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The points are good but I think it is too generous to RJ. TLJ came out at peak "subvert expectations" writing room trickery, a holdover from writers strike quality downfall coinciding with mass internet theorycrafting. Being intentionally obtuse may have been RJs objective, but you can be obtuse without being stupid.
TLJ had 2 main features: Hype Moments, and Narrative Scorched Earth. The Hype Moments (bomb drops, lightspeed ramming, horse chase, luke bombardment, Dark Rey Tease) work in isolation but make no narrative sense for any preceding work. The Narrative Scorched Earth was Stunning And Brave, but ultimately too blank for the Story Group to work with.
Where TLJ fails is in making its characters just so fucking unlikable. Everyone is an incompetent stupid ugly retard soyface, so the fans did in fact want the dead old characters back because they were just that much more compelling than the replacements offered up. RJ smugly challenged coonsumers that their theories were wrong, and gave nothing compelling in return.
The ultimate mistake of course is to return to "Mystery Boxes Are A Substitute For Plot" Abrams as the writer/director for Ep 9. In the hands of a competent writer director there maybe could have been some salvaging of a new story from the ruins of the TLJ and TFA narrative. Galactic level chaos, competing philosophies of the Force, new cool ships, whatever. Nostalgiagooning is the worst memberberries to hang a story off of and it is telling that Disney is trying desperately to find a time period where Star Wars can exist again without relying on the bullshit of the Sequel Trilogy.
In the hands of a competent writer/director there could have been some salvaging after TFA (which had a lot of thematic and tonal inconsistencies, lacked a credible villain, and just hand-waved away RotJ). After TLJ it was doomed imo.
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