistic conversation Poe decides to do what Leia would have done and send the message in her place. I think that would have been a fitting way to continue her legacy.

The entire climax could have taken place on Coruscant, with Poe leading a space battle above the planet, Finn leading the uprising on the surface, and Rey, Ben and the Knights of Ren facing off underneath the Jedi Temple.

And yet we have Anakin Skywalker literally being set on fire on-screen.

You know someone on this forum once described RotJ as less of grand finale to the saga and more of an inevitable collapse, and that honestly feels all too appropriate to describe TRoS.

Another disappointing aspect of the sequel trilogy: I thought the idea of having the heroes be chased down by the bad guys in space in The Last Jedi had potential and sounded good on paper, but it had poor execution because it is… a slow-speed space chase that involves fuel. A better space chase idea would be to have the heroes jump into hyperspace, and every time they do so the bad guys jump into hyperspace too so they could keep on following them.

And yet Star Wars was heavily influenced by many sources.

I thought that Captain Phasma was a very underutilized villain, especially in The Last Jedi. She doesn’t really get to do much, gets unceremoniously thrown in a trash compactor off-screen in The Force Awakens, and loses to Finn in her only fight scene.

There were many things the writers could’ve done with her, like having her hunt down Finn and Rose on Canto Bight as they are looking for the code-breaker.

DuracellEnergizer said:

FreezingTNT2 said:

I thought that Captain Phasma was a very underutilized villain, especially in The Last Jedi. She doesn’t really get to do much, gets unceremoniously thrown in a trash compactor off-screen in The Force Awakens, and loses to Finn in her only fight scene.

There were many things the writers could’ve done with her, like having her hunt down Finn and Rose on Canto Bight as they are looking for the code-breaker.

But since she’s Rule 63’d Boba Fett, it makes sense her bark is worse than her bite.

At least Boba was pretty cool in one of the movies he was in.

I still don’t understand why she wasn’t the “TRAITOR” trooper. Finn loses that fight, but Chewie knocks her out of it with his bowcaster. It doesn’t kill her because of the armor, but it definitely knocks her out. Then they meet up again on Starkiller Base and Finn gets the jump on her.

It would have made the rematch in The Last Jedi a little more meaningful. I really wish Rian Johnson hadn’t deleted that scene where Finn almost starts an uprising right there on the Supremacy, and Phasma shuts it down immediately. I know it saved him like 2 minutes in the edit but MAN that would have been great.

Wait, which deleted scene? I don’t remember that one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzeIb-TZo_I

The most disappointing thing must be Reypatine.

Anchorhead said:

FreezingTNT2 said:

There were many things the writers could’ve done with her, like having her hunt down Finn and Rose on Canto Bight as they are looking for the code-breaker.

I think that would have been a fantastic part of the story. Give her some depth as an angry captain going AWOL to hunt down a couple who she feels outsmarted her. Great idea. Would have also made the casino story much more interesting and meaningful.

+1

Far better than shoehorning ham-fisted obvious messages about “animal cruelty being wrong”. Also have Phasma kill DJ instead of having DJ betray Finn and Rose so it wouldn’t come across as a knock-off of Lando betraying the heroes in The Empire Strikes Back.

Another very disappointing idea: Rey not being either a Skywalker or a Solo (with Skywalker blood). Seriously, why have the first six movies in the Skywalker saga be focused on the Skywalker family, then have the last three movies in the entire Skywalker saga be about a nobody who is the granddaughter of Darth Sidious and has no biological connection to the Skywalker family whatsoever?