I liked TLJ because I think the overarching “story” of Star Wars required subversion.
Sometimes subversion for subversions sake is lazy. But I think setting Luke up in the first movie as a hero in hiding, cutting himself off from the force because of mistakes he’s made, was a good way to shift the narrative towards a new era.
The execution of subplots and focus on certain characters wasn’t great, but the main story, setting Rey up as a true “nobody” makes the most sense within the lore of Star Wars and the Force.
Finding Luke just to bring him back as the badass hero warrior would have ALSO been lazy, so I think TLJ did what it could to jump into the deep end in terms of pushing to something new. They still gave him a hero’s end, and let him join the Force the same way Obi-Wan did.
Not sure where it was supposed to have gone after Snoke got killed off, except the obvious Kylo vs Rey.
I also don’t get the argument that TLJ ruined/went against Luke’s established character. My guy went from “kind of a whiney bitch” to “young adult with lack of confidence” to “wise Jedi master” in three films, and only a few meaningful events actually shown to us.
Is it a thing for people that read the EU and expect the hero Luke from those books to have acted differently? I didn’t read any of the EU except some grade school books back in the day that expanded on some kid-level Vader stuff, so that’s an honest question lol