>This gives added context to Palpatine's line back in Return of
>the Jedi to Luke - "strike me down with all of your hatred and
>your journey towards the dark side will be complete."
>
But Luke throws away the lightsaber. He doesn't kill him out of love or whatever.

>When she does kill him in the end, she isn't striking him down
>in anger, she's reflecting his lightning back (defending
>herself) and letting him kill himself.
>
Come on though. Yeah she deflected it, but that was pretty much killing him. She was clearly trying to kill him and not just defend herself. She wasn't about to walk over to him with both lightsabers to hash it out.


I see what you're saying, I just think it's paper thin storytelling. In Return of the Jedi Luke had to walk away from violence altogether to defeat the Emperor, and Vader had to sacrifice to outright kill the Emperor (or so we thought). Rey went to kill the Emperor, succeeded, but we're to believe that it's not out of hate, despite the revelation she was just given, or that he just seemingly killed Kylo. She got up and faced him in aggression, and with a mean look on her face.

It didn't make sense to me. But I mean I respect your take on it. Maybe if I saw it again I'd agree. But as is I thought it was sloppy and didn't hold up to the mythology.