donchipotle

That would literally be the worst thing they could do. If they run it back because people are mad that Rey turned out to be just no one even though it was exactly the point the movie made then what the fuck are they doing. The galaxy needs to move beyond Skywalkers. Having Rey be literally some no one and able to forge her own destiny because of it is kind of exactly the kind of thing that expands the galaxy. Not everything ties back to Skywalker, nor should it. It's a huge galaxy, isn't it about time others got to be special?

She's not wondering who her parents were so much as she's trying to understand why. Sure, there's some element of wonder - a good bit for the audience's sake - but even as far back as TFA there was part of her that knew. Her parents were a glaring weakness and why she sought out paternal figures and how that then was used against her. It's included there because it comes at a point where Rey is considering using the dark side for answers, but then the dark side had nothing to offer her and just made her feel more lonely. Rey always knew the reality of her parents, she was just refusing to accept it. In TFA Maz says as much, that "they aren't coming back" and this is echoed again in the confrontation with Kylo. It's Rey accepting this reality where before she was running from it and clinging to it out of desperation. "Why would my parents sell me to a sleazy junk trader? They have to come back for me, right?" It wasn't a troll at all. Just because the result turned out to be nothing doesn't make it a troll. There was not some grand mystery about Rey's parents, it just got inflated as such because after TFA people were scrambling for reasons why Rey was gifted in the Force, because that sort of thing could only happen to families that matter, right? No, as it turns out, that's not how the Force works.

You could argue that the reveal is done poorly, but I disagree. It comes at the climax of both hers and Ren's story, after Rey had explored the dark side for answers and found only that it offered her nothing she didn't already know, and then Ren was there to force it out of her. It was Dark Side manipulation in effect, with Ren trying to seduce her by exploiting the weakness she had, much how later on Luke exploits the weakness Ren has in his struggle with the Light and his patricide. Rey stops looking to the past, clinging to the desperation that her parents did care for her and are coming back, and embraces the future, while Kylo, for all his bluster, still can't let go of the past. Rey's parents were not important and the reveal wasn't a troll.

As far as Snoke is concerned, in the grand scheme of things he's largely unimportant in the rise of the First Order. The galaxy in Star Wars is sort of cyclical in nature. There was a period of time where the Sith were thought to be extinct. THen they came back and went to war with the Jedi. Then there was a period of time where the Sith were thought to be extinct. Then one of them manipulated the galaxy and took out the Jedi and created a galactic empire. As long as there's a Light Side, or rather a Force, there will be those drawn to the Dark Side. Snoke is largely irrelevant. Kylo would've been drawn to the Dark Side the same as any Jedi is. The why of Snoke is as easy as any other Force user. The Dark Side folks want to wipe out the Light Side folks. That's why Snoke is so hellbent on killing Luke and later Rey, because Jedi, even one of them, are a threat to the First Order's goal of being Empire 2.0; not just because of their handle on the Force but because Jedi can inspire hope, hence Broom Kid. Snoke wasn't essential in rebuilding the First Order, the Imperial remnants who fled after the Battle of Jakku were, and that's documented in supplemental material. Snoke never seemed vital to the plot in the same way The Emperor wasn't until ROTJ. He has about six minutes of screen time in TFA where all he does is tell the audience that Kylo has Light in him and that there's been an awakening in-between yelling about Skywalker and Ren's failures. Why does it matter how he wields the Force? This movie has a little kid using the Force at the end of it. That's how the Force works. It's not important how he uses the Force, only that he does and hooked up with the First Order, which was already being established, and takes on the mantle of master to a kid who is incredibly strong in the Force already. It didn't matter how Snoke rose to power because the First Order wasn't about Snoke in the first place, and he wasn't even important enough of a character to be on the poster for either movie. He was never supposed to be the main antagonist.

Snoke's origins aren't interesting or important and it's his death that makes him actually relevant to the plot instead of just being another pointless player and callback to the OT.

Rey's parents. The whole point of that reveal was that anyone could be something in the galaxy. When TFA came out people were making these theories "OH IS SHE A SKYWALKER? NO SHE'S A KENOBI! WHAT IF SHE'S A PALPATINE!" But here the movie suggests and confirms that she was nothing and was able to matter and be something. Before ESB, who was Luke Skywalker? Just some naive farm boy. A nobody, it's only after the whole family reveal that Skywalker meant something. Rey being no one from nowhere while still being gifted in the Force is the most Star Wars thing possible. It's only unsatisfying if people expected her to be someone important - but that would've been terrible because Star Wars doesn't have to be nor should it be just about the Skywalkers and their circle of friends. That's kind of a huge part of the movie and part of why it's so divisive. It's a movie that is telling audiences that Star Wars needs to move past the old and embrace the hope of the new.

Snoke is similar in that he was a red herring. The Emperor didn't have a backstory until the prequels and didn't even physically show up until ROTJ. People are acting like Snoke was an interesting character in TFA when the only thing interesting about him was his design and, again, the baseless theories. Because Snoke was ill-defined and just vague bad guy. Killing him off works as character motivation and growth for Kylo Ren - who was always the main antagonist and now even more so. Did people expect Kylo to become good? People are upset about Snoke because why? Because he doesn't have a backstory? He's an evil Force user and died just like every other evil Force user has: his apprentice killed him and usurped his position. He wanted to kill Luke because even one Jedi was a threat, which is why he wanted to kill Rey. That's all you need to know about his motivations.

Luke has checked out of life because his greatest failure resulted in essentially this entire trilogy of events. He's always been impulsive and that impulsiveness is what led to the rise of Kylo Ren and by extension the First Order's reign. Failure, specifically learning from it and not being beheld to it, was kind of a major theme of the movie - it was kind of hammered on. Of course Luke checked out. The Jedi failed him, he failed himself and Ben, and his status as a legendary hero was more of a burden than a boon. Even Yoda, after years in exile after failure, became eccentric and odd, but he was still wise. Luke became eccentric but he still had wisdom, just of a different sort. He let himself be defined by his failures rather than his successes. For the first time, Luke actually felt like a human and in the end he passed the torch, like all good mentors do. It's very Naruto.

Kylo vs Luke is pretty much the ultimate Jedi moment. It harkens back to Obi-Wan vs Vader in ANH. Here's a conflict that is won by Luke ultimately being a pacifist and letting Kylo be his own undoing. Luke never strikes, he lets Kylo do it all and then essentially goads him ever onward and truthfully says that he'll always be with Kylo - just like Han. Luke wins the fight by doing nothing but being a wise Jedi who understands the Force better than anyone before or since.