This was a re-upload combination of what was a 2-part series. Tried my best to clean up the old audio but at this point it is what it is 😬 Another video essay? "What Happened to Heroes?" kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z9mbhryG2pfbhY0.html What to see one of my comedy edits? If Anakin Wasn't an Idiot: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aZmkhcWorM6dfqs.html

First and main one - decision to repeat New Hope storyline and therefore undoing all the progress of the original trilogy.

JJ wounded Star Wars sequels, Ryan dealt the killing blow. And then JJ returned to teabag it while the corpse was still warm.

That scene were Leia ignores Chewie is even worse than what you noted. Because Leia then goes up and hugs REY ... who she has never met before. We know who Leia is; Rey does not. We know who Rey is, Leia does not. It's easily one of the worst scenes in the movie and a good example of how Rey deprotagonizes everyone in the movie.

At this point, I believe I've spent more time watching documentary essays about all the failures of Disney Star Wars than the actual runtime of Disney Star Wars. 😄

It's crazy that I've been watching critiques of these movies for almost 10 years and I'm still hearing new criticisms.

Another thing that happened between ep 6 &. 7, the Hosnian system became important for some reason. When watching the system get blown up, I was thinking, “who are these people?”

It seems like the writers confused the Force with the magic from Harry Potter. The lightsaber "calling" Rey has "Elder Wand" written all over it.

The problem with the mystery box is eventually you have to open it. When the audience does finally open it and it was all a dream. It sucks, because we just wasted all our time in a story that never mattered. If you open the mystery box too late, you have to make up contrived reasons why it's still closed and that makes your characters look stupid.

The part with Anakin was so well edited. It's a good reminder of how well done his story was compared to Jake Skywalker.

I find it hilarious, how the entire Sequel Trilogy can be summed up with a quote from Episode 7 itself. "That's not how the Force Works! That's not how any of this eorks!"

It's not just JJ, pretty much ALL modern writers can only write storys with hidden secrets to try and keep you watching AND talking about it.

I find it hilarious that a small KZfaq video can produce better writing than the people Disney hired to make this trilogy

Interestingly enough, in legends, there's a food fight in Luke's academy and Luke casually freezes everything in the room, from people to the food in the air.

If it is true that everytime Luke appears onscreen, he takes over the show, perhaps a wise filmmaker would make the story fully his in response.

The fake scene where you reimagine Luke’s big reveal is SO awesome despite being as obviously limited as it is. Well done

About R2D2 it's incredible how The Mandalorian made him shine in a few seconds by R2 saying something to Grogu which made him trust Luke and go with him despite his fear of leaving Mando, and the trilogy never did anything with R2 in three whole movies. It's baffling.

I've recently found a lot of respect for the prequels that I never had before, but those scenes you showed of the pain on his face when killing the separatists on Mustafar, and the tears running down his face. A lot of mistakes were made with the prequels, but the overall story was a good, meaningful one. The pain of his mother's death made Anakin unable to bear the pain of losing anyone he loved ever again. When he learned Padme's death could be prevented he did everything he could- and his actions pained him. When the deed was done, he couldn't turn back. No one could ever forgive him- he was stuck as Vader. He chose his path, against his morals, against everything he knew- not because he wanted to, but because he needed to- because he truly couldn't live without her.

Something just occurred to me while watching the part about Anakin's fall. In ROS, Palps says only once before has a person been able to use the Force to stop people from dying, and that he and Vader would have to work together to discover the secret. But in Rise of Skywalker, both Rey and Kylo do exactly that by saving each other from death using the Force. That shouldn't have been a thing.

If they took their time with this, they could’ve made this series quite extensive. They should’ve focused on Luke and Bens relationship and fall first, and Rey should’ve been introduced way later.

You did a really good job editing the conflict Anakin went through, dude. Seriously, kudos man.

It's insane how they wasted Luke... We saw him from the very beginning. Starting of as an farmboy, becoming a powerful hero and finally like Yoda himself... and they effd it up big time.

The problem with the Hunger Games stems from the fact that this worked in the books. We had access to Katniss' mind, and witnessed the more subtle transition. They kept the same transition in the movies, but didn't offer any compensation for this loss and it didn't work.

Imagine actually coming up with a complete and satisfying story that leaves the audience fulfilled. Couldn’t be JJ.

Luke originally had boulders floating in the background. They were cut for Rian. There were MANY options still open. Rian was the one that made Luke a broken hermit that ran away. The simplest (and not particularly good) answer would have been that Luke's X-Wing broke down, so he was stranded, waiting for someone to find him. Other, more interesting options, include Luke struggling with the dark side (self-quarantine), he's been fighting the Yuuzhan Vong on that planet, this is the site of a new temple with apprentices in total secret with the plan to return when the FO begins to move openly. JJ dropped the ball. Rian punted it backwards.

Anakin's arc was showed excellent here. He suffered and lost everything. Personally if i had that kind of power, i would also do whatever i can to save my loved ones. Its basic human nature and fits well with Anakin because he wasn't indoctrinate like other young jedi

Tangential to the Phasma thing, it strikes me as unusually cruel that the "heros" throw her in the trash compactor. Presumably they expect her to die a brutal death by being gradually crushed to death while surrounded by filth. It's played off as a joke but it never felt right to me.

I really like that ending you suggested for ep 7, with the mediation and the rocks. Luke being on that island would have made so much more sense if he had been so shocked by the destruction of his pupils, and so guilty since the cause was his own nephew, that he believed that he had not been ready/ strong enough, and had been arrogant to try, to rebuild it. So he retreated to the Jedi Temples to hone his powers and humble himself and come back stronger. Otherwise, why the heck did he leave a map for people to find him? (Or however the map came into existence, I don't remember). And the conflict could have come from him feeling they found him too early and he was still not ready, not strong enough, and he needed more training to be of use to them. Or something slightly less lame than I just wrote, but FAR AWAY from the "I just gave up" Luke that we got.

Thank you for summing up why I hated the sequel trilogy so much! I was so disappointed by all the story that happened off screen without and all the unanswered questions. I was so mad about how much they changed Luke between 6 and 7. And I have many more complains, but you already covered them.

The idea of Phasma fighting Chewy is actually really cool. If she would have downed Finn and Hann instantly and then duked it out with Chewy that would have really made the character stand out.

Man, it's almost like there was already a universe of expanded lore that introduced beloved characters, fantastic side stories/plot developments, and backstory before these films came out...

They implied Finn was gonna be a deprogrammed stormtrooper,and he was gonna be the GUY... Even Boyega seemed sidelined with this ...The thought of a stormtrooper snapping,learning the force,becoming a jedi,and dealing with his past of being a trooper...woulda been gold.

Fynn’s character had so much potential for a dramatic and emotional redemption arc. Instead he’s relegated to comic relief.

how DARE you make an emotionally meaningful supercut of anakin falling to the darkside and not release it as a separate video...or at all...the stay with me mom cut over mustafar hurt me, man

I like the pointing out that ESB doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. It’s clear what the intent is, it doesn’t cut off in the middle of an action.

Dude, I don't think Abrams has ever known the end from the beginning.

bro did the greatest, coldest, and most hard-hitting edit of the luke scene and thought he could get away with it

This is a perfect summarization of what is wrong with it. I always had the nagging feeling of something being off after I watched it. Like it was hollow... but I couldn't put my finger quite on what was wrong. This explains exactly what it was.

I would have written it so Luke wasn’t alone on the island, he was there with the students he had that managed to survive that night in the temple. They’re maybe 5-10 people, some are sadly disabled and unable to fight anymore but still connected to the force. Luke stayed with them because he feels obligated to protect them after not being able to the first time. Luke is staying on the down low to keep them secret while he trains them up to take down the first order. Rey can talk to these people who knew Kylo personally, and be like “what an irredeemable soulless dick” and the students are like “he was my friend once, he helped me with my lightsaber skills, he felt super abandoned by his parents.” And you could learn about his past and have a reason to want him to return to the light.

“You were the chosen one!” -“I’m a person and my name is Anakin.” Holy shit that hit hard. He was being coerced and shaped into something he never really wanted to be. He just wanted to protect the people he loved. He wanted so badly to do the right things. Anakin will likely always be my favorite character in fiction.

I been binge watching a lot of Star wars content but this compilation was super well put together.. u let the scene play out when needed and don't over do the voice over.. the scenes and clips flowed nicely together

I liked that the clone wars series helped in showing the turn to Vader in the long term one piece at a time. Can definitely see Vader popping in and out of Anakin's personality. Showing the clone wars through battles and politics was a good direction being able to easily connect many more characters. I liked the slow decline of the Republic to the Dictatorship without noticing to much as the audience.

I actually got goosebumps watching your Luke reveal unlike in the actual movie

Your critique of kylo from TFA is spot on, in ways I realized and ways I did not, or rather, just accepted as how it was. I just sorta assumed "oh he just thought vader was way cooler and snoke force skyped him and was like 'ooo look at this dark past of your family, everyone lied to you, oooo'" and that was enough to make kylo turn. He was NEVER a threat in my eyes, in any of the movies. Driver did an amazing job, but he was upstaged instsntly in TFA by rey, and that fact mixed with his "conflict" just coming off as weak and confusing motivation, etc. just made him feel like a secondary threat. So snoke's death especially just kinda suddenly ended any apparent threat that the first order actually had. They were more likely to infight. So then TROS had to overcorrect to add threat because ben wasn't, so they gave the first order a bajillion death stars and rezzed the emperor. Yay.

I swear I read a Star Wars book when I was younger about how Han and Leia had two kids in Luke's Jedi academy. I was hoping so hard that the twist would be that kylo and Ray are brother and sister but for reasons unknown Ray had her mind wiped or something. It would have been a good twist that is reminiscent of the themes of the original movie while still being different

Great essay. I’ve tried to get over the failure of the sequels. I really have. But as someone who grew up knowing practically every word to the OT, read a lot of EU, etc I still can’t believe what a colossal missed opportunity it was. It makes me angry that something with so much potential was wasted by soulless corporate incompetence. And then I realize that opinions will differ, but I also just can’t wrap my head around how anyone who loved the OT could see the sequels trilogy as anything less than a massive disappointment. I can’t fathom it given all the points made here and a thousand others. And to know that Disney will not own their mistake and wipe them from canon is the cherry on top of the shit sundae.

9:46 This is only partially true. From interviews with Rian, Abrams, and Mark Hamil, we know that the reason WHY Luke was on the island was not yet written. Abrams set up Luke's disappearance to be a plot motivator, but he did not establish the ideas of Luke's failed temple and Kylo/Ben's origins. Abrams likely had a whole different plot in his mind, or none at all. The setup was very contrived. It was actually a big point of conflict between Mark and Rian as to why Luke was on the island. And that's where Rian picked up the reins and decided to tell the story of Luke in self-exile and separation from the force (to Mark's disappointment)

I agree with many of the points you brought up. However, I personally think one of the main problems with Disney's Star Wars is that they seemed to have a "message" to teach over a story to tell.

Your thesis is both well argued and well presented. Well done and thanks for sharing.

Imagine if Phasma’s origin was teased that she was a Mandalorian, that would explain her silver armour, it’s Beskar, she would have been a heretic for diverting from the traditional armour design, new storm troopers would have been better shots and the line in Episode 9 of “they fly now” would have had so much more meaning than just a comedic one liner, having Phasma be a Mandalorian would have been a great addition, she betrayed Mandaloor and joined the remnants of the empire… 🤷‍♂️ It could have been done so much better…

The sequel trilogy should have been about reconstruction, with many different factions trying to take control of the galaxy after the fall of the Empire leaves a power vacuum.

I guess what many seem to forget here: JJ may have gotten credit for writing but in reality what he was writing came directly from the Kathleen Kennedy story group and outlines they had made. Yes, he was given the writers credit to cover,(and if unsuccessful, be scapegoated), from a story group whose ultimate story was "The Force is Female". Yes, JJ financially successful Star Wars entry was more, a green light for more sequels. As for Rian J., he followed along with the same "Story tellers" notes, his credit was both making an acceptably cohesive story of notes given to go along with the backdrop as well, he being of "true believer" of the politics of the story tellers and had no bones of inserting his self admitted brand of "Divisive Story Telling" to an existing franchise. It may help to understand this as well: Kathy K. only saw this as a brand. To her, Star Wars is simply a brand and the fan base are like those who gravitate toward "Role Playing" characters on the same level as Dungeons and Dragons. To her, she has no understanding of this, she simply feels she could fit anything in and slap the title "Star Wars" on it and all have to accept it, regardless of how it was presented. Under that type of supervision, everyone else involved jumped in for the 'free for all". keep in mind too, a lot of the elements incorporated had blatant contemporary political overtones that some, at the time of production, actually was an overture to a current political movement that was extremely left in bias. As such, the current "Activism" was deployed throughout TLJ while chapter 9 was simply a course correction from what they,(the writers), thought the fans would want to see. In Brief: Star Wars is just a label. Kathy K. wanted to establish "Her Name as Legacy" into the brand as well as be recognized for her activism. She took a franchise that was rich in lore and wanted to make it "Her Story", ( complete with self insert ), and she took advantage, as shamelessly, of those at Disney to make a quick turn around for the 4 billion they looked to recover. As such, "Star Wars", as a label and brand, incorporates spectacular effects as a backdrop to poorly conceived, soap opera story telling with a hard core, left leaning feminist movement bend. That's what you have, period.

Part of what kills phasma is how Fin just leaves his back to her while she’s addressing him, specifically about his likely shortcomings. It’s possible he’s legitimately breaking down too much to recognize the threat of dismissing her authority but she just takes it on the chin! She should command him to stand at attention and if he still didn’t in that moment, it would clearly indicate something is seriously wrong with him and that he needs to be supervised to his evaluation. The whole vibe of the scene makes her look like a total pushover.

The year was 2014, and I distinctly remember hearing that Disney would be making a Star Wars sequel trilogy. Even then, I wondered why they wanted to do that. After all, the first 6 films said everything that needed to be said. The original trilogy focused on the Rebellion taking power from the evil Empire, and Luke training to be a Jedi without succumbing to the Dark Side, all while redeeming his father, Anakin/Darth Vader. The prequel trilogy felt like a logical extension of the original trilogy, showing how good government went bad, and how Anakin's desires and emotions led him to the Dark Side. What could the sequel trilogy offer? I'm sure that if some actual effort went into crafting a relatable, cohesive story, it might actually be remembered positively and be rewatchable like the previous two trilogies. In hindsight, I know that I was right to be skeptical of Episodes VII, VIII, and IX.

I honestly thought Captain Phasma was a Resistance sympathizer (or in love with Finn), right up until the trash-compactor line. I thought that was why she didn't report Finn when she caught him having a panic attack (I thought she was covering for him), and why she'd eagerly lower the shields when asked by Finn.

Honestly, the whole off screen stuff between episodes 6 and 7 could have worked if A) Kylo had only just turned to the darkside (6 months at the most) and B) what kicked it all off wasn't Luke deciding "nepoticide is cool" but Luke turning into Fletcher from Whiplash. This would necessitate moving the First Order attacks further back, maybe they get discovered and the New Republic sents and huge expedition to deal with them which gets completely crushed and Luke panics, seeing the very evil he fought so hard to banish re-emerge. So he pushes his students to hasten their training, leading to someone getting injured or even kiIIed and the students rebelling against him. Now Luke running away makes sense, he's not trying to run away and hide for 6 years but trying to calm down and pick himself together, Han and Leia separate not because "lmao, deadbeat dad" but because Leia suddenly goes into full leader of the rebellion mode (something like what Incredibles 2 tried to do with Bob and Helen) and Han, feeling unable to do anything, falls back to what he knows best (which could also tie up the Falcon subplot, saying he sold it at some point to detach himself from that life).

My main problem is that they don’t have a movie where they let the villains win. In the prequels, they had Revenge of the Sith, where they had Anakin turn evil and the Jedi all die. In the Original Trilogy, we had The Empire Strikes Back, where Han Solo is frozen, and the rebels are significantly weakened. This never happened in the Sequel trilogy. It was just the resistance winning for 3 movies straight.

JJ Abrahams is like the kid in class that turns in a half completed assignment. What's done is passable sure, but it's still just partially done.

The minute compilation of anakins story made me feel more than all 3 sequel films combined

Nice Vid Darth, good point about jumping past the shields but I don't think we can apply that light speed math to how fast the millenium falcon was moving. I think hyperspace is supposed to work like a separate dimension which lets you go past light speed and I don't think that necesitates that you are at or near light speed just before entering and just after leaving.

JJ Abrams doesn't understand the heart of Star Wars nor Star Trek, which is why these series alienated fans.

I couldn't click on this fast enough.

Holy crap your Anakin history montage is the best thing I've seen in a long time

One thing you didn't mention about cloverfield 3- It was literally another movie about completely different stuff called The God Particle that he took and added scenes to to make it a cloverfield movie

The biggest disrespect is for Anakin! He already brought balanced to the force. And Leia hugging Rey instead of Chewbacca after Han's death! NO!

First things first. Your edit of the Anakin progression was incredibly well done. That being said, it highlighted not only how Lucasfilm screwed up the sequels, but the Kenobi series as well. It’s enough to make one rage at the heavens what they did to everyone involved, both actor and character alike. What a missed opportunity.

I had a debate with a Last Jedi defender who said that when Luke said: The Jedi were wrong, he meant that they were wrong that you need training to be efficient in the Force 😂

The problem with Starwars is there has been SO much damage done to it, to legacy characters, to the lore, to the original cannon, old cannon, the world, introduced problems that break things and plot holes. Add all of that together and there isnt a way for it to be saved. In this case they have destroyed it form the inside out. It would be better if we started over with something new. Filloni has destroyed Thrawn as a character, inserted a bunch of generic characters he created as pet projects and has single handedly made sure the cannon is completely destroyed with a ton of different things. Your very smart, I can tell, but the titanic has sunk. Unsinking a ship takes WAY more effort than fixing leaks before it sinks, and even if you do get it above water again, it will never be the same still.

JJ Abrams is a hack writer. It took me a few seasons of Lost to realize that it wasn’t a brilliant series of threads waiting to be sewn together but a bunch of random nonsense thrown at a wall by writers that had no idea where they were going. I didn’t even know who JJ Abrams was at the time. Once he ruined the two most significant space franchises of the 20th century, I realized that he is actually just a no talent hack. Of his entire body of work, he made one good product and that was 10 Cloverfield Lane. Which was very good and actually paid off the mystery thing in a satisfying way.

As the lost and lamented Dan Drazen put it, the major problems of Star Wars stemmed from there not being a Story that needed Telling, but a Product that needed Selling. The Sequel Trilogy was a corporate product first, and a coherent narrative second....that's why it fell apart. That's all.

This is exactly what I've been saying for years about the sequels. The biggest misstep started with TFA where Disney SW immediately established its pattern of violating the number one rule of good storytelling. Show. Don't tell. Show Luke and Ben Solo's fall. Don't just tell us about how it happened afterward. Show how the First Order rose to power. Don't just show them already back in power with no explanation after their fall in ROTJ. Episode 7 should've consisted of Luke training his academy including a light side Ben wrestling with his emotions and lineage; building up to his fall and betrayal of Luke at the end. Then episode 8 would've been Kylo's further fall to the Dark Side and the dire, losing battle to bring him back. Then ep. 9 would've been his eventual redemption and return; with Luke finally passing on in some cathartic, emotionally powerful way to help save Ben. Simple and effective. That we conversely had so much take place off-camera and only in flashbacks instead was a huge mistake resulting in unearned character turns that had significantly less emotional impact had they been built up and shown on screen instead. Imagine the deep conversations Ben could've had with Luke about his grandfather; asking about how Anakin turned dark and returned to the light. Then asking about his death. And becoming more curious about it while becoming increasingly taken w/ the dark side which allows him to surpass his fellow students. Then his final turn coming in a vengeful rage when he blames Luke for his grandfather's death. How much more impactful would it have been to actually see a story like that play out instead of just being relegated to ineffective flashbacks? Disney SW's flagrantly bad storytelling/writing 101 was on display yet again with Palpatine's return. Also taking place off-camera and just told of in the opening crawl no less. And in a single, outstanding, now meme-level infamous, cringe-inducing line, "Somehow Palpatine returned". These choices destroyed any possibility of suspense and build-up; resulting in no emotional impact whatsoever with something that should've been the exact opposite with a huge on-screen reveal. Also, there would've been much more attachment to the new leads, Rey, Kylo, and Finn, had Ep.7 taken the time to introduce us to them through the OT characters. Rey and Ben could've been students of Luke. One going dark, one remaining light. One betrays him while the other eventually helps to facilitate his redemption. Just about any story that took time to allow the original characters to pass the torch to the next generation would've been much more effective than the cold intros of the new characters that we got. With that more intelligent approach, we would've gotten to really spend time w/ Luke as we all knew him as well. And see the Luke we wanted to see after ROTJ for most of Ep.7. So witnessing his turn later would've been earned and much more widely accepted. Instead of just being immediately and coldly confronted with his bastardized, twisted character depiction right away following decades-long anticipation of seeing his character again after holding an image of him in a certain way for years. And only being told well after it already happened how this person is now an entirely different character than the one you knew. And just expecting us to accept it. Again Disney, know and understand the first rule of good storytelling: Show. Don't tell. Disney and Kennedy were so hell-bent on purging everything having to do with the OT that they shot the sequels out of a canon to shove their new characters and storylines down our throats. And with the most inexcusable, obscenely incompetent misstep of all: having NO OVERARCHING PLAN WHATSOEVER. This is not the way to endear people to your takeover of one of the most beloved franchises in the history of film. Kathleen Kennedy and her supporting sycophants can't leave SW soon enough.

What went wrong was centering the story of the anti-heroes. Kevin Anderson's books about Luke's Jedi Training planet would have been such a brighter, better, open- ended universe to play forever within!

I'm a simple man: I see a SW video essay hating on the Sequels, I click.

1:19:25 The fact that I had no memory of Maz being a force wielder until you mentioned it shows the wasted potential of her

They should make both directors of the Star wars sequels sit down and watch this entire thing at blaster point

The “download the Force” thing was from Ruin Johnstain. Apparently JJ’s idea (which Ruin threw out) was for Luke to use the Force through Rey. Although a better explanation than what we got, that itself creates many other issues Not nitpicking, as you point out details that proved detrimental to plot and/or character

"It isn't a great film but it sets the foundation that makes you want to watch the next movie." So, in other words, it accomplishes in 136 minutes what trailers are supposed to accomplish in 3?

One of my favorite things in the Star Wars universe, and how GROUNDED it was, took place in KOTOR 2. You're stranded on a base that is surrounded by an asteroid field, and without grabbing the most recent star maps -- that mapped out EVERY ASTEROID AND THEIR PATHS AND SPEED -- then you couldn't leave. Attempting to jump to Hyperspeed would, in all likelihood, drive your ship through at *least* 1 asteroid, killing everyone on board. You can't just "feel it out", not as a human, nor as a droid, you had to have the precice, up-to-date maps, then allow the ships' computer to find you a safe exit. ....but no, that's not as cool as Han just "winging it" (which should've looked like him flicking a switch on and off, if we're being honest here), so that's what JJ did.

1 million percent agree! I remember watching The Force Awakens and immediately wondering why we weren’t starting with the Rebel Alliance leaders in charge of rebuilding a galaxy. We never got to see what the hell the first order was or how it began, which would have been very interesting, seeing what these imperial spies were doing to undermine the rebels. Instead we skipped over the interesting first few chapters of a book and started at the lull near the middle of the story.

You mentioned in the video that snoke was unknown to sidious. Well if you look closely in episode 9,you can see snoke in a test tube on the planet where sidious is...but they never ever explain that. So the theory is that palpatine was puppeting snoke, but why? It'd make more sense to just have palps lead from a hologram at that point.

I know I'm a little late to the party and I'm not sure if anyone talked about it but JJ also forgoes another fact of hyperspace, in novels and other media (even star wars rebels knows this) a ship CANNOT jump into Lightspeed when under the effects of a planet's gravity or under the effect of a gravity generator some star destroyers had in rebels ( smaller ones with big bulbs on the triangle portion of the hull) meaning he couldn't even be inside starkillers shield because he'd be under the effects of its gravity

1:33:07 "You think it was luck that Chewie and I found the Falcon? If we can find it on our scanners, the First Order's not far behind." Another thing is, with that line, it makes no sense for Rey to take the Falcon to find Luke. The FO can just scan where the Falcon is and follow her there.

Man you edit made me wish we got this version of luke. Its such a brilliant idea. I can imagine Rey landing on the island and something just seems off. She can’t immediately figure out what it is, but then she notices: next to her landing spot there are multiple small stones that are just floating. She picks one of them up and inspects it, she lets it go and it just goes right back to its original position. She wanders along the path, with the numbers and size of rocks and debris only rising. The suspense would go through the roof as she sees luke floating at the cliff, where the scene would play out similar to the one in your video. It would show such a progression of power levels that still would make sense and be in line with old canon, as grand master luke was the most powerful jedi to ever live. But yea instead we got this

JJ loves Mystery boxes and Ryan loves subverting expectations. So instead of answering anything, he subverted the mystery boxes by making there be no mystery. Is Snoke Plagius? He kinda looks like a Muun, but he's dead out of nowhere, never having actually done anything so it doesn't matter. God forbid we bring in the guy of the same alien species , that's a Sith lord, that was even mentioned before in the movies, who was studying Immortality as the guy who comes back from the dead, no, Palpatine just comes back with no build up what so ever. Plagius could just be laying low for all these years, after almost dying by being overpowered by his apprentice, and not being super excited to repeat the experience. But no, a ghost voice heard throughout the galaxy, now has the Star Forge, but not the Star Forge because that would require knowing /using some of the expanded universe lore, so it can't that, but it's basically the Star Forge, also now death star lasers can just be put normal ships, and somehow Palpatine has millions of men working for him, while in isolation as a ghost on an unreachable planet...

I could never manage to imagine a scenario that led to Luke being what we got in TLJ but if they had managed to pull it off in a way that made sense, showing a complete understanding of Luke as a character it could've been one hell of a movie. Alas, we got Rian as writer/director so that possibility was off the table right from the off.

1st thing I thought when seeing Phasma: "Okay, they want to sell more action-figures". Same goes with those hamster-critters on Lukes island and the ice-foxes (sell plushies), where they also attempted to sell more walkers in creating new ones. All those three flics are, are cash-grabs.

Abrams had a fully written scenario: The Force Awakens book series. It focusses on Jacen Solo and has a coherent storyline. Alternatively, he could have gone for an "empire underground" theme, like nazis in Argentina. It would have been interesting to see a trilogy where the empire is the underdog, struggling and competing with the republic for the galaxy.

Your rendition of Rey finding Luke would have been cool as hell. Over the top or not, it would have been great. How Luke was treated was when I walked away and never looked back.

Luke situation in The Last Jedi could make perfect sense IF he was in hiding because he realized that by using the force he was actually empowering Snoke (that should actually be Darth Plagueis), due to the force trying to balance itself. If the Jedi disappears, the Sith disappears. By removing every scene where Kylo uses the force in Force Awakens, you could potentially drop a huge plot twist and reveal that he doesn't actually have the force. He's just a poser. That's why he was so easily beat by Rey. Problem solved.

I think you make a lot of great points regarding JJ's decisions with Episode 7, but Ryan Johnson was still the one who turned around and consistently picked the worst possible outcome every step of the way.

I am so happy you mentioned the importance power scaling has on a narrative

I knew that the sequel to Force Awakens would make or break the trilogy. Sadly, it broke it. Looking back, the best explanation for Rey AFTER Force Awakens would have been this: she had actually trained as a child with Luke and was strong in the force. To protect her, Luke wiped her memories (this is just as believable as astral projecting himself across the galaxy, perhaps more so) and sent her to a desert planet to live a semi-normal life, away from Snoke's inquisitor-hunters. This would explain why she already had some abilities in the force in the first film, and she would not be such a... well, you all know the term. Ultimately, I wish the first film had gone in a completely different direction, with Luke actually establishing a new kind of Jedi order. These films do not end the Skywalker saga for me. The EU does that much better.

The scene with finding Luke would have been breathtakingly amazing with 1 change. The island he's on is floating above the ocean. When he fully turns there is an earthquake and a splash as he sets it down.

I remember watching it at the cinema when it came out and being annoyed when Rey, someone with no training or experience of using a lightsaber, is instantly able to defeat Kylo Ren (who is a trained Jedi). It also pissed me off that no matter what environment she's in, she's still dressed as if she was in a hot desert. On Hoth Luke is dressed for cold weather and even then it's so impossibly cold at night they have to crawl within a creature (a bantu? I forget the names) to survive. Rey is fighting in the snow. Leia surviving the vacuum of space and suddenly being able to use the force was the other one in the next film. At that point I was out.

I knew these movies broke my heart. Its interesting to have someone explain in detail exactly how and why. Great essay.

Luke leaving is not the same as Luke running away. From JJ's setup you can easily make Luke search for the solution to the problem on that remote planet, instead they made him abandon the problem

2:03 Trevor's trying out the outlaw lifestyle. And thank you for this analysis. Various medias told stories between the Star Wars prequel and original trilogies, but the disney trilogy was just like "this is our deal, take it or leave it."

In fairness to Frieza, he was intended to be the big final boss of the entire Dragon Ball franchise and Goku's ascension into a Super Saiyan was the big climactic moment where the gap between them would be closed. But the series ended up continuing after Namek but also notice that power levels dont get brought up much in story after that

JJ did not just skp key points in storytelling, he stole what plot he did present. Ep 7 is Ep 4 retold. The problem is that Ep 4 was the first movie and so it was reasonable for there to be events which occurred before hand. Ep 7 was a sequel and so that setup had to appear for anything to make sense.

Ngl, the sequel trilogy should’ve been the sequel SEQUEL trilogy. The Force Awakens should have been episode 10, then create 7, 8, and 9 in between 6 and 10. Then, all the ambiguity would’ve disappeared. Then maybe, if that was the case “episode 9” would’ve ended with Luke going to exile. A perfect introduction to The Force Awakens.