Jester David
Hero
I agree. The Force Awakens really dropped the ball with that. We have no idea of the scale or scope. It's terrible, terrible worldbuilding.Context is the kicker. The Empire was roughly space Nazi Germany/USSR analog, they were evil and it was a new story.
TFA and co are basically sequels. The new canon has explained some things but on screen for example they don't really detail the First Order or go into how they actually exist or why are they a threat post RoTJ and how has this new "imperial" faction arrived or why it matters. You get less information than in ANH with Luke talking to Kenobi about the clone wars. You don't need a vast explanation but even 5 minutes would help and they don't do that.
Well, Poe is only a lead in the second movie, and has a tonne of character development where's humbled repeatedly and forced to be a leader.Otherwise why do we really care about the heroes, what they are doing etc etc etc. Doesn't help that there is virtually no character development with the 3 main heroes and the villains are basically chumps.
Finn goes from being a mindless killing machine to a coward who wants to just run away to someone willing to sacrifice themselves.
And Rey learns independence, and is able to be herself and live her own life without waiting from someone from her past to save her or give her meaning, while also being willing to walk away from Luke and not rely on him and his teachings to define her.
Quick: what's the character development for Leia and Han in Episodes V and VI?
It's not like Ren got hit in the jetback by a blind guy, flew into the side of a sail barge, and was eaten by a giant sand sphincter. That kind of defines "chump".TFA opens well but Kylo by the end is a chump (Vader was basdass) and then in TLJ- Hux chump/comic relief, Phasma chump, Snoke chump and its purely down to the story. Kylo comes out looking a bit better but he got tricked by Luke so is a chump (for the second time back to back in 2 movies). Its hard to root for the villains defeat when they are more comical than threatening. They started out well at the start of TFA with Kylo holding the blaster bolt in place.
This is the thing: the problems you have in the new movies almost always exist in the original trilogy. The difference is you're willing to just completely overlook or forgive those problems because you loved the movie before you noticed the problems
So... you want the First Order to kill Rey's parents as a motive exactly like the Empire killed Luke's adoptive parents... to make her less of a rehash?Sure the villains got their comeuppance in the OT but it was in the 3rd movie they killed of Fett/Emperor/Vader. Even have somehting simple like rather than desert Orphan 2.0 Kylo could have killed Reys parents in the opening scene of TFA. Avoids rehash 2.0, gives you an explanation/motive and Rey a simple few lines could tie Rey to Luke so she could have had some training. Evil king/Empire, royal orphan, evil empire is classic, doesn't require that much set up.