That's too comprehensive a list for me to reply to everything so I'll just pick out a few points I have immediate answers to.
Super Leia. Everything about that entire scene begs the question: WHY?
Well first of all I think it's really cool that they didn't just forget that Leia is also of the Skywalker bloodline, and having her use the Force at some point was one thing I was explicitly hoping for going into this movie.
I actually really liked this whole scene, because Leia dying early on was something I had been predicting since before the movie even came out. That scene where Kylo hesitates to pull the trigger in the first trailer made me immediately think "Snoke is going to take the decision out of his hands" and then the TIE fighter pilots basically proved me right. For her to then come back afterwards was pure fucking
magic in how it ripped those expectations to shreds and gave me exactly what I was hoping for in one fell swoop. Definitely one of the emotional high points of the whole movie.
As for why? Allegedly Leia was planned to take over Luke's spot as the master of the new Jedi Order in the third movie, so establishing her as a Force-user early on would be important for that.
Canto Bight. All of it. Arms dealers are bad, but they also provide arms to the good guys, so...?
The Canto Bight sequence is definitely one of the less well-executed plot threads in the movie, but it doesn't actually come to nothing; it's about convincing Finn to pitch in with the Alliance. The previous movie forced him to man up and fight evil for Rey's sake, and when he first tries to run away it's not fear for himself but fear for Rey coming back for him and being caught by the First Order that motivates him. This movie's arc for him is about Finn becoming, in his own words, "
Rebel scum". The bit about the arms dealers is, I think, supposed to make him question the whole good vs evil thing that Star Wars has going on and make him question his loyalties one more time before he makes up his mind. That way he has more of a character arc instead of a straight line.
Why is Rey's backstory a big nothing after all that buildup in the last movie? Don't tell me to read the books, important information should be
That's the thing though: It's
not important information. Rey isn't someone who has a great destiny or is secretly Obi-Wan's daughter or whatever, she's just an example of the Force manifesting strongly in random people, the same way it does in that stable kid in the ending. And that's great, it would make the galaxy a much smaller place if everyone important is somehow related to each other. This also makes her a great foil for Kylo, who has all of the Skywalker pedigree and yet also feels disconnected from his parents and his mentor and makes totally different decisions from her because of those feelings.
Why didn't Luke have the balls to show up on Crait to face his nephew when the net result was the same? Its FAMILY, Luke. Your SISTER is in danger you sellout.
It's not about having the balls or not. Luke knows from his own history with Vader that evil cannot be defeated by swinging a laser sword at it, and the one time he came close to trying to do so he wound up turning Ben to the dark side. So he projects himself, knowing that he's the best possible distraction for Ren's forces, and buys everyone time to escape, and also denies Kylo Ren the chance to actually kill him.
Why didn't Vice Admiral Tumblr Hair tell Poe her plan?
I think they suspected there was a mole on board. You know, because Snoke tracked them through hyperspace and all? It wound up being a piece of advanced tech that was responsible, but nobody told
her that.
