Originally Posted by
godisawesome
Yeah, see, I think TLJ’s issue is it’s all abstract nonsense - it has good broad ideas, but no details, no finesse, and often seems kind of ignorant. And people afraid of “predictable” and “safe” follow-ups to TFA are kind of lying to themselves if they defend TLJ with that argument - because TFA was bolder than TLJ in many areas, and TLJ was safer in several as well... often to its detriment.
Like... Rey didn’t train with the master. Kylo did betray Snoke... but he didn’t become a greater villain and the ST doesn’t have a better conflict from it, when ideally that should be the case. Rey’s screwed by the story - because she has no story; there’s no egalitarian message truthfully being pushed with her, no real personal struggle, and frankly, no ones going to give a shit about a heroine with a one-film story arc like TLJ kind of forced her into with its take on her.
And, frankly... it’s some bullshit to say that TFA was entirely safe as a defense of TLJ.
- We basically dump our heroine, who already proved she didn’t *need* a Skywalker tie to work in TFA, in exchange for two white dudes in Luke and Kylo. Rey’s a blatant plot tool for their story in TLJ, and if anything TLJ seems to argue she needs to have a crush on Kylo to be relevant to the Skywalker Saga story, because make no mistake, TLJ is 100% obsessed with the Skywalker Saga, despite claims to the contrary.
- A nameless, faceless henchmen has become the male lead in TFA - that’s more dynamic than Luke throwing a pity party and farting his his way through learning another lesson from Yoda to death. Finn gets neglected by far too many people who pretend that TLJ was doing anything worthwhile with the character.
- If someone’s going to claim that TLJ “broke free” from OT parallels with Kylo, uh... people *do* remember the part where TFA put Kylo in a reverse of the ROTJ scenario, and had him come out as a damned bastard already, right? Why the hell is replaying ROTJ again, but this time with a lobotomized heroine in the Luke role, going to compete with murdering Han to be more evil? Here, TFA “scooped” TLJ.
- And let’s not pretend that TLJ was doing anything to fix TFA’s issues as a remake - it’s a *more* desperate cribbing of the OT for its own cause, but even worse. The FO went from an implied smaller force of lean and mean competent fanatics to a parody of the Empire, in a Galaxy that doesn’t give a damn about itself. And, uh, hello? The OT’s outcomes are still screwed by TLJ - more so, even, because now we know the family story has to end with Kylo, and Luke doesn’t get to have a legacy going forward of any value.
I think what people who latched onto TLJ are actually focusing on, arguably to a tunnel vision extent, is the way that pretty much everyone knew Rey “had” to be Luke’s daughter to fit into the 9 p-film Saga appropriately, and everyone could see that Snoke was a Palpatine expy. Everything else? Woth everything else, TLJ is more unoriginal... it’s just being a hipster about it.
And I get the complaints about Snoke especially - there, I actually think the “conventional” and “safe” sequel to TFA would *also* have had Kylo kill and replace him, since Kylo was established to be radically different from Vader. The complaints about Rey being a predictable Skywalker reveal are mostly horseshit, though - the same people arguing that was an issue are ignoring that being a Skywalker is the only reason they think Kylo’s story works.
TLJ as a mold-breaking, bold film is horseshit.
People credit it only because it zigged on Rey being a Skywalker and said “no,” and became exactly the kind of mildly sexist, mildly racist, Skywalker obsessed film that kind of naturally flows from that decision.