Some Star Wars ramblings now that I've seen Rise of Skywalker...

If I could change one thing about The Rise of Skywalker...I would have it directed by Rian Johnson so I could see where his storylines from The Last Jedi were going.

(But on that note, if I could change one thing about The Last Jedi, I would have it directed by J.J. Abrams so I could see what he would do with the entire trilogy to himself.)

(Really, I'd just like the entire trilogy to be done by one director so it would flow better.)

(Also, I realize that Carrie Fisher's passing messed some plans up, so I have to give leeway there.)

BUT, directors aside, if I could change one thing about The Rise of Skywalker, I would have Kylo Ren survive at the end and actually be redeemed without dying. I think that would have made the movie for me.

Man, I wish they would have teased Emperor Palpatine in The Last Jedi. His sudden appearance at the beginning of Rise of Skywalker seems so cheap.

Totally agree on your point about a single director. Even a single writer, with a single vision, (or a single rough PLAN!) would have made for a more satisfying trilogy arc.

As for Kylo Ren surviving AND being redeemed, that was a really striking thought to me. I wonder, does Hollywood know how to do that in a satisfying way... without Jesus, or someone standing in for him?

I don't remember how many deaths Kylo Ren was responsible for in the trilogy, but when you get to movie villain status, I don't think there is any coming back without also dying, because Hollywood, and the rest of the world apart from Christ, are on a works-based system of redemption, where each person has to earn their own redemption. At some point, they reason, a person just has to give their own life to pay back what they owe. (Even though, as I argue in "Spirit Blade: A World Of Shadows", the messed up life of one person is hardly an equal payment for multiple innocent lives that were taken or ruined.)

I LOVE your idea. But I'm trying to figure out how that story would be written in Star Wars in a way that would satisfy the audience's desire for some level of justice? Would we have to flash forward to see him as an old man, having lived selflessly for decades to pay back what he owed? Would there be some kind of Star Wars lore-compatible analog to Jesus, who could intercede and make up for what he had done?

Your idea triggers a lot of interesting thoughts for me!

I am ok with different directors, but this trilogy needed at least someone overseeing the writing of the entire trilogy. And it does seem that Johnston and Abrams both had a lot of input into the scripts that they respectively directed. It felt very much like those guys were pulling against each other in opposite directions. I wish they could have just picked a story and told it, rather than constantly trying to retcon each other's work.

Anyway, the thoughts about Kylo being redeemed but stil living are very interesting. I could totally go for that, but I can see how it would bother people's sense of justice.