But again, in regards to saving her friends, none of this has any relevance to the themes of the film. This is when those themes are supposed to come to their conclusion; but instead of talking about Rey’s anger, or her heritage, or anything like that, J.J. and Chris are just like, “Meh, you better kill him Rey, or else all of your friends are gonna die.”
I would say one of the themes of the film is confronting fear. In this moment, Rey is presented with two options: kill Palpatine to possibly save her friends, or deny him and risk losing her friends. I would say that thematically it does make sense. It’s about the fear of loss, and learning to let others have some control, because the civilian fleet shows up to save the day without Rey’s help.
Isn’t that backwards though? Because if the thing she fears is losing her friends, wouldn’t her courage fail her by killing Palpatine to save them? (And again, I have no idea if the filmmakers even consider that a good or a bad decision from a morality standpoint, because it’s all so nonsensical and poorly laid out.) She’s still running from her fears, until a big strong man comes to save her. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.
But it’s all a moot point, because Rey was never afraid of losing her friends:
REY: I saw myself on the dark throne. I won’t let it happen. I’m never leaving this place. I’m doing what you did.
LUKE: I was wrong. It was fear that kept me here. What are you most afraid of?
REY: Myself.
LUKE: Because you’re a Palpatine.
The film (I think) is trying to be about Rey’s fear of her own inner darkness. Or fear of her chromosomes, whatever. But she’s never scared of losing her friends. She even abandons them at like three different occasions in the movie without a second thought. I don’t buy it.
If you take her inner struggles throughout the film, and then throw all of that away for a last minute, “Do this, or your friends die,” you undermine and invalidate her entire character arc for the rest of the film. She should be tempted onto the Sith Throne, not blackmailed into it.
EDIT:
It’s about the fear of loss, and learning to let others have some control, because the civilian fleet does show up to save the day without Rey’s help.
When does the film explore that in any way? And what does the Civilian Fleet have to do with Rey’s arc? “Letting others have some control,” that was Poe’s arc in TLJ.
And even if the film was about “letting others have some control,” do we really want that other person to be Emperor “Darth Sidious” Sheev Palpatine, the conglomeration of all Sith past and present, and Lord of all Evil?? Just as long as he doesn’t invade Poland, amiright?