SPOILER THREAD - The Last Jedi

[acz83]

I agree she was never shown as a slave or being “Sold you off for drinking money.” More she was abandoned and her parents left in a hurry from the planet not “They're dead in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert”. -Kylo

I say Kylo is lying and like Dooku “Joined the Dark Side, he has. Lies, deceit, creating mistrust are his ways now.” -Yoda

Then again could just be falling into JJ’s box, in a box, in a box trick and “This is not going to go the way you think” -Luke

[drifand]

After watching the movie, I tend not to over think it.
Is a basic Beauty and the beast in sci-fi.

I say Kylo isn't lying and Rey knows it. < Yes she is nobody

The next episode is either JJ turns Kylo to Ben in the end, or simply the end of any Skywalker line. As Luke is dead, I actually can't see any much more hate from Kylo and he will soon let it go as he isn't really angry with Rey or he would have killed both Snoke and Rey in the last Jedi.

Obviously if Leia has the chance to face her son, this would be flip of the coin whether Ben will turn back to light or fall into darkness.

Too early to speculate at the moment as I think JJ either starts reading feedback on Last Jedi and take on board what the fans would have love to see for the next episode or just finish the chapter.

[GoktimusPrime]

Remember that there are many different types of slavery. Anakin and Shmi Skywalker were chattel slaves, which is the typical image that many of us have of what slavery is. This is where slaves are literally treated as property to be bought and sold as commodity. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which prospered in the United States until Abe Lincoln delivered Emancipation was chattel slavery.

"You're a slave?"
"I'm a person and my name is Anakin!"

The kind of slave that Rey is described as having been is a debt-bondage slave (aka bonded labour). This is where someone is working to repay a debt. It is possible that Rey was a slave for certain period of time (say a few years) until she paid off her parents debt, then her parents would have been free to come back and collect her. Only that they never did.

Abraham Lincoln was a bonded slave when he was a child. In his youth Abraham was frequently coerced into hard labour on neighbouring farms to help pay off his father's debts. It was during this time that Lincoln got a taste of slavery and learned to really, really hate it. Later when he visited plantations in the South (especially that owned by the family of Joshua Speed) that Lincoln witnessed how chattel slaves lived, and it was shortly after that that Lincoln proclaimed that all men are created equal and vowed to abolish slavery (although it was as much a military/tactical decision as it was a humanitarian one).

Anyway, I think that Rey was more of a bonded slave rather than a chattel slave. So after the debt was repaid she was freed... to be a scavenger. :/ Chattel slaves like Shmi and Anakin Skywalker can never be freed unless their master chooses to free them, as Cliegg Lars did to Shmi. Presumably it's only when a master frees a slave that their microchip is then removed from their body. Rey didn't explode when she left Jakku, so I'm assuming that she was no longer a slave at the time (if indeed they ever bothered to chip bonded slaves). I doubt that she would've been allowed to go too far away from the borders of the Niima outpost (just as Anakin and Shmi couldn't venture far away from Mos Espa.

[griffin]

Finally saw it today.

I felt a bit bored by it... as it was pretty much a 2.5 hour chase from one planet to another planet. No epic battles, nothing really too exciting.

EP7 felt like it had too much of EP4 plot devices, while EP8 felt like it had too much of EP5 plot devices. I guess the next one will be on a forest planet somewhere, with small furry creatures defeating the First Order for the Rebellion/Resistance.

Having Rey not being related to anyone important could just be a lie from Ren... deception is the weapon of choice for those on the Dark Side.
But it does make sense though - the Jedi were not allowed to have relationships or kids, as it could be used against them or be a distraction. The Skywalkers were the exception, because Anakin had his marriage and kids in secret, and Leia was able to as well because there was no Jedi order left to stop her.
For generations, kids who were force sensitive were discovered and trained, not predicted based on who their parents were, or their force powers. It does make you wonder though, if force power is passed on genetically, why didn't the Jedi Order allow for reproduction, which would have made it easier to recruit those children, instead of hunting the galaxy for kids (like the kid at the end of EP8).

The space chase scene really annoyed me, as the First Order couldn't just hyper-jump a couple of destroyers ahead of the Resistance ship? Were they that over-confident, they were willing to waste a whole day just to toy with them until they ran out of fuel.

I enjoyed EP 1-3 more than the recent three. They were more exciting and epic... these recent three (Rogue One and EP7-8) just seem like episodes from a TV show season.

[GoktimusPrime]

Force users are a rarity in the galaxy, so trying to increase the population by encouraging marriages between Force users would eventually diminish the gene pool and lead to in-breeding.

Speaking of which, imagine if Luke and Leia never found out that they were siblings. The Sequels may have turned out quite differently indeed...

[griffin]

Well, they did appear to have hundreds of Jedi in Ep1, and they would still come across new younglings just from their presence on hundreds of worlds... and from those parents wanting their children to be Jedi, would be keen to send their force sensitive kids in to be tested. So, I'd imagine that there would still be enough new genetic material each year... and they'd be wise enough not to allow for any in-breeding (or have the technology to make sure there weren't any matching deformed genes).

I guess the point I was wanting to make, was that the teachings of the Jedi and Sith can suddenly end, but while force sensitive/wielding people keep getting born, people will keep trying to learn how to use their powers, and that will lead to people using them to help others, while some people will use them to control others. And without any existing experience or guidance, you end up with a Lord of the Flies situation - generations of knowledge are no longer available to the people afflicted with the Force, so people will start their own from scratch, on their own, and independent from each other.
In other words, while the Force still exists, it was selfish for any person (Luke and Ren) to want to destroy all the past knowledge and/or the people with the knowledge, of what the Force is, and its potential, because all future Force people are now left with "mutant super powers" that they may not be able to control, or will abuse it without anyone trained to stop them.

Anyways... the whole movie felt like a 2.5 hour epilogue to Ep7 of their evacuation (especially after the whole sidetrack of Finn and Rose leading to nothing). At least the evacuation from Hoth in Ep5 was probably about 30 minutes, and we then focussed on the story of Luke's training and the Falcon crew trying to get back to the fleet.
The Star Wars nerd in me likes the visuals and sound effects (even though they changed the sound of the lightsaber turning on, which annoys me), but it feels like sequel syndrome, in that they can't seem to give us something more epic than before, and have to resort to redoing old plot devices. (they feel like the Star Trek reboots, without the time travel reboot)

[Trent]

Finally saw it today. Easily the best Star Wars movie since the OT. I loved the portrayal of Luke. The disenchantment with the Jedi order he spoke of was so true and it was great to see it acknowledged canonically. I love that he wasn't what the EU made him into because EU Luke Skywalker was, from the books I have read, mostly an idiot.

Didn't they turn Kylo around! What was a snotty, emo, unlikable brat in TFA turned into a genuine threat. Someone who, due to Snoke's prodding, transcended Darth Vader and took the leadership and power that Vader craved but never achieved. It was a little disappointing that Snoke died without much fleshing out but that was made up for in the way it was done. I totally was expecting that lightsaber to fly into Rey's hand, not Snoke's middle!

Plenty of plot holes but compared to other SW movies they were pretty minor. I had no Robles with Leia saving herself and in fact, I thought the move to expand upon what could be done with the force was great.

It wasn't perfect. But I enjoyed it. Which is more than I can say for Rogue One.

[DaptoDog]

Just watched this yesterday. I wanted to love it but can only say I liked it.

I came out of The Force Awakens immediately wanting to see it again but with this one I am happy to wait for the Blu-Ray. There were three specific scenes I felt moved by in TFA ( the first scene of the X-Wings saving Finn etc, Han's death and Rey using the force to take the lightsaber in the last fight scene). But in the Last Jedi nothing really moved me.

I really wanted Snoke to last to the next one so we could learn more about him. Hux is just a caricature. The whole Finn and Rose thing was also out of nowhere and superfluous to the story.

I did find the jokes funny and Poe has become my favourite character of these new films. The fight with the guards after Snoke's death was also cool. But nothing else really comes to mind.