A Professional Editor Breaks Down The Rise of Skywalker 

Finn was such a WASTE. They had solid foundations there. Ex-Stormtrooper, naive would-be Jedi, and Rebel pilot dude. This should write itself! What numpties.

My favorite part was when Finn would risk his life to run and yell "REY!" and then make no impact on the plot.

The whole basis of the trilogy was literally "Oh that thing is gone? just bring it back" - Empire defeated? oh here's the first order! - Death star destroyed? Heres a bigger one! - Palpatine is dead? sike you thought - Oh you weakened the first order after episode 8? here's a literal massive army that appeared out of thin air. Feel like i could write an infinite amount of these. Piece of shit trilogy

Around the 7 minute mark do you know what I realized? Having Rey join Kylo would have been thematically amazing. Kylo becomes central, Rey becomes sub, and the third movie involves Finn and Po battling to turn _Rey_ back to the light and having her take up Vader's mantle in casting Kylo down.

If there's one lesson Disney/Lucasfilm/whoever needs to take away from this trilogy, it's that if you're going to have different writeres/directors tapping in and out, for godsake, have them coordinate with eachother.

"I am all the sith." " And I Am all the jedi." That is something I would have come up with as a kid playing with my toys.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: _This is why a trilogy of films needs _*_one storyteller_*_ with _*_one vision_*_ to tie everything together._ Otherwise, it's just a constant tug-of-war to get out of the corners created by the previous filmmaker's mistakes or unexpected choices.

8 year old me: then there was 10 Death Stars. NO. THOUSANDS.

They need a “show runner.” You can have different directors, tv shows do it all the time, but you need a voice to say, ” this is where our characters start, this is where we need them to end. You can hang the string how you want but start here end here.” Feige, and to a lesser extent, the Russos became the show runner for the MCU. You had wildly different movies from Takia Watiti and Ryan Coogler but where the characters ended from one movie to the next made sense within the universe. This felt like an anthology series...same actors but wildly different stories from one movie to the next.

That breakdown of Palpatine’s plan was absolute gold

how i thought the ending was gonna be like: -rey kills palpatine -rey becomes evil -kilo ren fights rey -rey kills kilo ren -rey is like "oh my god what have i become?!" -rey shoots big badguylasers to the sky, destroying the sheevfleet -rey revives kilo ren and dies.

"I'm going to discuss bad writing professionally." "He got yeeted"

"If ever there is an episode 10, 11 and 12, maybe the writers should experiment with having a plot and a message developed as a course of the three movies" - WHOA! What an interesting and original idea?

Honestly, Rise of Skywalker gave me the same vibes as a bad fanfiction written by a 12 year old. Fleet of planet destroying ships and all.

The only explanation for the movie is “the dark side of the force is a gateway to many abilities some would consider unnatural “

I would have really preferred: •Rey being the daughter of nobody important. •Kylo going completely dark (hello saber battle to the death 3.0) •Finn turning the Stormtroopers by using his specific knowledge and experiences. •Chewie and 3PO actually dying.

"The Climax is meant to be where questions are answered not presented" So basic.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="637">10:37</a> not only did he get "YEETED" down a shaft to explode. He was also on-board the Death-star that EXPLODED. so this man survived TWO explosions. One larger than a NUCLEAR BOMB!.

"Those three characters where there to op-Poe-se, Finn-ish and Rey-solve the conflict."

I'm still so mad that they wasted the juicy, brilliant, beautiful, freeing, powerful, and potent idea of having Kylo Ren step up and claim his own destiny by becoming the main antagonist of Episode IX... in service of resurrecting Palpatine via dark side power handwaves. But then again, this is a script by the same writer who wrote a movie with Superman, Batman, and Lex Luthor in it, and didn't even once think "Hmm, Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor are both billionaires who hate Superman at the beginning of the movie, maybe they could be foils for each other!"

"You are a Palpatine" Supposed to be a monumental twist but I just laughed in the theater along with plenty of others. Embarrassing when your big twist is met with bemusement.

Great points about Finn's character being useless. Just think, if Finn did lead an uprising of First Order stormtroopers they could've marked themselves with the bloody hand. Could've been iconic!

“Somehow palpatine returned” I literally burst out laughing in the theatre. Other people were shushing me

The first scene of this movie is literally a monologue saying “Forget that stuff that happened in the last one...” Exactly what we all expected from JJ Abrams.

"Never before had a Star Wars film focused on the mental and emotional struggles of a Stormtrooper". No, but we got 6 seasons of the mental and emotional struggles of Clone Troopers.

It's mind-blowing how well Avatar the Last Airbender, a decade's old children's show holds up compared to movies and series that have so many well known directors attached to them. Amazing isn't it, what a properly constructed plot with beautifully fleshed out characters can do? Time for another rewatch. As for Star Wars? It's time for me to move on to greener pastures.

To be honest when I first watched The Force Awakens I thought Finn was the main character, not Rey. It just felt like they spent so much more time with him instead of Rey and he had a more interesting backstory as a Stormtrooper until they shoved him in the backburner for The Last Jedi and the Rise of Skywalker. It would've been so great to explore him as a character since he was Force-sensitive and an had an interesting character dynamic.

Just a thought: I'm not sure Kylo developing into Central Antagonist would have been a problem. Not all Star Wars Trilogies had a redemption arc. The prequel ends in a dark place setting the OT (in which the redemption arc occurred). The sequels could have gone the same way with Kylo; developing the character even further into darkness and giving the trilogy a dark end, setting up a future trilogy's redemption arc.

I agree about the Chewie death scene being a potentially powerful moment, but instead of sharing your emotional experience, I was suspicious and confused. The trailers showed Chewie flying the Millennium Falcon with Lando so he couldn't really be gone and the moment in the movie was just confusing for me.

The choice of Rey being a Palpatine kind of actually undermines the whole inclusivity/feminist 'agenda' that I see some people claim to be a problem with these films. By making Rey a Palp, they are basically affirming the fact that bloodlines matter; what you are born as matters. Being born a Palpatine makes you a certain way. If they really wanted a more inclusive and feminist story (feminism in the broad sense), rewrite the perception of the Force being a genetic predisposition, don't rewrite Luke being an old hermit who ran away from his friends.

By making 9 movies split into 3 trilogies that tell 1 story: the Skywalker Saga, they essentially made the equivalent of a single trilogy. Part 1 (book 1, season 1, first arc) the Prequels. Part 2 (book 2, season 2, second arc) the OT. Part 3 (book 3, season 3, third arc) the Sequels. The problem (for me at least...one of them) is that the first 2 books, seasons, whatever, work together as you'd expect them to. Palpatine rules the galaxy and must be stopped. Anakin, the prophesied savior is still around, though he needs help as he's become lost to the darkness. And there are still characters from the first book who's arcs need closure, IE Obi-Wan and Yoda. Not to mention how the main hero in the second book (Luke) is set up in the first. As well as his connection to the story. All the set-ups in the first book are paid off in the second. But the Sequels have no real connection to the first 2 books. It feels tacked on and clumsily forced. Hell, the main protagonist had no reason to even be in the story until the final act (TROS) and neither does the main villain! Not to mention how the 3rd book is effectivly just a copy/paste of book 2. I don't mind them using the same plot beats, but when it's so damned obvious it becomes a problem. The Prequels for example did an infinitely better job of using plot beats from the OT in new ways. Such as the assault on the Droid Control Ship in TPM obviously being a combination of both Death Star assaults.

I quite like the idea of Finn trying to start mutiny among the First Order's soldiery. Could've been a plotline for movie 8 & 9. Shame they didn't do it. Good call!

The only thing I would disagree on is the way you have the Emperor / Vader as the pair in Star Wars...I actually think its Tarkin / Vader - we don't get anything from the Emperor in that film, but Tarkin destroys planets, orders Leia executed and tries to destroy the rebels...

First Film - Finn escapes First Order Second Film - Finn defeats Phasma and makes speech about freedom to Stormtroopers Third Film - Finn is a "silent hero" to Stormtroopers, many defect the army. Finn leads the ex-stormtroopers against final enemy.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="385">6:25</a> "Star Wars is fundamentally based around 2 things." I seriously expected you to say that 1 of those things was toy sales.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="360">6:00</a> Damn... this makes me so mad they didn't do that exact thing. Kylo becoming the Central Antagonist would have been utterly brilliant.

Jeebus I wanted the non-redemption arc so much.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="540">9:00</a> WORD. I was so ready to see Adam Driver go full Shakespearean tragic villain.

“because [avatar] does a lot of what Star Wars attempts, but better.” YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The fact is they walked into this trilogy with absolutely no plan and no overarching story to make the trilogy cohesive. Plus they let the directors write whatever they wanted to write, instead of submitting to the overarching story line/plan that still to this day does not exist. This is why in of themselves each movie as individuals movies are good. But as a trilogy its THE MOST disjointed garbage I've ever seen.

The entire sequel trilogy is a rather fascinating case study in how not to write a story or make a film. While it sucks a franchise had to be sacrificed for this, we now have three films that excellently show how to fail and what you need to avoid.

The more I think about, the more I realize that Rey should have taken Kylo's hand in Last Jedi.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1551">25:51</a> "Han died meaningfully in Episode 7. Luke died in Episode 8." Probably over-analyzing here, but the omission of the word "meaningfully" in the second sentence seems deliberate.

The sequel trilogy was a huge opportunity missed. There was one moment though that could have redeemed it and turned it into something that at least was interesting. In Episode 8, in the throne room, after Kylo Ren had killed Snoke he offered his hand to Rey and asked her to join him. And she said "no". What a waste. They had been foreshadowing this moment right throughout the film and she straight up turns him down. The whole series could have become way more interesting at that point. The girl we thought was the protagonist then becomes the new antagonist. The resistance is left with Luke and Leia as the only two force users (although Leia really should have been dead at this point). One of these is in a coma and the other one is a hermit who refuses to engage with the universe. All of a sudden the stakes become real. The most ridiculously powerful force user we've ever seen is now a bad guy and the potential for interesting things to happen is boundless. But Rey says "no" without a second thought, Kylo does what he does and nothing interesting at all happens for the rest of the series. I actually enjoyed Rise of Skywalker, but mostly for the visuals and musical score. It was a bad movie that followed on from a bad movie, which followed on from a bad movie.

Jar Jar Abrams: a man with SO little creativity and imagination that he 1) did an almost exact re-make of A New Hope, then had to 2) bring an old character BACK FROM THE DEAD.. because he couldn't think of anything better! Sad.

Plageius would have been a good alternative. He’s alluded to in episode three as learning how to cheat death.

Good god, the rebel inspiring Finn sounds so heckin good, that could have been so awesome...

Just the image of Finn getting others to defect by using the comms towers nearly made me cry! They wasted so much potential on him. This is the first of your videos that I've seen, definitely gonna check out more!

The force lightning in this movie was just straight disrespectful

The ending to episode 6 leaves you in the exact same place as the ending to episode 9. There was no progression in the story, and that's what bothers me the most. The sequel trilogy is useless. Episode 7 was interesting in that it presented the first order. It showed that even though the empire was destroyed that there were some that were still trying to keep it's reign. It would have been far more interesting if the movies told the story of the republic coming back into power and the struggle it would take to gain the control over the galaxy. Instead we got 3 movies that told the story of basically two rebellions going at it. Sure planets got destroyed, but it was a quick scene that didn't mean anything. Never explored to show the impact of that action. What was the point in destroying the first order if you aren't going to try and fix the galaxy yourself? What have the rebels been doing this whole time? Why hasn't someone tried to re-establish the republic? The rebels can be seen as terrorist. I'm sure the galaxy would have been a lot better without them. It's not like the rebels want to rule. They just want to destroy things because they don't like how things are ran.

Rey: "I'm Rey Skywalker." Me: No you're not. You don't deserve that name. You're Rey Palpatine.

Retconning major aspects of a story to completely change its trajectory is almost never a good idea. I had mixed feelings about TLJ but my main worry about the final movie was that they'd chicken out and backpedal on those choices. And it seems like that's exactly what happened. In contrast, TLJ changed the trajectory but did it in a way that didn't conflict with what came before, just recontextualised it. It was a twist, not a retcon. I think they could have executed it better but the concept itself was good. Especially Rey's parentage because the non-answer was actually the most interesting answer. Bonus points for also being the least expected. It doesn't work perfectly to me because the metatext distracts from the text but that's the fault of Force Awakens for setting the whole mystery up without thinking of an answer in the first place.

Just wait till they do the collector edition re-release where they cgi Snoke into Palpatine, add baby Yoda and a musical number during that festival in the desert.

Palpatine being in the movie and Kylo Ren welding his hat back together were the dumbest parts. There was no point in their inclusions besides JJ Abrams being a bad writer

The idea of Palpatine coming back as a clone with the desire to possess a new body happened in the old EU/Legends stories, which I know doesn't necessarily make it good but let me explain. What made it work was: 1. It was given a definitive explanation. The original Palpatine is definitely dead, and he had been working on cloning vessels of himself during the Clone Wars. It wasn't just waved off as "Cloning...secrets only the Sith knew" and "The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural". The first we hear of the Clone Wars IN CANON is A New Hope from Luke. It's common knowledge, not a secret. Also, Luke had to destroy all of the Emporer's other clones before even attempting to kill him, which could have been a cool conflict in the sequel trilogy if set up properly. 2. The remnants of the Empire actually stuck around and garnered power through the likes of the Thrawn campaign, rather than being an Empire rip-off that we only know is an off-branch of the Empire during RoS, and even still only really gets context from Battlefront II. Again, if built up properly, it could have been interesting. 3. His desire to possess a younger, powerful Jedi (in the EU/Legends case, Anakin Solo, newborn son of Han and Leia) doesn't require a "ritual" or "murder from someone who hates him", but was more a physical attack in a sense. A dying Jedi character forces Palpatine to move into him, and since he is dying, Palpatine is "dragged" into the Force with him and is defeated forever. I'm obviously glossing over a lot other events within the EU/Legends story (Dark Empire and Dark Empire II), such as Luke's temporary stint as the Emporer's apprentice, and I mainly just wanted to show that Clone Palpatine can work when you get people who actually plan out what they write. It does still kind of rub against that "Luke and Anakin's struggle was ultimately a failure" thing. When reading the comics, it's so soon after RotJ that reads more like Palpatine's last breath than the continued machinations of the all-knowing Sheev.

There is another problem with Ray's use of Force Lightning. She's never used it and has no reason to know it. It devalues the ability because as far as the movies go, it is the highest level dark-side force power. Only three characters had ever used it at that point, all of them Sith lords. Those being Palpatine, Snoke and Dooku. And it furthers the argument that she doesn't work for her abilities.

Making Kylo villain would have been the best option, but there is another problem: Kylo never won. You can make any excuses as to why he didn't win, but the fact remains that he still didn't succeed in anything against main protagonist. It cheapens the threat he posses, especially after Luke is making fun of him in Crait. Snoke dead, Phasma dead, Luke dead, Hux is a joke, Finn and Poe arc seemed to be finished, there's little to work with.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1448">24:08</a> "They did the best that they could" I'm afraid I'm going to have the push the disagree button on that one.

I'd argue that Kylo's redemption was still possible; he'd just need to be re-exposed to the Light. Maybe make it something about how real change takes time and needs guidance or something. (ATLA comparison: While Zuko is still influenced by his hope for paternal love when he returns to the "dark side" in season 2, it doesn't go away before his final return to the "light side". All that changes is his self-perception.) (Less important: Given how many common Star Wars tropes were averted it subverted in TLJ, I suspect Johnson was trying to disrupt the two-antagonist structure of Star Wars. Criticizing it because it doesn't mesh with extant structures would be silly. Criticizing later films for how badly it handled the plots and characters attached to the new structure...is different.)

Did anybody else laugh their asses off when rey died

I know it's a simple compliment, but I really enjoy how well structured, organized, and logical your videos are. Great content, guy. Keep it up c:

It makes me angry that the only scene that could've expanded Finn was cut from the last Jedi.

Ya know, this is my third time watching this video and I'm just realizing that in RoS, Kylo could stay the Central Antagonist and have the Knights of Ren as the Sub Antagonists

The movie was a wreck. Case closed. I’m just so done with star wars. Sad really. It was a great love of my childhood.

I would argue Tarken was the Central Antagonist of A New Hope.

Kinda have to disagree with the idea that Kylo "chose [the Dark side] with no ambiguity" argument. 1. In his dialogue to Rey he specifically mentions the Sith among the things of the past that need to die (can't remember if that also included the Empire, but I won't add that because I don't remember the exact lines well enough). Aka the "old ways" of the Dark side. Which is interesting because around TFA the creators of the ST mentioned that Kylo and Snoke were specifically not Sith, and a lot of people speculated around the time of TLJ that a new "Gray Jedi" could be created at the end of the ST. So who's to say Kylo couldn't have tried (or at least intended to do such a thing) with Rey at his side? 2. He doesn't ask Rey to join the Dark side, he asks her to join him. It's explicitly coded as a romantic proposal, not like Palpatine's "fight your father and take his place as my servant" thing Palpatine did with Luke in ROTJ. 3. You forget that earlier in TLJ, Kylo stayed his hand from killing Leia yet watched her be (as far as he knew) blown to smithereens by another First Order ship. This means that his parents are both dead and his uncle is still against him. As far as Kylo knows, joining the Resistance isn't an option, because the only link who could possibly reconcile the rest of the Resistance to the idea of Kylo/Ben being good all along was his mother, and she's dead. 4. Luke and Leia's dialogue on Crait. "I can't save him" from Luke implies that Kylo is irredeemable at first, but then Luke says "No one's ever really gone" in response to Leia saying "my son is gone." 5. The final shot of the movie shows Kylo kneeling in the dirt with his back to the light, clenching his fist around his father's heirloom dice as they disappear from his grasp, and then staring brokenly at Rey through their Force bond. That's not symbolism that indicates a fully dark villain who has no regrets about his decisions. On top of that, TLJ already set up Hux as the next main antagonist from the scenes where he tried to shoot Kylo before he woke up, their constant clashes of command on the battlefield, and then Kylo being humiliated as a leader in his first battle as the Supreme Leader. It would've been a bit weird to have the threat of the final movie be a political/purely mundane threat, but the writers still could've played on Kylo and Rey's Force powers, ESPECIALLY Rey's butchered potential to fall to the Dark Side. I just take umbrage to the idea that TLJ "established Kylo as the main villain"/irredeemable when everything from Adam Driver's acting, the visual symbolism, the themes of the Star Wars franchise, the budding romance with Rey (you can't tell me they would put in them learning about each other's pasts and touching hands just to throw it away and be like "nah he's too evil, not gonna happen"), and the actors'/director's commentary on the story indicated that Kylo wasn't gone for good yet. ANYWAYS I do still agree that throwing in Palpatine was a bad idea and seriously compromised the idea of Kylo's redemption being pulled off solidly. It's even more egregious since why would Kylo team up with the guy who put his family through hell and manipulated Kylo himself his whole life, when in the last movie he just demonstrated his willingness to kill anyone who tried to make themselves his master?

That idea to have Fynn convince the stormtroopers to turn traitor is one of the finest ideas I've ever heard.

Ohhh, I am so with you on the analysis of Finn!! It broke my freaking heart to see that they had started so promising a story with him and that it just fell apart so badly. His story could have been something unique in the SW universe, something like the stuff Timothy Zahn did with his Hand of Justice troopers in the EU novels. I was so disappointed to see him go downhill like that.

Fun fact: originally, rather than the kazoo-and-shittyflute combo of the SW them, Savagebooks and I recorded us just screaming the theme, off-tempo, and with fart noises. He elected not to use it in the end. Perhaps for the best

I really wish that the sequels had gone a more sociological route with the narrative, kind of along the lines of the prequels but good. I also wish the story of the sequels were about how to preserve democracy/community in the face of it's own flaws (a timely subject). Like, we got the story of an empire falling, and a democracy falling, and I thought the idea of a story about how a democracy is preserved would be a good endcap to the arc of the star wars narrative. Then the republic dies in movie 7 and I realized that we were just going to have a rehash of the originals.

I don't think 8's writing was short sighted at all. If "let the past die" and snapping Anakin's lightsaber aren't just taken intertextually, we're being told that Lucas's "rhyming" is over and the series can do whatever it wants and potentially have the final film be like the Dark Knight with ONE irredeemable but compelling and complex villain. The growth Kylo WOULDN'T have would have to happen somewhere else (*pans to Rey Maclunkey and Finn*)

"Duel of the Fates" would have been the better movie hands down.

In JJ Abrams' defence, this was always going to be a JJ Abrams film. What were you expecting, a coherent story ?

Even as someone who disliked The Last Jedi, the ONE THING I loved was the fact that Kylo was the main antagonist by the end of it and I was really looking forward to seeing how this would play out in IX. But no, Disney/Lucasfilm walked back on their own word of changing things and played it safe.

As a filmmaker and writer thank you for making this well thought out and out together video. I’ll definitely be coming back to it to digest the information and further perfect my crafts. A lot of what I felt was explained greatly and even shown more info to notice. It’s a shame there was so many issues with the story of this film and trilogy overall but has allowed a platform for you and other craftsmen and artists to showcase their perspective and skills. Thank you again

“...and that is why scenes like this:” “DRAFT KINGS!”

I'm grasping at straws here, but I really liked how confident we got to see Finn become in Rise of Skywalker. And that's the most positive thing I have to say about that movie

I'm surprised you didn't include Rey stabbing Kylo and then healing him immediately after, along with Rey dying (for... no reason?) after she kills Palpatine and Kylo bringing her back to life, when you talked about fakeout deaths.

I would have LOVED it if they let Finn die in Episode 8 in a classic Heroic Sacrifice. Once Rose somehow saved him out of nowhere, it told me that no one important was going to die in the rest of the films.

One of my favorite videos on your channel! Super awesome! love the long analysis!

In TLJ, I think that there is potential in having Finn have to infiltrate the First Order fleet sabotage it. As a former stormtrooper he is familiar with customs and would be able to blend in well enough to maneuver around the ship. However, he is not an engineer and so having Rose accompany him for complete the mission is actually not a bad move. The problem is that, while this is EVENTUALLY what the film ends up doing, it requires a ridiculous side quest that seems to serve only the purpose of pushing the morality of warfare and innocent suffering. This takes away from the actual mission that Finn needs to complete for his roll. It also means that he gets minimal time with his nemesis, Phasma, which then further wastes her character's potential as a villainous counterpart to our heroes. And then she gets killed (again) and her best moment in the film is cut in the editing room for reasons that still confuse me.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1980">33:00</a> - This video really proved to me how they had so many great potential plot set ups and resolutions and completed ruined them. Finn helping turn the First Order against the Sith ships would have concluded his character arc and also mirrored the Prequel trilogy with the Clones turning against the Jedi.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="465">7:45</a> I haven't finished the video yet, but I'd like to make a note. When Kylo chose the dark side, though he had a lot of agency, still had an external force motivating him. As we see at the battle of Crait, Kylo still holds massive anger at Luke for his betrayal. So technically, choosing the light means choosing Luke. And Kylo has not forgived him.

I absolutely love how detailed and intricate this video is. The best part was how you used great vocabulary to describe everything in minute detail and then used the word "yeeted" in such a calm and serious way 😂😂😂😂

Actually there is a way to defeat Palpetine without killing him, freeze his ass in carbonite! It is part of the lore and can set up for more sequels. The sequels where it shows that it was Jar Jar Binks controlling everyone!!!!! TRUE DARKSIDE

The fact the three main characters were just three people that got caught up in an epic adventure together, I couldn't wait. They weren't bound by destiny or family to save or defeat, join or betray, it was just them and their experiences that dictated it all. There were so many possibilities! But it looks like they had never decided which route to take, even by the end of the last movie. And that's what really killed it. Also, I think Rose was tragic lost potential. She was like... the people's champion I thought. The war was very personal for her, not just morally right. The things the First Order did to planets and their people directly affected her as a child growing up. She lost her sister to them. She was mourning but angry and determined. They could have replaced Lando with her in the end to bring in that enormous civilian fleet because she WAS one of those civilians. Rey was the powerful force user, Poe was the fighter pilot and potential leader, Finn was the ex-stormtrooper with First Order intel, and Rose could have been their connection to the people.

I never thought a serious and honest review would include the genuine use of the word “yeeted”. Yet damn, here it is

dude I love your content. It's really great, keep it up!

The new trilogy would be better known as "The Fractured But Whole".

4 billion dollars spent and it has a story my 7 year old nephew could have written better

I love this editor. Can't wait to hear more of his stuff.

Brilliant. An hour very well spent. Thanks for an excellent, well laid out analysis.

Kylo said “ I gave everything to you”. Paused and corrected “to the dark side.” Remember he never knew why his parents sent him away. They didn’t want him. But he knew his uncle tried to kill him. Snoke was Kylo’s only belonging? It was never about evil or dark side for Kylo. Nobody wanted him as far as he could tell, except this abuser who said terrible shaming immasculating things to him. I feel like the Writers started on a real path of redemption and then forgot about this. :(

If this trilogy wanted a redemption arc so badly, then what about the Knights of Ren? What if they were actual characters from the beginning, with their own personalities and motivations. Then in Episode IX they could've followed through with Kylo being the pure evil central villain, and have some/all of the Knights getting redemption arcs. But no, JJ introduced them in TFA only for them to have a throwaway appearance. As such, Rian had no incentive to use them in TLJ, which meant by the time of TROS it was too late for the Knights of Ren to have any sort of character.

When I saw the force awakens I remember I thought "wow two new Jedis, let's see how rey and Finn find their path to the force" then Finn became a hollow husk yelling Rey through all the galaxy and 3 movies.

Thanks for your video. Constructive conversation not filled with vitriol towards the creators of the films. It's a refreshing perspective and well worth an hour of my time to learn a few new things along the way. Thanks.

When I seen TROS, I have never felt so mad at movie as I was when I seen the Chewy scene. I actually had my mouth wide open when Rey had killed him. I felt this rush that a Star Wars film had not given me in a while (besides maybe the first time I seen the Holdo maneuver, but the lore quickly made that fall apart for me.) When it was shown that he still was alive, I got so mad at the film it was unreal. Finally something that could raise the stakes only to go right out the window.

The best thing about this trilogy existing. Is that will never see one like this again. I'm sure Disney learned their lesson.

aside from poor finn being sidelined like that, i actually really liked TLJ precisely because it was so different from what i expected from a star wars movie... idk, maybe that's just because i was never really a fan of the formulaic approach that the star wars franchise took with its plots

I thought Finn was excellent in The Last Jedi. His story is a vehicle for conveying theme of choosing which side you fight on. Rose and DJ were the angel and devil on his shoulder. Rose symbols the selfless light side, and DJ the selfish dark side. He started off only wanting to save Rey and not being a part of the resistance, and ends up becoming a rebel. He didn't fall for the 'useless character syndrome' because we thought Finn and Rose's mission was necessary for the resistance to flee. It might could've been executed better. Maybe it would've been more interesting if Finn also discovered his connection to the force on this mission. Perhaps Rose shares an interesting understanding and point of view of the force, as if it was closely related to love. Although not being force sensitive herself, the fact that she and her sister put a lot of faith into their moon-like symbol could suggest that they strongly believe in it. Rose could then say that it was actually the force, a feeling of love, that made Finn stop fighting for the first order on Jakku.