#speaking for those of us who are not happy of course

I do think it’s important to remember that there are no auteurs in corporate settings and the blame is probably largely at the feet at some corporate bozos whose names we’ll never know. Lucas interviews make me think that this would’ve been a likely outcome no matter whose name was slapped on at the end.

That’s probably true! I think there are lot of factors at work. Why was TLJ written before TFA was released, without knowledge of its content? Why didn’t Disney signed JJ to three – obviously it has been done before, but was that a result of JJ not wanting to be locked down for 10 years, Disney’s production schedule requiring a faster schedule than one director couldn’t respond to, or JJ just asking for too much money (in Disney’s eyes), so they thought they could have a new “auteur” for each one until that blew up in their faces and they had to backpedal?

But, fundamentally, I also think the pitch was bad. I read the spoilers about Luke being missing and hated them instantly, before TFA came out. Was the pitch from JJ or was it workshopped by Disney? No idea, but I can’t JUST blame production or corporate bozos when I think there was almost no way to make the story itself work. The impulses behind REQUIRING the nostalgic inclusion of the original cast and behind making them failures who have no impact on the current story are almost impossible to reconcile. I think the audience would have confronted that in the third chapter no matter who wrote it because of all the stories JJ, Disney, and whoever else could have chosen to tell, they chose to tell one that ultimately wouldn’t make fans happy.