I actually like the broad strokes of where Finn and Poe end up at the end of TROS, the latter as Leia's successor in leading the Resistance and the former, in addition to being a Resistance general, rallying other Force-sensitive ex-stormtroopers to their cause. In Finn's case in particular, it feels like a full circle thing where Finn is now playing the Poe/Han role to Jannah who is where Finn was in TFA. The issue is, a lot of this stuff happens very quick and feels underbaked relative to Rey and Kylo's story. For as much people flipped their shit about Finn's subplot in TLJ or Poe's subplot, at least they have their own distinctive stories there. Poe and Finn often feel like they're in TROS to serve Rey's story, and while there may not be a literal reduction in screentime it feels like they carry less presence on screen because they don't have as much to own.
Re: JJ's feelings on TLJ, I think Poe even more than "Rey Palpatine" is a clearer example of how JJ either not liking TLJ, not understanding it, and/or just defaulting to his preferred takes from TFA. If the movie was going to build on TLJ Poe should've been more of a clear-eyed Resistance leader from the start, but until Leia dies he's still in the same hotshot pilot mode he was in TFA and much of TLJ, like JJ didn't read or get the deconstruction of that persona in TLJ. And then when the plot does fully hand the leadership reins to Poe, he's back in the cockpit again. I've mentioned this before but a small but meaningful change JJ could've made to the fleet battle would be to have Poe calling the shots for the battle from the Tantive IV, being less of a Lando/Wedge and more of an Ackbar figure.
When does Star Wars start to get fun to talk about outside of this thread again?
When has Star Wars ever been fun to talk about online though? I don't think the prequels are good movies but the 'people vs. George Lucas', 'raped my childhood' tenor to that whole discussion for
years was at best super obnoxious and repetitive.
