You reckon JJ and Chris Terrio ever really hashed out a clear idea in their minds of what the plan was? I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the clarity was just lost in editing, but maybe the whole thing is a casualty of the rushed production.
I don’t think J.J. and Chris had any idea what they were doing, even when writing the script. They didn’t make Rey a Palpatine until after shooting began, and then they hinged the entire climax on that. Kylo says that he never wanted to kill Rey, after he tries to run her over with his ship. They spend the first half of the movie trying to find the Wayfinder, only to immediately destroy it and render all of that setup pointless. (They could have just stolen the Wayfinder from Kylo’s ship after Rey cut it down on Pasaana.) Palpatine wants Rey killed, then needs her alive at the end. And those are just the most basic story beats. The writing falls apart at the slightest scrutiny.
But this is supposed to be a discussion thread, not a TROS-hate thread. Sorry, all. I’ll shut up now.