The instructive irony here is that you are a bigger fan of TROS than I will ever be, yet I accept that film more than you do.
I hate that it undid everything about Anakin's destiny and ultimate achievement that George spent ten years building in the PT. I hate how it used Rey in such a way that she ended up accomplishing something that Anakin and Luke failed to do. And more importantly for me, I hate when any professional writer relies on so many ****ing plot conveniences and contrivances rather than make the effort to lay the groundwork for earned plot progression.
Yet every day that goes by, I get closer and closer to embracing that film (and the entire trilogy as a result). That's because if I didn't embrace it as canon, but *do* accept the PT as canon, I'd be a hypocrite.
When I grew up with the OT, Yoda was (and is) my favorite character. He wasn't on Dagobah just hiding and refusing to fight the Empire; he was there because he was *not* a warrior. He was a Jedi guru, training Jedi about the perils of violence and how the Force allows you to circumvent the need for weapons and destruction.
Likewise, Obi-Wan Kenobi was an old hermit who had been betrayed by Anakin Skywalker. Kenobi didn't come across as a failure, nor a coward. He was someone who had gotten "too old" to effectively overturn what had happened to his former pupil, and needed Luke to fulfill the new hope.
Then came the PT. My favorite characters got completely crapped on. Yoda was actually now a warrior who took up the sword and went toe to toe with a Sith like Palpatine. Wait, what!? Why the **** did he exile himself for 20 years like a loser if he was that powerful and willing to *take the fight* to Palpatine before hiding?
And Kenobi was no longer just an honorable Jedi veteran who had simply been betrayed by a friend. He became a failure (and a serial liar). Fans of the PT go gaga over a Filoni speech that frames Obi-Wan as inadequate to properly train Anakin. The turn to Darth Vader was because Kenobi failed as a master. WTF!?
And I won't even get into my feelings on PT Anakin's irreconcilable dissonance with OT Vader's persona. Nor will I get into the cinematic execution failures of the PT. The point is that I *embrace* those prequel movies as canon. They weren't what I wanted, and they turned my heroes into losers and liars, but they had a purpose in telling a story of failure and redemption. I can accept it because it ends with an ultimate triumph. There's a purpose to the "ruining" of my heroes in telling a generational story of lessons learned from failure.
I've read enough about JJ and Rian to know that they were both huge fans of SW. They may have had competing visions for what they think a SW movie should say about the conflict within (and I align much more with Rian on that), but they both tried to honor what they were fans of. They made a good-faith effort to follow up the happily-ever-after ROTJ ending by bringing meaning and purpose to what was nothing but a money-driven, commercial ambition in the first place.
I accept the entire ST, while only really embracing one of its films, because I accept the PT (without embracing *any* of its films). Both trilogies put my heroes through the ringer, and re-contextualized things that I object to, but neither was made to give me the finger. They were telling a story of failure and ultimate redemption. The older I get, the more I understand how that message is valuable to convey in art. The ends justify the means. And it's Star Wars.
