Movie still holds up after four viewings. I find it very hard not to just grin with delight for the film's entire run time.
A few new observations:
1. I had realized that it's kind of a big deal that even after taking out all the Star Destroyers at Exegol that there's this rogue planet killing Destroyer still on the loose (the one that obliterated Kijimi) but this time I noticed that the female captain and her crew were back at Exegol at the end. She was the one advising Pryde of the approaching Resistance ships so they did actually tie up that particular loose end.
2. I do think that it was Han's ghost who spoke to Kylo and not a "memory projection" created by Leia. The reason being that Leia dies mid-duel (Rey even realizes this as she stabs Kylo) and Han appears quite a bit after. The dialogue between him and Ben even confirms that she's gone ("but not what she fought for.") I get it if people still want to assume that it was just Ben being crazy and talking to himself but that's not how I see it.
3. Rey does *not* handle being related to Palpatine well and this actually explains her behavior going forward. She doesn't heal Poe's arm (which is still kind of hilarious because he is *constantly* clutching his arm and wincing in pain for the rest of the movie, lol) *but* in her defense she was reunited with Poe immediately after learning that "you don't just have power, you have *his* power." So I could see her being very conflicted about whether or not she *should* share any of that, even with good intentions.
She really does seem "off" in a number of other ways both mentally and emotionally after the revelation and I don't think it was that shocking that she executed Kylo in such cold hearted fashion. I found myself wondering what the OT would have been like if *immediately* after Cloud City Luke went right to Dagobah to talk to Yoda and then right to the DSII to face the Emperor just a couple hours later! That dude was an absolutely wreck after his Cloud City duel and Rey got no down time, no medical frigate, no months of regathering herself and then getting back into the fight.
Just "you're the granddaughter of supreme evil, supreme evil murdered your mom and dad, and now it's time to face him alone." Pretty brutal.
4. Interesting contrast with the way Rey responds to male assistance in this film compared to TFA. Like in TFA when the TIE's shoot the ground and knock her and Finn off their feet and he asks if she's okay. She responds "yeah" in a clearly annoyed "why would you think otherwise" kind of way. But in TROS when they sink in the sand and she just lightly comes through the cavern ceiling Poe catches her, sets her down, asks if she's okay and this time her yes is much more appreciative. I know that a lot of people have decided to hate her character until their dying day but I think that they really did a good job of just making her likable all around and if TROS was people's first introduction to her there just wouldn't be that animosity.
5. Zori's little rooftop pep talk to Poe. Man such a contrast with the gender studies lecturing of Holdo in TLJ. She's just so caring and conversational with her little speech about there being more of us than them and good people will follow if you lead them that it wasn't off putting at all. If Holdo went to the Captain Marvel school of lecturing then Zori definitely learned from Gadot's WW. Just another example of inspiring female characters that aren't insulting or reeking of manufactured superiority.
6. It finally clicked (lol, took long enough) that the Exegol Destroyers didn't need guidance leaving the system but rather just the atmosphere of the planet itself. At first I thought why the heck does the Final Order need to do the complicated navigation tower when literally no one else (Resistance, Kylo's TIE, etc.) need such technical guidance. But they do explain that "ships of that size" need the tracking to leave that planet's funky atmosphere before they can get to space and navigate on their own. Which yeah makes Exegol literally the worst planet ever to build a massive armada on but at least their "logic" is internally sound, lol.
7. Ian McDiarmid. The guy is just a legend. Every word he utters is pure gold. And once again I just lol'd at his ridiculously gratuitous and prolonged exploding face. So violent and over the top, like something out of Indiana Jones, I love it.
Also I just read that one of the first two guys who leaked Trevorrow's script took a shot at people praising it for being better than TROS by saying "give me a break, imagine if the scripts were reversed and Abrams made a movie that had an extra hour of Rose Tico and then it got leaked that Trevorrow's script had Palpatine and tens of thousands of chanting Sith cultists. People would have lost their **** over being denied the opportunity to see *that* movie." And he's totally right.
8. It also hit me that even with the occasional PT reference or Easter Egg (PT Jedi voices, the inactive Battle Droid in Babu Frik's workshop) it really is the conclusion of the "OT Saga." And that's why I can see it forever rubbing PT apologists/fans the wrong way. Just look at that ending. The ghosts of Luke and Leia appearing but no others. The montage of planets taking down the FO being only OT and ST locations. Rey returning to the Lars Homestead and taking everything in instead of places in Mos Espa like Shmi Skywalker's hut or Watto's garage where Anakin used to be. The film really does go out of its way to say "this all began here, and this is what we are honoring."
Finishing what Anakin started is seen as a bad thing (and is the name "Anakin" ever *once* mentioned on screen in the ST??) While Rey instead finishes what Luke and Leia started. OT + ST is the Saga of the twins and their legacy, not so much Anakin. So yeah if the Chosen One bringing Balance to the Force is what defines SW for you then I'm not surprised in the slightest that that would be cause alone to dismiss the ST. (And yes I know that that isn't the case for everyone and that many who don't give a rip about Anakin also dislike the ST for other reasons.)
But yeah I think they nailed it, even with the extremely poor detour into divisive social justice with TLJ and some outrageously silly (but not cringy, an important distinction) aspects of TROS I find it to be a hugely satisfying six film Saga, and one that I'm fully prepared to compartmentalize should they go off the rails in 2022 and beyond, lol.
Still though, there's just nothing quite like watching a Star Wars film on the big screen.
