I’m having mixed feelings about Mustafar. Part of me doesn’t want the clearest shout-out to the prequel trilogy removed. On the other side, moving from the crawl right to Kylo jumping out of hyperspace over Exegol could fit a bit better, that scene is much longer has a lot more breathing room (and as jonh pointed out, the buildup is nothing that can’t be explained in the crawl). Besides, Exegol with the reveal of Palps and the Final Order already makes for a more impressive, cold opening, which is a nice change of pace after ROTS, TFA and TLJ opened with action scenes.

The main con to the Mustafar beginning is the lack of context provided. Is there any expositional way of justifying Kylo’s trip to Mustafar besides the crawl and Vader’s helmet as guidance?

With regards to the Fortress Vader establishing shot, would it be feasible to paint some scorched patches of forest in the background or around the castle? I’d do a photoshop mockup of this if only I had the time for it. The color correction already was a great starting point, at least for those of us that want to improve the Mustafar scene.