Broom Kid said:
I believe the entire purpose of Driver pursuing Soderbergh (who then got Burns onboard) was primarily to investigate the idea of the character not being “redeemed” - Driver had initially signed on thinking that was the goal with the guy, and that had been reinforced by how The Last Jedi was done.
I don’t think they were trying to cement Kylo’s importance to the overall story, really. In fact, his being forcefully, clumsily shifted to hold almost the whole focus of the ST by the midway point of Rise of Skywalker is a huge reason it folds in on itself, dramatically - the movies start by pairing Rey and Finn as the co-leads, and then Rey takes center stage for the 2nd chapter, and instead of Finn & Rey coming together for the 3rd chapter, they backseated both of them for the sake of making Ben the hero/main character. Say what you will (I do, all the time, LOL) about Trevorrow’s skills as a creative, but at least his first couple whacks at the story recognized where The Last Jedi was pointing towards, and it was NOT a “redemption” for Kylo, and it was 100% at Finn leading some sort of uprising amongst the First Order (which is probably the only way the Resistance overcomes having almost no numbers).
This seemed to have been a story looking to pursue the original idea in a different framework. Kylo/Ben wouldn’t actually be prominent to that degree, he’d be hunted, and the clumsy, facile idea of “redemption” forced on him would be sidestepped for a more interesting examination of the character who actually IS too far gone.
I think Kylo was given more focus than Rey was in TLJ, to her detriment. The character being bent around reylo, for the sake of her trying to turn him away from villainy I think is a showcase of that. Along with all their scenes being mostly Kylo talking at her or her saying very little at all. Same with her scenes with Luke, where she mostly just reacts to what other people are saying and doing. I think that was the movie that pushed that idea of Kylo changing as a core concept for the protagonist Rey to pursue, out of nowhere I think, not TROS. I think even TROS drops Kylo out of prominence within the story to focus on Rey and that Kylo has very little character growth and is mostly a device to keep Rey from dying within the movie. Trevarrow’s draft, that I’ve seen, does not much that different with Kylo as a character overall, and still has him change at the end from Leia’s persuasion and then heal Rey, dying in her place.
I think TROS moreso takes away all the focus from Kylo and gives it to Palpatine in regards to Rey’s story, giving Palpatine the one draining lifeforce at the end, being the one behind the deaths of her parents (if I remember correctly that was revealed to be Kylo in Trevarrow’s draft, I think giving Rey an actual drive against Kylo) and the one who was seeking to take over the galaxy and wipe out the resistance.
TLJ also I think outright didn’t do much with Finn’s connection to his stormtrooper thing, cutting out the scene where Finn got some troopers to turn on Phasma, which I think was one of the only things that gave Finn much of a voice in the movie. I think TLJ also did that to Rey a lot as well.