No, TLJ doesn’t exist in a vacuum. But when looking at it in context of the other films one thing you shouldn’t be doing is reading motives into things you don’t like. Unless you have some insight from something other than the films that the people making these films have some secret message or motive, you are just talking nonsense. As one saying that frequently goes around writers circles goes, an English teachers expounds on the meaning of blue in a particular work and when you ask the author they reply that there is no meaning, they just meant the color blue. When you try to put motives to people without a shred of proof beyond what you imagine you are seeing in the films, you are just making things up out of thin air. That I have a problem with. When you lift up Luke beyond his all to well documented human failings and say TLJ failed because Rian Johnson tapped into that humanity, you are falling prey to creating unrealistic expectations of the character. Rian even played on that in the story. He knew what you were thinking and took the character in a more interesting direction. That you don’t like that is fine, but stop taking your criticism of the direction he went and building this big conspiracy around it. You don’t like it. We get it. But if you come at it from a ridiculous set of expectations, I’m going to have something to say.
Interesting direction? Luke achieved something his masters couldn’t using a technique they didn’t espouse (Luke: “I can’t kill my own father.” Ben: “Then the Emperor has already won.”) and the culmination of his ingenuity and true Jedi-like approach was to become Failed Jedi Hermit #3. It’s the exact opposite of interesting or unique. It’s downright unoriginal. And poorly executed.
What conspiracy are you talking about? How are my expectations ridiculous? I didn’t expect anything going in other than hopefully a good Star Wars movie. I don’t feel I got one.
I come at this from the writer’s point of view. Writers have to be somewhat free to tell the story that compels them. Rian Johnson is a Star Wars fan. JJ Abrams is a Star Wars fan. It colors what they do with the characters. Their stories fit with the characters as they see them. It is not some great Disney or Lucasfilm conspiracy. It is them taking creative license to tell a story within a framework. I see what they were doing as I saw what Lucas did with the PT. There are some you can’t defend. There is a lot you can. Lucas sucked at dialog and performance choices. He could write a killer story. Abrams is great at crafting characters but is miserable at editing and endings. Rian likes to delve into the character and be more subtle. Their inspirations color what they do. Lucas was trying to create a movie serial (2 hour episodes similar to the old Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon) and he imbibed it with WWII and Samurai influences. I can’t really speak for Abrams, but Rian was open that he watched Twelve O’clock High, Three Outlaw Samurai, and To Catch A Thief to prepare for this movie. The influences show.
I would’ve preferred he spent more time watching Star Wars movies instead.