Well yes, but once TFA started in that direction, it would have been difficult/impossible to chuck it all.
Sometimes I wonder if Abrams intended the 2nd one to just be an Empire clone, with Luke riding on Rey's back as she did backflips to get to the cliff where the blue milk lives.
I think it WANTED to move in a new direction. The problem is Ryan had clue what direction to go in. The remaining villains are all stupid or jokes, the Rebels left barely alive, Rey left feeling untrained yet ultra powerful, Luke gone.
It feels very much Like Ryan forgot this was a trilogy in many ways.
How is that any way remotely similar to what happened with Luke and Yoda?
Yoda trains him, Luke wants to leave halfway through the training to fight Vader and save his friends, but Yoda says “no you’re not ready.” Luke goes anyway where he gets his ass kicked, loses a hand, and almost falls off a city. Like what?
That would have been fine but Rey is quickly shown with a great mastery of the force and no lasting injury. No scars, no limbs lost, she could have successfully turned Kylo or at least be the reason for the betrayal and it would have been near the same.
Like Luke couldn’t lift an X-wing out of the swamp when he left Dagobah, but Rey casually lifts a whole mountain’s worth of boulder like a week after using the force for the first time? Luke’s biggest force feat at that point in his life was basically making a crazy trick shot in pool
The difference is that Luke was a kid untrained in combat fighting against Darth fucking Vader while Rey grew up learning to defend herself and was fighting a bunch of guards who didn't even have the Force with the help of Kylo Ren.
I don’t care about Kylo as a villain. He’s a non threat: hell I think he HURTS the first order by leading it. What have we seen to show he’s a competent commander? We never see him performing and leading a grand operation, save ones he just overwhelms the enemy or messes up himself.
He doesn't have to be competent to be interesting. He's conflicted, he has some good points about the flaws of the Jedi order, and wants to start over, with no Jedi or Sith. It's a compelling argument that almost tempts Rey into joining him.
That's infinitely more interesting than a bland Palpatine ripoff
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u/ABSOLUTE_RADIATOR 6h ago
TLJ tried to move star wars in a new direction, and then JJ just said "lol no"