JakeRyan17 said:
Another recommendation I’d throw in, that I’m sure people will reject, is having Chewbacca die. Make Rey face consequences for giving into the darkness and hatred.Kijimi makes this functionally impossible imo. Even if super skilled editors with the free time rotoscoped him out of all of the other scenes and we cut his reaction shots from Leia’s death, the whole reason they board the ship on Kijimi is for Chewie, and everything that happens there is a big deal.
Maaaaaybe, in theory, one could somehow get 3P0 to read the dagger inscription on/after Pasaana and completely cut Kijimi out of the movie, but boy would that be difficult to make believable, and it’d absolutely kill the already rushed pacing (and the run time for that matter).
They also find out that they physically need the dagger while on Kijimi. This could be a more focused reason to board the Star Destroyer, with finding the falcon being Finn’s/Poe’s reason for splitting off. Again, just a thought.
It’s such a major moment for her character that she believes she killed Chewie, that bringing him back feels hollow. He’s also not super present in the rest of the movie, if the focus stays on the main characters you simply don’t need to cut away to him.