It’s because the sequels largely just repeated what the original trilogy did but worse. Don’t believe me? Okay I’ll point out some of the similarities.

The Force Awakens loosely follows A New Hope, desert planet > climatic escape > try to deliver plans/map > goes wrong > rescue mission > eventually deliver plans > blow big death ball up. The only difference between the two is that The Force Awakens swaps rescue mission and eventually deliver plans around.

The Last Jedi just copies what The Empire Strikes Back does but in reverse this time. Cold planet > big battle > escape > spaceship scenes > side quest planet > jedi side quest planet > confrontation with big bad > lightsaber lost > spaceship scene. The Last Jedi pretty much reverses the order with a few other things flipped around but it’s pretty lazy.

The Rise of Skywalker and The Return of the Jedi follow the same broad strokes too but are at least a little different now. Return to previously established planet > bad guy on evil ball #2 > plan goes awry > fight scene > meet with Jedi master for last time > big speech before final battle > super big space battle over evil ball #2 > light vs dark battle in main character > both sith die on evil ball #2 > celebration. Okay okay if you look at this one in more detail, adding in all of tRoS’ side quests, they are definitely different but the same loose structure is still there.

You can talk whatever shit you want on the prequels but at least they tried new things. They didn’t always work but they tried and I think it helps them actually stand out from the original trilogy rather than feel like a retread. They certainly do copy some of the major strokes at times but they do more to alter it.

There is also the problem with Rey in the sequels, we never really see her fail at something. When she tries to use a Jedi mind trick for the first time she gets it to work. When she tries to use a force pull for the first time it works. She never really gets tempted into using the dark side like Luke and Anakin did. When she tries to use force healing it just works for her. She doesn’t get a scene like Luke and Anakin had where they make a mistake and get punished for it. Luke and Anakin both lost a hand because of their mistakes. Luke fails with the training droid in A New Hope, he fails to raise his X-Wing out of the swamp and he fails his Jedi mind trick. Heroes need to have the stakes of failing to actually make their journey engaging and memorable. If they just succeed every time it can get boring and forgettable.

Comparing Rey to Saitama for a second here. The reason why Saitama works and Rey doesn’t is because Saitama struggles with how overpowered he is. He wants a real challenge when every foe he comes up against goes down immediately. Rey doesn’t have a real struggle, whenever she looks to be in a bind she just gets a new power that saves the day. She is the dictionary definition of a Mary Sue and it makes her so forgettable.