How very dare you. The first was a gripping tale of trade embargoes. The second was a love story written for psychopaths and robots.
Film Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker [Theories]
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It's been 20 years, and I still don't fully understand the plot of the Phantom Menace.
I don't even see Palpatine as being all that powerful, to be honest. A beaten and battered Darth Vader was able to ragdoll him off a ledge. Making him a super powerful monster just reeks of retconning.
On the one hand, I'm looking forward to seeing Palpatine again and having him save this sorry excuse for a trilogy. On the other, it's a shameless attempt to appeal to nostalgia, and makes no sense within the context of the story.
Tbf isn't that pretty much the whole trilogy? Not being funny, for me it's the reason why Rey has no real personality of her own, because she's just an avatar so we can replace her with ourselves and go on journeys with people we already know about.
Which is a waste of Daisy Ridley, to be honest.
Oh definitely. I have no idea why they decided to copy the plot of A New Hope. They showed us a character we've already basically met, and made us follow them as they're introduced to the force, the dark side, the light side, and a load of other concepts that we as an audience have already seen. Then they wondered why it bored us!
I don't think there even was one, the first two films were just haphazardly moving things into place for the third. Which at least took some forethought I suppose. Unlike what we're getting now.
On the subject of Palpatine, he went toe to toe with both Yoda and Windu, he took on four Jedi at once and he was the Sith that finally crippled the Jedi order while assuming control of the galaxy. It took Vader who's possibly the most powerful force user ever grabbing him from behind while he was distracted to take him out. I agree that him being all powerful is boring, but he at least needs to be considered pretty damn powerful considering everything he did.
Rey's going to twat him though. The whole Skywalker saga with Anakin and his two children being super powerful force users that "brought balance to the force" gets diluted when you have someone turn up even more powerful. You can tell a story about Jedi without trying to overshadow Luke and Anakin. Luke couldn't take on Palpatine, he might have been stronger in the force, but Palpatine was much better trained and would have wiped him out. Rey's going to end up doing it though, you know she's going to take him out. They are going to bring back a character that's had his story and death only to kill him again weakening the story of everything that came before it.
As much as I will always like Star Wars being in existence I find pretty much all the new Actors/resses wooden as hell.
Definitely. I find it funny that for all the "haha gotcha! Look at how clever I am" subverting Rian Johnson did, the one thing he should have made different was Rey's position when it came to the explanation of the force and what it was.
Maybe it's just me but I would like to see someone similar to that KOTOR guy who was pretty much a grey Jedi. Neither light nor dark. Not saying that's what Rey is. Maybe that's what Luke could have been, instead of being a moaning lil bitch.
Yes they missed a trick not getting a borderline protagonist work things out on the way. That could have been excellent.
It give the whole story that added danger. You'd have a character who is clearly naturally powerful with the Force, seemingly untrained in it who wants to be good but has dark tendencies, and potentially a ticking time bomb if she was led astray by the wrong people. The fate of the galaxy, and all that.
As in; do Anakin but properly and let her make her own mind up instead of being lied and manipulated to by someone who looks like my gran after a bottle of gin.
Happy to agree to disagree on the duel on Mustafar, I'm just a sucker for spectacle!
But yeah, I remember watching Attack of the Clones for maybe the second time last year for a podcast episode I was doing and my god, the atmosphere in the room completely died over the course of the film. Before watching it, the four of us (myself, my girlfriend, two friends) were laughing and joking and catching up with each other, and then we put the film on. After the credits started rolling we didn't know what to say to break the silence. The entire thing is so drab that C-3PO's horrendous "I'm beside myself" / "This is such a drag" joke made me cry with laughter because it was only thing in the film that got any reaction out of me. While it might have some of the most horrendous GCSE level dialogue that's ever been put to screen ("I wish I could wish away my feelings..."
) and some of the worst CGI work that's ever been put to screen, its biggest crime is the way none of the characters ever feel anything, either physically or mentally. The amount of injuries these characters should incur but don't, the amount of inner turmoil that should be on display that's not, the blooming romance between Anakin and Padme that feels more like a woman giving into a creepy stalker... What were they thinking?Now, I loved The Last Jedi so I am biased here, but when people say it was worse than Attack of the Clones I'm convinced they watched a completely different film. I understand why quite a lot of die-hard Star Wars fans didn't take kindly to Rian Johnson's choices - mainly because he mercilessly tossed out quite a lot of the mythology, lore, and fan wishes that had been obsessed over since way before The Force Awakens - but to say that it was objectively worse than Attack of the Clones (which I have seen argued, even in the relevant Star Wars threads on here) is complete lunacy. At the very least, The Last Jedi actually fulfils the task of being an actual film. It's shot competently at the very least (I think it's beautiful); it feels like it has real, lived-in environments; the performances are all excellent; it has characters we care about; it has a clear vision of what it wants to do and then slowly reveals that vision over the duration of the film. Attack of the Clones fills maybe 5% of those basic requirements. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a bit of pulpy action like the final battle on Geonosis and I've learned to forgive the Yoda lightsaber fight, but the whole product is a hollow shell. It's a Weekend at Bernie's version of Star Wars - a corpse dressed up in all the effects money could buy to hide the fact that what you're watching is completely devoid of anything remotely human. Ugh.
Happy to agree to disagree on the duel on Mustafar, I'm just a sucker for spectacle!
But yeah, I remember watching Attack of the Clones for maybe the second time last year for a podcast episode I was doing and my god, the atmosphere in the room completely died over the course of the film. Before watching it, the four of us (myself, my girlfriend, two friends) were laughing and joking and catching up with each other, and then we put the film on. After the credits started rolling we didn't know what to say to break the silence. The entire thing is so drab that C-3PO's horrendous "I'm beside myself" / "This is such a drag" joke made me cry with laughter because it was only thing in the film that got any reaction out of me. While it might have some of the most horrendous GCSE level dialogue that's ever been put to screen ("I wish I could wish away my feelings..."
Now, I loved The Last Jedi so I am biased here, but when people say it was worse than Attack of the Clones I'm convinced they watched a completely different film. I understand why quite a lot of die-hard Star Wars fans didn't take kindly to Rian Johnson's choices - mainly because he mercilessly tossed out quite a lot of the mythology, lore, and fan wishes that had been obsessed over since way before The Force Awakens - but to say that it was objectively worse than Attack of the Clones (which I have seen argued, even in the relevant Star Wars threads on here) is complete lunacy. At the very least, The Last Jedi actually fulfils the task of being an actual film. It's shot competently at the very least (I think it's beautiful); it feels like it has real, lived-in environments; the performances are all excellent; it has characters we care about; it has a clear vision of what it wants to do and then slowly reveals that vision over the duration of the film. Attack of the Clones fills maybe 5% of those basic requirements. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a bit of pulpy action like the final battle on Geonosis and I've learned to forgive the Yoda lightsaber fight, but the whole product is a hollow shell. It's a Weekend at Bernie's version of Star Wars - a corpse dressed up in all the effects money could buy to hide the fact that what you're watching is completely devoid of anything remotely human. Ugh.
But Rian didn't actually do anything though. Nothing new at all. I wouldn't have minded that approach if it was an actual revelation film that moved the story in a different direction, but it didn't do that. If anything it just rehashed some of the older cannon stuff and got rid of lightsaber battles. That's about it. I fail to see where he actually did anything to break the formula. All he did was seemingly mess with the childhood fans then convinced people it was some master stroke.
However I liked it more than any of the prequels, bar some highlight moments. I think it just felt like more of a Star Wars movie than any of the prequels ever did.
This. It's the exact same thing that always happens, and makes the Jedi order look even more inept than they already do
I'm also still surprised people actually think Rey's parentage was ever planned to be nobody, largely thanks to the love of repetition in these films. If she turns out to be a skywalker, or another palps baby, then it's not this one movie that changed that. In fact thanks to the way they've done Rey, there's nothing else left for them to explain how she's doing Jedi mind tricks and fighting off the best of the baddies with no training. If she was genuine a nobody, which is the route I'd agree with going from the off, then they've done such a piss poor job of her character. If she's a skywalker or whatever, then they've gone lazy.
I think he completely deconstructed everything the franchise had been built up to be during the 1990s and 2000s. Not only that, but I think he confronted the very nature of franchises as a whole. The prequels (and the era they were made in) did a lot of damage by introducing elements of mythology, expanded universe, and lore that were never even considered during the creation of the original trilogy and weren't necessary at all. All the midi-chlorians nonsense, the word "Sith", the expanded universe novels, the video games, meeting Boba Fett as a child for no reason. It goes on and on and on.
In the end it all added up to the obsessive theorising that took place before and after The Force Awakens and revealed that, quite often, fans who love a long-running story often completely misunderstand it and begin to consider their headcanon as the way the story should go. Rey was definitely Luke's daughter or someone special, she was definitely going to convince him to come back and take on the First Order with a laser sword, Snoake was an important commander like the Emperor, the Jedi were still an exclusive and special group of magicians, the Force can only be used by a select group of people, etc.
I think Rian Johnson came in as a complete outsider, looked at the franchise as logically as he could, asked himself and J.J. a lot of very important questions about where the Star Wars story could possibly go from the place it was left in The Force Awakens, and wrote a script based around that. As we see at the end of The Last Jedi, the Resistance are basically 12 people on a little craft escaping an entire army. If only Skywalkers can use the Force then they're absolutely screwed, but Rey being "no one", for example, gives them hope: if "no one" can be a Jedi, then everyone can be (as evidenced again by broom boy).
And if everyone can be a Jedi, they can form an army big enough to fight the First Order back.
One thing I realised watching through the films again last year after The Last Jedi is that, for absolutely no reason, everything seemingly has to be connected to something in the Star Wars universe. It can sometimes kill any enjoyment I have and makes the franchise feel uncomfortably exclusive. Faceless extras with no lines have lengthy Wookiepedia pages, one character seen briefly in the background of one film is apparently related to the destiny of a key character who appears in a later film, a lightsaber is a particular colour because of some deeply held trauma of the person who wields it - you get the picture.
It shows the power of the 1977 original that so much can come from one film in the end, but it was just a typical fairytale story that happened to be told in space. When fans give things an elevated level of importance and seriousness I think they can lose sight of what these films are supposed to do, which is distract you and entertain you for 2 hours. That's what I believe the sequel trilogy has really brought back to the franchise that the prequels absolutely didn't because they took themselves far too seriously, and the fact that The Last Jedi manages to inject so much fun to the saga while deconstructing and analysing how much "fandom" can actually kill the fun of experiencing it is a huge achievement on Rian Johnson's part.
Just my twopence, though.
Agree with all of that
This is the main problem I had with Anakin’s turn. We were promised ‘the tragedy of Darth Vader’ and it turned out to be anything but. It wasn’t some epic tale of a good man torn from the order that he loves and deceived by the dark side, it was just someone who was bored of the Jedi anyway, blindly following whoever can help him save his wife. He wasn’t some loyal Jedi warrior, he was basically a mercenary.
I think he completely deconstructed everything the franchise had been built up to be during the 1990s and 2000s. Not only that, but I think he confronted the very nature of franchises as a whole. The prequels (and the era they were made in) did a lot of damage by introducing elements of mythology, expanded universe, and lore that were never even considered during the creation of the original trilogy and weren't necessary at all. All the midi-chlorians nonsense, the word "Sith", the expanded universe novels, the video games, meeting Boba Fett as a child for no reason. It goes on and on and on.
In the end it all added up to the obsessive theorising that took place before and after The Force Awakens and revealed that, quite often, fans who love a long-running story often completely misunderstand it and begin to consider their headcanon as the way the story should go. Rey was definitely Luke's daughter or someone special, she was definitely going to convince him to come back and take on the First Order with a laser sword, Snoake was an important commander like the Emperor, the Jedi were still an exclusive and special group of magicians, the Force can only be used by a select group of people, etc.
I think Rian Johnson came in as a complete outsider, looked at the franchise as logically as he could, asked himself and J.J. a lot of very important questions about where the Star Wars story could possibly go from the place it was left in The Force Awakens, and wrote a script based around that. As we see at the end of The Last Jedi, the Resistance are basically 12 people on a little craft escaping an entire army. If only Skywalkers can use the Force then they're absolutely screwed, but Rey being "no one", for example, gives them hope: if "no one" can be a Jedi, then everyone can be (as evidenced again by broom boy).
And if everyone can be a Jedi, they can form an army big enough to fight the First Order back.
One thing I realised watching through the films again last year after The Last Jedi is that, for absolutely no reason, everything seemingly has to be connected to something in the Star Wars universe. It can sometimes kill any enjoyment I have and makes the franchise feel uncomfortably exclusive. Faceless extras with no lines have lengthy Wookiepedia pages, one character seen briefly in the background of one film is apparently related to the destiny of a key character who appears in a later film, a lightsaber is a particular colour because of some deeply held trauma of the person who wields it - you get the picture.
It shows the power of the 1977 original that so much can come from one film in the end, but it was just a typical fairytale story that happened to be told in space. When fans give things an elevated level of importance and seriousness I think they can lose sight of what these films are supposed to do, which is distract you and entertain you for 2 hours. That's what I believe the sequel trilogy has really brought back to the franchise that the prequels absolutely didn't because they took themselves far too seriously, and the fact that The Last Jedi manages to inject so much fun to the saga while deconstructing and analysing how much "fandom" can actually kill the fun of experiencing it is a huge achievement on Rian Johnson's part.
Just my twopence, though.
Yeah, but your twopence isn't based on reality. It started bad when you said he deconstructed the lore, then went more south when you said he was completely on the outside.
Your entire post reads exactly like a star wars post, right down to the tiny rebel group comment. I'm not trying to be rude at all, you know I have time for you after all remember who tried to help you through the GOT thing, but you seem the type to go on emotions and what you want to think because of how they made you feel at the time and that's cool, but not once have you actually said a single thing about exactly what he did to deconstruct the universe.
The very fact he uses all the same story beats and even powers from the expandes universe show that.
But answer me this: If it turns out Rey is not just a nobody, do you think that was anything other than planned from the first film, or do you thing Johnson actually wanted it that way?
The prequels did alot of damage, but they've done nothing to fix that. The only thing that's in any way fixed it is Rogue One making Vader look like an absolute beast and not some whiny sand hater. Things needed to change, but Johnson for the most part ballsed up his changes.I think he completely deconstructed everything the franchise had been built up to be during the 1990s and 2000s. Not only that, but I think he confronted the very nature of franchises as a whole. The prequels (and the era they were made in) did a lot of damage by introducing elements of mythology, expanded universe, and lore that were never even considered during the creation of the original trilogy and weren't necessary at all. All the midi-chlorians nonsense, the word "Sith", the expanded universe novels, the video games, meeting Boba Fett as a child for no reason. It goes on and on and on.
In the end it all added up to the obsessive theorising that took place before and after The Force Awakens and revealed that, quite often, fans who love a long-running story often completely misunderstand it and begin to consider their headcanon as the way the story should go. Rey was definitely Luke's daughter or someone special, she was definitely going to convince him to come back and take on the First Order with a laser sword, Snoake was an important commander like the Emperor, the Jedi were still an exclusive and special group of magicians, the Force can only be used by a select group of people, etc.
I think Rian Johnson came in as a complete outsider, looked at the franchise as logically as he could, asked himself and J.J. a lot of very important questions about where the Star Wars story could possibly go from the place it was left in The Force Awakens, and wrote a script based around that. As we see at the end of The Last Jedi, the Resistance are basically 12 people on a little craft escaping an entire army. If only Skywalkers can use the Force then they're absolutely screwed, but Rey being "no one", for example, gives them hope: if "no one" can be a Jedi, then everyone can be (as evidenced again by broom boy).
And if everyone can be a Jedi, they can form an army big enough to fight the First Order back.
One thing I realised watching through the films again last year after The Last Jedi is that, for absolutely no reason, everything seemingly has to be connected to something in the Star Wars universe. It can sometimes kill any enjoyment I have and makes the franchise feel uncomfortably exclusive. Faceless extras with no lines have lengthy Wookiepedia pages, one character seen briefly in the background of one film is apparently related to the destiny of a key character who appears in a later film, a lightsaber is a particular colour because of some deeply held trauma of the person who wields it - you get the picture.
It shows the power of the 1977 original that so much can come from one film in the end, but it was just a typical fairytale story that happened to be told in space. When fans give things an elevated level of importance and seriousness I think they can lose sight of what these films are supposed to do, which is distract you and entertain you for 2 hours. That's what I believe the sequel trilogy has really brought back to the franchise that the prequels absolutely didn't because they took themselves far too seriously, and the fact that The Last Jedi manages to inject so much fun to the saga while deconstructing and analysing how much "fandom" can actually kill the fun of experiencing it is a huge achievement on Rian Johnson's part.
Just my twopence, though.
Only Skywalkers being able to use the Force isn't a thing and never was, there have only been three Skywalkers if you count Leia yet thousands possibly millions of Force users. Rey being no one isn't a problem, the kid using the Force isn't a problem. There are still people in the galaxy that can touch the Force to varying degrees, there's just no one to teach them how to. Rey being a massive Mary Sue that makes everyone else redundant is a problem. Established characters bending to her is a problem. Her complete lack of flaws or actual character is a problem.
They wrote themselves into the issue of Rey's parents, people didn't just assume she had to be related to someone out of nowhere, it was a reaction to them being written as a mystery and her being written so badly, people were giving them the benefit of the doubt thinking there was an explanation. They wrote the parents as a mystery on purpose when there was no need to. She could have been a random Force user/Jedi from the start, but they wanted the parentage mystery. Blaming fans for then theorising on that mystery is ridiculous. One of the only things people can latch on to about Rey is she doesn't know who her parents are. That's a writing problem, not a problem with fans. There's not enough to these characters for people to have a set headcannon or then get upset when it's proved wrong. People got upset because the characters were bad and it's badly written. There is no long running story for people to invest in, they threw it out and started over. The problem is what they started over with is just bad.
You can't write something that contradicts 40 years of lore and then claim the fans never understood it and only believed their headcanon.
Lightsabers are a particular colour because of the crystal that's inside them. Characters get connected, it's a series that's been around since the 70's and it's incredibly popular so obviously there's going to be extra expanded lore by now. You don't need to know any of it, the films work fine without knowing who any of the bounty hunters are or that Depa Billapa was Mace Windu's padawan. If there being extra lore available somehow affects your enjoyment of a film then that's an odd complaint.
They have fecked the entire franchise. I wouldn't be surprised if in a spin off Rey will be seen twatting yoda, vader, luke, windu, dooku, kanoobie, and kenobi all by herself.
Nah Sidious has always been supremely powerful. He thought he had Vader totally turned so wasn't expecting him to charge at all, and Vader had to suicide himself to get the job done.
He's the most powerful dark side user ever, canon wise.
The most powerful dark side user is a bitch then. "Ooh I can make sparks come out my fingers and manipulate emo kids".
But seriously, fair enough mate. I always assumed that one of the ancient Sith would be the most powerful user in the canon.
Darth Bane was up there, I think Palpatine just shades him though. Alot of Palpatine's power came from his ability to manipulate and play the long game, Bane might win in a straight fight. Most Sith died because they turned on each other, like the Dutch at international tournaments. If Vader hadn't been more machine than man he'd have been the most powerful Sith.
He straight up murders two jedi masters in about 2 seconds flat and stalemates Yoda. Dude kept himself hidden from the whole Jedi Order in their own backyard!Vader is pretty damn powerful but knows he'd get bitch slapped trying to take Sidious on his own.
Far as I know, Sidious is noted as being the most powerful ever, with only Anakin having the potential to exceed that pre being a twat vs Obi Wan.
(I was bring sarcastic)
Vader is pretty damn powerful but knows he'd get bitch slapped trying to take Sidious on his own.
Far as I know, Sidious is noted as being the most powerful ever, with only Anakin having the potential to exceed that pre being a twat vs Obi Wan.
Oh I know! Sorry
just thought I'd expand a bit on what he can do. He may give off that lil' old man vibe but weird flippy dude has mad skills.Oh I know! Sorry
Flippy dude. I'm using that at my next Star Wars fan club meeting, which is just me and two socks puppets but we always have interesting arguments.Bane's cool but Sidious would straight up murder him. Sidious was a great manipulator and didn't bother getting his hands dirty whenever he could help it, but in terms of raw power he's meant to be frightening .. just why bother when he can use the likes of Vader and Maul as tools?
Definitely Vader had the potential to surpass him though. If Anakin wasn't such a manbaby.
I am so baffled by that guy's essay about why the Last Jedi is actually good. Why does he think Rian Johnson is a genius because broom kid using force = Skywalkers aren't the only people who can be Jedi? In the prequels there were tons of the buggers running around. Blue woman, green dude with dreads, conehead guy...
Plus even if literally nobody else could be a Jedi but Rey it still wouldn't matter because Rey has already taken out most of the First Order in the first two movies and will no doubt wreck what's left in the third. Broom kid can go use the force to sweep better or something while Finn tries to run away for the 3rd film in a row and maybe Po can have another go at launching a rebellion against the rebellion... just point Rey in the general direction of the baddies and you will win whatever nonsense the other characters get up to.
Plus even if literally nobody else could be a Jedi but Rey it still wouldn't matter because Rey has already taken out most of the First Order in the first two movies and will no doubt wreck what's left in the third. Broom kid can go use the force to sweep better or something while Finn tries to run away for the 3rd film in a row and maybe Po can have another go at launching a rebellion against the rebellion... just point Rey in the general direction of the baddies and you will win whatever nonsense the other characters get up to.
It's not retconning at all. He's acknowledged in canon as being the most powerful Sith in history.
I think Anakin was actually more powerful before Obi Wan got the high ground, then one blast of Force lightning and Palpatine would fry Vaders mechanical parts.
An actual physical fight Bane might come out on top, possibly. Windu held his own for a while as did Yoda so Bane would at least have a chance.
How did my life come to discussing this on a Satuday night while sober?
We've done that bit already dude, I admitted defeat. Like that lil bitch Palpatine when my main man Vader fecked him up.
I think Anakin was actually more powerful before Obi Wan got the high ground, then one blast of Force lightning and Palpatine would fry Vaders mechanical parts.
An actual physical fight Bane might come out on top, possibly. Windu held his own for a while as did Yoda so Bane would at least have a chance.
How did my life come to discussing this on a Satuday night while sober?
I'm not fully sober and I don't know if that's better or worse
.Vader post-burn had less raw power but was a more dangerous opponent, because he was more attuned to the force and far more tactical than Anakin who just relied on pure force. But yeah, because of the way his suit was designed he had an obvious weakness to force lightning.
Mace was a bit of a special case. There's always the theory that Sidious allowed him to win so he could stage the whole 'don't let him kill me' thing with Anakin, but if you don't buy that then there's the fact he was an expert at vaapad, which was extremely effective at fighting dark side users. Yoda is pretty much recognised pre-Luke as the most powerful Jedi ever, and he had to withdraw from Sidious. IIRC Bane is powerful but a better match for him would be Vader, Sidious rose above all the other Sith.
Anyway my god reading that back I feel like the biggest fecking nerd.
Ha! You nerd!I'm not fully sober and I don't know if that's better or worse
Vader post-burn had less raw power but was a more dangerous opponent, because he was more attuned to the force and far more tactical than Anakin who just relied on pure force. But yeah, because of the way his suit was designed he had an obvious weakness to force lightning.
Mace was a bit of a special case. There's always the theory that Sidious allowed him to win so he could stage the whole 'don't let him kill me' thing with Anakin, but if you don't buy that then there's the fact he was an expert at vaapad, which was extremely effective at fighting dark side users. Yoda is pretty much recognised pre-Luke as the most powerful Jedi ever, and he had to withdraw from Sidious. IIRC Bane is powerful but a better match for him would be Vader, Sidious rose above all the other Sith.
Anyway my god reading that back I feel like the biggest fecking nerd.
The only reason I went for Bane over Vader is because of the Force lightning thing. In the end up Sidious took Vader out with one quick blast over his shoulder. Bane was a physical brute which may have made him closer to Windu. Bane v Vader would have been cool.
I didn't buy the Sidious faking it against Windu theory at first, I figured his own power was being used against him with vaapaad and Windu was winning until Anakin showed up. I remember reading something a long time ago where vaapaad is just a loop where Windu turns their own power back on them and Sidious being that powerful would basically wreck himself trying to fight Windu. Someone on here argued me out of that and apparently that is not the case, Sidious was faking it all along. Windu was great, I wish the prequels had more of him actually fighting. Shatterpoint the novel all about Windu was one of my favourite Star Wars novels, it was pretty brutal and he does not win very often in it.
Dooku versus Bane might have been decent too. Might not be as all powerful as Vader or Palpatine, but was a supreme dualist.
Honestly, I don't think I'll really care whether Rey is a somebody or a nobody so long as it makes sense. What I'll care about is how I feel when the truth is revealed and whether it tracks with what's happened up to now. It probably wasn't the best example for me to pull out the hat as an example of subversive storytelling making its way into the Star Wars universe because I see it as a win-win really - if she's a nobody then they nicely bucked a trend by giving a protagonist some autonomy instead of a predetermined fate, and if she's a somebody after all then it's definitely in Kylo's character to mess with her and I imagine it will form part of the final parts of their complicated relationship.
I don't see myself enjoying The Rise of Skywalker as much as The Last Jedi for a number of reasons but that's not really something I see as a problem. I don't like Return of the Jedi anywhere near as much as The Empire Strikes Back but that doesn't stop Return from being a satisfying viewing experience overall. I see quite a lot of similarities between Empire and Last Jedi, in all honesty, mainly because they both end on something of a "defeat" for the heroes, so if Rise of Skywalker repeats a few beats from Return to bring this part of the saga to an end then so be it. JJ's a crowd pleaser at heart when it comes to the way he's treated and resurrected Star Wars and Star Trek and I don't see this going any differently here. The Force Awakens isn't hurt too much by being A New Hope repeated, so no biggie.
And, honestly, I don't mind if they didn't have an outline completely ready for these three films in 2012 when they handed the rights over. Making art is hard and creative people are constantly in flux. Entire albums have been written by bands only to be scrapped before they were recorded, TV shows have gone off in wildly different directions because of things beyond their control, and so it should be no different that films go through a wide array of alterations and changes over a seven or eight-year production period. As long as the effort is taken to make sure it tracks within reason when it's looked back on as a whole then you have to say fair enough. I appreciate my standards must seem quite low when I say things like that, but it's just how I feel.
I think I, as you say, come at things like this based on feeling, but that's because it's the only way I believe I can come at things like this. My reading of Star Wars can only ever be based on my personal experiences with it, after all. I firmly believe Rian Johnson used The Last Jedi to deconstruct and then confront the version of the Star Wars fandom and franchise that I believe exists based on my personal experiences with them. I didn't really realise it at the time it was happening, but the reaction to The Last Jedi and the final season of Game of Thrones has had an incredibly profound effect on how I view long-running franchises, fans of long-running franchises, and how audiences react with art they love - especially when what they "love" about the franchise doesn't match the vision of the creator.
If anything, it's taught me to just back off a bit, to just let the creators do what they want to do. If they do something I don't like then that's fine, if they do something I enjoy then that's a great bonus. I love discussing entertainment at length (I'm still on tiny active subreddits for GOT, months after the end) and getting into the minutiae of creativity and storytelling, but not to the point where I could become so obsessed and attached that a diversion from my expectations would upset me. You're completely right that my twopence on The Last Jedi isn't based on reality, but I guess it never can be. I should add, I consider Rian Johnson an outsider because he'd never been involved with a Star Wars project before, that's all.
Dooku was definitely very powerful. Held his own against Yoda for a long while, which alone is a huge feat. He dealt with Obi Wan very easily on a number of occasions to boot.
No shame in being beaten by Anakin in that way. His style wasn't really well suited to fighting him. Obi Wan only competed with Anakin because he knew his style inside out, was able to use his defensive style to soak up the pressure, and wait for him to make some kind of a mistake, which he did.
I think by that point Obi Wan was also supposed to have mastered the defensive lightsaber form, which is how he beat Grievous. That may have come from the Revenge of the Sith novel which was much, much better than the film.
Dooku was pretty damn cool, he could have been awesome if his main film wasn't Attack of the Clones. He was one of George's better prequel ideas, he did actually come up with some really good characters in the prequels for all the shit he threw on screen. Dooku, Qui Gon, Maul, Windu, Brian Blessed playing himself. Unfortunately he also created Jar Jar.
Nah she says she'd flown ships before, just not left the planet.
That can't be real, but...