The more I think about it (and your explanation really helps) the more I sort of wish that had been an option ANYONE had pitched or considered. The idea of the subversion in TROS being “how about we just turn Kylo IMMEDIATELY. Let’s just do it”
But to get back to the big Reylo discush - I just don’t feel like she wants to be with him AT ALL. She kind of wanted to in TLJ maybe, but mostly because they can use him, not because she LIKES him. I get the sense HE wants to legit seduce her (he moves on her at her weakest/most vulnerable, definitely, in that hut), and I believe he’s into that idea, but I don’t really get the sense it’s a thing she’s into. She’s maybe willing to USE that to bring him to her side, but like Luke says “This isn’t going to go the way you think,” and it doesn’t.
She says “I would have taken BEN’S hand” but that’s the biggest problem with the “romance” in TROS - before the kiss, that’s really the only sign she even likes him, much less wants to be with him. She says it out loud but she doesn’t show it, and she only says it after having actually killed him and then healed him - and the way she heals him is kind of a dig, too, haha.
Well, I think they played it as subtext in TLJ in a way that could be validly interpreted in a few different ways. You could make the argument that it was one-sided from Kylo’s side, but I think you also could make a pretty decent argument it was one-sided from Rey’s (or of course an argument that they were both into it). Regardless I think it was an interesting idea - whichever interpretation you go with - to play with in IX. I wish they had made their feelings clearer in the film. I think the idea we’re supposed to gather is that Kylo is in love with her and this is part of why he wants to turn her rather than kill her, and while Rey caught some feelings in TLJ she got over it when he refused to stop firing on the fleet (or is trying to get over it).
Huh, that is another good point I hadn’t really considered. Then Poe could better fit into the role of Leader as he was meant to be, more wise and mature. I think Leia could have died earlier in the film, possibly whenever Kylo is almost killed/left for dead by Hux and the Knights of Ren.
One of the biggest “this would have been so easy to do” missed opportunities in the film is not putting Poe in an X-wing. Especially considering he does nothing of note in the final battle, wouldn’t it have been a great resolution for his arc to see him calling the shots from a general’s chair of a capitol ship in the final battle instead?
I understand why some people wanted Kylo to be redeemed in the first act, but in my opinion it wouldn’t really work. Redemption in Star Wars has always been more of a spiritual affair. Watching Kylo act all chummy with the new trio would be really jarring for me, considering all the horrible things Kylo did. In my opinion the only endings that would work for Kylo are either becoming an exiled renegade fighting for justice, or dying in a heroic sacrifice. Trevorrow choosing to go with the latter is completely fine in my book.
I don’t think the idea is that he’d be chummy with them, at least not at the start. There’d be a lot of friction, which would be both fun and a cause of some good drama.