This whole edit reminds me of how the original Star Wars was saved in the editing room. As I’m sure many of you are aware, originally the Death Star was just gonna be at some random point in space. Post production made it so that they were targeting Yavin.

I see this restructuring the same way. Suddenly, the heroes suffer a huge loss in their climactic battle and two of our lead heroes give into their fear and anger at the enemy in order to “win”. But at what cost? TLJ gives Poe a whole arc about thinking more tactically, and Rey all of TROS to grapple with her inner darkness.