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Post #1152436

Author
NFBisms
Parent topic
The Last Jedi: Official Review and Opinions Thread ** SPOILERS **
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1152436/action/topic#1152436
Date created
2-Jan-2018, 2:05 AM

Valheru_84 said:

NFBisms said:
In his mind, his presence and the spread of the teachings that turned Vader and Kylo, endangered the galaxy and only doomed it to more of the same darkness. A cycle that would only continue repeating itself.

Maybe that’s what was supposedly in Jake Skywalker’s mind (I’m not going to acknowledge that this is Luke, much like Hamill couldn’t in order to act out this character) but how does this ultimately serve the story in any way if the force just magically grants super powers to random people anyway in order to balance out power in the galaxy? Say that Rey kills Kylo in the next film and goes on to become the new Jedi Master (since Jake proclaims he is now NOT the last Jedi, completely negating his reasons for supposed self exile and what he tried to teach Rey about the folly of the dogmatic religion to the force). According to these new rules, another dark side user will simply rise and be granted these powers without any significant effort required on their part in order to counter the imbalance in only Rey then existing for the light side. And what’s not to say that Rey won’t start her own Jedi school which grows and exists for hundreds of generations, generating it’s own rules and lore revering the force with the Sith / dark side users always lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike or leading their own military faction within the galaxy? We’re right back to the start of the PT.

The mere fact that the force itself will always ensure there is balance by automatically empowering individuals to face of against each other actually means the cycle will never end. The only way it could have ended in the way Jake envisioned it would be for him to actually kill of all the dark side users (Kylo and Snoke) and then kill himself so that there is no immediate imbalance in the force. This is not to say though that another person that is force sensitive couldn’t eventually teach themselves (how else would the Jedi have come into being in the first place?) and thereforce recreate the imbalance, starting the cycle all over again.

No, these new rules create many more problems that the OT force rules ever did. The fact under the “old guard” of force lore that you needed someone to guide and teach you in the ways of the force and continue to train over years to reach any significant level of control meant that there was merit and reason in defeating Vader and the Emperor as it meant the removal of that threat and the chance of it returning for a bloody long time. Even if someone was to discover the force themselves and start self teaching, it would be generations later before their offspring became anywhere near proficient and powerful enough to start equalling the jedi / sith of old and there’s still the matter of whether they went down the light or dark side in the end. The idea that because Kylo is gaining in power on the dark side that the force will grant someone on the light side increased power simply to balance out the force sounds cool at first but really it’s pretty silly. What if Rey turns to the dark side with Kylo? Then two other random people will just pop up out of no where with new light side abilities to fight the dark side users? And if they win, what’s the point if the force will then just grant someone else instant access to the dark side since there’s now an imbalance again?

I really don’t think Johnson had much of an idea what he was really doing and the implications they had for SW based on what is already established in the OT. More so it’s becoming pretty evident Disney don’t even have some kind of overarching plan for the ST based on the below comments from RJ:

“When I was writing the movie, I was doing it while they were shooting “The Force Awakens.” So it wasn’t like I was reading all these theories online and being at my typewriter and going “Ha! Ha! Gotcha!”” (which is absolute bullshit) “It was me coming up with a story. I was writing purely from a personal reaction to the script of “The Force Awakens” and what they were shooting.”

“…the first thing I had to crack in the movie is why Luke is on that island. I had to figure out something that made sense, and you don’t know much about where’s Luke’s head is at coming out of “The Force Awakens.””

“…I also have to say I’m not writing the next one, and I’m not sure what J.J. [Abrams] and [screenwriter] Chris Terrio are going to do in the next one with Luke. But setting up possibilities for the next one, honestly, it seems much like Obi-Wan going where he did after “New Hope”…"

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/star-wars-rian-johnson-interview-about-the-last-jedi-fan-backlash-2017-12?r=US&IR=T

.Val

Honestly? I wasn’t even talking really about what you’re ranting about here, but if you want my thoughts, a lot of what you have to say - the entire premise of it, actually - is too presumptive about what TLJ was doing or trying to say. We don’t have a hard and fast answer about the nature of Rey’s or broom boy’s force sensitivity, so I personally haven’t really been touching that. I have my own ideas, but it’s just speculation and not anything the movies explicitly say at all. I don’t actually think TLJ was saying that the force works the way you described, though.

But yes, if that (ending the Jedi = good idea) is what is supposedly going through Luke or Jake’s mind, it is at odds with the idea that the force naturally balances itself. The thing is - the movie goes out of it’s way to tell us Luke was wrong to do and think what he did. So. There you go. Again, though. I don’t think the force works the way you think it does.

There’s nothing to prove definitively that it’s random magic.

FWIW I personally think Lucasfilm not having an overarching plan for the trilogy is fine, because it ensured we got at least one actual movie and not just run-of-mill product flicks. I liked that Johnson was able to imprint more of himself onto TLJ and that it was allowed to be more of a character study than a “can’t you wait for even more SW buy your tickets now1!1!” kind of movie. I know a lot of people wanted something else than what we got, but characters/themes are right up my alley, and I’m ok with it.