the plot of 7 through 9

 rey: i have a parent

 luke: i know

 kylo: shut up

 rey: its really dramatic

 sidious: do you want a hug
cmere

 rey: no (angry frowny face)

this is an overexaggerated caricature of the movies 7 through 9

but i think if they took out the bits with leia's latent ability to fly and make foreboding comments

and took away the moments where luke childishly sat around and didnt do nuffen

and didnt give sidious responsibility for luke's attempted murder of kylo

in fact, if i just didnt mention any of that i would be much happier right now

i would be much happier if the movies were actually about rey's journey

and if everybody else wasn't impotent plot popsicles

(movie number 7 is fine honestly, 8 and 9 just didnt follow up on it at all. i would have preferred luke to be found in the middle of episode 8 than at the start, and to serve as a minor antagonist rather than a plot popsicle)

i'll give an example

near the end of episode 7:

rey finds a cipher left behind of luke. kylo traces her to island planet but runs away because he's afraid of what luke has become. rey fights luke's phantom. (this repeats itself on the planet where it snows salt and crystal foxes live in caves, but at this point it's something that kylo can expect, even if it's not something that he can truly face)

episode 8:

the rebellion (the defender of the new republic) is being slaughtered. rey discovers the nature of the "crimes" that luke has committed (he tried to murder kylo. a lot of his students died because of him. his personal victories from ep 4-6 now feel like they led to the person he became, a terrible person, and the rebellion celebrated him despite this the entire time) as part of her journey to find him. each phantom is, in a way, a cast off remnant of who luke was, but also a frightening reminder of his power

swap to scenes from in between ep 6 and ep 7 involving luke in critical parts of the battles with the luke phantoms

rey develops her abilities through this conflict, but with each step she is more hesitant to devote herself to either the jedi or the sith

something that ties her with kylo ren, although he continues to serve snoke as a pseudo-sith

she begins to dislike the old ways. she despises the war that luke and leia started, the needless bloodshed. soon, she is only searching for the luke in order to understand why it all started. she is conflicted, because she now understands that the war and the force are two sides of the same coin

she becomes more like the way that kylo ren was, during episode 7, and it starts to show

so when she enters the mentorship under luke, her decision to ultimately dedicate herself to the light side is meaningful. she isn't doing it to imitate him, or obi wan (who mysteriously, inexplicably never appears in the new trilogy even though he really should), or anyone else. she's doing it for her own reason. she decides to be what luke couldn't be (since luke has divorced himself from the force once and for all).

oh yeah and give rey like a fucking lightsaber axe or a halberd or a limp noodle (cat 'o nine tails) or some crazy shit that makes no sense

(and kylo ren was always a really good pilot, where rey never was, but this was never emphasized enough in the original episode 8 or 9. actually, it was never mentioned by any character

even when he literally flew a fighter / bomber squad to his mother and killed her)

all the red robed evil guys had cool and imaginative weapons, but she didnt

episode 9:

mostly lightsaber fighting but with the pretense that kylo ren doesn't have to be afraid of who he was before the war

that he can heal, metaphorically,

that if rey can come back from this, he can

at this point sidious is a man no different from snoke

maybe lesser, in terms of strength and alive-ness

but fully capable of exploiting the weaknesses between the two

the conflict is no longer about him, but about what he represents

that's something that needs to be emphasized more

he can't just suck out all their powers and become a glorified tesla ball at the end of the movie, it doesnt make any sense

a few points: in my opinion,

- luke needs to fully redeem himself, not just prevent his family and friends from dying once and then retiring. if he trains rey right, and if he stays true to his ultimate motive of pacifism, then i think he can achieve this

- there needs to be an explanation for rey's character growth, and it can't just be "i was in the forest off screen for 3 weeks" or "the writers suddenly decided who my grandfather was and his bloodline now gives me new powers that are nothing like the powers i suddenly got in the previous 2 movies". in my opinion, getting into fights with more people and exhibiting behaviors that the audience can actually see can achieve this

- kylo ren was wounded emotionally before he was wounded physically. if rey gives in to anger and stabs kylo in the chest, she shouldn't be able to save him or use her light side powers, even if she really feels bad about it. lucas should know that "kill", "flee", and "surrender" aren't the only outcomes of a battle, although if the battle is to end peacefully, they both need to make some concessions. not only that, but kylo ren's character growth (which in the movie, takes the stages of confrontation, reflection, and then acceptance with a screen time of approximately 10 minutes) shouldn't be restricted to some small scenes on a worthless cloudy, oceanic planet. it makes the rest of the movie feel more hollow.