Star Wars: Episode VIII ***Speculation & Spoilers***

Just got back from watching again.

A detail if no one's mentioned it (I haven't read every post and I didn't notice it the first watch): at the end of the movie in the Falcon someone opens a drawer. Inside the drawer are the jedi books.

So Rey took them before Yoda burned the tree down. And Yoda didn't bother telling Luke they weren't in there. What a butthole.

 
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Moiraine said:
He's Yoda. Seems to me he'd know and then have a little fun.
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He’s not exactly the joking kind.

We did discuss this quite a bit a page or two back.  I’m of the opinion that these guys aren’t very good at putting a cohesive story together so I honestly think they just though it was cool so they did it without putting any thought as to whether it made sense or not.

 
Moiraine said:
I've actually wondered about this before. Is it legal for an author to steal fan fiction about their own work, since technically it's illegal to write fan fiction? The characters are their property.
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I think the illegality of Fanfiction prevents them from from filing any lawsuits.  In this case, though the main character is a self insert, the fact that the world they are in is Star Wars supersedes anything else.

 
Yoda was pretty funny in TLJ (giggling as the tree exploded, the "page turners, they are not" comment) but he also was pretty funny in TESB. I mean, he basically trolls Luke the entire first day on Dagobah and prods him just to get a reaction out of him.

 
One thing I really liked about that sequence is it was Luke finally being able to re-emerge. This whole time, he was crushed by this burden of what he felt he needed to be for the galaxy, and for Rey. In Rey's case, he felt he needed to convince her that she shouldn't pursue being a Jedi, so he very forcefully adopts this posture of authority and conviction. It's similar to other masters such as Yoda who knew what they wanted to pass on, and were mysterious as needed to allow the pupil to go on the journey. In front of Rey, Luke can't be a guy that admits he has no clue. It weighs him down, unnecessarily.

In front of Yoda, though, this changes. It's probably the first time in ages he has ever been allowed to be vulnerable and human to anyone else. When Yoda first finds him, he's worked up and about to torch the place. Yoda dares him to do it, and Luke is like, "yeah? I'll really do it. You don't believe me?" ... but he hesitates, as Yoda knew he would, because his convictions aren't nearly as strong as he tries to let on. When Yoda torches the tree himself, this is what really crumbles Luke's facade. Gone is his brave front as he runs towards the tree in a panic, shrieking "....but the sacred Jedi texts!" in anguish. The same texts he has spent the film up to that point convincing the audience, and himself, that he'd be glad to be rid of. I love that Yoda points out that Luke hasn't even read them, so what is he even doing?

It's a really touching moment -- Luke and Yoda, pupil and master again, reflecting on the fate of the galaxy, Yoda thwomping him on the nose when he doesn't get it. It's the one chance Luke gets to chat with someone who isn't looking to him for salvation, and the burden visibly lifts from his shoulders. He becomes recognizable again as the fresh-faced boy from Tatooine in this moment, and we see that there's a lot of Luke that never really left, in spite of all he's gone through. And it sets up his marvelous final act. 

Luke lost his way, but finds it again in the end, with a little help from his friends. 

(Love this depiction of Yoda, by the way. It didn't even occur to me that it was the OT version of Yoda, not the prequels one, until Redux pointed it out here. Definitely like this one better, but the prequels version fit the story they were telling there, I suppose)

 
Totally unrelated to the above, but it just occurred to me what Hux's unhinged speech in TFA reminded me of most -- Galadriel tempting herself with the ring. "All...will bow to the First Order"; "All shall love me and despair!". A terrible form possesses both of them in that moment. Galadriel of course passes the test, fades away, and remains Galadriel...while Hux has higher ambitions, and no intentions of ever fading.

 
zoogs said:
Totally unrelated to the above, but it just occurred to me what Hux's unhinged speech in TFA reminded me of most -- Galadriel tempting herself with the ring. "All...will bow to the First Order"; "All shall love me and despair!". A terrible form possesses both of them in that moment. Galadriel of course passes the test, fades away, and remains Galadriel...while Hux has higher ambitions, and no intentions of ever fading.
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@zoogs, That's an interesting point to consider. 

Here's another one using the same LOTR scene as a reference point: Before Frodo peers into the mirror he asks, "What will I see?"  Lady Galadriel responds, "Even the wisest cannot see, for the mirror shows many things..."  In the same vein, Rey "saw" Kylo's future--not the exact details but the "shape" of it.  Just as the mirror was ultimately wrong about the final outcome of the world and the Shire, Rey was also "wrong" because while she did see the solid future for Kylo, she thought she would turn him, when, in reality, he is the one who kills Snoke only to assume ultimate power.  It's the idea in both instances that nothing is set and every person has the ability to alter the events of the future, for as Gandalf says, "For good or ill."

And I just now noticed, in the scene where the dude dips his finger to the ground, and tastes it, spits it out, and says, "Salt."  As you're looking at the screen, the Resiatance fighter to left is TFA director Gareth Edwards.

 
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zoogs said:
One thing I really liked about that sequence is it was Luke finally being able to re-emerge. This whole time, he was crushed by this burden of what he felt he needed to be for the galaxy, and for Rey. In Rey's case, he felt he needed to convince her that she shouldn't pursue being a Jedi, so he very forcefully adopts this posture of authority and conviction. It's similar to other masters such as Yoda who knew what they wanted to pass on, and were mysterious as needed to allow the pupil to go on the journey. In front of Rey, Luke can't be a guy that admits he has no clue. It weighs him down, unnecessarily.

In front of Yoda, though, this changes. It's probably the first time in ages he has ever been allowed to be vulnerable and human to anyone else. When Yoda first finds him, he's worked up and about to torch the place. Yoda dares him to do it, and Luke is like, "yeah? I'll really do it. You don't believe me?" ... but he hesitates, as Yoda knew he would, because his convictions aren't nearly as strong as he tries to let on. When Yoda torches the tree himself, this is what really crumbles Luke's facade. Gone is his brave front as he runs towards the tree in a panic, shrieking "....but the sacred Jedi texts!" in anguish. The same texts he has spent the film up to that point convincing the audience, and himself, that he'd be glad to be rid of. I love that Yoda points out that Luke hasn't even read them, so what is he even doing?

It's a really touching moment -- Luke and Yoda, pupil and master again, reflecting on the fate of the galaxy, Yoda thwomping him on the nose when he doesn't get it. It's the one chance Luke gets to chat with someone who isn't looking to him for salvation, and the burden visibly lifts from his shoulders. He becomes recognizable again as the fresh-faced boy from Tatooine in this moment, and we see that there's a lot of Luke that never really left, in spite of all he's gone through. And it sets up his marvelous final act. 

Luke lost his way, but finds it again in the end, with a little help from his friends. 

(Love this depiction of Yoda, by the way. It didn't even occur to me that it was the OT version of Yoda, not the prequels one, until Redux pointed it out here. Definitely like this one better, but the prequels version fit the story they were telling there, I suppose)
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This ^^^ is marvellous and perfectly illustrates why I believe that the way Luke Skywalker died was the absolute most perfect way to go out.  Finally learning that failure is only failure if you learn nothing from it.  Earlier in the film Luke says there is nothing that will get him back into the fight.  After his talk with Yoda, he realizes that if he does nothing, and doesn't re-join the fight, then he will have learned nothing from his failure.  And, ironically, he literally does the one thing he mocked Rey for: He went out there and faced the whole first order with a laser sword.  Albeit he was force-projecting himself across the galaxy, but he did it nonetheless.

 
Okay so now that I have talked about all the positives of TLJ, there are questions:

1) How did Hux get the Resistance "tied to a string?"  How did that occur?

2) After Holdo jumped to lightspeed and split Snoke's ship in half, how did Finn and Rose survive? (Because clearly that went right through where they were.)

3) We see Captain Phasma marching towards Finn after the ship split.  I feel like there is a least one, possibly two scenes missing there.

4) How did Finn and Rose transition from that scout walker, to the shuttle, and fly out of there?  That entire hanger was exploding and it just seems a little ex-machina for them to make it out.

5) On the surface of the ice/salt planet, Leia is standing there watching a shuttle and tie fighters come towards the big blast door and she says to close it.  Why wasn't it closed already?

6) The gold dice on the chain, first seen in the Millenium Falcon, where did that come from and what was it's significance?  

Oh and one more note: The scene where Chewie had roasted some ¿Porgs? and they look at him with those wide eyes...I would have taken a bite, several bites, while maintaining direct eye contact.  :)

 
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