Abrams' local bullshit contribution was "THE DEATH STAR, BUT BIGGER" and with one shot of it (and a flashback of a burning building) basically erased everything that the rebels (and Luke) had won in the previous trilogy.
The only way it makes sense is if it's totally ineffective against shields or something like that, and the FO just happened not to have theirs powered up because they were in such a dominant position.
If I could rewrite TLJ I would completely scrap the "resistance" plot. There's literally no need for it, you could just say that they're fighting in the background and occasionally show glimpses of it while the named characters do their things.
That one isn't even on Abrams, that's all at Johnson's feet.
I'm a TLJ apologist but even I got taken out by how well the hyperspace ram worked. It immediately raised so many worldbuilding questions
Abrams' local bullshit contribution was "THE DEATH STAR, BUT BIGGER" and with one shot of it (and a flashback of a burning building) basically erased everything that the rebels (and Luke) had won in the previous trilogy.
I should have remembered that; yeah you're right, Abrams had nothing to do with that particular asspull.
The only way it makes sense is if it's totally ineffective against shields or something like that, and the FO just happened not to have theirs powered up because they were in such a dominant position.
If I could rewrite TLJ I would completely scrap the "resistance" plot. There's literally no need for it, you could just say that they're fighting in the background and occasionally show glimpses of it while the named characters do their things.