I liked “The Rise of Skywalker”

There, I said it. It was a lot of blatant attempts at emotional manipulation, and a lot of direct callouts to various complaints over the years, and a lot of the plotting straight up didn’t make sense.

But it’s more “this really could have used a lot more editing” than it was “this was horrible.” But the thing had a much better sendoff for Luke than “The Last Jedi”, and Rey’s arc was great. I will say that I’m a sucker for two plot elements, though:

1. Unexpected help showing up until it is absolutely most needed
2. Being terrified that the thing that makes you special is your downfall

So hey, here I am, the cat that knows that its strings are being pulled with the laser pointer, but still wants to chase the fucking dot.