Well, as someone who has been reading the comics and books for the last ~15 years, Disney screwed up the lore so badly for their own political agenda that I can't forgive them for it. I will see the new movie, but I won't forgive them for it. Star killer base was way smaller but also way more badass than in the movie. It essentially just destroyed the star which killed the entire solar system. It was also a lot smaller than the death star.
The characters were wrong, snoke never died, Ray was supposed to be a boy and Luke was married.
Even more interesting, Luke tried to end the way of the Jedi because he saw that to bring balance to the force you need both light and dark. Luke developed a type of lightside force lighting which was only thought to be a dark side power.
Realizing this, Luke ended up agreeing with the sith idea that the Jedi were actually bad for the Galaxy and they were essentially forcing their ideas on the republic. The Jedi ended up being the same as the sith but they used the lightside instead of the dark side.
The main idea of the light and dark side was that dark side users bent the force to their will and lightside users let the force guide them. This is contradictory in that the force's will can either go light or dark. You can't follow the will of the force if you only choose one side of this. This was the main reason that Luke abandoned trying to bring the Jedi back.
Interesting post.
I wonder whether it was Abrams or some other Disney "genius" that really screwed things up with TFA. George Lucas was one who was not at all happy with what Abrams did to TFA (
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/09/george-lucas-disappointed-force-awakens-bob-iger-1202176208 ) and Abrams is listed as one of the writers for the film. (Interestingly enough, Abrams is not listed as a writer for ST: Into Darkness.)
I'm OK with the gender switch, but neglecting the light vs dark aspect likely took away a depth aspect to the film that I would have appreciated.
I have not read any of the comics, but the idea of balancing the light and dark sides was present, as I see it anyway, in Rebels - specifically Ahsoka Tano. She had left the Jedi order and at one point, someone calls her a Jedi and she says, "I'm no Jedi" and in another scene literally wipes the floor with the two sith inquisitors who attack her. I've read some speculation on the net that mentions her being a "Grey Jedi" - in other words - a "force wielder" that uses both the light and the dark aspects of the force.
Also, the Third season of Rebels has a character The Bendu (voiced by the former Doctor Who, Tom Baker) who states something along the same lines that the character uses both light and dark aspects of the force and follows neither. IIRC, the character talks about how it is unbalanced to use either side exclusively.
Honestly, I hate it when themes like these are removed for whatever reason. For me, they bring a great deal of depth and thoughtfulness to movies. I much prefer movies like that than non-stop slugfests.
It sounds like you would know that within the bounds of mystical (of the force or otherwise), is the ability to be in two places at once - such as a few scenes in TLJ with Luke.