SPOILER THREAD - The Last Jedi

[SharkyMcShark]

A few additional thoughts:

Luke

• His end was fitting. Rian Johnson has confirmed in interviews in the last few days what I think the most obvious interpretation of the events was, being that Luke expires at peace after the massive exertion of projecting himself across the galaxy. He sacrificed himself to save the entire remaining Resistance, and he did so in a way that was befitting of the old Luke Skywalker - he won without fighting, just like when he confronted the Emperor and turned Anakin Skywalker back to the light side. It was a more spiritual ending to the character than if he'd just turned up in person to bite the dust in the same way.
• They'll more than likely bring him back as a Force ghost. I hope that they either a) make him only appear to Kylo as a twist, or b) make him appear to Rey toward the end of Ep9. If he just came back to mentor Rey while semitransparent it would cheapen what for me was the big take away from this film - both the light and dark side prodigies are left entirely without teachers or spiritual guidance by the end of the film.
• I mean that said, I still can't quite wrap my head around this whole thing being caused by him entertaining the notion of murdering Ben Solo in his sleep. That was about the only part that felt wrong to me.

Finn, Poe, Canto Bight

• One of the main draw backs of episodic film making is that it becomes difficult to judge the arc of a character in one film when you know they're being set up for something bigger. The whole arc for the 'young Rebels' (Poe, Finn, Rose) in this was basically about Poe learning not to be an impulsive hothead. Poe has a desire to lead - the key scene is when they're announcing the new leader of the fleet as Holdo, and before her name is mentioned you can see him smile and begin to stand as if he expects them to put him in command. The whole gambit to Canto Bight to get the slicer which then spectacularly fails is the assault on the Dreadnaught from the start of the film writ large - the kind of action that a hothead highly skilled solider or flyboy can pull off on a small scale on their own, but isn't the kind of gambit that necessarily lends itself to successful larger scale leadership. By the end of the film, when the charge is seemingly being led by the Galaxy's most prominent Jedi Master, does Poe join the charge on an impulse? No, he realises something is up and facilitates their escape. I present you, character development. I think he'll go on to play a prominent role in Ep9 as a leader, in place of Leia.
• All of which is to say that, yes the Canto Bight thing did end up being a waste of time and completely meaningless - that was the point. It failed and Poe learned something. The quote by Luke (? I think) about failure being the key to success doesn't just apply to Rey. Unfortunately that does mean to some extent that Finn and Rose were sacrificed at the altar of Poe's character development.
• It occurs to me that it's likely that Holdo didn't tell Poe what her plan was because a) he'd been demoted, b) he'd just led a victorious but tactically disastrous attack on the Dreadnaught and c) the Resistance had no Starfighter corps left at this point - most of them had been wiped by Kylo torpedoing the hangar. Poe lacked a place in their makeshift chain of command and was already on the shit list of the upper echelons.

I'm seeing it again on Wednesday.

[Meister]

Finn, Poe, Canto Bight
[LIST][*] One of the main draw backs of episodic film making is that it becomes difficult to judge the arc of a character in one film when you know they're being set up for something bigger. The whole arc for the 'young Rebels' (Poe, Finn, Rose) in this was basically about Poe learning not to be an impulsive hothead. Poe has a desire to lead - the key scene is when they're announcing the new leader of the fleet as Holdo, and before her name is mentioned you can see him smile and begin to stand as if he expects them to put him in command. The whole gambit to Canto Bight to get the slicer which then spectacularly fails is the assault on the Dreadnaught from the start of the film writ large - the kind of action that a hothead highly skilled solider or flyboy can pull off on a small scale on their own, but isn't the kind of gambit that necessarily lends itself to successful larger scale leadership. By the end of the film, when the charge is seemingly being led by the Galaxy's most prominent Jedi Master, does Poe join the charge on an impulse? No, he realises something is up and facilitates their escape. I present you, character development. I think he'll go on to play a prominent role in Ep9 as a leader, in place of Leia. [*] All of which is to say that, yes the Canto Bight thing did end up being a waste of time and completely meaningless - that was the point. It failed and Poe learned something. The quote by Luke (? I think) about failure being the key to success doesn't just apply to Rey. Unfortunately that does mean to some extent that Finn and Rose were sacrificed at the altar of Poe's character development.

I completely agree with this, this is actually what stood out the most on my second viewing, the whole Rebel storyline was all about Poe’s character development. He will no doubt become the leader of the Rebellion with Leia’s passing.

I must say I really disliked Holdo, or to put it more accurately, Laura Dern’s portrayal of Holdo, I think it was the weakest performance out of everyone. I also think her reaction to the first order firing on the escape pods was illogically delayed, she was already sacrificing herself, what took her so long to try and turn the ship around, it could just be brought down to the editing but there seemed to be a big gap for her reaction