better ideas were pitched and yet in the end they went with the worst of ideas for such an iconic and HUGE franchise....

Mark Hamill talking about what he pitched Abrams for the "Force Awakens"

"Everyone talks about the shock of realizing that, on Force Awakens, I don't come in until the last page, a bigger shock to me was them killing Han Solo before Luke could ever see his best friend again. I mean, it might be selfishly motivated, but I said, 'Holy cow, that's a real missed opportunity.' Even having the three of us together, even briefly. I pitched Abrams on the idea of, 'You can still have me come in at the very end, but how about this. How about Leia's trying to contact me telepathically, she gets frustrated because there's no answers, so she rushes to the new Death Star.
"And she almost gets there but she gets stopped by two Stormtroopers and, just before she's abducted, one Stormtrooper turns to the other one, blows him away, pulls off his helmet and says 'Hi, sis, I'm here to rescue you.' I say, 'It'll blow the roof off the joint, I'm still in it at the very end,’” he said, according to THR.