Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi SPOILER DISCUSSION THREAD
My take on the movie in a nutshell:
I 100% see where people are coming from with hating the movie. i also 100% see where people are coming from with enjoying the movie.
I just enjoy Star Wars, even if the story and character progression isn't what I want. It's not my story, i just feel fortunate to enjoy the stories. I don't want to be so emotionally distraught over the events or the (mis)handling of the characters because Star Wars is a nice escape for me, and don't want to ruin that escape for me. So simply put, I try to just be light hearted about the whole thing.
There are definitely elements in the movie that were unnecessary, like the Finn/Rose arc and the Canto Bight sequences, and definitely some things that don't make sense. I really thought it was stupid that Admiral Holdo wouldn't tell anyone the plan- talk about horrible leadership.
I do think the ST could have been handled differently- make have the first movie be about Luke's Jedi academy and the downfall, then bring in the rise of Kylo Ren, etc. Could still be the same storyline if they wanted to- just focus on the important time periods more.
As far as Luke, I can see where people don't like the way he was handled, and I also can see where people do like the way he was handled. I'm disappointed there wasn't much of his green lightsaber, was hoping that would have been more of a reveal. What I do enjoy is the parallels of Luke to Obi Wan and Yoda- jaded, grumpy hermit because of failures. It seems like all exiled Jedi masters develop quirky personalities lol. People are saying "This isn't what we know of Luke's character." but that's the point-we don't know much of Luke's character as he got older. We know his character in a span of age 19-24 or whatever in the OT, but there has been WAY more time we don't know about his character than what we do know, around 30 years. Not defending the handling of his character per se, just applying logic that there's more timeframe where we don't know about Luke than we do.
The ending with Luke, upon further thought, is really cool to me. It harkens back to Yoda saying "Jedi use the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack." Which is exactly what Luke does- he is using it for defense in a sacrificial way, even though we are made to think it's for attack. I think in my own personal fandom it would have been awesome to see Luke ignite the green lightsaber and use the Force to destroy First Order and go out with a bang; but think it speaks volumes that Luke does as his final act exactly what Yoda told him years prior that Jedi should be doing. Personally think they could have not killed Luke off in this movie and saved him for IX, but hopefully they can bring him back a lot as a Force ghost (some would say why kill him off then?). I just hope we can see more of Luke in future material- I'd LOVE for a tv show or something based on his Jedi Academy.
I'm still processing the movie, positives and negatives, but figure my thoughts could spark more fun conversation.
. You have been on the "pro" side from every post I've seen.
