But why repeat the mistake when you know you have a trilogy planned? It just doesn’t make sense to me at all, especially given how much scrutiny is inevitable with a franchise like this one.
Oh, I definitely agree on this point.
But I think it does make sense considering they don’t have an infinite amount of time to come up with the perfect story, while at the same time, they can’t take too many artistic risks considering how much they bought the property for. Which is why we get repeats of so many things from the OT.
I don’t think Luke was a Marty Stu at all. That first lesson on the Falcon still didn’t amount to anything that might dampen Han Solo’s cynicism (“I call it luck!”). Luke was like “I did feel something…” but it was pretty vague and hardly conclusive. It’s not like he turned around and mind-tricked Chewie into handing over his wallet. And the Death Star thing was just an extension of that lesson - “do that thing I showed you earlier” - not to mention that Luke was already pretty confident with regard to two-metre targets.
For me, I think it just felt too convenient, and in hindsight, it seems rushed and way too condensed. Lucas originally envisioned an epic story which took place over a series of films. He didn’t think he’d get the chance, so he condensed all the story into one film, which is why we never got to see Luke dueling with a lightsaber, and yet we still get to see him destroy the Death Star and save the galaxy.
Plus, that’s crazy how his x-wing shot literally turned to go down the corridor. Even Robot Chicken made fun of that.
By TESB it seemed clear to me (in 1980) that Luke, now fully aware of his heritage as a Jedi’s son, would have been practising as best he could in the intervening 3 years (“but I’ve learned so much!”) - and even then his levitation skills were pretty lacklustre on the Jedi scale. He got a boost under Yoda’s tutelage, managed to lift some rocks (but not an X-Wing), and of course Yoda wasn’t such a big fan of failure back then! We know the rest. He quit his training early and got his ass handed to him by Vader.
This is a good point. I would have thought that you would need someone to train you in the Force, but at least the film made it seem like there was some considerable amount of time between ANH and ESB.
ROTJ occurred some time later, and again - given Luke’s new attitude re Vader (sheer outrage had been replaced by a calm Zen ‘must save Dad’ attitude) - it seems clear that he had honed his skills during that time. There is at least a sense of growth, of progress, and of consequence. Rey just gets everything on a platter - mind tricks, levitation, you name it, and at no cost, no Dark Side issues etc.
I agree. I thought there was some slight implication Rey would be tempted by the dark side in TLJ, but mostly that was because Luke got scared at her abilities, and that thing with the hole in the ground. I didn’t sense there was much, if any, internal struggle with Rey.
Of course the Force doesn’t exist, so credulity is in the eye of the viewer. For me Luke’s journey was like that of the Karate Kid. Firstly, not any Tom, Dick, or Rey can do Karate. You have to train for it. Secondly, you have to master the self, balance the forces that can sway you one way or another and thwart your quest for mastery. Without this the Force is boring. It’s just an X-Men power that lucky kids wake up with one day.
I agree on this.
But despite the ST hitting most of the same beats as the OT, one beat they didn’t want to repeat was watching another Jedi-in-the-making struggle to train. It was shown in ESB for a reason: to show that Luke was impatient with the training, and that him taking the shortcut to save his friends was signaling to the audience that he too was making the same mistake as young Vader, and possibly was going to turn to the dark side.
Also, there’s a different message going on in the ST. Whereas the those adept with the Force in the OT might appear as “privileged” or members of an exclusive family dynasty, the Force in the ST is shown to be more inclusive. Power to the people and all that, rather than relying on a select few to make change in the world.