Michael Everett wrote:Having a total lack of communication between the Hero of the Resistance and the Admiral Of Arrogance led to much of the plot. Most of the issues could have been avoided by a simple "There is a plan and while you don't need to know it yet, it should allow us to escape."
Let's imagine this whole sequence of events as if it were happening in an actual war with an actual military. You are Admiral Holdo, inheriting command of a Battlegroup under fire after the death of the previous CO. You have, under your command, a hotshot CAG who, in a previous action, sacrificed a strategic ressource (a fighter and bomber wing) for a tactical victory and who was demoted because of his demonstrated insubordination. He wasn't removed as CAG, but since his fighters have been destroyed, he is, at that point, literally nothing more than a passenger.
And yet, because he feels he is still important, he demands you explain your plan to him. When you refuse, because you have no personal reason to trust this idiot pilot who gets in your face about having no plan
while your staff is already executing your plan, he goes off and starts a mutiny while you are still under fire.
You see, that whole plot wasn't about miscommunication. It was about Poe Dameron, Hotshot Warrior Pilot, needing to learn that he is a soldier in a military who needs to listen more and, at times, follow orders and trust the chain of command.
You say that whole plot could have been resolved if Holdo had just explained things to Poe, but that would've required Poe to be able to listen to someone who isn't his ego or Leia or for him to demonstrate some respect due a superior officer.
Also, when Poe figures out a part of the plan, he immediately calls his CO a coward. Not earning many points there, I think.
Instead, the Heroes have to try and come up with a plan of their own since their leadership appears to be incompetent, then they don't even recruit the person they're searching for and instead grab someone purely in it for the money and thus very likely to betray them (total lack of thinking there).
But that's the thing: They didn't
have to come up with a plan. They thought they needed to, because Poe Dameron can't deal with not being important.
And sure, they fell for a slick-talking mercenary. That just makes them human, in my opinion; plus, even though that part of the plan fell through, it still gave Finn enough of a perspective on things that he abandons his original plan of just running away to a quiet place and hope this whole war can pass him by, which is the point of
his personal arc.
Meanwhile, Luke has devolved into a whiny judgmental moron who gives the film's Mary Sue Character (her lightsaber skills are atrocious, how the hell did she beat off super-trained Kylo in the first movie?) three lessons to allow her Mary Sue-ness to shine through.
Ahh, the Mary-Sue complaint. Now, one thing to keep in mind about Rey and Kylo's fight in TFA: During it, Kylo is a) severely wounded and b) not trying to kill Rey. Rey, who has at least some experience fighting with hand weapons, is trying
and failing to kill Kylo, who despite the aforementioned factors, is, as you say, still a superior fighter.
As for Rey's story arc: Hers was about self-sufficiency. In TFA, much of her character is built upon her hope that someone will save her from her miserable existance. Her parents, returning in glory and riches. Leia and the Resistance, giving her purpose. Luke, giving her training and taking the burden off her shoulders. But as the cave shows her, there is only herself; she cannot rely on others if she cannot first rely upon herself.
Now, if we're talking about Mary Sues, can we talk about Luke Skywalker for a minute? Only a massive Mary Sue could just casually go from piloting a civilian bush plane and plinking at critters to precision bombing runs while under fire. Oh, and he apparently developed telekinetic abilities all on his own; IIRC, there is no scene in ANH that shows Obi-wan teaching Luke how to move things with his mind, or even displaying that ability, so Luke can just suddenly do that thing when the plot calls for it. Total Mary Sue, he is.
You say Luke has "devolved". Did he? He definitely had and is working through a crisis of faith, brought on by his failure to train others. He went away to find the base truth of the Jedi, their origin, but what he found did not give him what he needed.
Luke, in the OT, was an idealist. He learned about his heritage, he learned about the ideals of the Jedi (which, as the prequels show us, were very much an ideal the Jedi themselves did not live up to), but his abortive Training never taught him to navigate the complexities of being an actual Jedi out in the world. Is it completely out of character for an idealist to become disillusioned, depressed even, when they fail in turning their ideals into reality?
I thought his portrayal really touching, and Mark Hamill's performance was brilliant. Having Luke go out in the best display of Jedi in action in Star Wars as a whole was satisfying and great.
Once the slicer-for-hire betrays the heroes by telling the Bad guys to look out of the window (Yes! Seriously! What the f*** was the writer of that scene on?!), the rest of the heroes hide in a disused mine so that the Bad Guys can drag a Death-Star-inspired artillery piece at them and fire it. Cue Finn being prevented from making the attack that could have blown it up by Miss Preachy-Plot-Device, allowing the Bad Guys to fire it.
And this is a problem because....?
Finn goes through quite a journey. From being scared and afraid and wanting to find a hole and cower in it while the galaxy burns around him, to willing to fight and die for a cause, to willing to
live for that cause is pretty good.
And with all that build-up? It simply punches a hole in the door, and not even a big hole! With the build-up and the tension, it should have carved a valley straight through the base, not duplicated a f***ing satchel charge! The overpressure doesn't even penetrate the caves the Good Guys are fleeing through! Hell, the blast alone should have taken out everyone in/near the cavern, but nooooooooooooooooo... they hide behind boxes so they're okay...
You know, I can sort of see this point if we're talking about something like 5.56 rifle fire punching through the front armor of an Abrams or something that can easily be shown as being completely impossible in actual reality.
But you're watching Star Wars. You don't know anything about these weapons other than what is shown on screen; to complain that they are not what you thought they were is, to me, a bit silly.
Then after what is admittedly one of the better scenes (the lightsaber fight that isn't) we cut to Mary Sue Whatsername (Seriously, she's so Mary Sue-ish that I find it hard to remember what her character's actually called) doing her "let me float all the hundred-plus rocks out of your way effortlessly after just having three lessons" when it took Luke lots more than that under Master Yoda to hit the point where he could (with a lot of concentration/effort) lift a half-dozen PEBBLES and one droid!
Why is Rey being a more natural force user such a problem for you (and the literally hundreds of screamy manchildren on youtube making sweet sweet ad money by being performatively angry about this)?
And how many Good Guys are left? Maybe a dozen and one ship. At least in ESB, the Good Guys managed a strategic victory in getting multiple ships away along with their most important vehicles/tech and even managed to regroup.
The whole thing can be summed up by Kylo's words. "Forget the past. Kill it if you have to." Disney had a chance to use Lucas' ideas for 7-9, which would have given better continuation on the story arcs, but instead chose to go a different route, introducing new characters that they could use for further films in the Star Wars brand but which they wouldn't have to pay anything to Lucas for.
Hmm, yes, George Lucas' ideas, that sounds like a good plan after seeing how much the prequel movies are loved these days.
And just to show how cheap they are getting, the comics are stealing fan-designs for the space-ships instead of trying to develop their own. Check out the Nebulon-K Starship for a good example. Marvel grabbed the 3D image from Sketchup and traced it from various angles in their comic.
They didn't even bother to credit the original artist...
So because a marvel artist chose to use a fan design in a comic, the movie The Last Jedi is bad?
I don't get that one, help me out here.