Stumbled across this old article yesterday and it reminded me that my initial opinions were very similar to this writer.

You can argue that Rey deflecting lightning back in Sidious’ face was her acting in self defense, but I still don’t think the execution is nowhere near as interesting or emotionally powerful as Luke’s act of non-violence at the end of Return of the Jedi.

This isn’t to downplay the amazing work done with adding the Force ghosts to the end of the film in Ascendant. It is a major improvement on the story the filmmakers decided to tell.

With Obi-Wan leaving Anakin for dead at the end of ROTS, and Luke sparing his father and throwing his weapon down, I can’t help but think that the natural climax of TROS would’ve been the Kylo Ren and Rey duel, where Rey almost kills, then chooses to heal, her mortal enemy. It would just be hard to accomplish that and still have a decent runtime.

Idk, I’m just curious if there is another way you could really spin the theatrical ending. Rey gets strength in hearing the voices of her new family/attachments, rather than the Jedi? Or the Jedi voices encourage her with different kind of advice?

Either way, you kind of just end the series with an old man’s face getting melted.