Predictions and Final Thoughts - The Last Jedi - Review #3

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Predictions

• The new villain will be the weapon supply corporations and those that gain from warmongering. 
• Kylo will be betrayed by Hux. The rule of two at work with these two, I think.
• Kaydel Ko Connix and Poe Dameron are the new fixtures at the head of the Rebel Force. Finn and Rose represent the enlisted, "nobodies" in this group. I think Finn and Rose could get a stand-alone story film.
• Rey creates with a Darth Maul-like double light saber out of the two pieces of Luke's broken light saber. Cant' wait to see it.
• Rey is probably the daughter of Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker. Remember the fan theories about the graveside scene with Luke. No one knows yet whose grave it is. Remember in TLJ what Luke said about Rey that he has only seen the pull of the dark side only one other time. It was about Mara, I think.
• Luke will appear, maybe even with Yoda (and and Obi-Wan and Anakin!), to influence the tension between Rey and Kylo. Oh, wait, there's more.
• If Jedi can physically be present with one another then could they not also duel and not just as a projection. What if Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin show up to help Rey in a light saber battle against Kylo and the Knights of Ren. Oh. Man.  
• The three slave kids from Canto Bight will be the lead characters in Rian Johnson's next trilogy of Star Wars films. The Canto Bight mission if for no other reason was worth it to get these three kids into the Rebel cause and awareness of the Force.  Does Rey take on the boy as a padawan by the end of Episode IX?
• No way! That Force-sensitive kid--I kid you not--wished upon a shooting star at the end of the film. #ThanksDisney. A star that was actually the Millennium Falcon carrying the remnant of the new Rebellion. I loved seeing the kids playing with action figures and telling the story again. #ThanksRian. 

Final thoughts

• After all the dysfunctional trash talk against The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, and the whole thing, I get how Prequel fans felt when OT fans dumped on their films. I get it. And, I now appreciate the Prequels more. There. I said it.
• There are so many ways to situate ourselves as fans into this saga. This is what makes this sci-fi fantasy universe so great. We have been able to put ourselves into the story. For the young adults seeing the OT for the first time, and then quenching their thirst in novelizations by writers like Timothy Zahn. In my childhood, it was action figures. In my kids' time, it was Lego Star Wars for Nintendo.
• There's something for all of us to love and hate. Too many of us take this saga way too seriously. I remember waiting so long for The Empire Strikes Back, and then the Rebels get hammered on Hoth, Leia falls for Han over Luke (!??!?!?), Han gets deep-frozen by Boba Fett (and probably dies), Lando betrays everyone else to Vader, and then Darth Vader is Luke's father! No. Way. Some of us have been there after a second installment. We've seen things, man. It gets better. 

The Rebel Force Radio podcast has produced ten hours of commentary and reaction to the film. It really shows the extremes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction regarding the film. 
(Click on each one to go to the episode page.)

• Rebel Force Radio TLJ #1 - Initial Opening Night Reaction
• Rebel Force Radio TLJ #2 - Call-in Show
• Rebel Force Radio TLJ #3 - Insights from Filmmakers
• Rebel Force Radio TLJ #4 - Props for Yoda, Canto Bight, Snoke
• Rebel Force Radio TLJ #5 - Polarized Response to the Film

​In light of some of the extreme distress in the fandom, I want to leave you with one of the best moments from The Last Jedi--Yoda's  conversation with Luke on Ahch To.

Luke: Master Yoda

Yoda: Young Skywalker

Luke: I'm ending all of this: the tree, the texts, the Jedi. I'm going to burn it down. [Luke lights a torch and walks toward the tree, hesitates, looks down, and backs away.]

[Yoda gestures and creates a lightning strike that engulfs the sacred tree in flames.]

Yoda [laughing]: Ah, Skywalker, missed you have I.

Luke: So it is time for the Jedi Order to end. [collapses in despair on a rock near Yoda]

Yoda: Done it is . . . For you to look past a pile of old books

Luke: The sacred Jedi texts?!?

Yoda: Oh, read them have you? Page turners they were not. Yes, yes, yes, wisdom they held but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess. Hmm. Skywalker, still looking to the horizon--[pelts Luke with his walking stick]--never here, ah, um. The need in front of your nose. Um!

Luke: I was weak, unwise.

Yoda: Lost Ben Solo you did, lose Rey we must not.

Luke: I cannot be what she needs me to be.

Yoda: Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned--strength, mastery, but weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher failure is. Umph. [sits alongside Luke in front of the burning tree] Ahh. Luke, we have what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.
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