The more I think on the idea of “A Jedi can come from anywhere!” where being part of a legacy is the only thing we’ve ever seen from Star Wars just absolutely, utterly falls on its face for me. Luke Skywalker is the only Legacy Jedi we’ve ever seen. But I’ll be generous and throw Leia and Kylo Ren in there as well, I suppose. That’s still only three! But Anakin Skywalker? Was no one from the ass end of nowhere. There was zero Skywalker Legacy, he was 100% original and started out pretty much just where Rey did. Was he born from the Force? Sure. But the implication on Rey is that she was born to meet the rising Dark in the galaxy, so how is that really all that much different? Every other Jedi in the prequels? Came from somewhere that we barely even knew, because that wasn’t the important part of their character. They weren’t part of the Skywalker legacy and are you telling me that Obi-Wan Kenobi or Ahsoka Tano or Kanan Jarrus or Ezra Bridger or Maul or Asajj Ventress don’t have important stories? Oh, but they mean that Force users don’t have to just be Jedi? Okay, sure, but how exactly did TLJ show us that? Rey’s a Jedi. Broom boy is strongly implied that he’s going to be a Jedi. “I will not be the last Jedi,” Luke says. Where are all these non-Jedi Force users? (p.s. the Nightsisters called to say hi.) Force users have always come from ANYWHERE and they always will. This isn’t new or revolutionary.
thewillowbends said:
Whether or not they go on to becomes legends or exert a unique impact on the galaxy is not promised. Plenty of righteous endeavors are made within the movies by entirely Force-bereft individuals.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this movie and Disney in general lately, especially as so many people are articulating the parts that don’t work for them in this movie and in the way Disney is handling this in a bigger way. The discussion of Finn’s part of the story and the lack of it actually doing anything or having any ultimate meaning is part of what’s gotten me back on this track– One of the conflicts I see, in the sense of trying to understand wtf Disney is even doing, is that this movie really, really is Not That Deep. So many people write these big think pieces and maybe some of them might hit on some of the actual intentions there, I’ve haven’t see Rian talk much about that kind of stuff. But so many of them are ascribing these big, sweeping themes to the movie that just don’t really hold up. FOR EXAMPLE: “Let the past die.” as a way of saying that we need to let go, that the movies are about moving on. Well, if that’s the intention, maybe they shouldn’t regress the characters to saying they’re the Rebellion instead of the Resistance, in a deliberate move to call back to the OT. Maybe Disney shouldn’t be producing all those OT-based toys, if they’re trying to move on from the past. Maybe we shouldn’t be getting all those comics and novels about the OT characters then. OR: Poe’s story makes sense to me as a story that’s about the running theme of the movie, that the main characters are being truly set into their roles, that the focus is on having a character really truly catalyze them into cementing themselves into the role they’re going to play in this story. But when I look at Poe’s story just on its own merits, it feels like a disaster. He disobeys orders and gets all their bombers taken out. He makes a scene on the bridge. He mutinies against direct orders. He puts a plan into action that gets even more people dead and their plan to escape to Crait is fucked over because of it. Yet, when he has a plan, people look to Leia, just so the movie can have her say, “What are you looking at me for? Follow him!” Wtf??? How on earth is this a story that should end with Poe getting support? How is this a good story for his character at all?? And ultimately I can only chalk it up to that this movie is not that deep. The problem is that the movie seems to be trying to achieve that kind of depth, but it just really, really is not that deep. So then we get to the Force-related stuff. “Oooh, they’re saying that the Force doesn’t belong to the Jedi! So revolutionary!” No, that’s been there since all the way back to the PT. We see Jedi as the central characters because they’re our main characters, but, hell, the Whills have existed since before the very first film was made, the Nightsisters also existed just fine, this movie pretty much only shows us Jedi and whatever Snoke and Kylo are. Again, this movie is not that deep. It is nothing new and certainly not revolutionary. (I put that last one more on the fans than the movie, because the movie itself seemed pretty damn clear that the Force itself was bending over backward to smack Luke in the face and to create new Force users who are pretty sure to be Jedi, especially since Rey sneaked those books onto the Falcon.) Sometimes trying to understand this movie feels like a bit of a fool’s errand to me, because I’m not sure there are satisfying answers to be found.
This. Individual scenes aside, the thing that bugged me the most was that the movie failed to commit to almost any of its ideas. "The jedi order needs to end," right or wrong, was never fully dealt with. It could have been an interesting direction if a new understanding of the Force and its balance was going to come about instead. Or if Luke was wrong in that thought - a motivation for why he does suddenly seem to approve of the jedi again at the end would have been nice. Just like with Poe, when the consequences of his actions are given very little weight. Or Finn, who does finally show character development in deciding not to run away, only to have the movie say "wait, deciding not to run away is now a bad thing." Challenging some of the stereotypes and preconceived notions with new themes and ideas IS deep. Doing so inconsistently without much rhyme or reason is just poor storytelling. But that's just my opinion...
