If you were a Director or otherwise on the creative team what would you do different?

In terms of what I would personally do:

• Include a sequence of the formation of the New Republic and it at its height in the form of black and white animation
• Have a sequence of Luke building his temple, his journeys to discover more information about the force in a black and white animation style
• Show conflict in Finn when he is tasked with killing fellow stormtroopers- those who would essentially be considered his brothers and sisters and have some quiet moments when he is forced to question his decision to abandon the First Order
• Give Phasma more presence than she received in the Force Awakens, where she freely gave up the information on Starkiller base
• Introduce Snoke as a character who is in constant pain with a terminal or degenerative condition- a being who does not have the time for Palpatine's subtlety and who is quick to frustration with any one who fails him or stands in his way and hates the fact that his condition prevents him from taking more of a direct route
• Have Rey be a kind of Jeanne D'Arc figure for light side force users throughout the galaxy with the same fate as her real-world counterpart
• Have the First Order recruit aliens (primarily for propaganda) in a move to differentiate them from the Empire and to give alien sceptics the view that they will be welcomed
• Show the intrigues between the leadership of the First Order
• Show the cruelty of Kylo Ren (I don't mean have him be like Gilles De Rais)
• Remove the notion of a super weapon- either way you look at it, the Starkiller base sequence was pretty derivative, instead replace this weapon with information and propaganda warfare to incite rebellions within the nascent New Republic
• Have the ground vehicles of the First Order in TLJ be smaller and more mobile- the First Order is small and thus would have access to fewer resources so would be reliant on hit and run and terror tactics: instead of the gorilla walkers, have something faster based on spiders, centipedes or scorpions, introduce speeders with energy blades on the front
• Also, everyone knows you don't have artillery without infantry or aeronautical support
• A sense of identity among each unit of stormtroopers- in the prequel trilogy and in Clone Wars, the clone troopers were assigned different colours depending on their rank and legion affiliation, it would be nice for some variation other than the homogeneous mass of white plate
• Have future generations of stormtroopers after the Finn debacle undergo more vigorous indoctrination in the form of hypnotic conditioning or psycho-surgery
• Introduce mech suits or some form of powered armour among the elites of the New Republic and the First Order
• Have the leadership of the First Order being adapted to the specific conditions of their home planet and have that planet be entropically dying
• More original aerial vehicle designs: streamlined fighters instead of of variations of TIE craft
• Alter the design of the Star Destroyers to reflect the transition of modern warships from frigates to aircraft carriers and the incorporation of stealth technology
• Have the First Order have plain clothed infiltrators within the New Republic and other parts of the galaxy to sew discord and paranoia to reflect the political climate of a post 9/11 world
• Actually include the Knights of Ren in the narrative in my mind, they are pretty much like crusading knights or the Nazgul from LOTR, the journey of how Sam and Frodo managed to get the ring to Mount Doom would not be the same without the ever present and insidious threat of these ghostly immortals would not be the same
• Have the Canto Bight sequence take place in a separate film or as a side story in a spy thriller
• Give Rose more screen time
• Show the response of the New Republic to this emerging threat
• Finally one word: dismemberment, let those limbs fly

This list is by no means exhaustive and the points are only reflective of those I can think of at the time of writing after having reexamined my experience of the trilogy, supplementary material and reviews.

 

Yeah, some context would be nice. That and if they were allowed to go darker. But some may take exception with this...

 

I concede it is difficult yet at the same time I am a fan of alternate history and it is fun for me at least to visualise what would have happened if there were divergences at key junctures.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 5, 2020, Original Post Date: Mar 5, 2020 ---

I think what happened was that Disney wanted a proof of concept when making TFA and many people brainstormed what constituted Star Wars and what Star Wars fans would be familiar with hence the effective reset and the familiar technology. Quite understandable and 'safe' from a marketing perspective but in terms of narrative and driving things forward, it does leave a bitter taste in the mouth.