#@ antis don't jump on this post or I'll incinerate you

[him-e]

What do you think the flaws in TLJ were? I was annoyed by some parts, but not by anything I see people complain about around here.

with the caveat that I’ve only seen the movie once so I’m still in a shocked/confused/I don’t even know if I liked it or not/ state (and I keep hearing everywhere that it gets better at the second viewing):

the Resistance plot is much less interesting than the Force one, completely disjointed from the latter for 2/3 of the movie, and kind of convoluted (they’re doing what? trying to find who? and why should I care?)

Finn continues to be underused (not sidelined). This is a continuation of a problem I saw in TFA, though. They keep using him as “the guy who knows how the Death Star is built because he’s worked there” and… no? Finn’s much more than that. Finn’s ENORMOUS narrative potential lies in his background as a former stormtrooper, the complexity of his breaking ties with the First Order, his ptsd, and what the fact that he’s lived with those people since he was a child could mean for him AND the overall story. Like if you use this potential well, there’s no need for Finn to be force-sensitive or whatever storyline they’re saying he was robbed of. When will they give me my FINN LEADS A HUGE STORMTROOPER REVOLT AND BREAKS THE FO FROM THE INSIDE? The silver lining is that Finn isn’t used as comedic relief as much as he was in TFA.

sometimes the characters’ choices are too abrupt and seemingly without proper build up. Almost if we were missing some scenes. A huge example was Rey suddenly choosing to leave Ahch-To to infiltrate the FO alone to “collect” Kylo. Huh? That’s a harsh decision and a dumb plan, girl. And I’m saying this despite the fact that I absolutely ADORED the reylo storyline.

we don’t actually see the vision Rey had of Ben Solo. The movie didn’t do the ~~show don’t tell~~ here, and as a result it seems like Rey left the island and got captured because Kylo Ren touched her fingertips and she liked it. There wasn’t an adequate sense of urgency either.

the whole Rey/Luke conflict almost entirely revolves around Kylo, when it should have been also about REY herself and her own pull to the darkness. Rey’s darkness/”raw untamed power” was HEAVILY teased in the trailer, but barely came to fruition. And it’s a pity, because that would have made her transition from hating Kylo to relating to him and wanting to save him much more seamless.

not enough Force mysteries! The Ahch-To/Force Tree subplot, the most interesting one imho, wasn’t adequately developed. Why are those books important? What lies there? Why did Luke choose that island to hide on? What secrets was he guarding?

(I hope part of the above gets explored in the next movie, since Rey apparently stole the books)

Snoke goes down without ANY explanation whatsoever re: who he was and what he was trying to accomplish. Now I get none of this was important because he was a plot device since the start (as was the Emperor in the OT), but since his dynamic with Kylo is important to understand Kylo, we should have seen more of it. This is not the seventies anymore and Star Wars isn’t just a trilogy, it’s a massive franchise with a complex worldbuilding, so if you introduce a character, especially a Force-powerhouse like Snoke, you gotta be prepared because bitches are going to demand answers.

the whole anticlimatic-ness is OBVIOUSLY a deliberate narrative choice, and I don’t consider it a flaw but rather one of the reasons that make this movie unique and interesting from a meta perspective. BUT I will say that the whole third act on Crait, though visually stunning and tense and arguably the most cohesive part of the movie, is kind of undermined by coming after what I think is the REAL emotional as well as narrative climax: Kylo killing Snoke and the Rey/Kylo fight against the praetorian guards. It’s hard to remain glued to the screen after such a high point.

This is also why Kylo’s rampage is so infuriating. I mean, DELIBERATELY ANTICLIMATIC, it MEANS A LOT THEMATICALLY, but you just got THIS close to his /redemption/ that seeing him revert to a state of blind rage and murderous violence, even against the person who inspired this change in him, is a real killjoy. It’s really bleak, and it uses Kylo as a berserk agent of chaos in a way that is almost a rehash of his fight in the forest in TFA, writ large. And the suddenness of it all doesn’t give you time to properly absorb the ENORMITY of what happened in the throne room, it just gives you whiplash.

Finally, circular storytelling: the heroes and the villain revert to the dynamics they had pre TLJ, and the status quo is restored. (this isn’t REALLY true though, because SO much has changed between Rey and Kylo, and the Resistance is practically gone and Snoke is dead, so…)

Overall, I think this movie’s biggest enemy was TFA, because it created a false sense of familiarity and “this is going to go exactly the way you think! We’re doing this specifically to cater to your expectations!” and also set up some mystery boxes like Rey’s parentage for NO FUCKING REASON, which the fandom predictably latched on and obsessed for two years and now feels betrayed because [x] fanon reveal didn’t happen.

The expectations were also VERY high for this movie and this never helps. Like some parts disappointed me but that’s because I got too attached to my own headcanons and ideas (based on filming spoilers and such) of how the story would play out. I think most of the audience did.