killing Han off

Luke's arc is fantastic and almost everything about him in the movie is good, fresh, and captivating EXCEPT that I didn't like how the last part was not in person. Him never leaving the island was extremely disappointing and felt like the ending parts were cheapened. (Yoda's scene was excellent). But he's gone now, so they're limited in what he can do in IX.

Kylo's arc's fine. Only character left that I'm interested to see what they do in IX.

Poe's arc makes him more fleshed out, which needed to happen, so it's fine for the most part other than the issues (NF member) Vader mentioned about him and Dern's character.

But Rey's arc is very formulaic (and she continues to never make a mistake, honestly. I wasn't bothered by it in VII but even when she gets tempted in the pit or by Kylo, it always turns out that she's actually doing what needs to be done and someone else is wrong). And she's the same person at the end of the film as she is at the beginning, just no longer searching for that missing piece of finding her parentage....I guess? I get it was a message to fans that her parentage wasn't important which is something I agree with, but they could have fleshed her out waaay more doing the exact same thing. I didn't have the feeling she was constantly seeking out her parents in VII or VIII. The person Luke is at the beginning of IV and at the end of V is completely different and the only big difference between Rey's character at the beginning of VII and the end of VIII is that she can use the force.

And then there's Snoke.....like wtf. I get he's just a placeholder for Kylo and I honestly am okay with that, but what on Earth was the point of not giving him any kind of motivation or character at all other the big baddie. I talked about this with VII. Characters in VII knew who Snoke was and they were all scared of him, so I was interested to see the character they had obviously come to know about, but they just threw him to the sideline. You can do that, there's just a better way to do that kind of thing.

Finn's arc is cheapened by Rose nearly killing both of themselves by crashing into his ship that hard. Both of them could have easily died and the laser would have blown up the base, resulting in no kind of sacrifice. Then Rose kisses Finn and even Finn looks a little uncomfortable when it happens like his moment was robbed over something not earned.

Del Toro did a good job with what he had but that entire sequence was unnecessary (which only made Finn/Rose work worse).

lol also how has Rey and Poe not met? They were both on the Resistance base at the same time in VII

I thought that Luke's arc was drawn out waaay too long. I couldn't help but make comparisons to The Dark Knight Rises where it was done better; as soon as Blake came and pleaded with him that Gotham was in danger again, Bruce didn't hesitate to come out of his seclusion and fight for Gotham.

And yeah, Rose "saving" Finn, and then telling him that they can't win by killing those they hate, only by saving those that they love...like WTH? What did she think Finn was trying to do by taking out that cannon?

And Mr. (del) Toro's character; how unsatisfying. It's like this movie was trying so hard to be different and subvert your expectations ("You thought that his character was going to be a lovable turncoat with a thawed heart? Wrong!") that it forgot to actually be its own thing.

the lightsaber battle with Rey and Kylo Ben, **Ren, really made up for anything I mentioned previously.