Currently reading Duel of the Fates. It’s so much better than TRoS in some ways and yet so much worse in others. It’s kinda frustrating. And both of them needlessly add to the story of Rey’s parents, taking away from what was established in TLJ (obviously TRoS’s meddling is much worse, but still). It’s honestly kinda hilarious how, had this film been made, every film in the trilogy would’ve given Rey a different love interest. I really don’t get why they went for Rey x Poe. It comes outta nowhere (aside from that one scene Trevorrow requested be put in TLJ, and the romance was just as weird there), and is so much less interesting than Reylo, which was established. I’m also one of the twelve people on the planet who wanted Palpatine back, so there’s that. But I can’t help but wished they’d kept things like the inclusion of Coruscant and Mortis. It’s clear the people writing DotF had a love and understanding of SW as a whole whereas Abrams and Terrio just saw it as five movies.
I’m 2nd of 12 who thought Palps could have been good. And the weird thing is that his inclusion actually worked to make previous trilogies better from a lore perspective, which is almost unheard of with the ST. Too bad that he was crap in this one though.
And yeah, Coruscant should have been in Episode IX no matter what, there’s really no excuse. I’m definitely taking more elements from DOTF than from TROS for my rewrite, which goes to show how many more details it got right.
Neither TROS or DOTF really give Rey a decent character arc in keeping with the previous two films though, which is really what sinks both attempts.