On the topic of emphasizing Rey’s inner conflict, there’s something in particular about the finale that’s been nagging at me. (I mean, heck, there’s way more than one thing, but…)

You know the part where Sheev opens the skylight and is like “Kill me and you can save your friends”? Ignoring the fact that that makes absolutely no logical sense (why would Rey be able to control Palpatine ('s fleet) if she allows Palpatine to take over control of her?), it also completely muddles any sort of theme the film may be trying to explore.

Tapping into Rey’s personal darkness - she wouldn’t be killing Palps for selfish or evil reasons, she’d be killing him to save her friends, despite the cost to herself. That’s, like, prime Jedi material, right there. At that point, for those reasons, it’s selfish if she doesn’t immediately decapitate him.
“The Dark Side is in Rey’s blood because Sheev DNA” - What does saving Rey’s friends have to do with a Sith family legacy?
“Avenging her parents” - Her parents are mentioned in, like, two throwaway lines in this whole finale, so they clearly don’t matter for anything.

Seriously, I feel like my brain is melting whenever I think about this. Is saving her friends a bad thing all of a sudden? What exactly were the filmmakers trying to convey with this curveball?

So, to that end - and given our angle in Ascendant of highlighting Rey’s leanings into the Dark Side - I think the finale could make…not “sense,” but at least “more sense,” if we could replace some of the dialogue to something like:

“~~They don’t have long.~~ No one is coming to save them, and you are the one who led them here. Your new family [will die, and you don’t] have the power to save them.”
“[The Light is weak. Darkness will rise.] Strike me down, take the thrones. [Do it!]”

Does anyone have any suggestions of Palpatine lines to that effect that could be used instead? Otherwise, maybe even just remove Palp’s voiceover on that section entirely, and just have Rey “see” her friends dying in silent contemplation? At least that would emphasize everyone’s hopelessness, rather than hinting at a way to save them.