Hey guys, I’m back again for round 2 with Mr. Flick Flack Film. As you remember, last time we just barely scratched the surface of his “criticisms” of The Last Jedi. Let the Rebuttal Begin!
(Here’s the link to the original video again, I’ll be picking up about the 1:20 second mark https://youtu.be/C6fDPKNPqGM )
Do we find out who Rey’s parents are? No. It turns out, it doesn’t…matter.
We don’t?
I can understand that they want to show you that people who come from nothing can make their own choices to become something more and greater. But Star Wars is about special people, that’s why we watch it. If the people on screen are just as unimportant as us, why do we watch them?
First of all, this was the second act of a 3 act story. Just because we weren’t explicitly shown Rey’s past in this chapter doesn’t mean we won’t get more revelations in the next. The story is NOT fully told yet.
Secondly, just by answering the call to adventure the “normal” person becomes “special”. Luke was not “special” until he followed Obi-Wan on a damn fool idealistic crusade. In fact, if you look at the cut scenes from Episode 4 he was LESS than normal. He was a loser. The goofy, whiny, kid that is grudgingly allowed to hang out with his much cooler friends.
If the droids had never crashed on Tatooine and been purchased by Owen Lars, Luke would’ve likely spent his entire life fixing moisture vaporators until he died a desiccated corpse of an old man at 60.
Thirdly, how can you say Rey is not “special”? Who CARES who her parents were? What does that have to do with anything? Is Han Solo not special? We don’t know his lineage but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t a divine birth, created by the Force itself.
If in Empire, the fake line used on the set ended up being in the final cut and we found out Obi-Wan killed Luke’s father instead of Vader BEING his father, is Luke suddenly not special any more?
How about Rogue One? That movie blew me away. I loved it. But what about Jyn is special?
Her dad is a super smart scientist and she is…what exactly? An orphan raised by a Rebel extremist? Nothing more than a common soldier. Jyn is not special at all, but her story is still special and important.
Lastly, Rey IS special. Not because of who her parents are or aren’t but because of what she’s done. She was chosen by the Force, through Luke/Anakin’s lightsaber, to find Luke and what? We think in TFA she’s supposed to bring Luke back to help restore peace and balance to the galaxy by defeating Snoke and the First Order. But what we find out is that’s only partly her mission. Her real call the adventure is to find herself through her interactions with Luke on the island. When Luke later sacrifices himself to save the remnants of the Resistance, we see that the real reason the Force called to Rey was so that SHE could carry the Jedi forward. SHE would learn what she needed to know from Luke and the island, and yes even from Snoke and Kylo. So that in the end when she has to make her choice she doesn’t hesitate, she knows her path. Not because it was written in her DNA but because she found her own way.
She answers the call in TFA and from that point on she ceases to be as unimportant as us and becomes something special. Her parents are ultimately irrelevant.
Plus The Force Awakens sets up us finding out who Rey’s parents are. They show us flashbacks and make us ask that question.
Again, the story is not OVER yet. We’re learning the truths about Rey in real time as she learns it. Are her parents really just junk traders? Or is Kylo Ren preying on her insecurity and fear when he prods her into saying that? Is that reality or just what she fears the most? I happen to still believe her parentage will turn out to be something bigger than what she believes. But if it doesn’t? I’m fine with that too.
The crushing emotional weight of her facing and accepting her worst fear in that scene and Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver’s amazing delivery were enough for me.
The way he preys on her weakness and fear, trying to convince her that she means nothing to anyone but him is a master class in Sith/Dark Side seduction. That is the Vader/Luke moment of this trilogy. Better written, and more subtly acted. It’s heartbreaking and yet instead of being broken by it, Rey finds strength in it. She now sees her place in the story, she knows who she is. Who her parents were doesn’t matter. She casts aside her greatest weakness, as Kylo calls it, and can follow the light.
Yes, the flashbacks in TFA make you question her parentage and her history. The Last Jedi tells us that the answers don’t matter and that’s OK.
Do we find out who Snoke is and where he comes from? No. It doesn’t matter. He dies. We’re never going to find out.
AGAIN, the story isn’t over. For all we know Snoke is a Force ghost who allowed Kylo to “kill” him and will show back up later. Who knows.
For now the fact is Snoke was a red herring of sorts. The final trial for Kylo Ren. He even tells Rey to kill the past, let old things die, it’s the only way to become what you were meant to be. In that moment he realized killing Snoke was his only way forward. If he was ever reach his full power Snoke had to die.
Would you rather he waited until Episode 9? Maybe Snoke could be torturing Rey to death and at the last minute Kylo turns on his master and saves Rey? Maybe tosses him down a reactor shaft?
Sorry. Been there, done that.
Instead we’re given a rare treat. A totally expected betrayal yet COMPLETELY unexpected. Not only that, it’s given an added twist when it is revealed, again through a brilliantly written and acted exchange, that he didn’t do it to save Rey because he’s good again, but instead that he’s and even BIGGER PIECE OF SHIT than we thought. What you just saw was the equivalent of Anakin chopping off Mace Windu’s arm, killing a room full of baby Jedi, and choking (arguably to death) his baby momma ALL IN ONE SCENE! And let’s face it, A WAY BETTER SCENE than all of those combined (and I love the prequels!)
Who is Snoke? Where did he come from? Who CARES??? Snoke was a rung on a ladder for the true villain of the piece. His backstory will make for an interesting comic or novel, otherwise who cares.
People who are legit upset or disappointed in what happened to Snoke after truly thinking about it, are more than likely more upset at being “tricked” than about him being a “wasted” character.
Rian Johnson fooled us all. In a glorious, masterful way. Enjoy it. Revel in it. How many times does a movie actually succeed in surprising you anymore? For me? Almost NEVER.]
Is Rey turned to the dark side? No. Not at all.
Does Kylo turn to the light side? No.
[So what? This was just another dumb fan theory. There was almost 0% chance that it would be true.But the fun is in the tease. The whole time Johnson has the audience guessing, trying to gauge which one will turn, who is really good, who is really bad. You’re not sure even until the last moment after Kylo and Rey briefly team up and dispatch Snoke’s guards.
These complaints are rubbish.
Do Kylo and Rey abandon their masters and become their own thing? No, not really.
Uhhhhh I’d say cutting one’s master in half qualifies as abandoning them to become your own thing.
We were promised the Jedi would end.
No we weren’t. We were teased with a single quote by Luke Skywalker. Nothing more.
And a good way to do that would be to have Rey and Kylo become the balance.
Ahhh the “gray Jedi”. So much buzz about this, I honestly did think this would happen.
But in the end, they went a different direction. So what. You want a neutral Force user? Watch the Mortis Trilogy episodes of The Clone Wars. They’re excellent.
You see Yoda somehow use lightening to strike down the temple and burn it.
No he didn’t. He burnt down the Whispering Tree that housed the last of the ancient Jedi texts. Not the Ach-To Temple which is a cave. Or Luke’s temple which actually IS shown burning down. It was a tree.
Pretty much acknowledging that the books have no importance.
Wrong again.
But later we see that Rey actually took the books.
Yay! You got one right.
So there are still going to be Jedi?
Ummmm duh? Star Wars?
So pretty much it was all pointless.
Not at all pointless. Very much with point.
See, I had trouble with this at first too until I saw the movie a couple times. Then it made complete sense what Yoda was doing.
Yoda hasn’t see Luke in decades, presumably since he went into exile and shut himself off from the Force. Once he opens himself up by contacting comatose Leia, Yoda is able to see him again and comes to him to give him the council he most certainly would have years earlier if he could.
He burned down the tree knowing full well that Rey had taken the books. Hell for all we know he may have TOLD her to take them. There’s nothing to say he hasn’t been communing with her all along (or at least since he spoke to her in Maz’s castle).
He burned the tree when he saw Luke hesitate to do it himself in order to force Luke to, as he said, “look beyond a pile a dusty books”. And also to troll him. His pure joy at watching Luke freak out over the presumed loss of those books was the most Yoda moment I’ve seen since 1983.
Yoda’s lesson for Luke is simple. Masters fail. Masters make mistakes. The fall of Ben Solo was not entirely a failure on his part, it just happened. His final line to Luke is “We are, what they grow beyond. That is the burden of all Masters”.
Yoda is telling Luke, you gave that boy all your knowledge and taught him to be like you. But ultimately he grew beyond you as all students do, and the path he took after that was his choice. You may feel the burden of responsibility but you are no more or less responsible for that choice than any other Master. Whether the student is good or bad, all Masters feel the burden of having no control over the end product of their teaching.
In other words stop being such an emo bitch about it.
Do we get aaaany crazy epic lightsaber battle at the end or in the throne room? No not at all.
Um, what? Did we watch the same movie?
The only lightsaber contact we get is in flashbacks.
Ahhh. I get it. You’re confusing battle with duel.
Ok, true. There were no lightsaber on lightsaber fights, but to act like there wasn’t an intense battle in that throne room scene is crazy talk. I’m not sure how the action in that scene could be a disappointment.
It was like an 8 on 2 free for all. Go back and watch that sequence again and I dare anyone to say it failed to deliver something different and amazing. It ends with 2 of the DOPEST moves I’ve ever seen in ANY fight involving lightsabers.
Do we get a new lightsaber color?
Seriously? You’re taking off points for no new lightsaber color? Blue, green, red. What other color does the SW Universe need? They’re weapons not fashion accessories. Sure they drop the occasional special color for a space pimp here or there, but they’ve been pretty consistent over the years with the look of lightsabers.
Maybe a black one from Snoke? No.
You mean like the Dark Saber in Clone Wars/Rebels? They’ve already done a black blade in universe. There’s no way they would take away the specialness of that relic and say oh now Snoke gets a black one too.
Snoke, much like Palpatine had moved far beyond the need for such rudimentary tools as a lightsaber by the time of TFA. He doesn’t need one. He can literally control and manipulate the minds of other trained Force users. What use would a lightsaber even be to him?
Again. If people would take a minute to look past their fanboy wishlists, they would be able to appreciate this film a lot more.
But when people are complaining because Snoke didn’t use a lightsaber? Give me a break.
Ok, gang, that’s the end of part 2! Are we having fun yet? Everyone ready to go see The Last Jedi again? I am.
Stay tuned though, this poor soul is not finished yet, and neither am I.
