I rewatched TFA and TLJ over the last two days, the first time watching either since TROS came out. This was my first ‘full hindsight’ viewing, assessing how the story washes over me after I know how it all turns out.
I found TFA relatively free of tension with TROS. Rey maintains hope of her parents returning for her, though comes to admit that she is lying to herself and turns her attention to Luke. She awakens the Force within her, including aggression and darkness at the end. Snoke is a shadowy figure who we know is working behind the scenes for Palpatine, likely the way Dooku does. TROS:A alleviates this weirdness by not requiring the audience to see Snoke as a totally artificial being who would be technically very young.
TLJ was surprisingly smooth also, with Snoke again being the weirdest part. It does not seem at all hinted at that he is a cloned vessel, so I prefer to think of him as a Dooku-esque recruit with a history all his own that we don’t see. Ben cannot bring himself to kill Leia, who goes on to represent the last vestige of light that comes to redeem him. Rey and Luke fear her inner darkness. Rey’s parents do feel like a weird point here, as Rey seems to admit to herself that her parents really did ‘throw her away like garbage’ and ‘sold her off for drinking money.’ Her initial memories of them and their noble promises give way to letting them go and no longer concerning herself with the good-for-nothings. Then, in TROS she has these repressed ‘bad hope’ memories and longings reignited by being forced to again view them as noble and good. I guess. Luke saves the day, making the difference between no one coming to help on Crait when the Resistance calls for help and everyone coming in TROS.
It seems healthy for Rey to move on from her attachment to her parents, with TFA and TLJ agreeing. For TROS to essentially say, “Oh, no, you’re wrong, they were actually good people” seems like a regression. Rey had already grown past them, y’know?
I guess I’ll have to watch TROS next in order to take the whole ST story in within a short timeframe and see what else sticks out to me. Also, I watched my fan edits so there honestly may be other things that didn’t stick out because they’ve been addressed and I didn’t think about them.