Awesome write-up, Eddie! It’s really great to hear a fresh perspective, and in such detail as well.

I agree with you that something feels off about the pacing of the final confrontation. Were the scenes shifted from the theatrical version? It just felt noticeably weird.

But yeah, the pacing and dialogue really is one of the worst aspects of TROS, it’s something that is almost shocking when I go back and watch sections of Ascendant.

Related to this, I was thinking about the Leia scene after our heroes encounter the sinking fields on Pasanna. The scene offers nothing from a plot perspective and serves only to preserve a bit more of Leia’s leftover TFA footage. Furthermore, I abhor Snap’s rejoinder to Leia’s suggestion. I hate to suggest cutting the scene because that means less Leia, but the scene feels pointless and bad, even by TROS standards, and if the sandworm cave scene were allowed to play out in full it may help to repair a bit of the hyperactive pacing.