The only one of the sequels that had any balls was The Last Jedi, and Disney was so frightened by the backlash to some of its elements (like the idea that our hero could be--gasp--a person of NON-royal lineage!) that it then spent the entire last movie trying to retcon everything that made TLJ potentially interesting.
TLJ was almost great, but clearly needed to see Rey go dark at the end, while Kylo turns away from the dark side, and we get a role-reversed third movie. It was heading there so clearly that I have to think juking and doing the obvious, boring thing was a studio meddling issue. “Ok no you can do a lot but you can’t do that.”
I don’t think “the idea that our hero could be--gasp--a person of NON-royal lineage!” was even in the top 10 of the biggest issues people had with that movie.
It was at lease top3 though, with "the casino interlude didn't advance the story" (which _was_ the point, heroics in a war are often useless). My main issue with TLJ story is that it felt half baked/unfinished in many way. Rey going dark/grey would have been a good finish.
Most of the other issues are from TFA, because that movie made no sense. Oftentime strategically, movies do not make any sense, but that does not hamper their plot (in the movies Lord of the ring The Two Towers/The Return of the King, strategically the decisions are pure nonsense; when the books did a lot of work to explain how they end up in those very bad positions, but hte movies are still great if you don't really think about it). In TFA, i just can't understand why the republic are now rebels who use guerrilla/freedom fighter tactics. I don't understand the strategy behind anything, and honestly, the plot devices are too big to be excused. At least TLJ tries to answer the " but why?", often poorly, but at least you have explanations (and sometimes some punts to JJ abrahams, but honestly, fair play.)
That was certainly among the most vocal complaints I remember hearing about the movie at the time (other than the moronic "Too woke!" complaints), and Wikipedia supports my memory:
> Particularly divisive was the reveal that Rey's parents are insignificant; many fans had expected her to be Luke's daughter or to share a lineage with another character from the original trilogy.
Remembering and reading the source articles, divisiveness wasn't the fact Rey's parents weren't royal lineage, it was that fans are going to speculate, and Disney did nothing on or off screen to manage that speculation. In fact, Disney fanned the flames leading up to it.
Rian Johnson: "It's something that is absolutely going to be addressed... The other part of it is there are lots of surprises in this movie and lots of twists and turns, and I really want people to experience those when they see the movie for the first time. "
Ok, so years of oh, ah, and then the big lineage reveal comes and she's just a peasant girl. Screen rant called this "anticlimatic," which is was. The easily could have managed that earlier with a decent plot and decent writing, but the whole trilogy seemed to be written by a bunch of high school students.
Balls without brains. Had some interesting turns for another story, different characters, a standalone movie. But to twist Luke into a milk-drinking murderer is not only beyond the pale but, not particularly intelligent either.
I'm reminded of the related Mr. Miyagi meme, LaRusso: "Will you train me?", Miyagi: "I hate everything and want to die." The End.
It's one thing to subvert everything that your fanbase loves about a franchise, but if you don't give the audience any narrative payoff for doing so don't be surprised when they come to burn your house down.
