We saw a Star War! Last Jedi spoiler thread

[OB1]

TLJ just seems to deal with clearing the board with little or no story to function as a sequel.

A Skywalker’s rise to Supreme Leader of the Galaxy sounds like a lot of story and a clear sequel to me. It’s the culmination of 8 movies worth of events.


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[Ovinomancer]

A Skywalker’s rise to Supreme Leader of the Galaxy sounds like a lot of story and a clear sequel to me. It’s the culmination of 8 movies worth of events.


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Further, what exactly where the plot notes in ESB?

The rebels are chased off of their remote base.
Luke goes for training on Dagobah.
His friends are pursued relentlessly by the Empire until they try a bit of trickery that appears to work at first, but ultimately doesn't.
Vader springs his trap on Luke's friends, capturing them and encasing Solo in carbonite.
Luke shows up, and R2 helps his friends escape minus Solo.
Luke gets his butt handed (heh) to him by Vader, finds out secret of his parentage.
Movie ends with Luke maimed but healing, Solo captured, and Rebels still on the run.

Um, maybe it's me, or ESB didn't exactly move the plot forward much, either -- it was a movie about the characters facing adversity. And don't many of those same notes echo in TLJ?

 

[hopeless]

Point taken regarding the resemblance to ESB but that movie didn't end with almost a tpk?

 

[OB1]

To be fair, the threads of ESB were much more tightly wound than those of TLJ. The whole movie is about Luke, with the Han/Leia storyline there to creat tension for him. TLJ has some of the same elements, but they don’t reinforce each other as well, and that’s one of the reasons it’s more difficult to engage with.
TLJ should have been much more tightly wound around Kylo. The Resistance storyline reinforces the need to get Luke back, but it needs to be a foil for Kylo.
But that’s tough because we are rooting against Kylo, even though he is the Protagonist of this trilogy. A tragic/anti Protagonist, for sure, but the Protagonist none the less.


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[Hussar]

As far as Rey using a lightsaber go s, who trained Luke to the point where he could go toe to toe with Vader? Other than a brief scene with Obi-Wan in ANH, when does Luke actually train?

So why is it so unbelievable that Rey can too?


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[Anakzar]

One little clue that all is not as it should be with Luke at the end (that I spotted the second time through): When he faces off against his nephew, he is wielding the same lightsaber that, mere movie moments before, was split into two as Ben and Rey fought over it.

I only saw it once but another give away is Luke looks a decade younger, beard is not grey etc.

 

[pukunui]

I only saw it once but another give away is Luke looks a decade younger, beard is not grey etc.

You didn't think he'd just gotten a hair cut and dyed his beard?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I feel their eradication of the remnants of the Empire is unearned, and we need to see that story. I also think that Luke building a Jedi temple and teaching a new crop of students feels unearned -- that's not a trivial undertaking, especially given his limited training in the Jedi arts. They should show this as well.

See how this works? This isn't a valid complaint about storytelling processes, otherwise you're rendering unusable the use of in media res. This, instead, reads like a complaint about the story they chose, rather than the methods they used to tell it.

Star Wars is basically a fairy tale. When the Evil Queen is defeated and Snow White gets her Prince, of course they live happily everafter. We don't expect the prince to get estranged from her, their child turning out to become a mass-murderer. Of course, you could deliberately write a story doing exactly that - but since Snow White is public domain, there can be many stories about the aftermath, be it the one where she is long estranged from her prince or one where she has to defend the Dwarves against the Troll invasion army or where she is sucked into the real world or whatever. So there are many alternative futures, and it doesn't really matter much.

Star Wars is a Disney property. Only they get to tell stories about Luke Skywalker. So if the one they tell just doesn't quite gel because critical pieces of his character development are never really shown and earned, it will remain a broken part of franchise.

And that's valid -- not liking the story told is perfectly valid. But you should ask yourself if you didn't like it because it was a bad story or because it conflicts with your preconceptions for the characters.

I don't have to ask myself that - I know it doesn't fit my preconceptions for the characters. The preconceptions are the result of me remembering the original trilogy and the themes layed out there. A writer has every right to subvert them - but then he better show and not just tell.

 

[hopeless]

Regarding ESB, Vader wasn't trying to kill Luke he was testing him.
What I wanted to see revealed was that Rey was raised by a Jedi Survivor on Jakku, that would explain her skills and place special emphasis on why she was so keen on returning until Finn broke the geas she was under that was intended to keep her safe.
That doesn't deal with her parents but that revelation makes her being Rey Nobody less of a problem as it would deal with that TFA subplot alot better than what I'm hearing!

 

[Morrus]

So why is it so unbelievable that Rey can too?

I think we all know what the ugly answer to that question is.