And the PT taking place right on Tatooine is acceptable because it mirrors Luke’s journey? Why can’t TFA mirror Luke’s journey?
The prequels didn’t have any reason to exactly mirror Luke’s journey, either.
Anakin’s journey mirroring Luke’s is made clear since TPM, so it makes sense that Qui-gon finds Anakin on Tatooine (and since Anakin was Luke’s father, it still makes sense he was living on Tatooine too). The reason is so we can finally compare Luke’s journey to Anakin’s, to see why they were alike yet different.
Why would TFA mirror Luke’s journey, though? I can’t find an answer, since there are lots of references in TFA, but mirroring is done for very different characters throughout the movie, so there’s no consistence to begin with.
To this, there are WAY more rehashed plot points, and this time for no actual reason at all:
-a droid carries important data;
-the one who got the data, later gets captured (were they trying to compare Poes’s journey to Leia’s? For what reason? 😄 )
-the droid gets on a desert planet that looks almost exactly like Tatooine;
-the main protagonists have to escape this planet while chased by the empire/FO;Luke’s journey etc.
Mirrored for who and for what reason?
-the Falcon is caught in a tractor beam;
Completely different situation.
That’s true, it’s more like a visual reference.
-the old man examines the droid’s data (for what reason Han has to mirror Ben?);
[…] -the old man is killed by the main villain (again, why Han has to mirror Ben?);Han’s now a father, so making him a father figure to Rey establishes this character trait.
Was Obi-wan like a father to Luke? He was an acquaintance and him mentor. Han is not Rey’s mentor (in fact, she knows how to repair the Falcon better than him 😄 ). Palpatine was also a father figure to Anakin, but they didn’t have him to kill him in the PT to enstablish his role 😄
-the empire/FO is lead by a hooded darkside user;
By this point, that’s pretty much a prerequisite for Star Wars. Had it been otherwise, people would have bitched about it, too.
I also saw lots of people bitching because they didn’t get a military commander instead. Snoke didn’t have to look so much like Palpatine either, though.
-one of the main charcters is captured AND interrogated EXACTLY in the same base they were to destroy (don’t tell me J.J. wanted to mirror Rey’s journey to Leia’s, again for what reason? 😄 );
Why not?
What would they accomplish making Rey mirror with Leia? Are they somehow alike? Do they fill the same role? Is Rey a Republic leader?