Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Discussion Thread

[Azure Sage]

Spoiler: Discussion for Azure Sage

If it makes you feel better, I didn't get that impression. My perspective from the Force Awakens is that Finn fell for Rey, but Rey saw him as more of a friend. Finn still loved Rey at the beginning of the Last Jedi, but Finn fell for Rose over the course of the movie. Rey's look at Finn at Rose's side didn't seem heartbroken. It seemed somewhat neutral like she was just taking in the information that Finn cares about Rose. I think the Rey and Kylo scenes had strong romantic undertones. When Kylo asked Rey to join him, I think his main intentions were romantic. Rey clearly cares about him to some degree, but it may just be a strong conscience that led her to try to save him. On a related note that you may not like (because it may hint at a separate love triangle), Poe and Rey's introduction included a call-back to Empire Strikes Back by Poe responding "I know." I think what happens will depend on whether or not Kylo survives the trilogy. If he does, I would assume he and Rey will get together.

Spoiler

That doesn't make me feel better at all. Kylo and Rey together would be the worst possible thing to happen in these new movies. Why would I ever want Rey to end up with someone who tortured her, killed her friends, and has no desire to change? He was given two separate chances for redemption, and he turned them both down, first by killing his father, and second by trying to kill Rey again. It's time for him to go down like the villain he is. Putting them together just to redeem him would be a terrible choice in writing. It's a god awful pairing.

 

[MW7]

Spoiler

That doesn't make me feel better at all. Kylo and Rey together would be the worst possible thing to happen in these new movies. Why would I ever want Rey to end up with someone who tortured her, killed her friends, and has no desire to change? He was given two separate chances for redemption, and he turned them both down, first by killing his father, and second by trying to kill Rey again. It's time for him to go down like the villain he is. Putting them together just to redeem him would be a terrible choice in writing. It's a god awful pairing.

That makes sense to me. A few people I know want it to happen though. I'm trying to figure out if there is a way for this trilogy to end without Kylo dying. You make a good point. At this point, he's committed so many evil acts that it's hard to redeem him.

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

I'm not buying the explanation of Rey's parentage. I really want her to be a descendant of Obi Wan. I actually thought they were trying to allude to that when Luke saw her sleeping and asked who she was. I thought he was sensing something he knew inside her.

Obviously she's too young to be Obi Wan's daughter, but she was one of two characters who have been allowed to keep their British accent. Alec Guinness/Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan was the other. Considering Obi Wan was romantically involved during the clone wars, and the Jedi were forbidden from marrying and having children according to the Jedi order, it would make sense that any of his potential offspring would grow up in isolation, like Rey did, so as to hide the fact that he reproduced.

I doubt they're going to go that way, but one can hope. Maybe we'll learn more from a potential Obi Wan anthology film if they make one, which they should.

 

[Azure Sage]

I'm not buying the explanation of Rey's parentage. I really want her to be a descendant of Obi Wan. I actually thought they were trying to allude to that when Luke saw her sleeping and asked who she was. I thought he was sensing something he knew inside her.

Obviously she's too young to be Obi Wan's daughter, but she was one of two characters who have been allowed to keep their British accent. Alec Guinness/Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan was the other. Considering Obi Wan was romantically involved during the clone wars, and the Jedi were forbidden from marrying and having children according to the Jedi order, it would make sense that any of his potential offspring would grow up in isolation, like Rey did, so as to hide the fact that he reproduced.

I doubt they're going to go that way, but one can hope. Maybe we'll learn more from a potential Obi Wan anthology film if they make one, which they should.

Rey is only 19 so she’d have to be his granddaughter if she’s related to him at all.

 

[DekuNut]

Rey is only 19 so she’d have to be his granddaughter if she’s related to him at all.

And therefore her parents may be nobodies, but her lineage would not.

 

[YIGAhim]

I dislike Rey as a character. I also dislike Kylo as a character

 

[Doc]

I don't understand why it's bad that Rey doesn't have important parents or lineage. I personally prefer it to some convoluted explanation for how she can be X person's child. As the movie puts it, she comes from nothing and doesn't matter in the universe, or at least shouldn't matter. It makes her character more interesting, in my opinion.

 

[YIGAhim]

It's a bad excuse, because everyone started from nothing, so it wouldn't matter much anyway.

 

[Terminus]

Spoiler

Literally half of the plot was pointless. If the Admiral with the purple hair (that stuck out like a sore thumb I might add) had even tried communicating her plan, then Poe wouldn't have asked Rose and Finn to go to the casino to get the codebreaker. That would have cut out the entire casino plot, which felt like aliens hanging out in a 40's era gangster movie, and not an alien place of sin and gambling, and in turn would have prevented the replacement codebreaker from ever having a chance to betray the Resistance's escape pod plans to the First Order. All that managed was to drag out the plot, focusing on an uninteresting B plot with poorly integrated social commentary instead of the superb scenes between the Force Sensitives.

Also, I'm definitely letting my film student side bias me here, but the weird integration of the weapons dealer social commentary seems like a very clumsy attempt to follow Jean Luc Godard's rule of film politicization;

The problem is not to make political films, but to make films politically.
—Jean-Luc Godard (2)

This is especially baffling, because the First Order being the in-universe equivalent of neo-Nazis and Kylo Ren being a man in his mid-20s that gets off on Hitler Vader memerobilia is an excellent example of making a film politically follow the modern climate. It makes the aforementioned "arms dealer" commentary seem even more forced in comparison.

As a side note, the shot when Holdo flies the Resistance ship into Snoke's Destroyer is hands-down my favorite moment in the entire film, and quite possibly the franchise.

I've spent a long time ragging on this film, but I did enjoy it for the most part. Everything with Luke (except the milk scene, wtf?) was amazing, especially when you get to hear ANH Luke slip through when he speaks to R2 in the Falcon. Rey's recounted force hallucinations from the pit were a treat to watch, and the differing stories about the night Ben turned were enjoyable.

To conclude this 11 PM film review after a long day, I'd give this a 7 or an 8 out of 10. I enjoyed it more than the prequels by far, but it has too many flaws to put it near the top of my list.

 

[DekuNut]

Spoiler

While it wasn't explained well in the film, I believe the reason why Holdo never told Po what she had planned was because she was afraid there was a mole in the group after the First Order tracked them through Hyperspeed. That's new technology after all. While she should've given it up when he had his coupe and they really should've explained it better, I can see what they were trying to do.

 

[A Link In Time]

From the way the movie ends with the movie using the force to pick up the broom, it's clear there is some change in how the force works and anyone who's force sensitive enough can potentially become a full blown user. I hope they explain this shift in Episode IX, however, because it would be strange why we never saw any other force users in the original trilogy. Did something happen in the Star Wars universe between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens?

 

[Azure Sage]

I don't understand why it's bad that Rey doesn't have important parents or lineage. I personally prefer it to some convoluted explanation for how she can be X person's child. As the movie puts it, she comes from nothing and doesn't matter in the universe, or at least shouldn't matter. It makes her character more interesting, in my opinion.

The reason I thought of it as a cop out was because to me it felt like they were setting up for more than that in 7 (“The belonging you seek is not behind you, but ahead”). With the visions she had when she found the lightsaber pertaining to Luke, it felt like they were hinting at her lineage. That’s why it bugged me that they made her parents nobodies.

 

[Spirit]

The reason I thought of it as a cop out was because to me it felt like they were setting up for more than that in 7 (“The belonging you seek is not behind you, but ahead”). With the visions she had when she found the lightsaber pertaining to Luke, it felt like they were hinting at her lineage. That’s why it bugged me that they made her parents nobodies.

Most of this film felt designed to do nothing but sink fan theories. This one is for you guys!

 

[MW7]

From the way the movie ends with the movie using the force to pick up the broom, it's clear there is some change in how the force works and anyone who's force sensitive enough can potentially become a full blown user. I hope they explain this shift in Episode IX, however, because it would be strange why we never saw any other force users in the original trilogy. Did something happen in the Star Wars universe between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens?

I read an article where the author pointed out that the title "The Force Awakens" may need to be re-interpreted beyond just Rey after seeing The Last Jedi. The Last Jedi seems to emphasize the balance aspect of the force, and Snoke said something about light rising to meet the darkness rising.

 

[Libk]

From the way the movie ends with the movie using the force to pick up the broom, it's clear there is some change in how the force works and anyone who's force sensitive enough can potentially become a full blown user. I hope they explain this shift in Episode IX, however, because it would be strange why we never saw any other force users in the original trilogy. Did something happen in the Star Wars universe between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens?

Well Darth Vader wasn't hunting down people with Force sensitivity anymore.