Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2)

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TFA (in typical JJ fashion) left a lot of messy mystery boxes. That's why I am cautiously optimistic about Episode XI. JJ makes some great mysteries, but he isn't that well known at providing good resolutions to them. For better or worse, TLJ steered SW into a definite trajectory with concrete storylines to follow. It may not be the story everyone wants to lead to, but it's definitely better in my opinion with the mess of questions TFA left us with.

I'm banking on JJ being the type of creator who has more ideas than he can possibly flesh out in the timeframe of a trilogy, so having someone else focus him on a fewer number will help him produce a tighter and epic Episode IX. I'm probably setting myself up to be disappointed, but I can't help it. I'm expecting really great things, even though I see some traps that could make it a disaster.
 
I don’t know if this has been posted before but this video makes a lot of sense. https://youtu.be/C95o0MRzBVs

Just like virtually every video criticizing the TLJ Luke story, this one totally ignores what TLJ first had to explain about Luke's past behavior. Rian Johnson was handed a J.J. Abrams script for The Force Awakens that established ALL of the following things:

1.) Luke felt responsible for what happened with Ben/Kylo, so he left everyone and everything behind
2.) He left without telling Han, Leia, Artoo, or Threepio where he was going
3.) He left knowing that the Dark Side (Snoke & Kylo) was posing a strong new potential threat
4.) He was gone for several years (a couple at the very least)
5.) Leia was in desperate need of his help, and had been making an effort to find him
6.) Five planets got destroyed
7.) Han Solo was killed

So, if I were Rian Johnson - and I saw these elements in the TFA script, I'd have to ask myself these questions: If this is the same Luke that I grew up watching, how could he ignore Leia's desperation and attempts to reach him? Wouldn't she have been able to reach him via their Force connection? Wouldn't he have sensed five planets being destroyed the way Obi-Wan sensed Alderaan? Wouldn't he have sensed Han dying? If any of these are answered with a "yes," then why was he still just standing there on the edge of a cliff? Why wasn't he already flying back to help?

How would I explain Luke being such an ***hole that he didn't get in his X-Wing the minute he felt those 5 planets blow up? How would I explain that he didn't reach out to Leia to let her know his situation, or ask her to come get him if he couldn't get back on his own? The only reasonable way to eliminate all these problems that make Luke look like a total a-hole is to have him cut off from the Force. That way, he didn't know what was going on. Problem solved.

But why would he be cut off from the Force? So that no Force-user (like Snoke & Kylo) could sense him wherever he was. Perfect! So now I'd just need to explain why the **** Luke Skywalker left everyone at the mercy of Snoke (for years!!) just because he felt responsible for what happened to his nephew. It wouldn't have anything to do with just running away; Luke is not a coward. It wouldn't be to find hidden answers; Luke was a Jedi Master who could commune with the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan wherever he was. So, what would be a selfless reason that could explain being gone without ever reaching out to anyone, or taking anyone along with him?

It has to be an answer that deals with the disappointment he's feeling. It has to be an answer that prevents yet another fallen Anakin, or fallen Ben Solo. All the fallen Jedi. That's it! Luke needs to end the Jedi so that he can keep himself, and anyone after him, from inadvertently giving power to another evil and murderous monster who could help planets get destroyed. Luke is doing the hardest and most selfless thing he can: walk away from what he loves most so that the Dark Side never again has access to the Jedi tools that serve them the way Dooku, Vader, and Kylo did.

Can't erase the bizarreness of Luke having fled. Can't erase the bizarreness of him ignoring all the disaster happening while he's gone. Can't erase that he wasn't reaching out to Leia. But this film can explain Luke's bizarre behavior.

That's what TLJ did. In my opinion, it did a sensible job of explaining the very problematic setup (from TFA) of Luke Skywalker exiling himself on an island for years while the galaxy was being threatened again. It would've been nice if Luke dealt with the Snoke problem before leaving, but that failure was already baked into the cake by TFA.
 
Good points all. Actually TFA presented a conflicting account when Han said Luke "just walked away" and "went looking for some ancient Jedi temple".

He could have been looking for the answers needed to take on Snoke, but along the way decided it was best for the Jedi to end.

(Incidentally, his finding the ancient Jedi texts was the perfect explanation for the sudden appearance of Force projection - although Snoke and Kylo already seemed aware of it)
 
Just like virtually every video criticizing the TLJ Luke story, this one totally ignores what TLJ first had to explain about Luke's past behavior. Rian Johnson was handed a J.J. Abrams script for The Force Awakens that established ALL of the following things:

1.) Luke felt responsible for what happened with Ben/Kylo, so he left everyone and everything behind
2.) He left without telling Han, Leia, Artoo, or Threepio where he was going
3.) He left knowing that the Dark Side (Snoke & Kylo) was posing a strong new potential threat
4.) He was gone for several years (a couple at the very least)
5.) Leia was in desperate need of his help, and had been making an effort to find him
6.) Five planets got destroyed
7.) Han Solo was killed

So, if I were Rian Johnson - and I saw these elements in the TFA script, I'd have to ask myself these questions: If this is the same Luke that I grew up watching, how could he ignore Leia's desperation and attempts to reach him? Wouldn't she have been able to reach him via their Force connection? Wouldn't he have sensed five planets being destroyed the way Obi-Wan sensed Alderaan? Wouldn't he have sensed Han dying? If any of these are answered with a "yes," then why was he still just standing there on the edge of a cliff? Why wasn't he already flying back to help?

How would I explain Luke being such an ***hole that he didn't get in his X-Wing the minute he felt those 5 planets blow up? How would I explain that he didn't reach out to Leia to let her know his situation, or ask her to come get him if he couldn't get back on his own? The only reasonable way to eliminate all these problems that make Luke look like a total a-hole is to have him cut off from the Force. That way, he didn't know what was going on. Problem solved.

But why would he be cut off from the Force? So that no Force-user (like Snoke & Kylo) could sense him wherever he was. Perfect! So now I'd just need to explain why the **** Luke Skywalker left everyone at the mercy of Snoke (for years!!) just because he felt responsible for what happened to his nephew. It wouldn't have anything to do with just running away; Luke is not a coward. It wouldn't be to find hidden answers; Luke was a Jedi Master who could commune with the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan wherever he was. So, what would be a selfless reason that could explain being gone without ever reaching out to anyone, or taking anyone along with him?

It has to be an answer that deals with the disappointment he's feeling. It has to be an answer that prevents yet another fallen Anakin, or fallen Ben Solo. All the fallen Jedi. That's it! Luke needs to end the Jedi so that he can keep himself, and anyone after him, from inadvertently giving power to another evil and murderous monster who could help planets get destroyed. Luke is doing the hardest and most selfless thing he can: walk away from what he loves most so that the Dark Side never again has access to the Jedi tools that serve them the way Dooku, Vader, and Kylo did.

Can't erase the bizarreness of Luke having fled. Can't erase the bizarreness of him ignoring all the disaster happening while he's gone. Can't erase that he wasn't reaching out to Leia. But this film can explain Luke's bizarre behavior.

That's what TLJ did. In my opinion, it did a sensible job of explaining the very problematic setup (from TFA) of Luke Skywalker exiling himself on an island for years while the galaxy was being threatened again. It would've been nice if Luke dealt with the Snoke problem before leaving, but that failure was already baked into the cake by TFA.

He had plenty of other ways to explain this, Old ben hid away on Tatoonie to watch over luke after his perceived failures but not because he gave up everything he believed prior too it. It seems you are trying to blame JJ Abrams, the force awakens for TLJ's problem, that Abrams backed RJ into a corner and he did the best possible with it. This notion is completely false, JJ left us with Luke hiding away from Snoke & Ben much like Yoda and Old Ben did after ROTS. He had a perfectly plausible explanation for this, he set the map up so that only Rey would find it (the last piece was left where rey was, like luke finding the message with R2),which is why he left the last piece of info on Jaka. This mirrors Old ben hidding away perfectly, Old ben wasn't there because he was jaded and didnt want anyone to find him, he was there for a purpose, he waited for that message to reach luke (he was watching over him), and for luke to find him, signaling he was ready to begin his journey and training as a Jedi. The same thing could have applied in TFA, he hid away on purpose and sent the message to the last jedi so that only Rey would find him and he could complete her training. Rian didnt salvage anything, he made everything worse, he deliberately destroyed our icons from the past, he completely changed luke because he wanted too, he wanted to destroy the old in order to elevate the new heroes. Its called cheap writing and story telling, instead of writing a great story about these new heroes, giving us reasons to care about them, eg Like the OT, he tears down the old to artificially make these new heroes look better then the are, to try an force us to care about them. Instead of paying respects to continuity of character he chose to **** on it. You cannot blame JJ for what RJ did to Luke Skywalker. Normally the losing opponent will retreat until they/ or in this case he can amass reinforcements, which is precisely what old man luke was doing during TFA, like old ben and Yoda before him, they knew they couldn't beat the emperor and vader themselves, luke couldn't take on Snoke and Ben by himself, so he had to get reinforcements. Going into hiding (like Old Ben & Yoda) isn't cowardly if there is a purpose for it, eg to gain reinforcement to continue the fight, its only cowardly the way RJ handled it.
 
He had plenty of other ways to explain this, Old ben hid away on Tatoonie to watch over luke after his perceived failures but not because he gave up everything he believed prior too it. It seems you are trying to blame JJ Abrams, the force awakens for TLJ's problem, that Abrams backed RJ into a corner and he did the best possible with it. This notion is completely false, JJ left us with Luke hiding away from Snoke & Ben much like Yoda and Old Ben did after ROTS. He had a perfectly plausible explanation for this, he set the map up so that only Rey would find it (the last piece was left where rey was, like luke finding the message with R2),which is why he left the last piece of info on Jaka. This mirrors Old ben hidding away perfectly, Old ben wasn't there because he was jaded and didnt want anyone to find him, he was there for a purpose, he waited for that message to reach luke (he was watching over him), and for luke to find him, signaling he was ready to begin his journey and training as a Jedi. The same thing could have applied in TFA, he hid away on purpose and sent the message to the last jedi so that only Rey would find him and he could complete her training. Rian didnt salvage anything, he made everything worse, he deliberately destroyed our icons from the past, he completely changed luke because he wanted too, he wanted to destroy the old in order to elevate the new heroes. Its called cheap writing and story telling, instead of writing a great story about these new heroes, giving us reasons to care about them, eg Like the OT, he tears down the old to artificially make these new heroes look better then the are, to try an force us to care about them. Instead of paying respects to continuity of character he chose to **** on it. You cannot blame JJ for what RJ did to Luke Skywalker. Normally the losing opponent will retreat until they/ or in this case he can amass reinforcements, which is precisely what old man luke was doing during TFA, like old ben and Yoda before him, they knew they couldn't beat the emperor and vader themselves, luke couldn't take on Snoke and Ben by himself, so he had to get reinforcements. Going into hiding (like Old Ben & Yoda) isn't cowardly if there is a purpose for it, eg to gain reinforcement to continue the fight, its only cowardly the way RJ handled it.

First of all, I enjoyed TFA and I'm looking forward to JJ's Ep9. But, Luke's exile was a bad idea; plus it came in the same movie that Han died in - ensuring that Luke, Leia, and Han would never share any screen time at all in the ST. Bad planning!

Secondly, where are you getting this stuff about Luke from TFA!? If I didn't know better, I'd say your whole post was satire! :lol Let's go through your claims one by one.

1.) "JJ left us with Luke hiding away from Snoke & Ben much like Yoda and Old Ben did after ROTS"

Huh!? Luke was hiding!? Where was that ever explained? And why did Han say Luke left because he felt responsible for what happened with Ben?

2.) "he set the map up so that only Rey would find it (the last piece was left where rey was, like luke finding the message with R2),which is why he left the last piece of info on Jaka"

I don't even know where to start with this one. :lol Luke didn't set up anything on Jakku. Lor San Tekka is the one who had part of a map, and he gave it to Poe to deliver to Leia. It was never intended to stay on Jakku, or have anything to do with Rey.

Are you sure you watched the movie? The only reason Rey got involved was because Poe couldn't get away with that map piece. Are you telling me that Luke's plan involved Poe redirecting BB-8 so that Rey would encounter the droid!?

3.) "The same thing could have applied in TFA, he hid away on purpose and sent the message to the last jedi so that only Rey would find him and he could complete her training."

What last Jedi? Rey? He would've sent a message to Rey, how? . . . via Lor San Tekka? . . . then through Poe? . . . only to be redirected through BB-8 to reach Rey? You're joking, right?

4.) "Normally the losing opponent will retreat until they/ or in this case he can amass reinforcements, which is precisely what old man luke was doing during TFA, like old ben and Yoda before him, they knew they couldn't beat the emperor or vader themselves, luke couldn't take on Snoke and Ben by himself, so he had to get reinforcements."

So you wanted Luke to go off in search of reinforcements? What kind of reinforcements needed a multi-year exile? And you're comparing Yoda and Kenobi leaving when Palpatine had full control of an entire army and political authority . . . to Luke leaving when Snoke and Kylo hadn't even taken control of anything. Not even close to the same circumstances, dude.

Luke didn't need to run away and hide. He took on the Emperor, Vader, and the Empire at its peak of power as a Jedi Knight; but now as a Jedi Master with 20+ years of learning more about the Force, you wanted him to run away from Snoke, Kylo, and a fledgling First Order? That would be absolutely absurd. If TLJ tried to explain his years missing that way, I would've walked out of the theater. :rotfl

5.) "Going into hiding (like Old Ben & Yoda) isn't cowardly if there is a purpose for it, eg to gain reinforcement to continue the fight, its only cowardly the way RJ handled it."

In my opinion, the only way to keep Luke from being a coward was to give him an actual selfless purpose for being gone for those years; and for not trying to come back as 5 planets were destroyed, as Han Solo was murdered, and as his sister was trying (and failing) to reach him in her desperate desire to bring him back.

I don't think you've analyzed the circumstances that TFA forced Luke's story to go. Go back to my post that you quoted and read the 7 points I outlined. Those were all inescapable story elements that TLJ had to make sense of and reconcile. None of the alternatives that you suggest would've made any sense with what was already established in TFA. I'm not ripping TFA as a film; I enjoyed it, and I'm grateful to JJ for re-starting Star Wars in a fun and enjoyable way. But there were plots (the Luke exile in particular) that needed cleaning up before it would lead to nonsensical and regrettable explanations.
 
First of all, I enjoyed TFA and I'm looking forward to JJ's Ep9. But, Luke's exile was a bad idea; plus it came in the same movie that Han died in - ensuring that Luke, Leia, and Han would never share any screen time at all in the ST. Bad planning!

Secondly, where are you getting this stuff about Luke from TFA!? If I didn't know better, I'd say your whole post was satire! :lol Let's go through your claims one by one.

1.) "JJ left us with Luke hiding away from Snoke & Ben much like Yoda and Old Ben did after ROTS"

Huh!? Luke was hiding!? Where was that ever explained? And why did Han say Luke left because he felt responsible for what happened with Ben?

2.) "he set the map up so that only Rey would find it (the last piece was left where rey was, like luke finding the message with R2),which is why he left the last piece of info on Jaka"

I don't even know where to start with this one. :lol Luke didn't set up anything on Jakku. Lor San Tekka is the one who had part of a map, and he gave it to Poe to deliver to Leia. It was never intended to stay on Jakku, or have anything to do with Rey.

Are you sure you watched the movie? The only reason Rey got involved was because Poe couldn't get away with that map piece. Are you telling me that Luke's plan involved Poe redirecting BB-8 so that Rey would encounter the droid!?

3.) "The same thing could have applied in TFA, he hid away on purpose and sent the message to the last jedi so that only Rey would find him and he could complete her training."

What last Jedi? Rey? He would've sent a message to Rey, how? . . . via Lor San Tekka? . . . then through Poe? . . . only to be redirected through BB-8 to reach Rey? You're joking, right?

4.) "Normally the losing opponent will retreat until they/ or in this case he can amass reinforcements, which is precisely what old man luke was doing during TFA, like old ben and Yoda before him, they knew they couldn't beat the emperor or vader themselves, luke couldn't take on Snoke and Ben by himself, so he had to get reinforcements."

So you wanted Luke to go off in search of reinforcements? What kind of reinforcements needed a multi-year exile? And you're comparing Yoda and Kenobi leaving when Palpatine had full control of an entire army and political authority . . . to Luke leaving when Snoke and Kylo hadn't even taken control of anything. Not even close to the same circumstances, dude.

Luke didn't need to run away and hide. He took on the Emperor, Vader, and the Empire at its peak of power as a Jedi Knight; but now as a Jedi Master with 20+ years of learning more about the Force, you wanted him to run away from Snoke, Kylo, and a fledgling First Order? That would be absolutely absurd. If TLJ tried to explain his years missing that way, I would've walked out of the theater. :rotfl

5.) "Going into hiding (like Old Ben & Yoda) isn't cowardly if there is a purpose for it, eg to gain reinforcement to continue the fight, its only cowardly the way RJ handled it."

In my opinion, the only way to keep Luke from being a coward was to give him an actual selfless purpose for being gone for those years; and for not trying to come back as 5 planets were destroyed, as Han Solo was murdered, and as his sister was trying (and failing) to reach him in her desperate desire to bring him back.

I don't think you've analyzed the circumstances that TFA forced Luke's story to go. Go back to my post that you quoted and read the 7 points I outlined. Those were all inescapable story elements that TLJ had to make sense of and reconcile. None of the alternatives that you suggest would've made any sense with what was already established in TFA. I'm not ripping TFA as a film; I enjoyed it, and I'm grateful to JJ for re-starting Star Wars in a fun and enjoyable way. But there were plots (the Luke exile in particular) that needed cleaning up before it would lead to nonsensical and regrettable explanations.

LOl you can spin things however you want obviously there is no point explaining another point of view cause you have your mind made up that RJ did everything right. Not sure what movie you watched, but if luke didn't want to be found why did he leave a map to begin with??? And why Jakka of all places?? Which also happened to be where Rey was.. Luke could have have felt the same vergence in the force that snoke did, and as such its very plausible why he would have sent the map there. RJ ****ed up his characterization no matter how you want to spin it. Your argument relies on on the fact that everything that happened in TFA was coincidence, in order to explain why a portion of the map was left on Jakku of all places to begin with, the same place where Rey would be. JJ perfectly mapped this **** out for Rian, Rian did what he wanted to do with it. RJ didn't save anything he ruined it, Im pretty sure if JJ did the 2nd movie it would have gone in a much different direction
 
LOl you can spin things however you want obviously there is no point explaining another point of view cause you have your mind made up that RJ did everything right. Not sure what movie you watched, but if luke didn't want to be found why did he leave a map to begin with??? And why Jakka of all places?? Which also happened to be where Rey was.. Luke could have have felt the same vergence in the force that snoke did, and as such its very plausible why he would have sent the map there. RJ ****ed up his characterization no matter how you want to spin it. Your argument relies on on the fact that everything that happened in TFA was coincidence, in order to explain why a portion of the map was left on Jakku of all places to begin with, the same place where Rey would be. JJ perfectly mapped this **** out for Rian, Rian did what he wanted to do with it. RJ didn't save anything he ruined it, Im pretty sure if JJ did the 2nd movie it would have gone in a much different direction

You accuse me of "spinning" and not being willing to entertain an opposing point of view. Okay, let's go with your story of "Luke chose Jaaku to leave a map fragment because he knew Rey was there, and he wanted her to come find him." Let's see how that would hold up by looking at what actually happened in TFA.

Recap time:

  • Lor San Tekka had the map fragment, but didn't tell Poe to take it to Rey. The whole mission was for Poe to get it to Leia and the Resistance. But Poe couldn't take off in time, so he put the fragment in BB-8 and told his little buddy to get out of there and wait for Poe to come find him.
  • But Poe got captured, and only escaped because of a Stormtrooper (Finn) who wanted to go awol. Rey found BB-8, but the droid didn't want to give her the confidential info that he possesed because Rey wasn't Resistance.
  • Rey had to run into Finn because she didn't have a ship, and they only ended up on the Falcon because the FO was hunting down Finn. And then Finn had to convince BB-8 to reveal the Resistance location to Rey.
  • She then wanted to fly BB-8 to the Resistance (where R2 would finally wake up from his coma to complete the map), and wanted to return back to Jakku after that. But she didn't get a chance to deliver BB-8 at all, or return to Jakku, because she got captured by Kylo.

So you're saying that's how Master Luke's plan would end up unfolding? Rey was Luke's intended recipient of the map fragment even though she was just a scavenger who never would have found it on her own? Rey, who hadn't known she had the Force? Rey, who didn't have a ship and had never piloted one off-planet? Rey, who would have to get help from a bunch of different people to pull this off? That was Luke's plan, and why he would just be waiting for her on Ahch-To as all the other stuff was going down? Really?

You seriously think that explanation would've been better in any way whatsoever? You don't see horrendous plot holes by going that route? And remind me again, which of us are you saying is "spinning" stuff here?
 
Why did he leave a map to begin with? Thats really all you have to explain. You have already said all that before. I can see what jj was trying to set up with force awakens, it was all laid out, maybe it was too much of a retread of the ot for rian. The map being left on the same planet as rey, lukes saber calling to her, the awakening of the force... you must not of felt it but jj was implying that both snoke and luke did. Seriously it was all mapped out for rian he just didnt like it and wanted to do his own thing and it backfired big time.
 
Come on ajp, you know that TFA was quite clear in spelling out that Luke himself deliberately left an incomplete fragment of a map to his specific location in the care of Lor San Tekka with specific instructions for him to give it to anyone sent by Leia with the assumption that it would then be given to a scavenger that no one had ever heard of.

And then that look of deep sadness he gave her when she finally found him? His way of saying "good job." Please stop spinning the movie into something that would sync up with the character motivations and dialogue that were actually presented on screen.
 
Why did he leave a map to begin with? Thats really all you have to explain. You have already said all that before. I can see what jj was trying to set up with force awakens, it was all laid out, maybe it was too much of a retread of the ot for rian. The map being left on the same planet as rey, lukes saber calling to her, the awakening of the force... you must not of felt it but jj was implying that both snoke and luke did. Seriously it was all mapped out for rian he just didnt like it and wanted to do his own thing and it backfired big time.

You keep insisting that Luke left the map. How are you so certain of that? If he got to Ahch-To, he had a full map. Why the hell would he leave behind a fragment of a map that would need to be combined with the fuller piece that R2 had on another planet? Why would he leave it in such a way that would require so many other people to get involved?

What will it take for you to realize that Luke being the one to intentionally leave a partial map that needs these crazy hoops and hurdles to be jumped through would be stupid? All while not leaving himself open to Leia's outreach. All while everything is falling apart around the Resistance. It makes no sense. I'm stunned how you don't agree, but there you have it. To me, the map wasn't left by Luke to be some way for Jedi-to-be Rey to come find him. But you claim to have better insight into what JJ Abrams was planning. Fine.

Come on ajp, you know that TFA was quite clear in spelling out that Luke himself deliberately left an incomplete fragment of a map to his specific location in the care of Lor San Tekka with specific instructions for him to give it to anyone sent by Leia with the assumption that it would then be given to a scavenger that no one had ever heard of.

And then that look of deep sadness he gave her when she finally found him? His way of saying "good job." Please stop spinning the movie into something that would sync up with the character motivations and dialogue that were actually presented on screen.

Okay, yeah. I'm just not getting it. Sorry. :lol
 
If he didnt want to be found why would he leave a map lol. So do you guys believe luke finding kenobi was all a coincidence too. Ok lets play devils advocate why would lukes saber call a random scavenger, who also happens to be on the same planet he left the map on to his location when he didnt want to be found to begin with
. Why does Lukes saber call to rey if he isnt trying to communicate with her..why not some other random saber??why because in TFA luke wanted her to find him, much like obiwan wanted luke to come to him. There is no other logical explanation for all those events that point to the same thing. Not to mention he left the map on the same planet the vergence was felt, yet you firmly believe its all conicdence even though he doesnt want to be found because he failed ben??? When rey first found luke in tfa he basically told her to **** off im not helping anyone, i want to be left alone.. so why in the **** did he leave a map then. Without using logic you can infer a whole bunch of ****, but when a story gives you threads that connect like that then story teller is trying to tell you something, to put the pieces together form a picture not make one up
 
Lol if he didnt want to be found there would be no map...but he or someone left the map on jaku, why leave a map if you dont want to be found? You guys are nutty but in a good way. Star warz lovers for the win. Snokes quote "The droid will soon be delivered to the Resistance, leading them to the last Jedi. If Skywalker returns, the new Jedi will rise!"
Why was snoke even worried about the resistence finding skywalker if he was just a jadded old man waiting to die on rock
 
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