I didn’t really like anything about the Sequels except a few very general concepts, which are: (1) A female Jedi protagonist with no family relation to any previous characters, (2) A defecting Stormtrooper as a main character, and (3) a Non-Sith order of Dark Side users called the Knights of Ren, that use blasters as well as lightsabers.

I’d take these basic ingredients and merge them with an extremely simplified version of the Thrawn trilogy adapted to incorporate the new characters, with the OT characters in supporting roles, and replacing Jorus C’Baoth with the leader of the Knights of Ren (who could still be Leia and Han’s son). I also don’t like the name “Rey”, so I’d use Rey’s original name which was Kira.

Episode 7 would begin with the New Republic as the dominant galactic power, and we’d get to know the new characters. The story would revolve around an old star-map that Kira finds in the ruins on the junkyard world where she lives. Except this map is not “a map to Luke Skywalker” (which never made any sense). Rather, it’s the location of the former Emperor’s secret storehouse on Wayland. Episode 7 would end with Leia commanding a fleet that defeats Thrawn over the planet Wayland, but Thrawn secretly found what he was looking for in the Emperor’s storehouse. And Kira would go off to train with Luke.

Episode 8 would have an A-story about the race to find the lost Katana fleet (which in this version is a secret experimental fleet developed by the Empire comprising thousands of Star Destroyers that are networked together enabling them to be remotely piloted and coordinate automatically), and a B-story about Kira training with Luke. It would end with Thrawn victoriously gaining control of the Katana fleet, with the implication that he can now conquer the New Republic.

Episode 9 would be about the battle to retake Coruscant, with Luke’s new protege now a fully-fledged Jedi.

I’d probably still have Han Solo die, but in Episode 8. Luke and Leia would both survive, and Leia would become the Chancellor of the New Republic at the end of Episode 9.