depends on ppl's use cases. a home media server is over-engineered solution for me, and perhaps others. but it's good to stop for second and consider what one's needs actually are.
wow, it's been so long i don't even remember the pre-Disney MCU days. they bought them pretty early on though, so like it or not, it's still mostly under the Mouse.
well, i mean, it did work for awhile. the Infinity Saga is like ten years worth of movies making stupid amounts of money. it was a cultural juggernaut.
but nothing lasts forever and i think that's where the suits struggle. they want a sure thing, a formula, they can go back to forever. and not only does that not exist, it, as you said, sucks the life out of what they had and diminishes the residual good will.
in ANH, Luke and Han vie for the attention of Princess Leia, setting up an interesting love triangle! Luke even gets a kiss! so according to you, Luke and Leah can't POSSIBLY be related, since incest is gross and illegal, and it would ruin the love triangle.
so when it is revealed that they ARE brother and sister, did George Lucas betray the vision of George Lucas that was CLEARLY set up in ANH and thus ruin Star Wars forever?!
i think you're just drawing too many conclusions that are simply not necessitated. that's really the "core argument." you assume too much. none of what you think is necessitated to follow, is necessary.
just because JJ is unoriginal doesn't mean anything HAS to follow from that in the future, whatever his intentions may or may not have been. it literally doesn't matter because 1) we don't know, and more importantly 2) he wasn't given control of the trilogy or the second movie.
anyway, JJ never knows what's in his mystery boxes, he just sets them up as a narrative trick.
we needed a real story here, and Rian gave us that. sadly, some ppl couldn't handle it.
the most interesting thing about Snoke is that Kylo overcame him. that's it. he's a narrative stepping stone for the real focus: Kylo.
Rian is the best thing to happen to SW since Filoni.
him being an Emperor retread doesn't necessitate him being the big bad. it's just means he's evoking notes of a previous character.
we watched the same film. you just won't let go of your assumptions and let them tell you the story. instead, you're trying to tell them the story, and you can't make it fit. that's why it bothers you.
was is a "reboot"? no. it was just JJ being JJ and unoriginal.
no one "changed their mind". you falsely decided he was the big villain, when he wasn't. as i said, the focus, rightly, should be on Kylo.
it's not a "third act" beat. you're just making up a bunch of stuff because of your assumptions about Snoke. it was great precisely because it flips the script on what we've seen before (ie. Vader/Sidious), as SW has a habit of doing.
it just sounds like you want the OT all over again. just go watch the OT, we had that already.
when kylo struck down Snoke i jumped out of my seat in the theatre in triumph. it was bold AF and i loved it. it showed we had a real storyteller for once. the theatre was in awe. it was awesome.
it's a false assumption that Snoke was the main villain.
Snoke was just a Emperor re-tread. we've seen that already. having Kylo kill him off was perfect and brilliant because it allows the focus to be where it should be: on Kylo. it also reinforces Kylo's path to finish what Vader started and do something Vader failed to do: supplant his Dark Side master.
so forget Snoke. he's immaterial.
from TLJ into Ep IX we have both Rey and Kylo continuing to develop into their respective paths to Light and Dark, revolving around each other and each trying to resist the other's temptation.
First Order still exists. Kylo would have conflict within with Hux and they're still trying to conquer the galaxy.
The Resistance is trying to rebuild.
There's plenty to work with for years of back and forth between Rey and the Resistance and Kylo's First Order, and Knights of Ren.
And even if we still want Palpatine to return, I could roll with that. It was done in Legends. But it was done so lazily in TRoS.
First thing Kylo would do confronted with a weakened Palpatine like that is fucking kill him. XD That choice, though, would have been a great way to explore something new, like Sith possession and/or Dark Side Spectres, that haunt and torment Kylo.
TLJ is Act 2 of 3. we don't have 7 seasons of a TV show here. it HAS to move the story along, clear the board a bit and tighten the focus to where it should be: Rey and Kylo. It did that. But Disney/JJ got cold feet and didn't follow through.
the problem is JJ. he's creatively bankrupt. TFA was too unoriginal, hamstringing the whole trilogy. and the man can't end anything to save his life, and they gave him the conclusion to ALL OF STAR WARS.
up to OP. i read it as "i wanted to go all in on Jellyfin, but it's been a PITA. what else would you suggest?"