Hey guys! I highly recommend checking out Lessons From The Screenplay's video for more on the writing of The Last Jedi: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fb9-Za-hntWsfZ8.html

Just Write: "The reveal that Rey's parents are nobodies is pretty brilliant." TRoS: "I'm gonna ruin this man's whole career."

That "10 characters" bit is hilarious I was _just_ saying "But there's only -" and then I saw Snoke slowly peeking in from the corner 🤣

“There’s only one business in the galaxy that gets you this rich” Rexter Dexter’s diner

7 Basic Questions of Narrative Drama in 3 Parts Part 1 - Wants vs Needs (1:36) 1. What does this character want? 2. What does this character need? 3. How do those wants and needs conflict within the character? Part 2 - Conflict (6:30) 4. How do the characters' wants and needs conflict with the outside world? 5. How do they conflict with other characters? Part 3 - Change (9:23) 6. How does the character change through the those conflicts? / How does that resolution affect them? 7. What impact does that change have on everyone else?

i fear that the fan overreaction and it was overreacting to the films quality will make disney clamp their corporate crip harder on the creative aspect of the next films resulting in more bland and safe sequels

I think Rey’s parent’s being nobody is perfect as well, and I dread the day when JJ Abrams ret-cons that decision.

I like how so many older Star Wars videos are showing up in my feed again.

Watching all these video essays about TLJ (which I admittedly loved from day 1) just makes me even more sad about how the main characters, especially Rey, were treated in TROS.

I can understand your argument that it is a story competently told from a thematic standpoint, but I would argue with your last point that it wasn't just fan service or self indulgent. One of the huge things that ruined the movie for me was just how often the story would pull you into to its seriousness only to give you a harsh slap back to reality with a wink-down-the-camera 4th wall breaking bit of needless slapstick that ruined the tension. Our introduction to Luke is ruined for a cheap laugh, the porgs ruin several moments for cheap laughs, Chewie is used for cheap laughs, the caretakers are used for cheap laughs, Leia pulls herself back into an exploded ship mostly for fan service... what bothered me most about TLJ was how little the story seemed to care about itself and respect itself, and how often it broke the mood for the sake of the audience alone rather than the characters. That's something that TFA suffered from as well, but TLJ took it up to 11.

The "these ten characters" joke with Snoke really got me more than I expected.

By the way - as soon as Poe does learn about the plan he tells DJ about it - jeopardizing the whole thing and getting people killed - and people wonder why it had to be kept a secret - she didn’t want the word to get out

8:56 "You have no place in this story. You're nothing. But not to me." Is that meta-commentary?

0:51 - "We can agree that it says what it wants to say in an effective manner." I disagree with you on that point -- my chief complaint about The Last Jedi is not with the direction or central ideas of the story, but the complete incompetence with which it was executed. The complaints you cite throughout your video are common, but I hold most of them up as misdiagnoses of the problems with The Last Jedi. They are strawmen of the arguments that I, and others, make against the movie. 10:45 - "They are arguments for it being competent; for it having a rock-solid dramatic foundation" The need vs. want framework is useful, and I think you make the strongest case I have yet seen in favor of The Last Jedi having some value as a story. However, the execution is so poor that closer examination reveals major flaws in two of the three characters' transformations, and weakness in the third. The movie fights with itself and contradicts its own themes, which leaves us with a muddled emotional understanding of the characters' struggles and triumphs. More than that, The Last Jedi makes a host of seriously detrimental decisions which do not support the need vs. want conflicts you presented, and which weaken the movie and the franchise as a result. Eventually, I hope to make video essays of my own on the subject. Meanwhile, here are some examples of how The Last Jedi undermines the character triumphs you presented. 1. Admiral Holdo repeatedly refuses to even reveal that there is a plan. It's one thing to refuse to bring Poe in on the details of the plan -- as you say, she doesn't trust him -- but any competent leader in a desperate situation would assure their people that they had a plan. Life-and-death situations are absolutely not the time to be testing the faith of your people. Holdo is therefore a terrible leader. Even when Poe mutinies, Holdo says nothing. The movie makes it abundantly clear that if at any point Holdo had so much as said she had a plan -- or clarified what the plan was once he had mutinied -- Poe would have instantly been 100% on her side. That's idiot plotting (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_plot) -- it requires Holdo to behave like an idiot for the plot to work. Holdo therefore fails as a role model for Poe. Poe becomes weirdly worshipful of Holdo the moment he understands what she's actually trying. We laugh off his defiance of direct orders and subsequent mutiny, and all is forgiven. Boys, right? Then Holdo launches her suicide attack (weirdly, exactly the same sort of thing beginning-of-the-movie Poe might do). The battle on Crait reveals that Poe defying orders is the only thing that gave them a fighting chance (remember the Destroyer he successfully blew up? That would have been able to destroy the base from orbit, per it having destroyed the previous base from orbit), and thus vindicates his earlier behavior. Poe calls off the attack on the walkers -- the only chance for survival that he knows they have left -- and thus condemns the entire Resistance to death. Only Luke and Rey save them, and he had no knowledge that they even knew where the Resistance was trapped. In other words, nothing was ever wrong with Poe. Leia and Holdo were terrible strategists and leaders, and Poe has been gaslighted into thinking his was wrong. This entire plot fails because it tries to convince us that Poe was wrong and Holdo and Leia were right, even as the movie proves the exact opposite at every turn. 2. As you say, Rose represents what Finn actually needs. But Finn is robbed of his choice to save the Resistance by Rose, who loses her mind and stops his self-sacrifice, thus condemning the entire Resistance to death. Once again, they are the last known hope for the Resitance, and Rose, of all people, should understand the value of self-sacrifice for a cause -- her sister died to save her and the Resistance, and she was responsibly stunning deserters earlier in the movie. We are given no indication that she felt her sister's sacrifice was in vain. This plot is ruined at the end because Rose behaves inconsistently and incomprehensibly, and Finn is not allowed to make meaningful decisions. His supposed mentor presents a new message: Don't fight to protect; just let your friends die. The music and cinematography clearly indicate that we're meant to think Rose is heroic and correct. This muddles Finn's journey -- He's supposed to learn to fight for the cause of the Resistance . . . but he's also not supposed to fight, because that's somehow wrong. There are also issues with Finn's arc in that it's just an extension of his previous arc -- He learns to fight for his friends in 7, and now he's learning to fight for a cause. It feels in some places like his character is sliding back on the previous arc, and it's unclear why he so quickly abandons his desire to prevent Rey from getting trapped. 3. Rey wants external validation from Kylo and Luke. Yet, she has already had external validation from Han, Chewie, Finn, BB-8, Maz, and Leia. Rey is apparently insecure about her parentage, demonstrated by two scenes with Kylo in which he speaks poorly of her parents, and then one scene in which she tries to learn about them from the Dark Side. The Kylo scenes are prime examples of telling, rather than showing, which is weak. Her taking action toward the Dark Side to learn about them functions fairly well (except in that it is totally inconsequential, both in that Rey isn't falling to the Dark Side and she learned nothing from the attempt), and explaining her attachment to Han as her searching for a father figure works decently. Her relationship with Luke is pretty consistently terrible, and she has two other reasons for seeking out Luke (bring him back and receive Jedi instruction) which muddle that explanation. Rey never returned to Jakku after escaping Starkiller Base, despite denying Maz's claim that her parents wouldn't come back. On the one hand, that seems to say she's accepted that her parents won't return. On the other hand, she never explicitly makes that determination on-screen, so who can say. Parentage aside, Rey has all the skills she ever needs -- she can Force-whatever she needs, she can pilot, repair, scavenge, climb, fight with her staff, fight with a lightsaber; she can even swim, despite growing up on a desert planet. Rey never fails in a meaningful way, and almost never needs help. The one exception is the scene with Snoke, which she nonetheless escapes from without a scratch. In other words, Rey is not portrayed as underprivileged, weak, or unliked in either of the movies. In fact, Luke complains that she's too powerful, and she has no problems with Chewie. She does start as underprivileged in The Force Awakens, but this is her arc in The Last Jedi. She proves over and over again that doesn't need anyone's help and would be fine on her own. This arc kind of works, but it could have been presented much more powerfully if we had meaningful examples of Rey failing or needing help, or being ridiculed or going unrecognized despite her contributions. Instead, it feels tacked on and weakly supported. Her internal struggle for emotional independence could have benefited from external struggles which showed us why she might feel insecure.

oh no i'm not brave for the comment section

I disagree about the film's overall quality and cohesion but I very much appreciate your efforts to explain positive qualities. That's much harder than pointing out flaws, and not enough people do it. Also, mega-respect for being fucking nuanced about it, and being able to admit that the film has positive and negative qualities, unlike most fans who have a compulsion to be all-or-nothing on every film.

My biggest issue with this movie was that I felt like none of the three plotlines were given enough space to breathe and feel organic. I understood how the conflict was supposed to play out and I didn't have any issues with the plot or the characters per se but felt like by attempting to tell three stories, they all felt rushed and shortchanged. I feel like the movie would have been more moving if it focused more on Rey and gave her story the significant bulk of the screen time. I actually like the themes in her story a lot and I wish they were given more time to be explored.

My problem with the movie is not that it "wasn't what I wanted". I liked it at first because it didn't do what I expected. But then I realized how the plot makes no sense and characters do incredibly stupid things for no reason other than the plot needs them to.

Wow... Kylo saying “you’re nothing... but not to me” gave me chills

Right on! I love Last Jedi and 2 points: 1) that doesn’t mean I think if you don’t like it you are wrong 2) that you don’t like it doesn’t mean I’m wrong Opinions differ. My reasons for liking it are personal, as they should be, this movie touched me and moved me and that’s all I want in a film.

That was... a mature review with extremely compeling and very well-structured arguments. Even though I disliked the movie you made me look at it with a different perspective. Congrats!

I think you analysis is accurate, but doesn’t the fact that so many people didn’t connect to these arcs sort of imply that they fumbled the ball on communicating key moments in these arcs? Like, i see the setup for poe, but at which moment does he learn? I feel similarly for finn. Their decisions don’t seem to hold much weight for the audience, somehow.

I was surprised at how many folks missed the point of Finn's arc. In TFA, he goes from valuing just himself, to valuing someone else also. In TLJ, he goes from putting his life on his line ONLY for those he personally values, to also seeing the big picture.

Sometimes I feel alone on the internet when I say I liked TLJ as both a movie and a Star Wars movie.

Oh, Holdo's plan for not telling Poe the plan is because she doesn't trust how he is. Ok. . . . HOW IS THAT A GOOD REASON!?!?

You make good points for admiring a movie I dislike, but the reasons I dislike the film are still there in spite of the elements that work. For example, Poe wants to take out the Dreadnaught, but in the story context, we don't know what that is or why it's important or how much of a blow it will cause the First Order. We've never even seen or heard of one before. We as an audience aren't able to gauge the impact of this move. How many Dreadnaughts are there? Two? Six? A hundred and thirteen? We're simply told to accept what we're told and play along, and that is a narrative shortcut. The film takes a lot of shortcuts for important elements, yet builds up less important points. MauLer's review explained this well, especially the part about how we never get to see Luke grieve over Han's death and share in the emotion of two characters we've been invested in for a long time, yet we get to see Rose cry over her sister - two characters we've never seen before. The drama of the film is just plain sloppy. Everything feels forced and unearned. Even the character arcs. Finn has essentially the same in this movie as the last one, regressing in his sleep for reasons unexplained. I love this channel, but I don't believe this is the type of film worthy of defending. There's a lot more to be gleaned by explaining the parts that don't work, and how to fix them. I would love to see that video (or videos) in the near future.

The moment Luke becomes a Jedi, in Return of the Jedi, is where he stands over his father, and throws his lightsaber away. Fake fans love to forget that. Being a Jedi isn't about being a space samurai, it's about rising above that.

Yes we understand Holdo doesn't tell Finn the plan because he's reckless, but that's exactly why she *should* tell him: it's pretty obvious the reckless, impulsive guy is not likely to sit around doing nothing just because you told him what a naughty boy he can be. "Prove that he really is self-sacrificing" Psssssyke here's Rose to stop that sacrifice, wasting his entire ark and allowing the battering ram to breach the gate and for all they know kill all the people he was supposed to fight for. "Kylo's descent into villainy" Which one? Kylo is a revolving door of a character. "Allowing [Rei] to save the remaining rebels" Yes her nascent superpowers are part of the problem. Your argument that the story is competently told from the perspective that it answers some arbitrary questions to complete a type of character ark holds some water, though I think at the very least the one for Finn is completely kneecapped in that same movie. But then there's the issue of the "fan service." You dismissively praise the movie for resisting the urge for fan service, but this movie went in the complete opposite direction to spit on the IP and fans alike. They turned Luke from a man that would risk everything to redeem his father from the darkness into a bitter, impulsive, callous old bat that would attempt to murder a child in their sleep because the child might have naughty thoughts. That child being no less than his nephew, the son of his sister and best friend. Sorry but I call bullshit.

Interesting. It wasn't your intention, but you just provided a fantastic case study on the limitations of story structure. Even though all the necessary elements are in place for a dynamic character arc, I still find the movie incompetent in the jawdroppingly inelegant manner used to force those elements. This cannot be ignored in judging the movie's competence. In other words, Rian Johnson checked all the narrative boxes, but I still argue that he failed in execution. The "what the audience needs" point in the conclusion of your video isn't entirely right. The audience doesn't want "exact same Star Wars" nor do they want "completely different Star Wars". This is a strawman. They want a beautiful, elegant synthesis between the two extremes that provides the "same-but-different and ultimately awesome" feel that - say - "Batman Begins" or the "Dark Knight" provided. This isn't easy. Rian Johnson opted for completely different trope-breaking movie that - I argue - wasn't well-executed enough to justify such a demolition. E.g. Rey freely gaining all Force powers without difficulty isn't good writing under most circumstances. Unearned awesome is cheating and the audience feels it. Regardless, thank you for such an interesting case study. You've proven you can check the boxes and still fail to write a compelling story.

I admire your courage for posting this, though it'll probably get a lot of dislikes anyways

So,...being a hotshot impulsive character is bad for Poe but good for Rose. Poe was given a tongue lashing for endangering lives, meanwhile Rose set a stampede of animals throughout a town. Trying to save your friend over the "greater good" is bad for Finn but good for Rose. Self sacrifice is good for Vice Admiral Holdo but Finn needs someone to intervene & teach him a lesson. This movie has a message to put certain characters in their place. I'm just saying.

10:53 - 11:07 that is exactly what the critics are telling about the problem with Rise of Skywalker

Well I bet people in the comment section are going to be fair and appropriate.

1:56 I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but it was amazing.

Kylo doesn't get the recognition he deserves for how interesting his character is. Also, glad to see I wasn't one of the only people to like this movie.

But, those seven basic questions only apply to a stand-alone film. This was to be the middle act of a 3-act story, and we all knew that going into it. In that case, do you not also have to consider the questions deliberately created by the first act? Would it not be considered bad writing in any other circumstance to make certain things central to the mystery or character development of the story in your first act, and then ignore those mysteries or character plot-points in the rest of the story? Imagine Voldamort getting killed off without explanation in the third book, and then never mentioned again, or the ring not being THAT ring after all, once Frodo and Sam set off on their own at the end of the first book. You would rightfully feel like the author wasted your time up to that point. I find it frustrating when people pretend like this film exists in a vacuum, and then sing the praises of its bold decisions. It's decisions were to crap all over the movie that came before it. Ryan Johnson must have been hated in his improv troop. Oh, you want to set all that up to be paid off by the next guy? Nope. Not doing that.

Perhaps Holdo was meant to be a thematic maturity for Poe, but the execution was horrendous. Even if she doesn't trust Poe as a leader, there is no reason to hide the plan from him, which any parent/leader would know could push a rash person act anyways and often in detriment to the larger goal (which is exactly what happened). Add on top of that that her plan was stupid in the first place and failed miserably and you get a character that was useless, infuriating, and a perfect metaphor for the current state of Lucasfilm/Disney.

It’s not just that Holdo didn’t tell Po, it’s that she didn’t tell ANYONE her plan besides a small team of high ranking officers. She let the entirety of the rebel fleet believe that the plan was just to just fly until they were out of fuel, then die. Thats not good leadership, thats the absolute worst kind of leadership.

I feel that you left out some pretty serious opposition to the movie that's based more on how well it executes what it's trying to do rather than fans not liking the direction the movie was trying to go. For example, Holdo didn't trust Poe with the plan because he's reckless, but he starts acting recklessly because he sees them doing something hopeless and cowardly. If he has to die, he wants to at least die fighting. Had she told him the plan it would have given him hope, or at the very least he would have done something reckless in support of her plan rather than trying to stop it. This is especially true after he publicly objects and calls out how dangerous it is and she has no response whatsoever. That would have been the opportunity to point out the abandoned base and the cloaking on the transports, or even just encouraging the crew to have faith and trust her. Instead she lets Poe undermine her (the kind of thing she should have expected leaving him blind like that). Sure, he's not a commander anymore, but he's apparently still charismatic and respected. After watching responses and arguments both ways for years now, it seems like all the praise the movie gets come from three camps: people who love Star Wars no matter what, people who love artistic creators no matter what, and people who like deconstructionism no matter what. It doesn't matter how long the list of problems, inconsistencies or instances of just plain bad writing; as long as there are some redeeming qualities to point out, the movie is brilliant.

Loved it. R2D2 playing Leia's message for Luke is among the best moments in the franchise.

One big issue with an analysis like this, and in my opinion the main reason for dissent on this movie, is that you're choosing to view TLJ as a standalone piece. You're dissecting what THIS movie does independently of what the prior movies have established. If this wasn't a Star Wars movie with decades of established canon, I would view this movie much more positively for many of the reasons you outline. However, this movie decides that three movies of character development for Luke can be thrown out with a five minute flashback. It decides that plot points hinted at in TFA don't matter. Deciding to subvert expectations is fine, even good, but it has to be done in a way that makes sense. Being edgy and unpredictable is not good on it's own (even if the main theme of your movie is 'let the past die'). If it wasn't a Star Wars movie, and a standalone film set a new universe I would think it was a pretty decent film. The fact that it's supposed to be a continuation of a story with developed characters and developed story beats that it ignores or completely blows up makes it bad writing. If Brandon Sanderson had decided when finishing The Wheel of Time, 'you know what, screw it, I don't like how Robert Jordan set these characters up, it doesn't fit the story I want to tell so I'm going to just scrap all of that and do my own thing because I have this great idea', even if his idea had been objectively good, it still would be a shit ending to The Wheel of Time. Same with TLJ. Objectively a fine idea that is crap as a continuation of the Star Wars narrative.

Isn't the first duty of entertainment to entertain? Yes, I agree the movie is structurally competent but it failed to do something didn't it? I feel like the bigger question is why did a movie that was both structurally competent and quite original, loose such a large portion of it's audience? Why did it fail when it did everything right? The wonky film school "Well you just don't get it," doesn't work because, yes, people didn't get it. And the fact that they didn't get it IS the failure. Making your audience "get it" is the point of telling a story. Otherwise why don't you just record the film in Gaelic, backwards, encrypted with a ten million bit key that you destroy. I guess I'm trying to say it feels like you went with the for the easy question of "I liked it so let me show why you should like it too" instead of "Why didn't people like this even though I like it." Because if you try to answer that question, honestly, I feel that delves deeper into the nature of story then just point to how the movie structurally did everything right.

The "your parents were nobodies" monologue from Kylo Ren was probably the most brilliant thing Rian Johnson did in the whole movie because it creates two possible outcomes that are equally interesting for the movies going forward. If Kylo Ren is telling the truth, then we have an instance where someone who isn't part of some great hereditary line must step up to the plate, as well as a fine counterpoint to Kylo's hereditary evil. If Kylo Ren is lying, then this creates a source of possibly interesting drama, as well as a great point of drama for the second act of the next movie. From a metanarrative level it also interacts with other aspects of the movie to critique and point out the stupidity of J. J. Abrams' damnable "mystery box."

9:14 “These ten characters”... I’m seeing 9, that’s 9 characters right?..... Snoke image creeps up slowly far bottom right. I DIED! 😂😂😂👍👍👍

Just here to say that even though I may not fully agree with the video, it doesn't affect my view on your videos

Honestly will watch the movie again with open eyes thanks to this video. I actually really liked The Last Jedi. Unfortunatly everyones hate and disgust for the movie has tainted the rewatching experience. Im gonna give it another go. Thanks Just Write.

At the beginning of empire, Han isn't a willing warrior for the rebels, he was about to leave until he had to go find Luke, because Leia wouldn't give him the business. Lol

*Angrily shouts “Yeah, JJ Abrams” throughout the entirety of the video*

I respect Rian Johnson for his ballsiness, if nothing else. He tried to make a Rian Johnson film within the Star Wars framework, but it’s ultimately his downfall here. He was clearly driven by personal ego and not a sense of serving something greater than himself. As a result, we ended up with a movie that’s ambitious but ultimately misguided. Contrary to how it is being spun, it’s not a misunderstood masterpiece- it’s just aggressively mediocre. It fixates so much on subversion and being unpredictable that it robs itself of any real narrative weight. It’s a film built on incessant fake-outs, nihilism, moral ambiguity, heavy-handed sociopolitical ideologies and iconoclasm- which leaves it feeling utterly joyless. Contrast this with classic Star Wars, which is about escapist romanticism and time-tested “Hero’s Journey” archetypes. The themes of Star Wars don’t need to be modernized for the series to endure. It already has endured and will continue to endure. The originals will, anyway. The sequel trilogy will be but a pop culture footnote in 20 years.

I actually think you had it the wrong way around. Luke offered Rey what she thought she wanted - a saviour, a father figure, external validation and a sense of belonging. It was Kylo that actually gave her what she needed - the truth and the realisation that family and such doesn't make us who we are, and that she needs to let go of certain things.

Adam is a phenomenal actor, I'm glad they casted him as Kylo Ren/Ben.

Rewatching it, I get your point but, instead of discussing with a huge essay I would just like to point out (with a shorter essay lol) that your comparisson with rogue one is misguided at best and dishonest at worst. Rogue One brings a lot of interesting themes and drama for the War between rebels and the Empire (and without sacrificing it's tone, a thing that TLJ suffers from given the constant humor). The Vader scene, even though it was a fan service nonetheless, is well place and makes sense within the narrative. After all how come he would let the rebels escape with the plans without lifting a finger? The scene not only shows how far Vader can come in order to protect the Empire but also the anonymous heroism from the nameless soldiers that sacrificed themselves for the rebellion in the same scene. It goes beyond than just 'pandering the audience'.

Just because a movie fits into the structure of screenwriting books doesn’t make it a good movie. Good foundation, poor execution. That said. Just Write > LFTS. One still can _learn_ from what TLJ does.

"These 10 characters encompass the entirety of the moral framework...." Wait, there are only 9? In crawls Snoke from the bottom left. I can't laugh any harder. Sage is a genius for both is critical analysis and subtle humor.

Lol! I saw your Hobbit series, where you picked apart the smallest plot holes and occasional lazy writing. Yet here you are defending gaping holes, contrived themes, and the systematic deconstruction of a VERY well established universe. You sir are a shill.

Ha, that last line. Bold of you to assume the audience went through a character arc. (Love the analysis btw)

Ok, let's get this out of the way right from the beginning. The issue with Poe's arc and the reason everyone hates it is because at the end of the day Poe was 100% right in targeting and destroying that dreadnought. Without it the First Order had no way of targeting the fleet effectively when they followed it through hyperspace. I'll give you that he had no way of knowing that it was the proper course of action when he did it but as soon as it became glaringly obvious to everyone but the characters that his actions had saved the fleet he should have been exonerated. Instead they double down on a punishment that is not only irresponsible considering the size of the rebellion is now 3 ships and their respective crews and high command isn't exactly in a position to sideline respected and successful commanders like Poe but is invalidated as soon as the Big Bad shows up and it becomes clear that if they had escaped to hyperspace like Leia wanted they would all have had a lifespan shortened to the power up sequence for those super laser cannons. Punishing success because it went against your wishes is something the worst and most incompetent leaders do, not successful ones. He made the right call and is punished for it because he was the only one with the guts to make the right call when it mattered. The moral of his second arc seems for all the world to be that he should just trust the chain of command and have faith in what looks for all the world like a commander who is doing nothing and refuses to not only explain what the plan is but refuses to explain why they won't explain the plan. The moral "Don't trust yourself, trust in authority figures no matter what" is something the BAD GUYS would say last time I checked.

Why did you say that Snoke is a main character, if he has no impact on the needs or wants of the three major characters?

You can't really argue for Rose's character, even if she has a reason to exist such as conflict. This video is effectively an analysis that the film uses a simple screenwriting concept, and I could tell you're going somewhere with this, but that doesn't mean it was executed well. I'd actually hardly call this film competent, I daresay that it trips itself up by writing itself into a corner to fulfil these 7 questions.

Love how you're brave enough to be authentic and honest with your views even if they aren't popular. Thanks for the great videos as always!

At one point Poe wasn't even asking to know the plan, he just wanted to know that there even was a plan. Holdo not even telling him if a plan existed is inexcusable writing.

Does Force sensitivity and wielding a lightsaber make a person a “Jedi.” I thought that was more of an ideology? Rey doesn’t grow, or face consequences for her actions other than breaking the Bespin lightsaber. The parents revelation is an info dump at best

The brilliance you outline in the film is duly noted. However, there are established space mechanics and historical character arcs that are simultaneously leveled in RJ's gamble with the franchise that I (and many) believe effectively broke Star Wars.

This movie still accomplished many things that many star wars movies failed to do so (Rise of Skywalker), even if you didn't like the movie. I'm glad that after two years after its released I find the best of the Sequel trilogy, even though I didn't like it at its released. Opinions can change and that's ok. Thank you to this video and your channel for making me learn more about movies! Awesome job!

While I find this to be a good analysis, there are several problems. First of all with Poe's arc. If he hadn't taken out the Dreadnought, there wouldn't have been a movie. The Dreadnoughts guns would have been able to blow up the Rebel ships meaning that the chase wouldn't have been possible. So while the Rebels suffered casualties, the trade of their bombers and several pilots for the Dreadnought and it's entire crew is both worth it and necessary. Secondly, while one can argue with Holdo not telling Poe the plan, to begin with, though I personally find it stupid, one cannot make the same argument when he is performing a mutiny. And let's remember, that had not Luke just shown up, pulling back from that suicide run on Crait would have doomed the Rebellion. Probably the only chance the First Order had of breaching that door was that canon, so giving up and letting it fire would have ended in more people dying that sacrificing a few pilots. I don't have a problem with Fin's arc in the movie. The big problem is that it's pointless. The entire subplot with going to Canto Bight, getting a code breaker and sneaking on to the First Orders ship didn't amount to anything in the grand scheme of things. A movie has a finite amount of time and TLJ already feels bloated. Skip Canto Bight and cut down on the sneaking mission would make the movie feel a lot better. Ray has a number of problems but they aren't with how this movie is built, they are with how her character is built, starting in TFA. While I think that she is a Mary Sue, I'm going to put that aside. I agree with you that it isn't a problem with the fact that Ray's parents are nobodies, the problem I have with the seen is that it just tells us that they were nobodies, it doesn't show us. Show, don't tell. Another thing in the movie is that she seems to go back and forth. One minute, she thinks Kylo is unredeemable, and the next she thinks she can save him from himself. And while the movie has arcs for the character you have to ask if the main story works, and it simply doesn't. The movie can only work because the First Order consists of nothing of idiots. To start with, why fire of the rebel base when you can fire on the Rebel ships in orbit. The base isn't going to move, while the ships can leave. And why didn't they have screening Ties already deployed when they came into the system. If they are a splinter of the Empire, the should know that the resistance favours smaller strike crafts. And why didn't they just open fire on Poe when he stopped in front of them. They were there to wipe them out. And during the chase, why not have a detachment of Star Destroyers jump ahead of the Rebels and intercept them. And the Holdo manoeuvre causes a problem for every single Star Wars movie already out and forever. If that can be done, why hasn't it ever been done before? And now you have to expect that it will be done in every space battle including larger ships.

Ok I love your videos but like WHO DOES THE THuMBNAILS? They always look so nice!!

Finn doesn't start his journey as Solo, he is a brainwashed clone who has an epiphany. Solo joins the rebellion because he loves Leia and befriends Luke and he has a personal code of the swashbuckler he is...

At 6:49, that is such a cool point that never occurred to me. It's like you just showed me how an amazing magic trick was preformed...except unlike a magic trick reveal, it's even more amazing now! That truly gives me a new perspective and makes me appreciate this story more.

The Last Jedi has interesting ideas that are poorly executed. Other films came out last year that had very similar ideas and themes as TLJ but were done much better and people loved them. For example, the idea of the idealistic hero failing horribly and becoming a bitter old man was done in Logan and people loved that movie. Professor X ended up far worse than Luke, he killed the X-Men and became a decrepit old man forced to live in isolation to prevent his powers from hurting others. And far less people complained about that compared to Luke because the film did a great job of developing that theme and making you care. The idea of the protagonist thinking that they're part of a special family and has a grand destiny was done in Blade Runner 2049. The whole movie built up the idea of K being Deckard's son and the whole thing was a huge subversion. But that worked because the whole point of the movie was that K, and the replicants, didn't need to have miracle births to be special, their choices define them, and being human to them means choosing to go beyond what they were made to be.

Long comment, not a rant, but trying to be thoughtful. Nice video, and though I disagree, you definitely have me thinking. You say "the controversy around this film has to do with how it challenges the legacy of its own franchise." That's an extremely broad brush to paint those critical of the film with. I can only speak for myself, and I really only have two deal-breaker criticisms. My absolute #1 criticism of the film is how it challenges the rules by which the Star Wars universe operates, and essentially ignores them, even within this one film. Single example: the hyperspace ramming scene. Looked amazing, but makes the characters in the film seem insane, and reduces the coherence of not a few of the preceding films. Plenty more examples, but I'm trying not to bog this down in details. Second biggest criticism I have is that several of the characters seem literally insane. General Leia launches at attack wing of bombers at a dreadnaught, then changes her mind and calls them back in a suicidal retreat. Admiral Holdo not sharing her plan (which could have been explained away easily as concern for spies, but no such explanation was given, and it's not my job to write a coherent script, it's the screenwriters'). Poe and friends swarming during the battle of Crait with speeders that appear to have no offensive weaponry... which then is declared "suicide", and a general retreat ordered. Finn has the thought to save the day by ramming the cannon, and Rose inexplicably and impossibly "saves" him by ramming him in a surely equally suicidal and homicidal move, at the same time condemning any survivors to certain death (she had no idea Luke was going to distract the First Order, remember). There's more, obviously, and other reasons, but those two are the big ones. I didn't like the humor, but I could live with most of it. Unclear motivations for many characters (especially Luke Skywalker - why is he hiding? Why did he leave a map to find him? Why must the Jedi end? Why must later the Jedi not end?) muddy the waters, and the persistent preoccupation with "gotcha!" moments just left me exhausted. And finally, more than a few scenes seem heavily "fixed" in post production without due care for the final product (e.g. disappearing energy knives). You say that while we may not like what it has to say, you feel the movie tells us what it has to say well. I still don't know what the movie's trying to say - is Poe a reckless hothead, or did he do the right thing against odds and opposition multiple times? Both viewpoints are supportable. Is Rey a Jedi now? How? She received essentially no training or understanding from Luke, though she has a few books to read. Is she emotionally stable? She seems to know what she wants to do at this point, but I think that's a stretch. Ultimately, I think Rian Johnson did just what he told Mark Hamill he'd do - make a movie that he wanted to make. That's well and good, but all I ask is that your film hold together internally, and retains most of your external consistency with the established universe. In that regard, I think The Last Jedi is a failure.

The problem is- and this is TLJ and I in a microcosm- I disagree with the thesis of Poe's arc entirely. What the movie acts is if it portrays is a reckless, foolish Poe. What it actually gives us is a heroic, tactically-intelligent Poe that recognizes a necessary sacrifice of forces to achieve a significant military goal; one which, in retrospect, saved the entire Resistance (because the presence of those Dreadnaught canons in either the chase, or at Crait, would have killed everyone dead immediately; no Resistance survivors). The film wants to show us a conflict between want and need- but the thing Poe supposedly needs, as portrayed, he already has; it's the other characters around him who are reckless and not intelligent enough to recognize it. Whatever the film was *trying* to communicate, the execution failed to do this entirely. Similarly with Luke; whatever the film *wanted* to portray in terms of his past choices and character growth... he became a man who not only thought about murdering his nephew (a human frailty), but actually did the equivalent of unholstering his gun and turning off the safety before stopping (actively preparing for a murder. A man who decided his friends would be better off without him and walked away owing to despair and shock (an understandably human reaction to trauma)... *after* he'd unleashed a murderous monster on them and made no effort to stop him. In both cases, the film wanted to portray someone with human frailties- but did so by placing an act (contemplating something he later regretted, walking away out of self-pity and despair), and framed them in a context that made him a monster (actually starting to act on it, walking away just after he'd set the metaphorical carpet of the house on fire and taking no responsibility for saving people from the disaster he'd just placed them in). That's why I loathe the film; not for what it was trying to say- but for the inept way it framed what it was trying to say in circumstances that entirely invalidated and entirely inverted its intended message.

What a great film

About Rey's parents: This plot was already resolved in TFA. Rey had no reason to believe her parents were special in any way. Why should she think so? She was only waiting for them to come back. But Maz explained something to her that Rey already knew: Maz Kanata: Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you're waiting for on Jakku... they're never coming back... But... there's someone who still could. Rey: Luke. Maz Kanata: The belonging you seek is not behind you... it is ahead. I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes... Feel it... The light... it's always been there. It will guide you. So Rey realised her parents had left for good. She had no reason to think they were anything special, and decided to spend her time finding Luke and bring him back instead. The FANS started to speculate about who rey's parents were the FANS wanted them to be special. But Rey had no reason to think so. So this is actually a mistake by the writers of The Last Jedi. They confused the character of Rey with the fans. How embarrassing...

>These are stories for 12 year old boys >Here’s a video essay explaining how the story is competent when evaluated by grad school Lit students. Pick one, Lucasfilm.

Saw this last year, but it keeps coming up as a suggestion due to all the RoS vs. TLJ stuff floating around there now. Wonderful video, but if you think the Rogue One Vader scene was just "pandering" or "fan service", then you need to take a closer look at THAT movie's themes. Because that scene is absolutely on point and essential. Cheers!

"The last Jedi should be applauded for resisting the temptation to endulge its audience with fanservice, callbacks and references. For telling a real story that questions the themes and ideas of the previous films instead just pandering to us." - someone call feige and tell him this is why endgame isn't Logan.

This is extremely interesting to watch, and I definitely think you got me thinking and reevaluating my previous notions on The Last Jedi. I can't thank you enough for these well-thought and articulated videos; they are beyond engrossing to me.

You know, as much as I liked Force Awakens, I always thought Finn's arc in that movie was super rushed. He spends the first half of the movie wanting to escape the First Order, but after he sees some planets blow up he changes his mind and decides to help. Like, wouldn't seeing planets get blown up only increase his urge to run away...? It wasn't until watching The Last Jedi that his arc in the previous movie wasn't supposed to be his entire arc, but rather HALF of one. Like many, I was initially taken aback when Finn in TLJ seemingly starts out selfish again, but then then it is revealed that he was actually doing what he was doing to help Rey....just like he was during TFA. And throughout the course of the movie, he goes from only caring about Rey to becoming a Resistance hero: something that people believed him to be when he was never actually one. That's why I feel Finn's arc in this movie is a natural progression of his character and not just a retread like many accuse it of being. He goes from only caring about himself, to caring about someone other than himself, to caring about a cause greater than himself. So in a weird way, TLJ retroactively made TFA better for me. My biggest concern is that now that his chaarcter arc is done for good this time, there isn't much left for him in Episode 9. I'm afraid that they'll do what they did with Han Solo in Return Of The Jedi and just have him be there for the sake of it. Hopefully the writers have something good up their sleeve.

The main problem, at least in terms of writing, is that The Last Jedi (and the new movies in general) aren't the story of one character. This isn't Rey's story or Poe's or Finn's. Nor is it Kylo's. The movie tries to tell the story and answer the questions for all of them. The reason Empire is regarded as a great movie was that, though you had fun side characters in Han, Leia, Chewie, etc, they were just that: side characters. The story was Luke's, just as Return of the Jedi is more Anakin's story; hence the focus on Vader's conflict in choosing to sacrifice himself and his wants to meet the needs of the galaxy. Realistically, there just isn't enough time to adequately address every character, which is why several of the arcs feel hollow. Poe gets a small sequence to demonstrate his change, Rey's change feels unearned, Luke's change feels like it comes out of left-field (though I actually appreciate that he believes the legacy of the Jedi is failure...because it is). Kylo appears like a one-dimensional bad guy; however, I think some of the issue is direction here. Kylo and Rey confronting Snoke is a mirror of Luke/Vader in ROTJ, but TLJ plays the choice of what would happen if Vader would have just killed the Emperor without having to set aside desire. What the movie fails to do is adequately demonstrate Kylo's motivation: Maybe finishing what Vader started was just the desire to rule the galaxy? That's kinda shallow though, and not really a motivation....like, why did Vader want to rule the galaxy? I don't know. Overall, the movie isn't horrible, but it's not great either. My only real beefs (beeves?) with the movie are: 1. Rey's growth still feels unearned and Kylo comes across as a whiny child 2. It contradicts its message several times: Don't risk your life in crazy suicidal missions, but then has Holdo do that, then bucks it again when Finn tries to do the same. 3. Leia Poppins. I get it, the writer and director is/are not Star Wars nerds. However, their lack of understanding what the force is, is manifest in this scene. The force is complex and layered. It's not magic. They address this correctly in Luke's training of Rey. Likewise, Leia is, and always has been, force empathic. She feels it and senses it, but it never manifests in her through actual force power. This is important because Luke is the opposite. Luke is all power, but doesn't feel the force (Yoda says this to him again and again in Empire).

This was such a good way to show the 7 Basic Questions of a Narrative being answered! I am a beginner in writing and watching your videos has been a great way to SEE how writing can be observed and executed. Also, its nice to see a different perspective on potential reasons why the audience who reads a book or watches a movie can feel excited or unsatisfied with a story. Thanks for the videos!

if these weren’t star wars characters with previously established stories and arcs that needed follow up in a SEQUEL i might agree with you but the Last Jedi took a shit all over what came before it and expects me to applaud it for being bold for doing so.

You have my respectful disagreement concerning the plot. My impression is that it suffers from the main flaw of wanting to be too many things at once. Thus getting in its own way and killing its own build up. Sure, I agree there were a 'few' decent aspects to the film, but not nearly enough to make up for its many deep cracks. The characters may follow the rules of character creation, but how engaging were they accualy allowed to be? There was too little character build up. Questioning the old movies through a new one can be done in a good way, and pointing out the deep issues with jedi philosophy is somthing I would support. But in my mind both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi failed hard in its attempts. Having said this, it is just my view, and you are ofcourse entitled to yours. It should also be added that George Lucas left a pair of rather large boots to fill. Still, Star Wars deserves better.

Finally something good. I need a refresher after seeing all those hyperbolic "essay" videos bashing this masterwork of a film.

For me, I wouldn't say TLJ is wholly a bad movie, but I would say it's a bad 'Star Wars' movie. There's a reason why movie critics loved the film, yet many longstanding die-hard fans rejected the movie.

I don't want to come off as someone who genuinely hates this movie in a fanatical way, I am generally open to discussion on any opinions that I have, but I honestly do believe its the worst of the modern Star wars movies in fairly clear terms. I would have liked Lukes ending to be handled differently, sure, but thats not the core of it. Rei does strike me somewhat as what some people call a "mary sue", but I have enjoyed media with that kind of character in it before, it doesn't inherently make it a bad story. (And honestly its pretty common if you go looking for it in fantasy media). I don't massively mind that set up questions went nowhere. (Although even within this movie, they did a decent job of starting to make Snoke seem like a legit intimidating mastermind who was three steps ahead... not that long before they just end him and honestly seemed to leave the film feeling rudderless for a while.) Unfortunately TLJ just lost me at some point in the movie. I went in with no preconceived notions. I thought TFA was pretty entertaining and I had no major issues with Rogue One. I would describe myself as a big fan of the original trilogy who was somewhat cooled on the franchise after the prequel trilogy. Open to the idea of more SW movies with a fresh take, but not particularly looking forward to seeing them. But some jarring plot and character elements hit me hard enough to dislodge me from the immersion of this movie, something that rarely happens with me. I tend to just sit through stuff in the moment and analyse it later. I genuinely believe there were fundamental writing/film making problems with this movie that I cannot call it an overall good movie in my opinion. I'm no film student or writer or anything like that so maybe I can't articulate this well enough, but I just think the slow space chase/secret mutiny plan was a bad narrative construct to hang this movie on. And it honestly exposes some weird character writing of certain characters in my opinion. Just to try and keep this shorter, I'll just focus on Rose, since she is a new character without baggage from the previous movies. Not the only problem I had with the movie though, but just for simplicity. The earliest things we know about Rose is that she is in the rebellion, her sister died for the cause, yet she is still trusted to be loyal enough to be the person who is stopping others from deserting. Sounds like she is pretty invested in the cause, at least thats what that all suggests to me. So a convoluted plan is formed to leave the ship thats running out of fuel in a smaller ship, undetected, go meet a single person you have never met who will apparently agree to come back with you to the ship, infiltrate the enemy ship, and deactivate a tracker. Again, Rose is willing to break the rules to do what she thinks will help the rebellion, at any cost. Sidenote, at no point is anyone using this apparently free movement in ships to evacuate key personnel from the cruiser, go get more "fuel", buy weapons, like some kind of space mines for example, hire a mercenary force, or with the ability to infiltrate just plant some explosives instead of getting to a specific secure room and doing a bunch of hacking etc etc etc. Fine, Ignore all that because the plot wants to take a trip through prequel town and have CGI hijinks on a casino planet and find space James Bond. Ok, I'll go with you for now. I'm probably just overthinking sci-fi plot points. But getting back to Rose and Finn on the casino planet. After they take the horse cat for a joyride, they are essentially caught, and going to be thrown in prison. This essentially means they have failed their mission as far as they know. This was the last secret hope they had for the ships to escape the first order. And they couldn't get it done. They are about to go to jail. The last piece of the rebellion will be stamped out. Most of the people Rose knows in her modern life, friends, other family perhaps, brothers in arms on that ship are going to die. The cause she ostensibly strongly believed in will be violently extinguished. Her sisters sacrifice was for nothing. And yet, this current outcome is "worth it" to her, because they let some horse cats play in the grass for 30 minutes before likely being rounded up or shot and caused some property damage. What human being would take that trade and call it fair? How is that a well written character? Is this just the result of deep psychological trauma of the situation causing her to act insane? Like she is just doing the most extreme mental gymnastics to attribute some value to her actions and life because of the massive crushing sense of loss she should be feeling? I cannot find any other way to understand it. Thats a badly written character in my book, because I don't believe that is the intention. It just seems like sentimental poorly timed animal activism for the sake of the scene, in isolation of the entire movies premise and what the characters are working towards up to this point. I have nothing against animal rights, but I would think you have bigger fish to fry. Why should I care about the threat of the First Order if these characters in the movie barley seem to remember they exist once they lose sight of them.

You can't pretend to ignore the fact, that these are a serialized movies, which follow a narrative arc from: 1-3, 4-6, & 7-9. Global: 1-9, so you can recolect from the trash can all film virtues of just this particular chapter, as much as you want. But you can't make a valid compelling narrative argument for this chapter as a valid piece of the entire saga, which is the very core of the actual world issue.

I don't really agree with your conclusion. The movie don't pander to audience expectation but does the exact opposite wich isn't better, it tries to subvert expectations at all cost. First by cancelling all that was built into SW7. I didn't liked SW7 but at the end of 8 the only thing that I could think was "What a dick move to your coworker Johnson". There is no basis for a sequel left and that wouldn't be a problem if this movie wasn't mean to be the second out of three and middle part of a story. At the end of 7 I was like "Meh but let's see where it's going" while at the end of the 8 it was "This one was cooler but there isn't anywhere to go now". It isn't that bad as a stand alone movie but fails remakably as a piece of a trilogy, more so as the 8th film of a franchise. Aside from that yes you can guess all the characters themes and motivations but it's nearly too cristal clear, like a checklist. Many dialogues don't sound pronounced by people but by scenarists. Holdo may be the worst offender, all the speeches about hope don't come from an admiral trying to reassure it's troops but from a scenarist trying to explain the plot of the movie, it feels fake and forced. On a final note there's the general incompetence induced apathy from everyone. Everyone is stupid. I can't take the first order seriously when it's led by wannabe Hitler who get outwitted by a guy telling yo mama jokes. The main thing that maintain any form of tension is everyone having one more bad idea turn by turn so there can be a plot. So as cool as it looks (and it's stunning) it tend to dull us and we just wait for the next idiocy to solve the resistance's problem or create them a new one.

We didn't know what a stupid parent reveal were till TROS. (also I loved the parent reveal in TLJ.)

I think a more brave stance to take in a video like this would have been to examine why about half the audience, myself included, failed to like this movie even though they “did everything right” and it’s “the movie we need.”

*Here to celebrate more Star Wars positivity*

I can't help but feel that people who disliked this video loved the other youtube critic vids who ruthlessly ripped The Last Jedi apart and did not acknowledge that any parts of it were good

This video doesn't even address the absurdity of Luke dying because he ran out of energy trying to boost 4G signal for Skype video chat.

The problem wasn't that it didn't follow the basic mechanics of story. The problem was that it didn't earn those mechanics in the first place. Example: Captain doesn't tell anybody the plan because?... (plot). It didn't earn the whole "Captain doesn't tell anybody" angle, there was no *reason* for it. This whole movie was just one big ass continuity error. Why the hell would Rose stop Finn from sacrificing himself if her whole philosophy was "protect the things we love" blah blah cringey "lesson"? Again, makes no *sense.* There's no *reason* in it. If you determine the quality/success of a film based solely on what rules it follows you're not setting the bar very high. It's how well it follows those rules and more so makes us forget that they're even there. A movie shouldn't compel itself to follow these rules, it should follow them on its own because those are the ingredients of a good film in the first place. This movie followed those rules like a checklist, hence why there are so many holes because they just forcibly made things happen to fill out this film checklist, rather than making a story that follows these points themselves.

"I don't trust how wreckless you are. So I'm going to keep you in the dark so you have reasons to distrust me and take wreckless action against me." She's not very good at predicting behavior. I read it as SHE made a mistake in Canon.

It’s really interesting to me, a lot of people have taken Kylo’s statement that Rey’s parents are no one seriously. But he told her this in a moment where her weakness, hopelessness, and loneliness would be exploited to his benefit. I immediately felt as though he was lying while watching the film?

If you hate bathos, why did you like this movie? It was full of it.

I've rewatched TLJ recently and I now think it's brilliant. It was a different film and this time I had an chance to pay it attention it deserves.

I dont even think your loyal fan base can save you from the Like/Dislike Ratio

“Not the movie we deserved, but the movie we needed.” except what we needed was a middle chapter to a trilogy, not a stand alone film that ignores each of the things the first one tells us to invest in and expect answers to. It is so unconnected to the first part of the trilogy. Imagine, instead of Return of the Jedi, a follow up to Empire where the main story is Moff Tarkin's Power Struggle with another Moff we never heard of, for the Emperor's Favor. Where Luke shows up with Vader, and the Emperor kills him outright with a gun because he is nobody now, and the Emperor thinks the force is foolish. And where, on the way to down to Endor, Han and crew stop to gamble on some pod races on not even nearby tattooine.

TRoS is what Stans wanted and TLJ is what they needed