As someone who just rewatched 7 after watching 8, I was actually stunned how much of it connected perfectly with 7 in terms of theme, narrative, and character arc. Most of the stuff I've seen nerds complaining about were things that weren't actually *in* the movie, they were just endlessly debated/theorized things that didn't pan out as debated/theorized. There's no suggestion that we know Snoke from the past. There's no suggestion that Rey's parents were important people/people we knew. There's nothing in 8 that undoes or counteracts the vision Rey has at Maz Kanata's in 7. And 7 starts setting up the idea that anyone could be force-sensitive, not just the Skywalkers or important Jedis-- 8 just makes that point more explicitly.

I've heard a lot of people say that it bails on what 7 set up... but I don't really see how. I'd be interested in specifics. Maybe I'm just missing something... but I literally just saw both back to back (8 then 7) and thought they honestly tied together even better than I expected.


>However, combined with Episode 7 and as part of the larger
>Star Wars story, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It
>renders most of 7 useless and pointless, since 8 gleefully
>subverts or ignores everything that film set up. Given how
>average 7 is, that isn’t the worst thing, but it does mean
>that these 3 aren’t going to feel as connected as the
>previous two trilogies did.