The Force Dyad was their excuse to bring Palps back in full form so in that regard that story element came to full fruition. It would have been nice if Ben and Rey could have stood together repelling Palps' lightning but just like in the OT SW prefers to have their redeemed bad guys die rather than deal with the awkward quandary of how to deal with them in the celebratory aftermath of the Rebels' overall victory.
At least he got to die "keeping Rey from dying" which brought his grandfather's primary wish (and catalyst for his own downfall) full circle.
The Force Dyad could've been literally anything they wanted. That's my point. Forget TROS, forget the OT and their lazy attempts to pay tribute to it; TLJ left it open for a new kind of finale and they just didn't follow through. They went with reheated and empty nostalgia served with rotten ingredients because they'd already thrown out all the necessary ones. Kylo could've still died; there's no reason why he should've been "redeemed". There's no reason to bring back Palpatine. There was no reason for anything in TROS to happen, which is what I'm saying. After TLJ they could've taken another route, which IMO, would've been far more interesting.
That's not how TLJ left things. Luke stated point blank that he would not be the last Jedi so if they did do away with both the Sith and the Jedi in TROS then that would have been going back on the previous film.
Just because Luke died believing it doesn't mean it would've come to fruition. Rey could've taken a different path. Hell, even if she tried to remain a Jedi, but Kylo said "**** you" to all the Sith business and attempted to merge the Light & Dark himself, that would've been a new story and something that wouldn't walk on TLJ. Yet we got Kylo back into his helmet, back into trying to be the biggest edgelord, and so on so forth. Until of course the obligatory re-runs of all the 'membaries.
Kylo wanted to destroy both sides of the past but he was the bad guy and so therefore not the best theme to end the Saga on IMO.
Who cares about "bad guys" and "good guys"? SW left that trapping decades ago. I'm talking about story posibillities. Kylo was an evil edgelord. With TLJ he underwent character development and we were left thinking that he was done with trying to be an evil Sith, the same way he was done trying to be a goody Jedi. He was forging his own path and seeing himself as a leader instead of an evil overlord. That'd have been something interesting to see. But no, we've gotta have our nonsensical return to edge and "redemption" that was neither earned nor logical.
I don't think that there should be a SW "post-TROS." Why does every story have to go on forever?
Because it's a huge IP that will obviously never stop being milked until Disney truly tanks it to the ground? I'm not talking about preferences here, any story from any big IP could've ended ten times over now. But like it or not these will keep going, so as a fan I'm trying to find the best case scenario that suits my tastes. As it stands, TROS completely tanked the Skywalker chapter.
The ST gave us a Saga that concludes with the Sith being eradicated once and for all and a galaxy that is no longer dependent on a select few Rebels doing all the fighting for them. Story breaking elements like TIE Fighters that can now follow you through hyperspace and Jedi who can raise the dead put a nice little period at the end of the Saga that discourage further stories from being told that would then have to incorporate such elements.
Yeah, well, I call all that "bad writing". It's a huge galaxy and yet we got the same exacts beats because 'membaries. The EU handled things much better, but Disney is headed by a bunch of executive morons who threw copied notes at the screen and called it a day. Having another Not!Empire was a mistake in the first place. Ending it with literally jsut the Rebels vs the Empire: Sneaky Rare Hidden Variant Edition was an insult. A downright insult. As it stands, I see everyone being ******* dead, the Skywalker line ended, the ultimate evil being defeated because he was too ******** to turn off his lighting, and some random ***** inheriting the Skywalker name and... standing there. Yay...
It's not a definitive ending. It's not a new beginning. It's not a satisfying conclusion to a certain chapter. It's just a rushed job of tying together the easiest remaining plotpoints, adding lots of 'membas without actually earning them. It's not new, it's not a tribute, it's just bad. It's so bad, for the last year and then some they've been writting comics trying to explain all this nonsense. Vader knew about the One Sith, he knew about the fleet and everything, and the explaination for why Palps was sitting on them and allowed two Death Stars to go down and himself to get offed was... uh, whatever, that's a nice story for... another time. Downright insulting. Insulting.
Tie-in marketing gimmicks have no relevance on the quality of the films' themselves. Those brief sentences he stated were paraphrased in TROS's opening crawl so it's not like playing Fortnite was somehow a requirement for following the story. That said it might have been cool if TLJ ended with the Resistance sending out that call for help on Crait and Palps' broadcast was what they received in response.
Marketing gimmicks don't matter when they're ads, promotions or whatever else. Palpatine, canonically came back in Fortnite. This isn't just giving Fortnite skins, this is making it part of the lore. And it's embarassing.
Anyway, I'm not going to say more because this is off-topic and I don't think we'll come to any sort of agreement, as we're coming at it from two wildly different POVs. For me, SW is a continuous story that expands forwards and backwards, so it doesn't revolve around the OT. That's just a part of the story. It's a huge IP, it'll continue getting installments, so that's how I see it; no different than long running comic book series. Had it been finished, with a definitive endpoint, that'd have been another story. But for me, I judge every new movie/show/comic based on how it moves things forward and keeps the core of it consistent; I don't much care for repeats of the same beats just for the sake of them. I'd have taken TLJ's radical new direction, warts and all, over this. I'd have preferred a more "typical" direction akin to the old EU. But it is what it is. I'm the guy who likes KOTOR and Legacy and whatever else. I don't see SW as just the movies.
You obviously come at it from another angle, and I'm not juding. With such huge IPs wildly different POVs as a given. But this is a discussion that can only ever go in circles. So might as well leave it here, because I'll never be convinced TROS was anything less than bull, or see any merit in it.
I imagine that like the PT it'll be appreciated by the fandom more and more over the years but as always only time will tell.
