How is it not a flaw to fail to explain how a new protagonist far supersede both of the previous saga main characters for two movies, then retconning it to some vague super-inheritance in the third film?
But is she really all that more powerful than Anakin or Luke? Do we really need to see a training arc beyond what was in TLJ and the opening of TROS (she’s been training with Leia and on her own during the time skip)? The character still struggles and has the whole “found family” arc, so it’s not like she’s a god-mode Mary Sue (e.g., Starkiller from The Force Unleashed).
And as for killing off the OT characters, even Mark Hamill has expressed disappointment in Lucasfilm failing to bring back the old cast as so many fans were hoping for. Yes, Ford has an odd relationship with SW, Fisher’s passing was obviously out of everyone’s control, but killing off Luke was to many a step too far. And Lando’s “mandatory” appearance in TROS didn’t really serve much of a story purpose.
I get the issue around it, but I really don’t think it was an issue because the sacrifice was handled so well in the movie. I know an OT reunion scene would’ve been welcome, but I think the story is fine without it.
What annoys me is that I think the new trilogy could have been saved with just one minor adjustment to TLJ. If Luke hadn’t been killed off and Rey had received some actual mentoring in the third film, then I think the whole thing could have come to a much more satisfying conclusion.
I really don’t think that. Rey gets enough mentoring in the movie and it serves the story well.
I still would have had some complaints, sure, but it would have felt more consistent and like a proper “passing of the torch” story. It would have given Luke more of a complete arc and a position in the saga worthy of what was set up previously and how he is perceived by the fandom, and it could also have helped give some much needed limitations to Rey’s abilities (which TLJ did kind of touch on), while still allowing for her grand powers in the third film. And hopefully this would have resulted in a third film that gave Finn and Poe more to do.
I’d say that TLJ did all of that. That was the worthy ending that fit with the Luke of the OT.
I personally can forgive TFA for it’s unoriginality due it having the massive task of having to bring back fans after the PT, and I can appreciate the depth and nuance that Johnson attempted to add to Luke (though I’m still torn on whether it should have been done or not), but in the end I think the lack of an organic ending made the whole trilogy crash and burn. With Luke as a strong link to the OT and ideas more akin to Trevorrow’s planned finale I think the ST could have been quite good, if not a fair bit derivative.
I’m not all that keen on TROS, but it still feels like a decent and fairly organic ending to me. Rey has her found family and much like Luke in ROTJ, there’s room to speculate on her next move. Heck, the claiming of the name with ghostly approval works well as a torch pass to me.
Granted, I’d have set the ST 100 years after ROTJ with only Chewy, R2, 3PO, and ghost Luke returning. All the themes could be explored without causing unexpected disturbances with OT fans.