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- Jake Lipson
Over on page 61 of the Solo thread, the current discussion seems to be swinging a little too far in the direction of The Last Jedi for that thread. This began as a discussion of whether or not, and to what degree, Solo's low box office can be attributed to audience anger over The Last Jedi and Luke's death, but seems to have naturally evolved back into a complex discussion of The Last Jedi itself. So, rather than get that thread further off topic, I thought I'd bring that discussion in here, so that Solo can reclaim the main topic of conversation in its own thread. The quotes below are from the Solo thread.
So how would you have accomplished what you wanted Johnson to accomplish?
This is plainly ridiculous. Luke belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. The fans have no claim to dictate how the story goes. We can only react to it as we see fit.
I hate the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child because it contains inconsistencies and plot holes with regard to the seven books which preceded it, and besides that it's a lazy piece of writing by Jack Throne (who, thank goodness, is no longer part of the writing team for Episode IX, as he briefly was when Colin Treverrow was still attached to direct it.) But whether I think Throne's a bad writer or not, it was still J.K. Rowling's prerogative to authorize Jack Throne to write that play, and to cooperate with the production of it. I don't have to like it -- I am allowed to ignore it -- but I can't say that I have any rights to tell JKR how to run that world, since I didn't create it. She did. It's the same thing.
Disney owns Star Wars and is employing Kathleen Kennedy to supervise the creation of new content for it in her position as head of Lucasfilm. In that position, she selected Rian Johnson to write and direct Episode VIII, which gave him the right to do with Luke what he wanted in his script. She had the right to approve the script or reject it. She approved it. At no points do fans get to have a say in which way the narrative goes. That's not the deal, unless those fans get hired by Kathleen Kennedy to write and direct a movie, which Johnson did.
I'd even go so far as to say it was an intergenerational story in A New Hope as well, because even before we knew that Vader was Luke's father, there was talk of Luke's father, how he would have wanted Luke to have his old lightsaber, and Luke following in his footsteps.
To me, this was addressed sufficiently in The Last Jedi. Mark Hamill did so much with his performance in that movie that I completely bought the transition. I didn't need to see a more detailed flashback than we had. It might have been fun to see more, but I don't think the movie needed to have more. I also think Johnson did a great job writing it, although I understand that other people disagree.
I agree fully that Johnson was picking up Luke from where Abrams and Kasdan left him, and that Johnson's path was somewhat forward dictated by their choices in TFA. A lot of people who want to blame Johnson seem to forget that Abrams and Kasdan put him on the island while Leia and his friends were fighting the First Order alone.
I think Johnson did the best he could with the cards he was dealt.
Huh?
Luke in the original trilogy always does what he believes is right and proper.
Abrams and Kasdan decided that Luke took himself out of the fight and didn't want to be found.
Johnson had to come up with a reason why Luke thought taking himself out of the fight was the right and proper thing to do, and I think he did. I find this entirely consistent with Luke's behavior throughout the original trilogy.
I resent Johnson for taking the journey of Luke's fall for himself off screen but leaving me with only table scraps. That's as clear as I can put it. My heart's broken because I wasn't invited to the part of the movie I needed to see to understand and accept Luke's fall. Everything I knew about Luke and what he represented was more powerful than Johnson's table scraps telling me he'd changed.
So how would you have accomplished what you wanted Johnson to accomplish?
IMO a lot of fans are hurt and lashing out because in their hearts Luke wasn't Johnson's to do that with. Luke belonged to them.
This is plainly ridiculous. Luke belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. The fans have no claim to dictate how the story goes. We can only react to it as we see fit.
I hate the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child because it contains inconsistencies and plot holes with regard to the seven books which preceded it, and besides that it's a lazy piece of writing by Jack Throne (who, thank goodness, is no longer part of the writing team for Episode IX, as he briefly was when Colin Treverrow was still attached to direct it.) But whether I think Throne's a bad writer or not, it was still J.K. Rowling's prerogative to authorize Jack Throne to write that play, and to cooperate with the production of it. I don't have to like it -- I am allowed to ignore it -- but I can't say that I have any rights to tell JKR how to run that world, since I didn't create it. She did. It's the same thing.
Disney owns Star Wars and is employing Kathleen Kennedy to supervise the creation of new content for it in her position as head of Lucasfilm. In that position, she selected Rian Johnson to write and direct Episode VIII, which gave him the right to do with Luke what he wanted in his script. She had the right to approve the script or reject it. She approved it. At no points do fans get to have a say in which way the narrative goes. That's not the deal, unless those fans get hired by Kathleen Kennedy to write and direct a movie, which Johnson did.
I just don't get the argument that TLJ is taking Star Wars away from longtime fans. The saga films have always been defined as an intergenerational saga, from the moment Vader told Luke "I am your father". If we got to Episode IX and it was still Han, Luke, and Leia in the Falcon having adventures, the long-term potential of the franchise would have been stifled.
I'd even go so far as to say it was an intergenerational story in A New Hope as well, because even before we knew that Vader was Luke's father, there was talk of Luke's father, how he would have wanted Luke to have his old lightsaber, and Luke following in his footsteps.
Yes, there's a huge chasm between where Luke was left in ROTJ and where we find him in TLJ. But what explanation for why he's exiled himself and allowed the First Order to rise unchecked would have satisfyingly bridged that chasm?
To me, this was addressed sufficiently in The Last Jedi. Mark Hamill did so much with his performance in that movie that I completely bought the transition. I didn't need to see a more detailed flashback than we had. It might have been fun to see more, but I don't think the movie needed to have more. I also think Johnson did a great job writing it, although I understand that other people disagree.
I agree fully that Johnson was picking up Luke from where Abrams and Kasdan left him, and that Johnson's path was somewhat forward dictated by their choices in TFA. A lot of people who want to blame Johnson seem to forget that Abrams and Kasdan put him on the island while Leia and his friends were fighting the First Order alone.
I think Johnson did the best he could with the cards he was dealt.
It's Johnson's fault because he made the decision to flip Luke's character completely around.
Huh?
Luke in the original trilogy always does what he believes is right and proper.
Abrams and Kasdan decided that Luke took himself out of the fight and didn't want to be found.
Johnson had to come up with a reason why Luke thought taking himself out of the fight was the right and proper thing to do, and I think he did. I find this entirely consistent with Luke's behavior throughout the original trilogy.
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