Oh it's easy, first : round 2 vs Finn, first round ended on a kinda weird (and not even shown, what the hell?) dive into a trash compactor. Pretty sure she wants to settle the score. Second, the mystery. What is she about? Does she like strawberry? Or is she more team blueberry? Why the unique armor? Is she a special snowflake?
Which is also something cool with Finn, what direction are they going to take with him? Many possibilities.
But Rey and the masked menace? Well, good, grey or bad, Luke side or lackey of the emperor wannabe, i'm already bored.
"The means are as important as the end - we have to do this right or not at all.
Anything less negates every belief we've ever had, every sacrifice we've ever made."
"Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
"No justice, no peace."
Hmm, why Luke is giving into fear ? Wasn't Yoda warning him about that in the original trilogy ? I found that part super odd.
"The means are as important as the end - we have to do this right or not at all.
Anything less negates every belief we've ever had, every sacrifice we've ever made."
"Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
"No justice, no peace."
Mistakes have been made, but I wouldn't say they're 'miserable failures.' If you go that far you're basically holding them accountable for circumstances that are largely outside their control. They can guide but they can't control others. Ben Solo made the decision to turn to the Dark Side of the Force, not Han and Leia or Luke. And Leia can't single-handedly control the political landscape, because that would be everything they fought to oppose. The people and their elected leaders are free to make their own mistakes, and clearly they have with regard to The First Order, in spite of Leia's attempts to warn them.
but it seems like the First Order is basically a free floating militia, they don't hold any systems or are in government like the Empire were
Yeah, I don't think they've done a great job conveying what exactly the First Order entails. If they don't hold any systems I get the impression they're at least headed in that direction. Maybe they're mostly at the conceptual level at this point but I think they've already gotten a foothold in some of the systems that feel like post-Empire democracy has failed them.
That trailer is EPIC with a lot to speculate about. I get an Empire Strikes Back vibe from it but it seems there will be some big twists to the formula. It would be a shocker to see Rey turn to the dark side and Kylo turn to the light. Also, it seems Leia and/or Luke will probably die in this movie as well. I am hyped beyond belief for this movie even more than I am for Thor Ragnorok and Justice League.
The only force users in the OT was Luke and Darth Vader and secondary characters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda . Luke was the only force user out of the three main characters of him, Leia, and Han. I won't mind Fin being a force user in addition to Rey. Poe probably won't be a force user so you will at least have one character who doesn't use a lightsaber.
One of the things Mark Hamill always wanted to do was to have Luke turn to the Dark Side in the OT and be rescued by his friends.
I wonder if we could see that play out with Rey? Probably not, but it seems like something a lot of people have been wanting to see for a while. Especially when you consider how Dark Horse kicked off the whole extended SW universe with Luke turning to the Dark Side...
I don't think Luke will die in this film or the next. If they want to set the tone for something truly new, there's got to be a mentor figure who lives long enough to pass on some real (and continuing) wisdom to his or her protégés. Plus, Mark Hamill is constantly improving as an actor, and you don't want to waste that. Han is already dead. I don't think they would have killed Leia, but I'm not sure how they'll handle Carrie Fisher's passing. I think we'll see some great things from her in this film.