Fair point, but let's not pretend that that scene in 7 was anything more than JJ's usual mystery box, set up with no plan for execution, writing.
How on earth Disney allowed a trilogy of films in a franchise as massive as star wars to not even have a speculative outline for an overall arc blows my mind.
As said, I don't think Last Jedi is a good film, so my defence is going to be pretty half arsed, but just a few points I'd like to challenge.
Finn joined the resistance because he witnessed an atrocity as a trooper and didn't want to be a bad guy. He got disillusioned and questioned whether the resistance were actually good because they had to do things that also killed lots of people. He ultimately decides it's justified. I'd argue that characters overcoming struggles and having a bit of depth is a good thing.
Carrie Poppins was a bad, bad, choice, agreed.
Poe leading a mutiny because he didn't know what was going on, because he'd been demoted, because he didn't follow orders, demonstrates that while he may be a great pilot, he's far too impulsive and his own actions are what holds him back. This shows where his character can, and needs to, grow if he's ever going to be at the top table.
Canto continues with the strong anti-imperialism of the original trilogy. The purpose of that entire piece is as a commentary on the military industrial complex, and how it has conflicted goals as it benefits more from continued war than peace.
"The animal rights bit" - dude, the culmination of RotJ was the Empire being beaten by teddy bears, this again is a constant theme throughout the OT, that exploitation occurs everywhere within an imperialist system.
it's been 30 years since we last saw Luke, and even then his training was incomplete, because he'd run away impulsively to get back to Han and Leia. Luke is flawed - my biggest peeve with certain parts of the old EU was how some authors painted him as almost christ like and perfect, perfect is boring - and ultimately failed to rebuild the academy. He fucked up so badly that, yes, he misunderstood a vision, and thought Ben was going to go to the dark side. He then caused this, couldn't forgive himself, and lived in self-imposed exile as penance. Of course he didn't want the lightsabre that he'd already given up. Wouldn't it be even weirder for him to be all "oh, thank you so much for giving me back the sabre I purposefully discarded after I tried to murder my nephew and turned him away from the light, it would look great on my wall!"
don't kink shame blue titty drinking! 😂
Again, was it a great film? No, far from it. But at least it tried to give depth to characters, had them tackle challenges, and overcome them and/or grow through failure.
With Palpatine coming back, somehow, in 9, it completely destroys Anakin's redemption, because it turns out that he didn't actually kill Palpatine after all, so no final great act, no meaningful sacrifice, Vader dies for nothing.
For all its faults, and there are many, nothing Last Jedi did destroyed the main character of the fanchise's arc quite like that.
"Somehow", lightspeed skipping, 3PO not being able to translate from sith, the ancient dagger that is also the shape of the crashed death star from a highly specific angle, Palpatine fucks, whatever a diad is, 10,000 star destroyers.
I'm not pretending that 8 is a masterpiece, it isn't, and it's worse than any of the OT, but at least Johnson tried to do something to keep star wars at a galactic scale.
The worst bit of 9 is how small it makes star wars. Everything comes down to a tale of two families - Palpatine and Skywalker - in a way that nullifies everyone else's involvement. For a story that spans a literal galaxy, having it come down to those two families, twice, is terrible writing.
Oh absolutely. I'm not saying that they should be allowed to do whatever and face no repercussions, just that the more severe they are, the more they can be weaponised by populists.
The fundamental problem with expulsion is that it changes the persecution narrative from being complete bullshit, to being arguable.
Hungarians need to sort Orban out, the exact same as the French with their fascists, and Germany, and Italy, and...need I go on?
There is no good play here, but it requires all Europeans to remember that we beat them before, and we sure as fuck will beat them again as long as people get involved.
Romeo and Juliet is a comedy, not a tragedy.
Two teenagers thinking their first crush is worth literally killing themselves in the dumbest scenario imaginable, I mean come on!