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There's a few things that I should preface before I start, just so you know who you're talking to here. The thing is, I hate the prequel trilogy and I always have, and I think pretty much anyone who complains about the sequel trilogy just comes across like a tasteless moron.

You're allowed to not like a movie and there's valid reasons to not like them, don't get me wrong, but if your favourite food is dry toast served with room temperature water then chances are I'm just gonna zone out and stop listening.

And while I'm at it, I also think a lot of the TV shows and expanded universe stuff is genuinely shit, so I don't really care whether they're canon or not, but it is not without it's highlights.

I adored the Old Republic trilogy and I still do. Reva Sevander was honestly a genuinely emotionally gripping character, like a fine wine surrounded by month old cheese. And both Andor and that old Clone Wars TV series were a delight, both proving that there's a way to tell stories like the prequel trilogy in a way without becoming a total snorefest.

Anyways, we're talking about The Last Jedi.

Part 1: Luke Skywalker

I get the sense that Luke was really weird and boring and inconsistent outside of the movies, but I felt The Last Jedi was the best direction to take his character in, by turning him into a bitter old coot.

I've seen people complain about the literal two seconds where he tosses a lightsaber over his shoulder, saying that it was a bit too goofy. And again, this is what I'm talking about, how a lot of the complaints just boil down to people being joyless assholes.

You're allowed to have moments of whimsy in your children's movie made explicitly for children, enough of that. It's little things like this that make Luke a charming character, and turning Luke into an old hermit who's drowning in despair was super interesting.

You could argue that JJ Abrams took Han and Leia into inherently uncreative directions, it's been 30 years and they're basically just doing the same old stuff. They're still entertaining in those roles, sure, but I'm glad they took Luke in a different direction.

If Luke was just raring to go, train Rey and save Leia, and face down against the entire first order, I'm sure that would've been fine, but it's no where near as interesting as giving him a dynamic character change. Seeing him come to grips with his depression and trauma was just really powerful and unexpected.

I believe it was really contentious how Luke considered killing Kylo Ren? It's understandable as this was the same guy who saw the good in Darth Vader even though nobody else did, but years later, for a moment, he considers that his nephew might be beyond saving.

But I think it's more interesting making Luke a genuinely flawed and human character, instead of this deity who's grown wise and powerful, always making the right choice. That's just a Luke Skywalker that doesn't exist, rejecting the myth and coming to terms with the harsh reality of who he really is. He slipped up, bro. He is not a myth, he is a man, and no man is infallible. Get over it.

Part 2: Rey

Anakin, Luke, and now Rey, all of the Skywalkers are good. Rey is the dorky jock archetype, similar to what we've been seeing since Harry Potter came out, but Rey isn't a bad example. She's smart, she's powerful, and she can be really adorable too. In this movie she's constantly overestimating her own abilities and completely fails to convert Kylo Ren. I don't know what kinda crack you're on if you think she's a mary sue because shit's not working out for her.

You would be right in saying that the cave scene is an overly long way of giving us absolutely no information, but that's entirely the point. Everyone's expecting her parents to be someone famous like Dexter Jettster, but I think this is a subversion of expectations that really pays off.

By making her parents no one special, in this case literally nobody, it's an absolutely crushing reveal. That's the last thing she wants to hear, that she comes from no where, and nobody cared about her until she met these guys.

Rey is getting a serious reality check.

Now, if you're wondering if I hate The Rise of Skywalker, I do, and it's because it backtracks on the compelling risks that this movie was taking. I think that's something you shouldn't be doing if you've got no real plans to where you're taking your story, you just gotta take the lemons and make lemonade out of it.

I'm an embracer of the cheesy stuff, but maybe I would've preferred it if she had to let the reality of her heritage really sink in? She can lift the rocks if she wants, there's still some hope for the future after all, but character arcs have their ebbs and flows and I think she should have been left devastated by it.

Part 3: This movie was really well made

I'm not going to labour this point for too long, but one of the big issues I took with the prequel trilogy was that it looks so fucking dull, but The Last Jedi is gorgeous from beginning to end.

There's a scene where we see a ship that looks like an iron, and then we pull back and it turns out... it was actually an iron. I just think that's neat! If you hate it because it breaks Star Wars conventions, I don't care, that's just you being a dullard again. Just from an acting and filmmaking perspective, The Last Jedi is a 12/10.

Part 4: Nostalgia is overrated

The Force Awakens was fine, but it does like to throw nostalgia all over the place, like you would expect. But The Last Jedi is smart about it. When Luke reunites with R2D2, that's already a really powerful moment, but when Luke essentially rejects the call to adventure, it's honestly one of the most touching things in all of Star Wars. It's organically weaving nostalgia into the story.

The Yoda scene is one of my favorites, and they made him into a puppet again, which is objectively better. Yoda is the perfect character to talk some sense into Luke and get him to realize the value of failure, and what it can teach us.

I get that in real life trauma often doesn't mean anything, it just hurts, but it's nice to think that we can grow from and move past those traumatic experiences. And how we should let the younger generation carve their own path without having to rely on us for guidance all of the time. It's a valuable and dramatic scene that should not be overlooked.

Part 5: The climax is neat... mostly

Alright, so something that I genuinely have a problem with is that Finn is a complete afterthought by the time we get to The Rise of Skywalker. I'm fine with Rose actually, she saved the animals and I like animals, but her inclusion just drives a wedge between Finn and Poe, two characters with great chemistry.

Still, like I said, you just gotta take the lemons and make lemonade out of it. I know manbabies on the internet didn't like Rose, but a lot of people didn't like Asoka at first ether. Instead of caving to the manbabies and writing her out of the show, they allowed Asoka to grow as a person and become a more mature and well-rounded character over time. Now she's a fan favourite! It just goes to show, don't give into hate, that leads to the dark side.

This is going to be a hot take, but it probably would have been better if Finn went through with his sacrifice, especially if it would have given some worth to his story. It would have been sad to never see Finn and Rey interact again, but this is the "tough shit, welcome to the real world" movie, and I think ending on a profound sense of loss for these three characters would have been powerful if it was done really well. Inherited will and all that.

I know some folks are already rolling their eyes because that would make the new central trio Ray, Poe, and *gasp* Rose for the final film, but the solution to that is just write Rose really well, if you do that you'll win people over.

You've probably noticed by now that the best sections of this movie is the Luke and Rey sections, and that's true of the climax as well. Luke's arc is beautiful and it all comes to a head in this final showdown with Kylo Ren. Luke, now emboldened with an optimistic view of the future, BOOM, title drop, proudly states that he will not be The Last Jedi. That is, before it's revealed that he's just astral projecting, masterfully leaving Kylo Ren with no profound closure.

Luke's death scene is amazing, and is another example of profound and artistic use of nostalgia.

Oh, and Rey, Poe, and Rose miserably failed and it didn't seem to affect them whatsoever. Most of the resistance is dead and everyone is happy, I guess.

Anyways, The Last Jedi is actually kind of extremely good in places, it just maybe needed some tweaking here and there. And maybe The Rise of Skywalker would've been a lot better if it had embraced this movie's lemons.

Okay, that's all, bye!