The Future of the Franchise (Spoilers)

[Card Null]

So after about 3 rewatches of TLJ i've finally concluded that its a pretty great movie in my opinion .The characters growth and changes in this movie is amazing,and its quite saddening to hear its one of the reasons most fans dislike the film .Such a change is shown in our old time hero Luke ,In the movie he's shown as a attempted murder because he tried to kill ben , but as shown from Luke's perspective he only ignited the lightsaber when sensing the darkside in ben , which he repeatedly says that one action was the biggest mistake he had made.Luke was in fact scared of this raw strength that kylo possessed due to him being from the same family line as him of legendary force users.Almost everyone in the galaxy has heard of vader who was a monster to the galaxy Luke not only created a villain for the galaxy but it so happens to be someone from his own family. A family which is exceptionally powerful in the force but enough of my rants . The only known force users so far in the new trilogy are Rey, Kylo, possibly finn, and broomboy but he's not doing anything right now lol. So no more sith and possibly rey being something more than a jedi .how do you feel about the main hero and villain both using the light and dark side of the force and where do you think the story is going to pick up from ep 8 into 9.

 

[Stephanie Swail]

Me personally? I felt like I was watching half-hearted versions of Ep VIII and Ep IX in one.

"Supreme Leader" Snoke dead.
Han Solo dead.
Luke Skywalker dead.
Captain Phasma dead.

Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker is dead.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead.
Yoda is dead.

Princess Leia will not be in Ep IX.

Kylo Ren is now the leader of this First Order who looked pretty useless in 'TLJ' compared to 'TFA' whose might seemed to consist of Heavy Walkers, Star Destroyers and TIEs. Conquering the galaxy? With that? Yeah, right.

The Resistance is over.

Right now? I have no idea where this will go to conclude a trilogy, and if they honour George's vision, the whole 9-part saga.

There are no villains who interest or entice me, and the heroes, now our new generation, certainly seemed to have peaked already. If Rey can do all this without no real training, what will she be able to hand-wave next?


I hate myself for feeling this way, and I hope J.J returns what I missed from his wonderful set-up in 'TFA' because so much could have been richly crafted out of it, but it seemed to be ignored by Rian in lieu of his own ideas.

 

[Pal Veda]

If they could just undo the joke they made Hux in TLJ, then he would be a fine villain. I hate that they ruined his character. That actually disappointed me the most of all the decisions made in TLJ. At this point, Poe is the only character I'm really interested in. Rey is lame, Finn is meh, Rose is sub-meh, and no one else is alive. Maybe BB-8 will shine?

And why cast Benicio Del Toro for such an underutilized role? I mean we saw they did it with Gwendoline Christie in Phasma, but Benicio Del Toro is a much bigger name. Maybe they are setting him up to make a return in Ep 9? I like the actor, but the character wasn't great.

They can always bring back Lando. He's not dead yet, and he's still got some connection to the Solos in Aftermath. We know that (very unfortunately) Carrie Fisher has left us. I imagine they will do some kind of funeral or something for her in Ep 9 to send her character off properly. That's a perfect way to introduce Lando back into the fold. And that would fit nicely with the release of Solo this year. And while Chewbacca was less than a primary character in TLJ, he's still kicking, and he's got a strong connection to Han.

Speaking of Chewie and Aftermath, they brought Chewbacca's son back, so he's out there somewhere.

And again speaking of Aftermath, Admiral Rae Sloane was a pretty solid character that I wouldn't mind making an appearance. The last we hear of her, she's safe and ready to build the First Order. Wookieepedia says she was born 41 BBY, and TLJ takes place 34 ABY, so that makes her 75. Eh, I guess she's probably retired (dead) by now.

 

[Card Null]

If they could just undo the joke they made Hux in TLJ, then he would be a fine villain. I hate that they ruined his character. That actually disappointed me the most of all the decisions made in TLJ. At this point, Poe is the only character I'm really interested in. Rey is lame, Finn is meh, Rose is sub-meh, and no one else is alive. Maybe BB-8 will shine?

And why cast Benicio Del Toro for such an underutilized role? I mean we saw they did it with Gwendoline Christie in Phasma, but Benicio Del Toro is a much bigger name. Maybe they are setting him up to make a return in Ep 9? I like the actor, but the character wasn't great.

They can always bring back Lando. He's not dead yet, and he's still got some connection to the Solos in Aftermath. We know that (very unfortunately) Carrie Fisher has left us. I imagine they will do some kind of funeral or something for her in Ep 9 to send her character off properly. That's a perfect way to introduce Lando back into the fold. And that would fit nicely with the release of Solo this year. And while Chewbacca was less than a primary character in TLJ, he's still kicking, and he's got a strong connection to Han.

Speaking of Chewie and Aftermath, they brought Chewbacca's son back, so he's out there somewhere.

And again speaking of Aftermath, Admiral Rae Sloane was a pretty solid character that I wouldn't mind making an appearance. The last we hear of her, she's safe and ready to build the First Order. Wookieepedia says she was born 41 BBY, and TLJ takes place 34 ABY, so that makes her 75. Eh, I guess she's probably retired (dead) by now.

Me personally? I felt like I was watching half-hearted versions of Ep VIII and Ep IX in one.

"Supreme Leader" Snoke dead.
Han Solo dead.
Luke Skywalker dead.
Captain Phasma dead.

Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker is dead.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead.
Yoda is dead.

Princess Leia will not be in Ep IX.

Kylo Ren is now the leader of this First Order who looked pretty useless in 'TLJ' compared to 'TFA' whose might seemed to consist of Heavy Walkers, Star Destroyers and TIEs. Conquering the galaxy? With that? Yeah, right.

The Resistance is over.

Right now? I have no idea where this will go to conclude a trilogy, and if they honour George's vision, the whole 9-part saga.

There are no villains who interest or entice me, and the heroes, now our new generation, certainly seemed to have peaked already. If Rey can do all this without no real training, what will she be able to hand-wave next?


I hate myself for feeling this way, and I hope J.J returns what I missed from his wonderful set-up in 'TFA' because so much could have been richly crafted out of it, but it seemed to be ignored by Rian in lieu of his own ideas.

When people do things in these newer trilogies such as killing off people's favorite characters don;t look for comparisons that aren't there .Its always going to leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth but at the same time advances the story. Fans in general are trying to find connections that just don't know this may sound horrible to fans but killing off Luke was the best thing to happen in this new Trilogy. He's already set in a stone as a Galactic hero people owe their planet's freedom , by defeating the empire and ending their oppression to him. Same thing with Leia she may have left us too soon irl but it's just nostalgia that make's up the characters at this point . I feel as if people wanted these newer trilogy to be about the original characters but forget its a new trilogy passing of the torch, it would've left fans pissed if any one of them were killed off screen so we;re lucky enough we got to see the people we grew to love one last time or even mentioned. If they were to bring lando into the fold they'll get nit picky and say he's in the last ep of a trilogy again star wars fans can't accept change and it's annoying at this point. Snoke not dead , phasmas not dead and Leia gonna live on either in a book or comic. I do agree that hux was almost laughable in this movie but what do you expect from an admiral he either barks orders or gets killed off via force choke good thing he gets enough and phasma could have lasted longer but who knows his could be a really good misdirection, who knows we have to wait. Lastly our heroes and villains haven't peaked rey is clearly a good person but as luke said she didn't even try to fight the darkside she as of right now could either be neutral or straight up darkside in ep 9. Finn could easily be force sensitive their is a lot of hints in tfa towards that but who knows how they'll go with that. furthermore kylo is not yet finished his transition to the dark side we have to see his conquest across the galaxy which is possible since as of now the first order is the dominant force in the galaxy being that the republic was destroyed and the resistance is in shambles . The tides have shifted and are in the first orders favor.

 

[Stephanie Swail]

I'm all for passing torches etc but to me it felt 'TLJ' ended things too soon. Bring on any character death; Han Solo was perfect. It meant something, it ended his journey and he had a good part to play. Luke Skywalker, IMO, was wasted and his death was a sickly homage to 'ANH' that was so glaringly obvious it was worse than anything people said JJ did in 'TFA'.

Dying in front of twin suns? Ugh.

It's the fact everyone of some importance seemed to get offed before the final episode starts and it's like...oh....ok....so we have Rey, Poe, Finn, the droids, Chewie and the minor Resistance characters.

The end of 'TLJ' didn't feel like the end of 'TESB' in terms of giving us hope and direction for a finale.

 

[Matt the Radar Tech]

[member="Stephanie Swail"]

I share similar thoughts. Rian crafted his own story, ignored a lot of build up and plot leads from TFA, and pushed a very heavy-handed political agenda down throats with the casino scene. Additionally, it didn't serve any reason - and yeah, the movie is about failing and blah, sure - aside from distracting from all the story points that were ignored from TFA. In and of itself, the whole casino/Finn's plan was redundant and caused more problems for the characters than averted. It was annoying for me to watch it all unfold, really.

Also, I felt Holdo (Hondo?), was a cheap character thrown in and forced on us to be made important, but not having any emotional levity beyond being a literal sacrificial lamb - especially when it could have been any number of other established and beloved characters (*cough*Ackbar*cough*) that could have served the same purpose, but had more of an impact for the fans.

Also, how did the resistance suddenly drop to 50 people after a single credit crawl? I thought TFA left us with a first order on the ropes, and the resistance gaining steam! But a few lines of yellow, and suddenly the first order is chasing down the last few dozen resistance members to death... weird, disjointed storytelling.

Also, I didn't like the weird alien walrus breasts. That was just weird, even with Luke playing the crazy old hermit to dissuade Rey from learning from him.

Finally, I'm annoyed that Rian admitted to wanting to create his own enclosed movie within the trilogy... which is an oxymoron, given it's the middle of an overarching story arc of three movies. It also proves how selfish he is, and how he would rather make his own impact on the franchise, rather than play ball and follow prompts from J.J. in TFA. Overall, I hope Rian is removed from his own planned trilogy, as a result of his selfishness with this one by making it a 'complete story' mid trilogy.

He literally had his own movies to do exactly what he wanted in the near future!

Overall, wasn't impressed and have lost a lot of that interest in most of the characters and events. J.J has a very large bill to fork out for after this one, and I hope he can inject some answers around Rian's non-answers from TFA (such as really explaining Rey's history, as I don't believe Kylo for a second - even though HE may believe it).

 

[Gren Blidh]

Also, I felt Holdo (Hondo?), was a cheap character thrown in and forced on us to be made important, but not having any emotional levity beyond being a literal sacrificial lamb - especially when it could have been any number of other established and beloved characters (*cough*Ackbar*cough*) that could have served the same purpose, but had more of an impact for the fans.

Also, they saved the animals on the casino planet but didn't save the children.

Lol.