Honestly, had they just kept the focus on the Resistance-First Order conflict and had Kylo ousted by Hux and having to redeem himself, or staying the villain until his defeat by Rey, you'd have something that works overall as a dramatic grand arc and I reckon that would be accepted.
But the story was already... not about that. Redoing Rey's parentage in any way also saps the film of life, you feel it like a tyre losing air because you grind to a halt with those awful static dialogue scenes. They had room to build and do something new, but Abrams felt the need to undo it no matter what he actually picked to replace it.
making her a Kenobi, which is only slightly less dumb than making her a Palpatine. What was clearly never on the cards at any point was making her a Skywalker (this was always clear from TFA's own script - Maz's speech to Rey kills that idea dead given that it draws a clear line between her family and Luke Skywalker as two entirely seperate things).
Also... what would it even say? Apart from, in Johnson's words, "this is who you are and where you fit, nice and easy."Another funny thing about this that's worth pointing out as well that on Ridley's account (and this has been amply borne out since December 2015 anyway) they had never decided on Rey's parentage at any point during Episode VII, but had toyed with the idea of
But yeah, its fantastic how this video is all over twitter and prompting an entirely new round of frustrated, bemused griping from fans/critics about what a disaster TROS was. Good job Disney/Lucasfilm, well done.
Whole thing's embarasssing. What a cackhanded, incompetent way to make a film.
That's not why it was interesting, or rather, it was only a part of why it was interesting. Far more critical than the reframing of Vader in the minds of the audience is the effect the reveal had on Luke, taking him from a place where he's very sure of himself to a place of shock, vulnerability, and finally introspection that allows him to "confront" Vader with an outstretched hand rather than trying to assassinate him the way he did on Bespin.
Which is all the more bizarre given the character arc for her towards which TRoS gestured. Rey discovered in TLJ that she was drawn to darkness, in the cave under Ach-to and in communing with Kylo. She spends most of TRoS down on herself and doubting her righteousness. You'd think that a connection to Ultimate Evil would push that arc.
She doesn't regain her resolve until Luke gives her a pep talk, then she seems to be going along with Palpatine's plan until Ben arrives and then it's just goody-goody to the finish. Honestly, I'd say the draw to the darkness was more it playing on her insecurities, but that might just be down to TRoS playing it really clumsily.
Obviously the impact this has on Luke is very important. He's the primary hero after all, and his father was an important part of his identity. But Luke would have been the primary hero of the OT regardless of the revelation with Vader. The impact this has on Vader id argue is more interesting, since it fundementally transforms the role Vader has in the story. Did anyone going into Enpire expect the final shots of Vader to be slumping over in dejection because his son ran away from him? VDer goes from the badguys scary enforcer goon, to a pivotal tragic figure you could center entire series of prequel stories on.
Making Vader into prequel fodder was no doubt good for Lucasfilm's bottom line, but the main thing is the story you're actually telling.
You don't actually need to bring Palpatine back to get the reveal of Rey's ancestry. She could meet someone else who could tell her, or find it in records somewhere. The only things bringing Palpatine back does is pander to his fans and allow Ian McDiarmid a chance to continue his transmutation into a pig's gluteus maximus. Although hammy Ian McDiarmid covers a lot of sins, as shown by basically every Star Wars movie he's been in.
I do wonder what Abrams would've done with Snoke, assuming that Palpatine was standing in for some of his initial Snoke ideas. Based on what we've seen and heard I hesitate to call it a plan and doubt it would've been all that satisfying, but I'm prepared to bet that the Exegol battle and the throne room would've been in there in some shape or form. Snoke would presumably have just been The Emperor but cranked up, bit like how Palpatine himself was played in IX.
I go back and forth between this and Abrams' refusal or inability to write properly character-driven stories as the primary problem (seriously, it's a huge difference between him and Johnson in all their films). That becomes an issue because it takes Rey, Finn and even Poe and Kylo a whole movie before they're taking control of the narrative in any meaningful way.
