Links - 28th December 2019 (1) (Star Wars Sequel Trilogy)

The New Star Wars trilogy is worse than the prequels - "What I miss is the daring. Nobody can say George didn't swing for the fences with the prequels. After all, the same experimentalism that gave us Binks and the "sand" dialogue also gave us the iconic Darth Maul duel, the best opening sequence in any Star Wars movie, and so much more... the character and plot arcs are so much more focused in Lucas' trilogies. In the prequels, Anakin's trek from gifted child-slave to Sith Lord, and Obi-Wan's growth from optimistic Padawan to tempered Jedi Master both work.By contrast, the new films drag characters to and fro, more concerned with self-consciously echoing or subverting character moments from the original trilogy (Rey sneaking around the Starkiller base and studying under an aging master, Kylo killing his father, beheading Snoke and asking Rey to "join me") than forcing them to confront truly challenging dilemmas (Qui-Gon Jinn ignoring the council to teach Anakin, Anakin avenging his mother)...
The effect of plot armor is that, over time, the whole movie begins to appear increasingly artificial: The audience doesn't feel the characters are at risk, and the characters never have to make difficult decisions, since the consequences don't truly matter.Celebrated writer Kurt Vonnegut put it simply in his advice to other writers: "Be a sadist." And George Lucas is -- in a good way. Anakin's master, Qui-Gon Jinn gets killed in The Phantom Menace, and Darth Maul, the coolest bad guy around, gets bisected. Anakin's mother gets tortured, and Anakin responds by killing every man, woman and child in a Tusken Raider encampment. Anakin loses limbs, Padmé dies in childbirth, and Jedis are exterminated (even the Younglings!).The prequel trilogy is a bloodbath, and that gives the movies real tension... The few meaningful deaths in the Disney trilogy feel intentionally parceled out for the maximum emotional heft: One of the original three cast members is killed off at the climax of each movie so far, and no-one of much substance gets offed besides...
Perhaps what everything boils down to is this: Like any studio, Disney fears losing money. Though I'm not privy to the inner workings of the studio, money seemed the clearest motivator for shutting down the Star Wars Anthology movies after Solo's poor returns. And it's likely why Solo was plagued with top-down micromanagement in the first place, including giving the ax to the talented directors to hire Ron Howard, a solidly paint-by-numbers studio director ever since A Beautiful Mind won the Oscar. Where George Lucas famously had an "If people don't like [my vision], they don't have to see it" mentality, Disney and Abrams seem to fear sullying a beloved franchise with precisely what made it beloved in the first place: experimentation and boundary-testing. Even Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi, which fans largely excoriated for tearing down Star Wars conventions, missed the point. Johnson fought to subvert Star Wars lore, not to make a particularly innovative movie. So many scenes felt fuller of winking references than crucial plot or character moments: His dialogue leaned more toward Joss Whedon's Marvel humor than Star Wars' tension-building (did a $250 million dollar production just begin with a three-minute lead-up to a "your mama" joke?) and his plot revelations felt more like manipulative twists achieved by withholding information from the audience and characters than opportunities for character development. Poe's ill-advised mutiny killed an untold number of innocents, for instance, but his decision stemmed from Vice Admiral Holdo's inexplicable opacity -- was the lesson really to blindly submit to Chain of Command?... Disney's cautiousness has led to good-but-never-great Star Wars movies. And that's why I will always take the bad dialogue and incredible moments of the prequels over a Star Wars trilogy that has neither."

Rian Johnson To Direct Mr. Rogers Sequel Where He's Just A Bitter Old Man Who Doesn't Believe In All That 'Be Kind To Your Neighbor' Crap Anymore | The Babylon Bee

Back to Jakku?-lyn on Twitter - "I loved The Last Jedi, a lot, it’s my favorite. But you can’t say it didn’t sideline its characters of color and devote the vast majority of the character development moments to the white characters. John says he wasn’t about that? I say you should fucking listen to him!!!"
???

Star Wars if it was made in 2019 (image of gender swapped Han Solo and Leia in bikini)

Star Wars: Disney May Have Removed Rose Tico From The Rise Of Skywalker Merchandise

Will ‘Star Wars’ Stick the Landing? J.J. Abrams Will Try - The New York Times - "J.J. Abrams knows what audiences think of him. “I’ve never been great at endings,” the filmmaker said just hours after delivering a finished version of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” With some hesitation, Abrams added, “I don’t actually think I’m good at anything, but I know how to begin a story. Ending a story is tough.”... Like the stories told within the films themselves, the story of this “Star Wars” film — which its creators and stars described in a series of interviews — is one in which inadvertent decisions lead to unintended consequences. It is a tale in which history repeats itself and destiny can be outrun for only so long before it must be confronted"

John Boyega Admits ‘The Last Jedi' Was ‘Iffy' and He ‘Didn't Agree With a Lot of the Choices' - "“‘The Force Awakens’ I think was the beginning of something quite solid, ‘The Last Jedi’ if I’m being honest I’d say that was feeling a bit iffy for me,” the actor said. “I didn’t necessarily agree with a lot of the choices in that and that’s something that spoke to Mark [Hamill] a lot about and we had conversations about it. And it was hard for all of us, because we were separated.”This only adds fuel to fire. Many hardcore Star Wars fans jumped off the bandwagon after “The Last Jedi,” but it’s not odd at all that Boyega would only now be criticizing the film now, two years later, especially since Disney’s been campaigning very hard to get back some of the fans they lost because of Rian Johnson’s 2017 film."

Disney Disturbs the Force: Pleasing Star Wars Fans Complicates Saga - WSJ - "While Disney wanted to sell millions of toys, fans could never sense that any character or plot point was conceived as a business decision, he said. Star Wars was different than any set of characters and story lines Disney had absorbed up until that point. Any whiff of marketing imperatives driving the creative decisions on the Star Wars franchise would immediately, in the eyes of devoted fans, cast Disney as the evil empire that had gobbled up their beloved modern-day myth.Navigating that danger zone has proved to be the most difficult part of absorbing the blockbuster series: How to bring aboard a new generation of moviegoers while avoiding turning off the die-hard fans that have an outsize voice in the success or failure of the films... worrying fissures have formed. The second episode of the new trilogy, the 2017 release “The Last Jedi,” collected 33% less at the domestic box office than “Force Awakens.” Spinoff film “Solo,” about the younger days of hero Han Solo, was poorly scheduled and underwhelmed audiences. Fans held off visiting the new theme park attraction while a promised second ride was behind schedule. (It opened in Florida this week and is expected to open in California in January.) A string of high-profile directors has been fired or left projects unexpectedly, and the creative plan for the films after the next release is unclear... Disney purchased an established cinematic world that came with disciples of the original movies, who attend conferences dressed in painstakingly accurate regalia and endlessly debate the minutiae of the mystically binding energy known as the Force and other lore. Only after the purchase did Disney begin to fathom how avid a fan base it had on its hands, according to a consultant Disney hired.  Early buzz among die-hard fans can set the tone for a movie’s overall reception and dent or boost opening-weekend grosses. Studio executives across Hollywood scour early reactions on social media to trailers and promotions, assessing whether the responses mean changes should be made... Star Wars fans will happily shell out not only for movie tickets, but also for $20 Blu-rays, $84 Darth Vader gold rings, $32 Chewbacca kitchen aprons and $199 lightsabers at Galaxy’s Edge, among thousands of other items... “The Last Jedi” suffered a backlash after it seemed to contradict key elements of previous films, upsetting a legion of older fans who objected to what they felt were silly subplots and story decisions that dismissed or perverted a mythology they grew up with... “Solo” premiered as scheduled and mostly fizzled with fans. It collected $213 million domestically, the least of any Star Wars film. Consumers have bought fewer toys with every release, and attendance at the Star Wars theme-park attraction has fallen short of expectations set by analysts, who projected record-setting crowds... Rather than take the Marvel approach and begin filming the first movie with the end of the series in mind, Lucasfilm has largely determined the overarching plot from movie to movie, former employees say. That creates a clash since the multiple moving parts of the Disney franchise machine depend on schedules, forward planning and shared information.  When a videogame division at Disney approached the Lucasfilm story group about a game that would take place in the time between “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi,” videogame developers were told the story group had no idea what was going to happen in “Last Jedi,” even though “Force Awakens” was close to wrapping production... While Mr. Johnson was shooting “Last Jedi,” an installment that took the series in unexpected directions, Lucasfilm executives had little idea how they would wrap up the trilogy in the film that followed... [There] has been a revolving door of directors hired to great public fanfare and fired when their narrative ambition edged too far outside guidelines, or it became clear they weren’t experienced enough to handle $200 million megaproductions.  In just five years, half a dozen directors have been fired or left projects midfilming or ahead of future installments, and in the past several months Lucasfilm story architects who conceived of recent films have left... Star Wars is “political in a sense that it has a foundation in historical politics—the rise of dictatorships, the death of democracy—but it has never tried to take a stand on present-day issues,” said Howard Roffman, a former executive in charge of franchise management at Lucasfilm who joined the company in 1980 and left about two years ago. Now, though, some viewers “attribute contemporary motives to the content” of the new films... The story lines of both the current trilogy and the spinoff “Rogue One,” released in 2016, revolve around a heroine and have multiple, central female characters, a big shift from the original movies, in which Princess Leia was the only noteworthy female character... Vito Gesualdi, a Los Angeles-based graphic designer, produced a YouTube video titled “Why Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a Complete Cinematic Failure,” which dissects what he sees as narrative missteps in the film. It has nearly eight million views, and Mr. Gesualdi said the ad revenue from his 20-minute diatribe (the movie “takes one of the most beloved franchises of all time, throws it into the trunk of a car and then backs it into a river”) earned him enough to pay more than a year’s rent."
Unfortunately the WSJ doesn't note that all the "misogynists" who hate strong female characters so much have no issue with Jyn

J.J. Abrams Questions Meta Approach in The Last Jedi - ""it's a bit of a meta approach to the story. I don't think that people go to 'Star Wars' to be told, 'This doesn't matter.'" His opinion here is very reminiscent of what some fans have been saying since the movie's release back in 2017. Abrams left an assortment of cliffhangers and unanswered questions, as he so often does as a lover of the 'mystery box' method of storytelling, and as each one was addressed in The Last Jedi it was simply batted away in ways that no one had really expected. Who are Rey's parents? Nobody. Who was Snoke? It doesn't matter. What will Luke's reaction be to being given his lightsaber back? Chuck it away unceremoniously. Abrams seems to be on the side of the fans who felt almost insulted by so many dismissals and subversions
I guess JJ is a misogynist manchild too

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker: What went wrong with Disney trilogy? - "The Star Wars blame game has started.The final film in the new trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, hits cinemas next week — but it appears Disney insiders are already rushing to have their say on what went wrong... Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was asked about the difficulty in closing out the series, after J.J. Abrams was brought back in to replace Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow.  “Every one of these movies is a particularly hard nut to crack,” she said. “There’s no source materia"... Die-hard Star Wars fans saw Ms Kennedy’s comments as a slap in the face. Prior to the release of The Force Awakens, Disney took a chainsaw to the so-called “Expanded Universe” — decades worth of novels, comic books, video games and cartoons — declaring the semi-official stories no longer “canon”."

Billy Dee Williams Talks Lando Calrissian and 'Rise of Skywalker' - "as early as 1981, he told Ebony magazine he was bored of “the question of race,” and these days, he hesitates to even identify as black... He loved that Lando Calrissian wasn’t written for any particular ethnicity. “I met with George Lucas, and he explained he had gotten flak about Darth Vader, the big dark figure, being a villain, and all he [had been] thinking was, a guy in a white hat, a guy in a black hat,” Williams says. “He wasn’t thinking racially. So when they gave me the script, I said, ‘This guy wears a cape? And Calrissian — what is it? Italian?’ I looked it up. Armenian! What an opportunity to move outside of the box.”... “To me, I’m Lando,” adds Williams, noting his respect for the actor who attempted the role in 2018’s Solo. “I love that Donald Glover. He’s a brilliant young man. But his hair was not how I thought of Lando. He was more Afrocentric with his hair. I have nothing against that. But when I created Lando, he was beyond all of that.”  He was also perplexed by Solo’s suggestion that Lando was in love, maybe even lust, with a droid. “I think that’s the reason they didn’t have the success they could have had,” he says. “Because they were going for something that was topical, instead of an adventure that’s far beyond those questions. If you’re talking about this huge, incredible story, why lock yourself into this tiny moment between a character like Lando and his robot friend?”"

Making A STAR WARS Film Is Difficult Due To A Lack Of Comics And Novels Says Lucasfilm President - "most Star Wars fans would agree that they would have rather seen the Expanded Universe adapted for film instead of the tale that's unfolded so far in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.  While it's possible that J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker could rectify a lot of the perceived missteps, the damage to the brand will remain and is a large factor in why Star Wars movies are going on hiatus, per Disney co-chairman Bob Iger... "Every one of these movies is a particularly hard nut to crack. There’s no source material. We don’t have comic books. We don’t have 800-page novels. We don’t have anything other than passionate storytellers who get together and talk about what the next iteration might be. We go through a really normal development process that everybody else does. You start by talking to filmmakers who you think exhibit the sensibilities that you’re looking for.""
Apparently no one else manages to produce movies not from comics or books.

Meme - "Prequel Fans When You Make Fun Of The Prequels *Anakin laughs*
Sequel Fans When You Make Fun Of The Sequels *Rey in agony*"

Vintage Star Wars toys on display - "While the value of various vintage Star Wars toys has been on the rise, the new products do not seem to be in such great demand any more.In February and August this year, Disney reported decreases in revenue from products based on the Star Wars franchise... "Everyone needs to collect something in his life," says Mr Koh, a father of three and owner of Flabslab, a firm that produces toys."I like to collect toys. My wife collects shoes and bags. The ultra-rich collect cars and houses. At the end of the day, it's about your passion.""
Strange, I thought the Last Jedi was a huge success

The Last Jedi Moment That Surprised J.J. Abrams the Most - "J.J. Abrams was surprised Rian Johnson chose to kill off a certain character in The Last Jedi. And no, it's probably not the one you're thinking of right now. Johnson made some pretty wild story choices that are either seen as bold by some Star Wars fans, or as bad choices by others. The director flipped the script and delivered a left turn, which was a sharp contrast to what Abrams did in 2015's The Force Awakens. The second installment in the sequel trilogy has a few deaths and one in particular stood out to Abrams... The death of Captain Phasma caught J.J. Abrams off-guard because he thought she was "one of those characters that I felt there was something else [for her to do]." Captain Phasma always seemed like she was destined to do more in the Star Wars universe
Subtle way of throwing shade

Bionic Woman Producer Kamran Pasha Uses Star Wars: The Last Jedi To Teach About Bad Screenwriting - "Bionic Woman and Kings producer Kamran Pasha, who also teaches screenwriting seminars, made it very clear he uses Star Wars: The Last Jedi to instruct his students on how not to write a screenplay.Pasha responded to a tweet from Wired staff producer Adam Lance Garcia, who pondered, “I have no idea how anyone can spend years being angry about a movie.”... One user responded that they are fascinated by The Last Jedi because every time they watch they find “more basic errors in screenwriting, editing, & plain script coherence seem to grow in number and severity.” They added, “It’s just a haemorrhage of how NOT to write a script.” That’s when Kamran Pasha weighed in. He stated, “I’ve done screenwriting seminars at Columbia, University of Chicago and other great schools. I always use STAR WARS to teach students how to write a screenplay. Now I add: “THE LAST JEDI will show you how to do it wrong.” This isn’t the first time Pasha has spoken out about the problems with The Last Jedi.Back in October he detailed that there are a number of Hollywood screenwriters who share his distaste for The Last Jedi. He even says most won’t speak about it in public “for fear of Disney.” He has also described the film as “emotionally dead.”"
Of course, these are all misogynist manbabies who don't know anything

It'sAlmost ️Christmas on Twitter - "Women Have Long Taken a Back Seat in #StarWars, But #TheLastJedi Finally Puts Them First
"Princess Leia literally set the whole plot in motion, ran around shooting dudes with a blaster, and stood toe-to-toe with Darth Vader. Fuck off with this shit."

Star Wars Actor John Boyega Apologizes After He's Accused of Calling Kelly Marie Tran Weak - "Through social media, we get to engage, we get to have fun. But at the same time, for those who are not mentally strong, you are weak to believe in every single thing that you read."
Apparently it's a bad thing to not believe every single thing that you read, and be able to ignore haters, and everyone should delete their social media even if they can do this

Ezra Cubero on Twitter -  "#FilmTwitter After The Last Jedi: "Stop bullying Rian Johnson because he didn't make the movie you wanted.
#FilmTwitter After The Rise of Skywalker: "JJ Abrams how fucking dare you.""

Fred Roberts on Twitter - "@patrickhwillems "but everyone should just remember, this is a film about space wizards intended for children. I'm not saying you shouldn't take it seriously just maybe... don't get too angry about it"
"JJ Abrams how fucking dare you" - Patrickhwillems""

Burds ARE Real - Posts - "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Audience Score: 88%
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Tomatometer: 57%
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Audience Score: 43%
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Tomatometer: 91%"
Sounds like you should do the opposite of what the critics say

The Critics Must Be Crazy: ‘The Rise Of Skywalker’ Is The Best ‘Star Wars’ Movie In The New Trilogy - ""Let the hate flow through you.”... The phrase may as well be the tag-line to various swaths of Star Wars fans at any given time. There seems to be a dedicated “fandom” in the Star Wars galaxy right now that simply relishes hating on anything and everything Star Wars.For the latest film, Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker, that group apparently includes the critics. Film reviewers are tearing the movie apart for a whole variety of reasons, and while there’s no accounting for taste, many of the reasons given simply don’t stand up to scrutiny... It feels like only yesterday I was writing a similar piece about Netflix’s The Witcher (it was in fact three days ago). Critics panned that show as well, albeit for different reasons... Detractors of The Last Jedi are gleeful over Rise because they see it as a renunciation of Johnson’s Star Wars. Critics who loved The Last Jedi seem to think the same thing. I liked many things about The Last Jedi and soured on many others since I first saw it, but I think Abrams did a really good job at both giving the fans more of what they wanted and respecting what The Last Jedi did to change the Star Wars universe. The Last Jedi setup Rey’s dark past perfectly, showing how drawn she was to the Dark Side while training with Luke.  And while it fumbled the entire space chase sequence and casino planet, all the Luke/Rey and Kylo/Rey stuff was on point and fits perfectly with the final reveal of her true identity and the way everything plays out with Kylo Ren and Palpatine... The argument also relies on something very strange: The idea that giving fans the movie they want is somehow a bad thing. Familiarity, nostalgia—these become bad words in many critiques of the movie, as though fans should only ever have their expectations subverted. A little subversion goes a long way—we don’t need to abandon everything that makes Star Wars what it is in order to appease critics.  It’s a strange debate. After all, one could say that Johnson undermined Abrams to begin with, dashing all he had planned with The Force Awakens into little tiny plot fragments... While I’m by no means a huge detractor of The Last Jedi I find myself never rewatching the film. After seeing it in theaters, once the initial glow had faded, I realized something: I didn’t want to go see it again. It was too long. Too much of the film plodded along. The stuff I really liked only composed maybe half the movie and the rest felt like wasted space.  The Rise Of Skywalker, on the other hand, has me itching for more... Isn’t it odd that critics seem to claim that The Last Jedi both subverted everything about Star Wars and encapsulated everything about Star Wars that makes it great? If familiarity and nostalgia are bad, what exactly does make Star Wars Star Wars?... I would argue that Star Wars has always been about repeating forms. Anyone who complains that there are too many similarities between the new films and the original trilogy must have missed how this same storytelling device was used in the prequel trilogies... It’s almost as if critics are taking Episode IX personally, as though giving fans the kind of Star Wars happy ending they wanted is a rebuke of The Last Jedi’s more subversive tone... Is it fair to review a movie by comparing it the previous entry in the series? By this I mean, if The Last Jedi had been a very different film, would these critiques be the same? If the second entry in this trilogy had maintained the tone and ideas of The Force Awakens instead of subverting expectations, would critics be making these arguments or would they be judging this movie on its own merits?... It feels like many of these reviewers just dislike what makes a Star Wars movie a Star Wars movie in the first place... If you don’t like movies about prophecies, chosen ones, the hero’s journey and surprise revelations about who’s related to who, why are you watching Star Wars to begin with?... let’s also be realistic here: Rose was not an important character and The Last Jedi did very little to make her one. I’m not sure what she would have added to a story that’s really about the characters established in The Force Awakens... I still maintain that you can enjoy what The Last Jedi did with Luke and his anger and feelings of resentment and his struggle to cope with his own failures and even his flirtation with striking down Kylo Ren because he’s always been rash and impulsive (like his father) while still enjoying the fact that Force Ghost Luke has found peace, has finally been able to lift his X-Wing out of the water, and catches the lightsaber instead of tossing it over his back. Far from a dig at The Last Jedi, that moment—to me at least—spoke to Luke’s continued evolution and arc... And no, this isn’t Rey’s movie, it’s Rey and Kylo Ren’s movie. Strangely enough, that was also the case with The Last Jedi. Why one is lauded here and the other panned is beyond me... Of the three, I think Rise of Skywalker is the best, but would have been better if they didn’t have to shoehorn quite so much in at the last minute"
Faint praise, given the other 2. But while mediocre, at least it is original without seeking to subvert conventions of being a good movie
He makes a good point that JJ kept what worked from TLJ
Lucas said it was like poetry - it rhymes. But rhyming isn't the same as plagiarism

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’s Backlash Is The Opposite Of Last Jedi - "Prior to the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, everything looked good for the middle chapter in Disney's sequel trilogy, and the eighth installment of the Skywalker saga overall. Rian Johnson had already been given the keys to a new Star Wars trilogy, the trailers had been well-received, and most of all the early reviews for The Last Jedi were overwhelmingly positive. And then audiences saw it, and things took a major turn... Star Wars is rarely so unpopular with critics - only The Phantom Menace has a lower Rotten Tomatoes score"
Presumably movies should only be made for the critics (and the critics alone), as they're the ones who pay the bills

The Rise of Skywalker review: The new Star Wars movie undoes what made The Last Jedi great. - "as the outcry from The Last Jedi’s detractors grew, Johnson has sounded less certain about his place on Lucasfilm’s call sheet, and J.J. Abrams, who launched the current trilogy and was brought back to close it out, used the first interviews on The Rise of Skywalker’s press tour to signal to the haters that they had been heard: “I don’t think that people go to Star Wars to be told ‘This doesn’t matter’”... The haste with which The Rise of Skywalker rushes to undo its predecessor is almost comical at first, at least before its capitulation to the franchise’s most toxic fans turns outright contemptible. Mad that Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Isaac) didn’t spend enough time together in the last movie? Let’s shove them into the same frame from the beginning and throw in lots of forced banter to remind you that they’re pals... Leia’s scenes, written around whatever snippets of dialogue existed or could be cobbled together, have the clunky feel of found-audio collages... It’s frenzied, briefly infuriating, and eventually, grudgingly, satisfying, but it’s like being force-fed fandom: Your belly is filled, but there’s no pleasure in the meal... It’s of a piece with the pointedly unambitious The Mandalorian, just good enough to get people’s attention but fundamentally terrified of rocking the boat"
Strange how Disney decided to pander to this "small but extremely vocal minority". Maybe they know something the critics don't
Odd how having your putative main characters onscreen together and interacting is a bad thing
Presumably to spite "toxic" fans TROS should've doubled down and ruined the franchise further
It's telling the author doesn't like The Mandalorian either

The Rise Of Skywalker walks back The Last Jedi's best decisions - "In the press blitz surrounding The Rise Of Skywalker, the stars and creators of the final film in the latest Star Wars trilogy started tossing out weird statements that could only be read as veiled criticism of The Last Jedi... Daisy Ridley said she cried with relief at hearing Abrams was returning... Abrams went ahead and did what a small but extremely vocal minority of Star Wars fandom wanted to do but couldn’t: He walked back the most compelling elements of The Last Jedi... The conclusion of this trilogy jettisons much of the work done by Johnson’s film—to the point where, for all intents and purposes, The Rise Of Skywalker could almost pick up where The Force Awakens left off... Abrams’ kowtowing to noisy fanboys seems most blatant in the marginalization of Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico, introduced as a major new character in The Last Jedi, yet now relegated to a barely-there role on the sidelines, à la Jar Jar Binks; it’s hard not to read it as a sop to the worst of the Star Wars audience"
Presumably the stars and creators of TROS are toxic fans and misogynistic manchildren too
Given that Ruin shat over everything TFA set up, it's only fitting JJ returned the favour and ignored TLJ
Maybe JJ just thought Tran wasn't a very good actress. Or that the movie was already rushed enough as it is to have to waste time pandering to SJWs by featuring her prominently

Star Wars 8: Rian Johnson THREW OUT JJ Abrams entire Last Jedi outline says Daisy Ridley

The Rise of Skywalker Wastes Its Best (and Newest) Characters - "Star Wars has always been about legacies so establishing Rey as part of an important lineage is all well and good, but how could Episode IX fail to flesh out the son of the Emperor? The franchise has explored Vader's children, Luke and Leia, and Leia and Han's son, Ben/Kylo Ren, so delving into Palpatine's son would have completed an amazing trifecta and provided a peek on the other side of the curtain. There could even have been some sort of connection between the Emperor's son and Luke as the offspring of tyrants who chose not to follow the Dark Side."
Apparently it isn't rushed enough already as it is

Rey's new yellow lightsaber has a hidden meaning in 'Rise of Skywalker' - "it is brilliant storytelling that Rey would transform her quarterstaff — a tool that represents her lifelong survival — into her own holy weapon"

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Ending Explained (& What Happens Next) - " The blade acts as a symbol of balance between both sides (it's muted from the Jedi blue and Sith red), suggesting that Rey is the embodiment of balance in the Force. This is the ending that feels most intended from the beginning of the sequel trilogy: deserted scavenger Rey claiming the Skywalker name not through blood but by actions, an active rebuke of lineage as the cause of greatness and emboldening of any individual's character
Yellow comes from red and green...

Star Wars: Rey's New Lightsaber In Rise of Skywalker Explained - "There's also a symbolic relevance to Rey burying the Skywalker sabers. The Rise of Skywalker is billed as the closing chapter of the famous family's saga in the Star Wars universe, and laying to rest the weapons that belonged to Luke and Leia is a major step towards achieving that goal, since the Skywalker saga couldn't truly be over if Rey was still carrying the lightsaber synonymous with that name. This resolution is somewhat undermined when Rey opts to call herself a Skywalker, but the visual of the sabers literally being put into the ground still acts as a powerful image to close out Luke, Anakin and Leia's story... For her entire run in the sequel trilogy, Rey has been defined by her upbringing, or lack of it, and a quest to uncover her identity. After bounding from "no one" to a Palpatine to a Skywalker, it's a fitting end that Rey ultimately chooses a lightsaber design that is worlds away from those that came before in The Rise of Skywalker"

6 Ways The Rise of Skywalker Undoes The Last Jedi - "There is very little evidence of other Force users beyond Rey and Kylo, with the lone exception being Finn. While the film still suggests they are out there, there is almost nothing to build off the incredible promise of the final shot of The Last Jedi...
While Rose was a divisive character in the last film, many loved Kelly Marie Tran's performance and were disheartened to fins she only has a handful of short scenes and is all but dismissed by her friend/love interest Finn...
While assessing their attack against Palpatine, someone suggests a similar maneuver to the one Admiral Holdo used in the last film of a kamikaze light speed attack. This is dismissed as a one-time-thing that couldn't be repeated."
It's amazing how many "critics" didn't watch the prequels and are unaware of current Disney Canon, to be able to claim that the Force isn't democratised
Then again "democratised" seems to be code for "able to use force powers with no training", which ironically would explain why Rey is such a Mary Sue in The Force Awakens
I would want to distant myself from someone who sexually assaulted me too
Ironically, when defending the Holdo manouevre, fans of The Last Jedi need to explain how it's a one-time-thing that can't be repeated. Which makes sense given how disruptive it was to the Star Wars Universe (for the sake of an admittedly visually impressive sequence)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Ending Explained (& What Happens Next) - "Rey Palpatine is only part of the story. In a twist on the Skywalker saga's usual focus on family, it's not about bloodline. The final battle at the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is one both large and small. It is Rey vs. Palpatine, but it's also a showdown between all of the Jedi and all of the Sith, a grand confrontation that aims to balance the Force itself."

Star Wars: All The Ways Rise of Skywalker Completely Retcons Last Jedi - "Being passed down from Anakin to Luke, the classic Skywalker lightsaber became Rey's in the sequel trilogy. The weapon called out to the scavenger on Takodana and chose her over Kylo Ren on Starkiller base. Rey then used it throughout The Last Jedi, be it in training on Ahch-To or battling the praetorian guards alongside Kylo. Lucasfilm even went so far as to rebrand it "Rey's lightsaber" for merchandising purposes, so The Rise of Skywalker features an odd plot point with regard to the saber.Early on in the film, Rey is going through a training exercise, but doesn't complete it because she's distracted. Going back to her new master Leia, Rey hands the Resistance general the lightsaber and says one day she'll be worthy of Luke's lightsaber. That doesn't really line up with the previous films, establishing an arc where Rey takes complete ownership of the weapon. She had it in the previous two movies, and this wasn't an issue."
Since The Last Jedi's fans like not being tied to the past so much, they presumably approve of this

Disney's Star Wars Sequels Disrespected Darth Vader Most Of All - "The original trilogy was undeniably a story about Luke Skywalker, but after the prequels came along and expanded Anakin Skywalker's backstory, the trilogy was reframed as a part of Anakin's rise and fall, forming a complete six-episode story. Unfortunately, the addition of the sequels don't expand the Skywalker saga in the same way and totally undo Vader's legacy."

The Rise of Skywalker Makes Rian Johnson's Star Wars Trilogy Less Likely - "If Lucasfilm was willing to allow Abrams to undo some of Johnson's more notable creative choices, it would appear as if the studio has no real intention of welcoming Johnson back to add to Star Wars canon."

The Rise of Skywalker and the decline of Star Wars - "Kennedy gave complete control of writing and directing the second sequel to Rian Johnson, an indie-movie and television director. He had never written or directed a franchise sequel... Johnson took an aggressive approach to fan criticism. In interviews and on social media, he described fans critical of the film as ‘manbabies’ and ‘unhealthy’. Many colleagues joined him in abusing and taunting fans. And many fans announced that they would never spend money on Star Wars films again.Still, the claim that these fans were just bigots went unchallenged. Actress Kelly Marie Tran withdrew from social media after The Last Jedi’s release. Numerous articles stated (without providing evidence) that this was in response to sexist and racist abuse. Mainstream media called this an outbreak of ‘toxic fandom’. And the more criticism was portrayed as racism and sexism, the more antagonising fans seemed justifiable.Core fans rejected these distortions. They formed a loose alliance called ‘The Fandom Menace’, a nod to the title of the first prequel. Their concerns and complaints were voiced on YouTube channels such as ‘Geeks and Gamers’, ‘World Class Bullshitters’, ‘Nerdrotic’, ‘Overlord DVD’, ‘ComicArtistsPro Secrets’ and ‘Thor Skywalker’. Websites such as ‘Disney Star Wars is Dumb’ were formed and alternative-media sites such as ‘Bleeding Fool’ and ‘Bounding Into Comics’ took up the side of dissident fans.Anger at The Last Jedi, and how its makers had handled that criticism, led The Fandom Menace to call for a boycott of the 2018 spin-off movie Solo. The film flopped, largely owing to escalating costs due to extensive reshoots. But it still served as a bit of a wake-up call for Disney to do better by their fans. Disney commissioned a standalone television series, The Mandalorian, which premiered last month. It has already gone some distance to restoring faith in the franchise among fans, telling the story of a bounty hunter. Its makers eschewed politics and flashy set pieces, and it was seen as a ‘solid’ series. Responses – so far – suggest enthusiasts are particularly happy that there was no progressive agenda attached to the series... Abrams’ screenwriting limitations seem to have surfaced again.There have been rumours of early test screenings going catastrophically wrong, with viewers even walking out. A desperate Lucasfilm arranged multiple cuts to solve problems. They even invited George Lucas back to work on the film. The revised versions required extensive reshoots that continued into October – less than two months before release.Script leaks were met with incredulity. Many of the early reviews have been poor. The jumbled episodic structure, resurrection of dead characters, and revision of in-universe lore look likely to make The Rise of Skywalker a massive let-down for long-time fans seeking consistency and answers to story questions. The modular approach to editing and reshooting shows that Abrams and Kennedy had no idea how to use characters or fix plot problems"

Dank Star Wars Memes Cantina - Original Trilogy: "Leia: Leader
Chewbacca: Mechanic
C3-P0: Knowledge
Luke: Knight
Han: Ace Pilot"
Sequel Trilogy: "Poe: I'll just sit at the back
Chewbacca: Chauffeur
Finn: Comic Relief
Rey: Leader, Mechanic, Knight, Ace Pilot, Knowledge"

Disney's "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" Shows the Force Has Weakened - "The $175.5 million domestic opening weekend for Disney's (NYSE:DIS) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is both one of the best-ever bows for a December picture and a staggering step down for the mainline franchise. Despite delivering the third-best opening weekend for any December film, the picture will likely go down as a disappointment for The House of Mouse... Star Wars is declining... Declining ticket sales for the sequel trilogy's concluding installment adds another concerning data point for the property's trajectory. The Star Wars fan base appears to be divided on what they want from the series, merchandise sales have declined sharply over the last four years, and Disney's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park attractions have gotten off to a weaker-than-expected start.  Some industry watchers have attributed recent disappoints to "Star Wars fatigue," with waning interest stemming from Disney releasing too many movies in the franchise too soon... The Marvel Cinematic Universe saw three releases in 2019 alone, each of which proved very successful. The tremendous success for the streaming television series The Mandalorian on Disney+ also confounds the idea that audiences have universally grown tired of Star Wars. It seems more likely that many fans lost interest in the world of the sequel trilogy because they were unimpressed with the quality of the output, and this spilled over into merchandise and theme park performance... Dissatisfaction and controversy surrounding The Last Jedi was likely a significant factor in the Solo spin-off grossing just $393 million at the box office -- a figure so shockingly low that it prompted Disney to narrow its ambitions for the franchise and cancel or delay a number of in-development Star Wars projects. While Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe has benefited from a meticulously plotted franchise plan, it seems that kind of structure was never in place for the company's take on the galaxy far, far away.The Force Awakens delivered a tremendous performance in 2015 and was laden with the mystery-driven approach to storytelling that director J.J. Abrams is known for. Comments from Star Wars cast and production members suggest that Last Jedi director Rian Johnson wrote most of the script for his film prior to The Force Awakens being completed, and it did away with many of its predecessors' thematic and narrative threads. The change in direction seems to have been divisive for audiences -- and internally at Lucasfilm. Director Colin Trevorrow was originally signed to direct Episode IX but departed from the project due to creative differences related to dissatisfaction with plot choices in The Last Jedi."
Trevorrow must be a misogynist too!

Addendum:
JTE on Twitter - "Man... John Boyega deserves better than just repeatedly screaming “REY!” in every movie. A great actor wasted in a trilogy because it had no plan."