If the movie is "wrong", you did not watch it wrong. The makers made it wrong. You as the audience have no influence over a movie. You are unable to "watch" movies wrong. You can only watch them anyways. As always, a great video. Rian Johnson DID kill Star Wars good. The Last Jedi is the gift that keeps on giving.

Expecting chocolate and getting caramel, is a subversion of expectations. Expecting chocolate and getting poop is a betrayal of expectations. To subvert expectations properly, you need to understand what your audience wants and likes.

The reason the argument "Its fiction so why do rules matter" is so shit because if they didn't matter then I can easily ask these questions. Rey needs to destroy Starkiller base. Why doesn't she just teleport it to the sun? "She can't do that." Why can't she, its fiction. Rey wants to see her parents again, why doesn't she just summon them to her house or teleport to them? "She doesn't have the ability to teleport objects." Again, its fiction so she can do whatever she wants so why doesn't she just do what she wants? This is why rules are important for a series, because the character can't just do what they want so there is tension, stakes and drama. Rey needs to destroy Starkiller base, she can't just will it out of existence so she actually needs to work hard in order to infiltrate it and make it self destruct. That sounds way more interesting than her teleporting it to the sun in an instant. Rey wants to see her parents, she can't just bring them to her or go to them because she lacks the power and resources so her only hope is to wait for them to come back. Interesting drama that makes you feel for the character. Without rules, there is literally no reason why every fictional character doesn't get everything they have always wanted and if they did do that, then the story wouldn't be interesting at all. What situation catches your interest the most, a person who was born rich or someone who worked their hands to the bones to get rich? What life story would you prefer? I imagine almost everyone would prefer the latter because struggles and striving and working past obstacles is something that interests people and the reason people have to struggle and strive and work is because we can't do everything and there are rules in place that keep us from doing that. If it entertains us in real life to have rules and limits and struggles then why wouldn't it entertain us in fiction? This argument is purely a lazy attempt to dodge valid criticism for the new Trilogy. Out of the countless issues it has, one thing I really despise is the cheapening of the Force to just being magic that can do anything. Use to just be sensing people, telekensis, electrokensis. It essentially seemed like fancy psychic powers but now its to a point where people are surviving space ship explosions and Superman flying to safety, to creating psychic links from planets away as well as being able to teleport matter instantly through this link to even reviving the dead. Not only are these additions to the Force game breaking as How it Should Have Ended showcases in their video of Rise of Skywalker, it also devalues the past characters because they never tried any of this before. Why do Jedi's use space crafts? Just use the Force to fly like Leia. Why did Anakin's mom die, he could bring her back to life with the Force and prevent Padame from dying with the Force as well, he literally had no reason to turn into Darth Vader since there are Force Abilities that can bring back the dead and heal the injured so this laziness and lack of thought hurts previous plots too. Darth Vader was one of the strongest Force users and apparently he lacked the ability to heal his lungs so he could exist outside the suit and Luke never learned any healing abilities in his movies but Rey with just a few years of training can heal fatal wounds and Kylo can bring back the dead. Luke and Vader must be chumps....or maybe the writers suck at their jobs and couldn't use their imaginations to make a more intelligent way to create the situations they want so the Force is just a plot device that does whatever the writer wants instead of being a powerful but limited cosmic thing that existed in the Starwars universe. Good stories need rules, some of the best stories I can think of have pretty dead set rules like Death Note and Full Metal Alchemist. Rules create drama and stakes and let us know what a character can or can not do and with rules, when you have a character that can reasonably break the rules its a shocking but awesome twist. Stop acting like fiction can just do anything, you know its not true, you would complain about another series having bullshit and are only defending the Sequels because you either like that its pandering to your politics, like that its doing your ship, are ignorant and aren't aware of what people are actually mad about or a corporate shill who just wants Papa Disney to notice them for defending them.

"Forget the past. Slander it if you have to." Aaaand there you have the objective: "The first battleground is to rewrite history... Take away the heritage of a people and they are easily persuaded." - Karl Marx

"You didn't complain when Luke Skywalker did it!" You mean when Luke lost his family? Got his ass kicked by Tuslen Raiders? Lost his mentor? You mean when Luke got his ass kicked by a wampa, and nearly froze to death? When he straight up LOST to Vader, and had his hand cut off, consequently losing his lightsaber? When Luke was being mercilessly tortured by Palpatine? Failed to save his father after bringing him back to the light? You're right. We didn't complain. Now when did ANYTHING LIKE THAT happen to Rey?

The Original Trilogy := The hero's journey of Luke Skywalker The Prequel Trilogy := The story hero's journey and eventual fall of Anakin Skywalker along with the fall of The Republic The Disney Sequel Trilogy := A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (as Shakespeare would say...)

OT: A good story told well. Prequels: A good story told poorly. Sequels: A bad story told abominably.

The real Luke Skywalker would've had a heart-to-heart with any angsty student of his - especially if that student was his own nephew. He would've given Ben a hug, and told him that "dark thoughts are normal, even for me, but they shouldn't define you". He'd have told Han and Leia, and they could've helped him together. Luke Skywalker would not have contemplated murdering a kid in his sleep, no matter what. That's not who he is.

Any major plot twist should be foreshadowed in a way that after the plot twist, the author can show evidence in the story that it was coming. Subverting expectations means hiding the evidence or obscuring it with decoys not omitting it. Then the plot twist evolves into a duel between the author and the audience. The author wins the duel, if the audience has the urge to collectively facepalm itself for not seeing the signs. The author will loose the duel (and the surprise element of the story), if the audience finds out about the hidden evidence before the plot twist occurs. Authors prioritizing the protection of the surprise element are obviously tempted to scale back on the evidence to the point of leaving none at all.

"Heroism is not about being perfect or always winning but breathing hope into the hopeless." This is why Mumen Rider vs Deep Sea King fight from One Punch Man is one of the best things ever put to film. Dude knew he was going to lose - knew he was going to die - but also knew that winning the fight wasn't the point. All he could hope for was to delay until hopefully someone who COULD win would show up, but at the same time he gave hope to the hopeless. And that is one of the defining characteristics of a hero. They jump in and do what needs to be done, damn the consequences.

Luke was not a GarrySue. He was ruled by fear throughout the original trilogy, his fatal flaw, painting EVERY decision he made. Yoda reads him like a book and spells it out for us and him clearly. But Ray is FEARLESS and why shouldn't she be? She was stronger than all her opponents from the start. No internal or external struggle. MarySue 100%.

Remember when *Jedi Master* Luke Skywalker walked into Jabba's palace and single-handedly broke out his friends and killed Jabba without any complications? _yeah, me neither_

Sadly you can make all the rational assessments of these movies and their "story telling" until you're blue in the face, but these ideologues can't understand anything past superficial representation. They don't care about a well rounded, meaningful character arc just so long as, in their mind, someone feels important about their decisions.

We are definitely watching movie wrong. Studios expect us to just buy the ticked and then play Candy Crush for the entire runtime.

Amen to every single point here. A movie written for children can be FAR better than a movie written for adults if the adult movie has terrible plot points and/or character arcs. The idea that "Luke Skywalker, savior of the universe" can become "Luke Skywalker, blue-milk-drinking emo hermit" because "had a bad dream one time, so I tried to kill my nephew, LOL" is so exponentially bad that it killed a multi-billion-dollar franchise within 5 years.

Haven’t seen the _Rise of Palpatine_ yet but it sounds hilarious.

The message of the Last Jedi is simple: Everything the previous heroes did only added to the problems of the universe. So cynical.

Whenever someone says to me, if Rey is a Mary Sue, then so its Luke and Anakin. And i'm just sexist for hating Rey i have this 2 replies: "Even if they were a Mary Sue as well(and they weren't) but even assuming you are right, two wrongs doesn't make a right. Just because they were a mary sue doesn't mean you have to be a bad writer with the new character and make him/her a Mary Sue as well. It just mean you didn't learn from the mistakes done before. And 2, saying Rey is a mary sue its not attacking women. its not an attack on feminism. if anything its attack on males. Because calling a character a Mary Sue, it's actually an attack on bad writing, and since the writers for all 3 movies were male, then the attack is on male writers. So your argument for calling me sexist is invalid. Although since you are already attacking and insulting me, making assumptions on my character because i dare criticize a character within a movie franchise, then you obviously don't care about logic." Anyways, awesome video. Whenever i get into an argument with an SJW defending the sequels i come over to watch your videos again man. it's like a cleansing bath after getting dirt all over me.

Fall of Skywalker was a good romcom

And this is why James Mangold's Logan makes an infinitely better last Jedi.. than The Last Jedi.

They could have just made Luke into Yoda. He could even have thought that he failed Ben by starting his training at too old an age, and said that Rey was too old to train. Derivative, but it would make sense.

In my opinion, Bilbo completed his circle when he stole the Arkenstone from the Lonely Mountain treasure, gave it to the Bard and Thranduil AND then came back to Thorin: 1. He was employed by the dwarves as the burglar - and he stole the most valuable artifact in the Erebor not for the dwarves, but from them 2. Before that event Bilbo has two struggling parts of personality - everybody remembers his calm and fearful 'Baggins nature', but he had also some recklessness and thrill for adventure of Tooks (e.g. during his first adventure in the Wild, he got in trouble because of this, when he was trying to stole something from the trolls instead of informing dwarves about them) - when he gave the Arkenstone to the elves and men, he did something that required great courage of the Tooks, but he did that to protect the peace - so it was the way of the Baggins 3. His return to Thorin, after he gave his treasure to his opponents, shows great loyalty and that Bilbo learnt to value it more than his life.

I think what makes this nihilistic attempt at story telling so frustrating is that it undermines what we all hope for: which is we all hope that at some point, our hard work and sacrifice is worth it.

What bothers me is the thought that is distributed a lot: "it's about space wizards" "it's a story for kids" This is nothing but BS. This is part of the American culture I never liked: babying kids, as if kids can't handle the truth and the world Growing up I watched Japanese Anime, cartoons even, like Voltes V (five). A show that demonstrated: 1. How badass a mother can be flying a plane to give her 3 sons time to win the battle later even if it cost her life 2. A female ninja Voltes V team member (that can whoop 3 of the other 4 team members) who loves and listens to her General Father who is the leader of the forces supporting the Voltes V team 3. A prince born abnormally and cast out, who has to live his life in another planet 4. A prince who's got a chip on his shoulder and is on a crusade based on a lie he found out later that was being hidden from him 5. I can go on so much so-called mature content in this show that's meant to be "for kids." Kids can handle a lot and understands storyline. It's the writers that just can't admit they are not very good writers to begin with and needs to go to writing school.

The frase "All Rey's are queens" seems weird to a spanish speaker like me xD

I mean, the banker in a game of Monopoly could decide halfway through the game that the banker gets going to draw $1000 every time they pass GO. Everyone else is going to leave the game, though.

Excellently said, espescially the highlight of the gap of Luke's development between the OT and ST. We don't need to *see* every single detail that got him there, we just to *know* how he got there somehow, be it through flashbacks or carefully written lines. But we don't have a clue what landed Luke into a emo cynic, *and that is the problem*.

Between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, I think there was a really good connection. We saw Palpatine's rise to power as the Chancellor in The Phantom Menace, and we saw his fall from power in The Return of the Jedi.

I am always struck by your ability to rewrite the focus of your critique in a way that would be successful. You don't change the core of it, but just bend and twist things around so that it is still the same thing but definitively better. Great video as always, looking forward to more.

How it should have ended episode 9 is so much more entertaining than the actual rise of skywalker

Subverting expectations can work well within a story but only if it makes the story more interesting. For example, in Empire Strikes Back, when Darth Vader revealed to Luke that he was his father, that was an subversion of expectations but it was a great plot twist as it left us wondering how the story will proceed with this revelation, which is followed up on with the Return of the Jedi. The Last Jedi, on the other hand, completely fails with it's numerous subversions because each one of them brought various plot threads to a screeching halt. Who are Rey's parents? Who cares, they're nobodies! Who is Snoke? Who cares, he's dead now! What happened to Luke Skywalker? He's an emo cynic now because he did something completely out of character and caused his own fall from grace. He also dies in the end so he's no longer important. Was Finn and Rose's attempt to recruit a hacker help save the day? Nope, their story arc was a waste of time but hey, at least those beasts at the casino were freed! Oh wait... nah, they probably just got captured again. Too bad they didn't bother saving those kids who were being used as slave labor, I'm sure they would had appreciated the rescue.

Here is my question when it comes to subverting expectations: Why did the audience have that expectation? If they have an expectation because you clearly built it up, than subverting it feels cheap. Examples of both from Game of Thrones. When Ned Stark has his head cut off, that is a good subversion of expectations because they gave us no reason to believe he would live, it was outside influence that told us that would happen. When the Red Wedding happened, again, what reasons in universe did we have to believe this guy wouldn't betray them? Then season 8 happened and there were subversion that didn't work. Aya killed the Night King dispite John being heavily hinted at by the writers themselves to be the one to kill him, making no sense and being a bad twist. Then there is the whole King Bran thing, which was a ninth hour drop that could not have been worse. Yeah none of the players the writers set up win, it goes to someone not involved at all.

Luke went from wanting to save Kylo to wanting to kill him to wanting to mock him with permission of Kylos mother who also gave up hope after abandoning him.

The issue with your Luke redemption arc, is that giving Luke any kind of limelight would have been misogynistic, chauvinistic, racist, patriarchal and nazi. Remember, SJWs always paint themselves into corners due to their ideology. If you want to write a story about a dude, you first have to consider how badly you've bashed dudes in front of your SJW peers, because you can be sure they will remember and hold you up to that standard. And now I've written like half of all the comments at this point. I'm fucking mental. Sorry.

The Reyturn of Rey Rey Binks

Can't wait for 20 years down the road when they make Episode 10, and they dredge up Daisy Ridley just to make her a trash character that decided to kill everyone, and then the true hero is a gender-fluid trandoshan that identifies as a toaster.

It's almost like TLJ was written in only one draft.

Regarding the Aladdin comment about the movie moral vs the original fable moral. The movie actually does adapt the original moral into the climax of the film. Just like the original, Aladdin does in fact lose everything, but in the movie it is because of his weakness of not being honest and not having any confidence in that he is good enough without the Genie helping him. Had he released the Genie earlier as originally promised and been honest to Jasmine and the Sultan from the start, Yago would not have had the opportunity to steal the lamp and give it to Jafar, showing that how a lack of moral character can lead to consequences. It is however his strength of character and wits that actually win the day when confronting Jafar in the climax of the film and he has to do it while fighting against someone who has the wealth of a Sultan and the power of the Genie at his fingertips. So the moral about lying is bad is also tied to the fable's moral about strength of character being more important than the riches one has acquired. Disney's Aladdin is actually a pretty successful adaption of the original in that sense.

Thanks for another polished and well narrated video. The rich heiress and cinematic hate petter lines were great.

Have you ever written a book? You certainly the knowledges and the ability for what I have seen so far in your videos

Asimov's short story collection "I, Robot" is an excellent study in following internal canonical rules (the laws of robotics), subverting expectations (the paradoxes at the center of each story) and providing a satisfactory ending (the denouement to each story).

Lessons like the one you just posted in this video are what is honing my skills as a writer. A true hero is not defined by by victory. A hero is defined by action and the inspiration they gift to those who have lost hope. Heroes die on the battlefield all the time. But their death doesn't make them any less a hero. In fact, it contributes to the power of their heroism, showing that they are willing to pay any price for their ideals, including the ultimate price. That's why in Greek mythology the Gods themselves were never called the heroes. I mean, they could snap their fingers and their enemies fall dead. How heroic is that? No, the heroes were the ones who fought, bled, suffered and even died on their epic quests. The real heroes were those who even had the balls to thumb their noses at the gods, despite the terrible things that could happen to them. It's not heroic to succeed. It's heroic to attempt to succeed despite the odds.

The tone in the sequel trilogy is almost Lovecraftian. The heroes don't control their own fate, rather the force creates and destroys heroes like the procession of the seasons. Everything that the heroes do will be undone within their own lifetimes, putting them back to where they started. Meanwhile, the force will create a new hero on its own. Any attempt at training, mentoring, or even passing along wisdom is as ineffective as King Canute commanding the tide. Rather, the purposeless waxing and waning of the light and dark sides of the force is actually driving the universe, and the actions of the heroes, and even the heroes themselves, are but a shadow of this.

Thank you for succinctly expressing what I have felt, but unable to explain, to others about narrative rules

Fiction rules do matter, we have something called suspesion of disbelief, and it can be broken not by lack of realism, but by inconsistency and contradictions. This applies to ALMOST EVERYTHING, even as something like say "Fairy Odd Parents". Okay just hear me out. When the first seasons were airing, there were a few rules that forbid Timmy of wishing the following: -The godchild is the only one allowed to see their faries, and they will lose them if they are seen by anyone else (parents, friends, etc) -Making Somone Falling in Love or interfere in romatic relationships. -Kill somone someone directly. This is done because while the idea of a kid having the power to wish for something sounds cool, these rules and limitations allow the writers to not play the game of "why not have Timmy make this wish". Also only miserable kids can have godparents (usually due to parental neglect and abuse) Come seasons 6,7,8 and onward and almost all of theses things were slowly thrown out the window. Cosmo and Wanda were regulary seen by humans like CROCKER, Making new rules up one episode to make the plot go along, and Chloe which is just.......ugh. Goes to show you that saying "It's just fiction" is always a bad argument, and a sing of laziness and lack of commitment to the craftmanship of writing, wheter be action, comedic, dramatic, etc. Fiction is like a Magician show. Yes it's an illusion and not real, but it takes effort and talent to make it happen, making sure all the steps are followed correctly and all the gears are moving in place.

So, this basically confirms that on a deep psychological level, people are not only correct but completely honest when they say that it would be fine if the given movie ruined by SJWs was about anything else, instead of trying to ride the coat tails of its predecessors. So, we're back to square one. SJWs, make your own shit and stop trying to co-opt other people's shit.

it's amazing how you managed to condense everything they did wrong with Luke in this trilogy. Alas, one of my favorite heroes fallen because of some wannabe director/screen writer's ego and "ingenuity". Whenever I see your videos I believe there is still sane people in this world.

I learn more from your videos that any college class I’ve taken! Keep up the good work!

13:50 It also would downplay the other aspects of the movie. See, an interesting thing about Po victory over Tai Lung is that he not only won due to training but also due to his panda anatomy. Po is, for lack of a better word, a punching bag, he is shown to be extremely resilient and able to withstand huge amounts of physical trauma(because he is fat), this now only was crucial into facing Tai Lung, but also it made him resist the Leopard signature technique: The Pressure Points Attack; Po blubber body made him effectively immune to the technique and is inclusively foreshadowed during the middle of the movie when Mantis is trying to do acupuncture on Po but can't find the nerves due to his size. Another interesting aspect of the fight is their fighting styles. Tai Lung is hyperaggressive and has insane amounts of physical strength, which is his strong point and also why everyone failed to defeat him. Everyone who fought Tai Lung and failed tried to surpass him on physical strength only to be dominated by the Beef Monster, the only fighters who succeed in stopping Tai Lung was Oogway and Po because they fought him with different approaches. Oogway acted fast and paralyzed him with a Chi Technique, and Po acted more defensively, focusing(even if not intentionally) into tiring the Leopard with his shenanigans and counterattacking his moves, Po style is said on official media to be defensive and it shows, since Po overcomes Tai Lung by using the Feline's own strength against him(see the scene where he double-punched Po after failing to use the pressure points), this also ties to what Shifu said on the begging, that the key to victory is finding the opponents weak point and then using your strong point against it. Tai Lung doesn't have any notable weak point, so Po used his strong point(defense) to transform Tai Lung's strong point into a weak point. Sorry for the long text, but this just shows how well-thought the whole thing was, all ties perfectly to create a strong and very satisfying cycle. The movie establishes its rules, quirks, and everything to be used later on the climax, and the results are well... awesome! Great video anyway.

A 10 year siege on a single city, I want to know why it took so long.

Even Jon Snow getting killed by the night king would have been more satisfying. After that journey, Jon Snow is asked "is it enough?" And the answer would be no! But we don't even get an answer

When you have MaRey Suewalker you don't need good characters.

I don't give two shits about Star Wars, but I still find your analyses on the subject very interesting. Kudos.

I have no problem with Luke coming to the conclusion that the Jedi way of doing things were wrong, the prequel's even set the precedent for it with Anakin's story, and how rigid and cold the Jedi order were the problem lies in the execution. Very poorly written and it had no clear goal. If "grey Jedi" was the main plot of the sequel trilogy that's what they should've followed. Luke should've been the one to reinvent the Jedi with new rules and Rey should've been the first Grey Jedi, could've been an epic tale.

It sounds like these so called show-runners try way too hard to be clever with these works and then they utterly fail. You quoting "Luke Skywalker" from The Last Redundancy reinforces my disdain towards that film, the people involved, the apologists and Disney. What a load of nihilistic tripe.

The left in the past 20 years has been working hard, not to make their own heroes, but to tear down the concept of the hero. The heroic concept requires that a single individual can achieve enough to make a difference and overcome great evil. This, however, is antithetical to the leftist, "progressive" ideal, which says that only a _collective_ can be truly heroic, because the thing the left is "progressing" toward is a collective utopia. Before they can do this, they must first deconstruct the individual hero. So they first make him weak, they make him fallible, then they make him betray what he stands for to finish off the central pillar of his heroism. Then they show him "redemption", but it is only possible through sacrificing his individuality and being subsumed by a collective. Those who comprise this collective are all failed heroes with feet of clay. It is their submission to the collective that purges them of the poison of individuality and restores their heroism through collectivism. Thus Superman, written by the left, violates his Code and breaks General Zod's neck. He is redeemed by Batman creating a collective -- the leftist Justice League -- to which all heroes must submit before they can truly be heroic. Luke was an individual hero. Because he didn't have a Jedi Order to submit to, he was fallible and failed by trying to murder Ben. He is now convinced that heroes -- individuals who can make a difference -- are myths. Only the collective Dyad is truly heroic. Of course, Kylo is an evil emo kid, and Rey is a puerile Mary Sue, but that's the appearance of their fallible individualist surfaces. The Dyad between them is the REAL hero. Thus is the concept that one person can change the world destroyed in this generation, and the Collective can win without firing a shot.

As a long time 'writer' I always believed that the rules of any fictional universe can be broken, but, and it's a huge frigging BUT there needs to be a reason behind it and I mean a really good reason and the story if it doesn't revolve wholly around the how and the why it needs to be a very present sub-plot. Stories where the rules are broken can be fascinating and intriguing stories. Also, as the axiom says, the breaker of that rule needs to know the rules before they do so.

This was awesome! Thank you Literature Devil!

You hit the nail on the head. My fundamental problem with modern storytelling is that they are are unable to create compelling characters on their own. However, they have enough self-awarness to realize this and instead choose to denigrate the great characters of the past. They choose to punish the audience for their love of these old characters.

From 31:07-32:12, yet despite denegrating Luke, the Jedi, and heroism for the whole movie, Luke says at the end "...I will not be the last Jedi." All I could think when seeing that was to sarcastically say "Yay, the Jedi are going to continue their legacy of failure." I don't understand why we were supposed to be excited for Rey after hearing, for two hours, that the Jedi need to end.

We are watching movies wrong... You need to drink to fully enjoy awful movies like these.

I Am Rey Rey Binks

What rian did to luke skywalker is unforgivable. But even without that desecration, TLJ is hands down the worst SW movie ever. In fact its one of the worst cinematic experiences i have ever been through.

Your videos that you go through and edit and put together are amazing dude, love it. Keep it coming. I need to listen to more of your livestreams too

Thank you so much for ending on that note! It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who feels this way.

the writer might create the world that the story takes place in but the created world is what writes script, if you establish a world and rules within that world then you need to follow those rules, the world shouldn't bend to fit the script, the script should bend to fit the world you cant write a brave/noble knight then in the next scene have him slay an innocent village because you as the writer needed it to happen.

What i love about "You didn't complain when Luke did it" line of argument is that it wouldn't work even if it were true. I mean, some stunts do only work once. Also, never watched E8 and E9, so it's an unpleasant surprise to me that Luke attempted to kill someone for a thought crime.

Dude this is top notch storytelling education, please make more of these kind , thanks man 🙏

7:45 - Fantastic. 26:31 - Incredibly Fantastic. 34:21 - Brilliant+ It's always great to learn new things of The Craft and What Truly Matters while clearly pointing out why Hyenas Will Never Be Lions. Thank you, man. We, the Ones In Love With Words, are very lucky to have you.

At the Sisko and Leonidas quotes, I got chills. I didn't get chills in any of the last three Star Wars movies. That may be indicative of how heroism is conceptualized differently by some creators, and I'd love to hear a video on that. Also, I'd love it if it were somehow possible for you to do a video each week, some of my favorite stuff online.

It is wonderful to listen to the passion, strength and most of all coherence of your message. As a disaponted og star wars fan myself, I feel your words give voice to our un-voiced thoughts and vindicate us all! Many thanks.

Marvelous video, intelligently presented and summarized, that serves as both sound argument and as solid primer on storytelling patterns and technique.

I would really liked to see you talk about Kotor 2 and Kreia, and about how that game made Star Wars and the Force deeper without taking away or just stepping over already set rules of the universe. The video was really good, and good to know that there are people who don't just throw shit on the internet and telling everyone who not agrees with them, that they are racist, woman hating selfish pricks. You explained everything very well, I liked how you mentioned Kotor 1 and Po's journey from Kung Fu Panda. I hope that sometime you really make a video about Kreia. Damn, with your well based explanations it would be really interesting.

To Hell with these movies. Luke Skywalker will always be The Hero of the Galactic Civil Wars and the Yuuzhan Vong War, husband of Mara, father of Ben, uncle of Jacen and Jaina, Slayer of Abelon and Grand Master of the New Jedi Order.

You have no idea how much I love this channel. It helps me so much when writing comics.

Powerful and epic. The best technical and thematic analysis of the failure of the new Star Wars trilogy on KZfaq. Thank you for not just stopping rants and anger but taking the actual time to gather information on, analyze and compare all the sources and stories represented in this video. Liked and I'm going to share it as well.

As always LD an well said and well made video. You are criminally under watched my friend.

In my opinion the biggest flaw of Disney trilogy is ep8, like honestly it can be called non-canon and no one would care. It didn't bring anything meaningful to the story, plot is closed, only difference between end of ep7 and begin of ep9 is that snoke is dead, beside that nothing much really changed/mattered even "building" of characters from ep8 was mostly neglected (can't blame that, as horrible those were), even the parts that were referred about ep8 were more of the winks than actual continuity. As for Rey ~~palatine~~ Sue, i could take that, in the "LEGENDS" universe there were couple of force users that were able to read memories of touched objects etc, that character from beginning felt like one of the users of such power, the problem is how it was handled, or rather mishandled by narration and story. One of the absolutely worst part was that it was hinted at ep 7 by taking Luke sword, but next hint was somewhere around half of ep 9 (with taking dagger and commenting how terrible it's story is). Another, probably even worst part is that she could take all the knowledge, skills and memories of all the touched objects but it should open up a new gate for narration, like loosing of self identity, emotions, not being able to tell own memories from taken ones, and falling to madness, and possibly to the dark side at it was very poorly shown in ep9. The true problem of her powers is not really how easily she gets them, but instead how little, none in fact, drawback they had. Like there already were those types of characters like Alucard from helsing, or Jean Grey under Phoenix influence from x-men. I don't know if without changes of staff between movies the characters would be actually build and likable but I don't think that "family friendly" Disney would allow to go with path of identity crisis, madness, dark/corrupted version of self etc, (maybe it was the reason of taking out Abrams from ep8, but I highly doubt it). Even if ep 8 was originally planned to dive into this, there were some missing elements from the start in ep7, like Rey could wear gloves as she could feel dizzy from touching things without them, or not knowing the truth about Finn from touching jacket, to name a few just from the nearly opening sequence of the movie. I am not trying to defend Disney trilogy by any means, those are terrible movies, but they aren't by the sheer setting, but rather by mishandling nearly everything possible.

I am impressed by your ability to gather credible examples from various movies and shows. Watching all those movies and tv shows must take a huge amount of time.

The ability to put into words feelings that others couldn't express is the true hallmark of a great writer. Thank you very much for this video essay; I could feel all the pieces clicking into place as you spoke. It feels good to finally understand what the writers got wrong.

This is actually really simple: subverting expectations can be great. Example: When Luke was going to fight Vader, we expected a big climactic fight against the man who killed his father. But Vader WAS his father. Expectations subverted, and it was awesome. It made sense, it helped the story. When you Last Jedi in, AKA subverting expectations just for the sake of it, then it's terrible. Rian is a hack.

When you break the cycle, you bring about an age of darkness. Always link the fire, to do less is not grossly incandescent. \[T]/

Brilliantly said, as always. Your videos always give me so much to ponder in my own work, as you examine the works of others. To me, respect for the story, and the foundation it was created on, shows respect for the readers. If, as a writer, I think that I can change the rules of my fiction midstream, change character motivations and arcs on a whim, all in the name of subverting expectations, I am not showing respect to my audience and the time they invested in reading my story. I have failed them and I should not be surprised by their anger.

I always learn so much watching your videos, amazing work.

JJ had dealt a huge deathblow to the series making everything the OT characters fought for be meaningless, an endless cycle. But Rian killed and desecrated it with the disrespect he had for the OT and even new characters. Then JJ was left to prop it up as a decaying puppet, shell of its former self in a way that was in some parts ok and others...well, completely disgraceful. I have my issues with the prequels, but at least there was some sort of plan or goal - fall of the Jedi/Republic, rise of Empire, Anakin becomes Vader. There is no goal in the sequels.

One lesson I learned from my friends is this: if your audience is composed of 10 people and only one is complaining, then the story is not of his taste If your audience is composed of 10 people, and 7 of them are complaining, then, your story is wrong The audience is never a problem

So much to think about in this video, I think it requires multiple viewings to really take it all in. Excellent work, Literature Devil.

Great video! I’m glad you shared it with Smud and the boys before the main release

Maybe I just grew up at the wrong time, but maybe you're a little harsh on the Prequels? They have a charm driven by melodrama and bombastic action that makes them fun to watch, even if the dialogue isn't realistic.

You are SO right, about everything! This fact that Luke is seen as a hopeful illusion more than as an actual hero always pissed me off. He IS a hero. And - with all his struggles and failures, for sure - he should’ve remained one. Even in an archetypical sense, he’s not a Mentor (like Yoda and Obi). He is a Hero. He’s not a Merlin, he’s a King Arthur. And old Arthur himself is in fact very much what Luke should’ve been. Like Luke he struggled in his old age, like Luke he was morally and physically defeated by a young relative/enemy, like Luke he saw his two best friends fall in love with each other. But unlike Luke he was there for the last battle, he was ACTUALLY there when his legendary life came to a close and was passed on to future generations. I don’t know, this fact of the Force projection is something so many dismiss as minor, but it makes a world of difference to me. Luke spent his whole Sequel Trilogy time just complaining and being depressed on that freakin island. It’s just... so sad.

I really like how you break down literacy rules and themes and rules in a way that is easy to understand. Thanks again for a great video.

Well said! You put into words what I have been feeling. Nicely done!!

Return of the Jedi sets the stage for a super-powerful Luke the next time you see him with a new Jedi order. Yoda himself told him he was the first of a new order, so you expect to see Yoda's prediction fulfilled. Instead, you see him with nowhere near those powers, no Jedi order, and no empathy. The expectations set up by Return of the Jedi are gone. Rather, it seems the new ones only used the prior characters to keep it recognizable as Star Wars with no regard for what came before.

This should have been Kylo's trilogy. I'm going to construct the starting off point from what we were given: Luke teaches Kylo, and fails. I'm not a good writer, and I sure as heck am no going to write a fanfiction: I just want to establish how Luke could have arrived in a similar position to where he was at the beginning of TFA (yes, I know we see him first in TLJ) while staying true to his character. Luke should have been too believing in Kylo, and unwilling to harshly discipline him if he was wrong, since his teachers never had to do this, as the harsh lessons kind of taught themselves. And he probably wouldn't realize just how much moral character development he got from being a moisture farmer on a hostile planet and fighting in a war, and overestimate the moral progress of his pupil. And further, as Luke himself would never betray family, and he saw that even Vader was unwilling to kill him, he thus would never believe that Kylo would betray Han, Leia, and himself. Maybe Rey could be an adopted child, or fellow student, or something, and her dedication to her training made her (temporarily) more powerful than Kylo, because despite his potential for greater power he didn't train very hard, and this makes him incredibly jealous. Maybe he could strand Rey on a planet and leave her for dead, and attempt to wipe her memories with the force, which causes her to forget almost everything; due to his inexperience, this should leave her mentally impaired, with the cognitive ability of a young child. He returns and claims she was killed in such a manner that her corpse is unrecoverable, perhaps bending the truth rather than lying to avoid detection. Rey, on the other hand, fights through her disability through sheer determination, and picks up a job that makes use of her largely untrained and unidentified force abilities and doesn't exacerbate her disability ... maybe a pilot. Kylo soon betrays Luke, possibly when he is confronted over what happened to his partner Rey. Luke beats him, but lets him leave, and he blames himself for his fall, which is only partly true, rather than accept that Kylo chose to betray his family because of personal failings. He isolates himself along with many of the remaining jedi, believing that the historical jedi involvement in the politics of the Republic was the cause of many of the past failures of the jedi, which is mostly true, and the main cause of Kylo's fall, which is mostly untrue ... make it jealousy, or sloth. Luke's self-imposed isolation turns into exile when he realizes that the remnants of the Empire are hunting him down, as he was a huge war hero and a large part of the establishment of the new political order, and now his protections have been stripped away. To prevent harm coming to those around him, he sends the jedi into fiercely independent and well-defended spaces (Mon Cala, Mandalore, Hirrun, etc.) and hides himself away in ancient sith ruins (maybe on Yavin 4), hoping to confront Kylo or the few jedi who followed him as they search for power. Maybe he knows this location is compromised since a holocron with it's location was stolen when Kylo left the temple. Rey and company could shadow Kylo to the temple and discover Luke, who again beats Kylo, but his hesitation allows Kylo to escape, possibly leading to the death of one of Rey's close friends, which she blames Luke for. The new government is too busy with rebuilding the core to care about all the shenanigans the remnants of the Empire under Kylo and Snoke are doing. They're more concerned with hardline Imperials trying to take back the core. That, and they are very small ... most systems want to remain independent, as the last galaxy-wide government became a tyrannical oppressive regime, book-ended by two brutal civil wars ... seems pretty reasonable. This, however, leaves planets open to Kylo and Snoke's relatively small forces that maybe are sector-sized. This, and the populace has resigned itself to violence after a separatist movement's war, a tyrannical government's military oppression, a violent and bloody rebellion, and the subsequent infighting and power grabs (not just by former Imperials) upon the disintegration of the Empire. Oh, and the core systems get a ton of money by selling arms to both sides, and have no real motivation to protect other systems outside of those that supply them with raw resources. They also fear separatist backlash if they attempt to send military aid to stabilize regions and oppose the First Order and other Imperial remnant factions ... that war's probably still fresh in everyone's minds in the core despite it happening a while ago, since the Empire would have really played the angle that they ended the Separatist war in their propaganda. And ... yeah, that puts the pieces near where they are. Kylo finds a sponsor in the reformed remnants of the Empire and finds someone who has some force powers and knowledge. It'd be cool if they Snoke was a deformed experiment made by Palpatine as he explored Sith alchemy (he left him to die and thought him dead) and while he would not be that powerful directly, he would have very dangerous knowledge that even Palpatine didn't want to use (bioweapons, or something like that which would severely harm the galaxy he wanted to rule) and some inside knowledge, including caches of weapons and ships, gleaned from computer archives Palpatine left behind. (Cool thought ... what if his plan was to promote cheap labor from lobotomizing people? Once the galaxy was reliant on their labor, flip a kill switch in them all and watch as the economy disintegrates. Makes re-conquering a lot easier, and builds on the reconditioning plot point made in TFA) Rey, meanwhile, goes undiscovered by the new jedi order since they largely concentrate their recruiting efforts in a few key systems and are small in number. She joins a mercenary band working for governments as protection, which often comes into contact with First Order troops. End the series on Luke's sacrifice and Kylo's death. Luke finally overcomes his aversion to hurting Kylo and sacrifices himself to kill him. Perhaps this redeems Luke in Rey's eyes and makes her realize she was wrong about him being a coward, and perhaps also realize she was too much of a firebrand herself. Denouement: Rey, being one of the few survivors, goes before the jedi council and senate and shares his story with them, which galvanizes them into action. Ackbar should also sacrifice himself, and his death should lead the Mon Calamari to action, possibly having them join the new central government. Finn could testify before the ruling body about the atrocities committed by the First Order and the truth about their plan to undermine the economy of the core systems so they could conquer them, which causes much of the core to realize that refusing to aid those in need when they call for aid, even military aid, is as wrong as forcing people to stay in the Republic was. Addendum: effort should be made to show that the Empire, while brutal, was arguably justified in its approach to instability outside of the core. Perhaps, even the Imperial remnant within the Core would stand down or join the fight against the Rim Imperial remnant factions, including the First Order once they realized that their resistance to the new government was only fomenting disorder within the Core and distracting them from the rampant disorder in the Rim regions, which should run counter to their morals. I also think the massive corruption of the Empire above and beyond that of even the Republic should lead all sides to recognize that a highly centralized galactic government is a bad idea. Tl;Dr The galaxy should be a shambles, the new government and jedi should be afraid to face off against the First Order for interesting political reasons, Kylo should die by Luke's hand, and Luke and Ackbar should sacrifice themselves, which pushes the fiercely independent systems and new government to band together to defeat most of the Imperial remnant.

As always, thougt provoking and objectively compelling arguements based on facts/history. Thank you sir.

Such an excellent video and analysis, loved it!!

I see new Literature Devil upload. I click.

I know that people say this all the time but GOD your voice is so SMOOTH it's simply magnificent.

Thank you for this. This was delightful.

This video is a very thorough, technical, and well crafted explanation of why narrative matters, even (perhaps especially) in a high fantasy context.