I have a question concerning those who enjoyed TLJ. I’d honestly like to hear your POV and don’t want to start a debate.
One thing that has bothered me is how TLJ handles sacrifices. Early on Paige sacrifices herself, and it is seen as a heroic act. Later Holdo sacrifices herself and it is seen as an epic inspiring event.
But near the end, Finn attempts to sacrifice himself but is stopped. It’s here where Rose says it’s not about destroying what we hate, but saving what we love. As she says this, the door explodes in the background making it feels like a HISHE for me.
My point of confusion is, how is Holdo’s sacrifice any different to Finn’s? I can see how Luke’s standoff fits into the theme, but am confused regarding Holdo. Both characters- Finn and Holdo- had to destroy an enemy weapon to save what they loved.
I wonder if I am missing something. Does anyone have any opinions on the topic of sacrifice in TLJ?
This is one of the main points of the movie to me.
Everything is not black or white, and Rian Johnson does a great job of showing how different characters view the exact same events is completely different ways. If everything was a clear cut right or wrong, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.
Rose losing her home and then her sister informs her worldview. She sees winning as surviving, living to fight another day. Finn has spent his entire life in fear and wanting to run away, but now has a new found personal conviction and is ready to draw a line in the sand and sacrifice everything. The mixture of these different characters and their philosophies is what I enjoy in the movie.
Was Poe taking down the Dreadnought worth the lives and ships lost? Leia doesn’t think so. Were Holdo and Luke’s sacrifices necessary? It sure seemed so. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, and that is the difficult part of leadership. Did they get it all right? Who can say?
I suppose all you can do is what you feel is right of course.