Plot Points TERRIBLE for the Sequel Trilogy | Star Wars Video Essay

a not insignificant portion of Star Wars fans believe that with his decisions in Episode eight Rian Johnson has ruined the entire franchise but I'm going to lay out the argument that it was actually JJ Abrams and the force awakens that ruined maybe not the whole franchise but at the very least ruined the sequel trilogy and the conclusion of the Skywalker's saga now forget for a moment how much you may personally hate ruin Johnson yes he made a lot of mistakes completely on his own but the fact is that several of the terrible plot points in Episode eight came directly from what JJ Abrams established in episode 7 problem number one ambiguity now if there's a common reaction among Star Wars fans regarding the force awakens it was it wasn't a great movie but at least it created a good foundation for future films feel free to scroll through all these audience reviews the majority are mediocre at best because the thing is JJ's version of episode 7 didn't create a strong foundation it created an ambiguous unstable foundation where the storyline was fractured with possibilities JJ is known for works like lost or fringe or Cloverfield where the audience is intentionally left in suspense with only part of a full story like this scene from the pilot episode of lost they're walking through a tropical island and are attacked by a polar bear this cold climate animal being on a tropical island isn't explained until many episodes later and that's what most of JJ's projects were about creating stories that didn't initially make sense until they were explained much much later on in the series super 8 didn't make sense until the end of the film West world is confusing twist after twist until the end of the season which ends on a huge cliffhanger mandus JJ like his cliffhangers I read though is actually the one thing the studio mandated he changed while filming ileus they said he couldn't keep ending each episode with big cliff hangers and I'm shocked that Disney let him end the force awakens on one and the Cloverfield movies anything confusing there [Applause] [Music] Baxter mine wasn't even partially explained until we'd had the third film in the series this experiment or look at this quote from Abrams himself saying alias had become incredibly confusing and look at fringe this article describing fringe says nothing made any sense while watching I was a bit annoyed but I don't think we were supposed to understand instead we were meant to be confused and this article that says the producers of Fringe promised a couple years ago that there was a meaning to the show that they hadn't fully shared with us which we would understand when we saw the final episode that show went five seasons had a hundred episodes and JJ planned for us not to get full explanations until the final episode now yes I acknowledge that for many of these projects JJ may have only written the pilot and the first couple episodes or he was just a producer or he wasn't the only person creatively in charge but think about it nearly all of the projects he's been involved with have had the same exact themes of ambiguity and mystery so based off of his previous works we knew going in that JJ's storyline for Star Wars would be ambiguous and confusing and it wouldn't be until late in the last film in the sequel trilogy when all of the pieces would finally come together that's how JJ likes to write and his plans for Star Wars were no different the problem was this wasn't JJ's trilogy he was never supposed to direct all three films and the story group had no overarching storyline that each director had to loosely adhere to they were each given leeway to do their own thing which is an obvious problem when you give the first film to a director who specializes in maintaining storyline ambiguity until the very end I mean seriously we've never had a Star Wars film end on a cliffhanger before with this ending JJ created all of the who are raised parents conspiracy theories all of the who are Snoke conspiracy theories all of the what was Luke doing on the island theories though why is Snoke so disfigured theories the who are the Knights of Ren theories actually the way JJ wrote and then ended the force awakens was a perfect example of the Schrodinger's cat paradox Luke could at this point be thought of as a Jedi Master and not a Jedi Master and is only in making the next movie will the character decide to be a Jedi I reach out and take the lightsaber or decide not to be a Jedi and throw it away Rey can at this point be considered to be both a well-written character with potential for an intricate backstory explaining her abilities and as a poorly written MarySue who can do anything without training nor explanation kylo could at this point be considered to be at a turning point in his journey to the dark side leading to huge character development in the next film where he is calmer more centered and has fully embraced the villain that he is and is far more powerful in the dark side or he could be the same uncertain lost temperamental teenager that he is in force awakens at this point film could be paralyzed for life or have to wear a vader looking cyborg suit just to live or he could be completely fine the problem here is not how Rian Johnson dealt with the characters the problem was how JJ created them JJ treated episode 7 like how he treated lost or fringe like he had 90 more episodes to keep people guessing and to finally resolve cliffhangers and plot twists but Star Wars has always been about self-contained films no other film left us with so many unanswered questions who was his father [Music] there was no father as possible he was conceived by the midi-chlorians you refer to the prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the force you believe it's this boy who is me you dream the boy yes master your apprentice Skywalker will be the other he spoke on is your twin sister Leia lei is my sister whoever you're waiting for on jakku they're never coming back JJ Abrams's was not the right person to put in charge of the continuation of a major film series I mean look at this interview about the Cloverfield paradox JJ openly admits that as they were shooting the movie a movie that was the third part of a series they had no idea how to make the story tie together with the other films a filmmaker is a storyteller first and foremost and JJ Abrams seems to have completely lost sight of basic storytelling practices he used on great films like Armageddon and instead he relies on suspense and mystery to keep people coming back for more I mean the dude did a 20-minute TED talk about how much he loves mystery boxes in film about mystery that I seem to be drawn to and I was thinking about this what to talk about it Ted what Star Wars has never been this type of film where most of the plot intentionally doesn't make sense until you view the next two films and this graphic I made only covers some of the many mysteries that JJ introduced why did kylo venerate Vader a good question for another time what was the work Bader had started that kylo wanted to finish good question for another time why did Maz have Luke's lightsaber does that mean she had his hand in a pickle jar somewhere - a good question was Finn the only stormtrooper to ever go rogue a good question why would someone trust in carp luck to raise Rey a good question is Maz actually a psycho stalker and that's why Chewie avoided her by staying on the ship what are you doing JJ does have an amazing work but his films and shows have almost always created more questions than they answered the way he introduced characters and built the world they live in has fundamentally changed the genre Star Wars has always existed in for these reasons I have laid out I consider storyline ambiguity to be the second biggest mistake JJ Abrams made that ruined the future of all the sequels now here is what I consider to be the single greatest failure JJ made with the force awakens that ruined the entire sequel trilogy as many potential problems as the ambiguous storyline caused those problems didn't impact the story nearly as much as the character and story development that took place off screen between episodes 6 & 7 nearly every issue that fans have with the sequel trilogy stems from having a lack of on screen story and character development now first off let's get something straight JJ Abrams ruined Luke Skywalker long before Rian Johnson did then Solo turned evil killed all of Luke's students and Luke ran away that was JJ story Luke didn't go confront Ben he didn't go try to save Ben he didn't go confront his other students that Ben took with him when he left Luke didn't try to go save those other students Luke didn't go and try to confront Snoke and save the galaxy from another Sith Lord Emperor his students were slaughtered his protege lost and confused and tempted by evil and Luke decides to play Indiana Jones and go look for the ruins of the first Jedi Temple JJ ruined Luke's character by having him disappear when the situation was most dire that is not in his character so Ryan was partially correct the portrayal of Luke in the last Jedi was 100% consistent with the already broken cowardly version of Luke that JJ decided to give us anyways back to the main point many people I've talked to would albeit reluctantly have accepted emotionally broken hobo Luke if we had seen that character arc and followed him on his journey from hero to zero the problem isn't actually that they quote-unquote ruined Luke Skywalker the problem is we didn't see his fall from grace so this is the Luke we remember never I'll never turn to the dark side I am a Jedi like my father before me while you're now saying this is who Luke actually is become for the briefest moment of pure instinct I thought I could stop it this leads to cognitive dissonance for the audience because we now have two simultaneous versions of the same character each with different beliefs ideas and values this is why mark hamill himself was unable to think of the character as Luke Skywalker I almost had to think of Luke as another character maybe he's Jake Skywalker he's not my Luke Skywalker but you cannot have major character development happen off screen when a main character goes through any important emotional or physical changes we have to see it there are actually many popular films that made this same mistake The Dark Knight Rises and the hunger games mockingjay are two more examples of how we end one film with our heroes being inspirational suffering personal sacrifices but forging heroically on words despite the odds then the third movie begins and the main characters are suddenly broken and sad and uninspiring when a hundred percent the opposite of what we remember Batman was willing to be the bad guy to have the cops chasing him believing he was a murderer sacrificing everything for Gotham he went from being the one crucial thing the city needs to being made completely irrelevant by the dent Act a whole off-screen he's also suddenly broken physically when we had no hint in either prior movie that he wasn't in anything but tip-top physical condition similarly in the third Hunger Games film Katniss went from a determined unstoppable inspirational leader to being broken-down mopey unhelpful and uninspiring yes her hometown was destroyed many of her friends were killed and Peeta was taken a hostage but obstacles never fazed this will volunteer a tribute so now this sudden broken down version of Katniss seems confusing and the audience suddenly has two versions of these characters in their head each was seemingly different beliefs and ideas in the early versions of themselves look at anakin as a comparison every single thing that drove him to the dark side we saw it happened on screen I will even learn to stop people from dying I wasn't strong enough to save you mom you loved me not the Jedi should you die in childbirth it was on the entry I won't let this one become real but we do not grant you the rank of Master I want more and I know I shouldn't more and more I get the feeling that I'm being excluded from the council you're asking me to do something against the Jedi Code against the Republic against a mentor and a friend that's what's out of place here he could even keep the ones he cared about is it possible to learn this power not from a Jedi I found a way to save you I won't lose you Padme I'm not gonna die in childbirth and I promise you no I promise you learn to know the dark side of the force and you will be able to save your wife from certain death no the power of the dark side I saved that me live but what am i done I will do whatever you ask just taught me save padme's life shouldn't have mercy only then will you be strong enough with the dark side to save me I can't live with how much pain he is in look at how much effort Lucas wint to show the transformation if you are going to take someone pure and turn them into a fallen hero you must show us the progression of his change well it was the other way I lost my mother and I'm doing it for you to protect you you turned against me you will not take it from me you were the chosen one personally mean is anything they would say that you would destroy the Sith not join them stay with me boy [Music] now of course I'm not trying to say that people don't change or that extreme character development shouldn't happen I'm arguing that in most cases we the audience have to see it if we don't see them change our brains have trouble making the connection that they are even the same character and this problem isn't just restricted to the character of Luke going from epic hero to broken Hermit we also have the tragic tale of Ben's solo star pupil of legendary Luke Skywalker except there is no tragic story we never knew Ben so his fall to the dark side in all of the trauma we see him deal with in Episode seven means nothing because we didn't see who he used to be George Lucas gave us three entire movies showing us the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker falling to the dark side since we never see Ben solo the noble young Protege that was going to help Luke restore the Jedi Order to its former glory all we have is kylo Ren crying for some reason JJ wanted this scene to tug at our heartstrings as we saw a son reaching out to his father desperate for help but the only reason the scene works on any level is because of our nostalgia for Han and because of Adam drivers magnificent performance leave here with me strength to do it we the audience never saw Han teaching a happy young kylo to fly or shoot or place a balk subconsciously we don't care if kylo comes back to the light side because that goal represents a whole new character we've never seen before that's why George Lucas knew it was absolutely essential to spend the prequels watching Anakin grow as a Jedi before he turned as he is portrayed kylo Ren cannot be a tragic fallen character because we don't know exactly why he fell what if he turned to the dark side because he was a moody teenager bored on a Tuesday night and got catfished into forced skyping the wrong guy what if he was being mind-controlled all this time what if he turned to the dark side because he thought they really did have better cookies if you want a character to be viewed as a tragic fallen hero then we must see the hero's journey otherwise we're left watching an inexplicably weepy emotionally confused villain the audience had no connection with a bond these two characters share just imagine if the sequel trilogy had ended with Ben solo turning and killing most of the Jedi and Luke had become an emotionally broken hermit and then kylo Ren killed Han we could have accepted that we still likely would not have liked the decision to kill the Jedi Order again so quickly after just three movies negating all of the work that Luke put in but it would have made sense to us because we saw the fall happens slowly over the course of three films just like we saw with Anakin there is not a single compelling argument to make in favor of having any major plot points happen off screen between films and JJ didn't just have one or two he decided to have every single major plot point take place in between Episode six and seven instead of on screen in Episode seven now of course change happens naturally between films all the time but almost never are these changes major plot points characters will get married to have kids get new jobs but rarely will any true character development happen off screen is it any wonder that fans are having difficulty going from this to this if you see our son bring him home when we didn't see any of this let's quickly compare what happens between the other six films between episodes 1 & 2 anakin grew up and became a jedi prodigy Padme became a senator obi-wan became a wise and respected Jedi Knight the separatist movement begins under Count Dooku Palpatine gains influence as a Chancellor between episodes 2 & 3 the clone wars have been raging for three years grievous infiltrated Khorasan and kidnap Chancellor Palpatine the Jedi have changed from peacekeepers to army generals and it can became a renowned Jedi Knight Padme got pregnant and obi-wan became a renowned Jedi Master between episodes 3 & 4 Luke and Leia grew up Leia became a member of the Senate and a leader in the rebellion the rebellion gained power and influence the Death Star was completed the plans for the Death Star were stolen and delivered to Leia between episodes 4 & 5 Luke and Han are promoted within the Rebel Alliance luke's jedi training has progressed and he shows new abilities Luke Han and Leia have grown closer as friends and the rebels had to abandon their base and move to Hoth between episodes 5 & 6 Luke builds a new lightsaber and completes his Jedi training they find where Han is and infiltrate Jabba's palace the rebels obtained the plans for the new Death Star along with the shuttle tydirium and the Emperor finds out about the rebels attack and finally between episodes 6 & 7 they dismantled or chased away the rest of the Imperial feat they helped establish the new republic han and leia got married han and Leia had a kid a second Empire rises to power the first order begins stealing thousands of kids to sell as slave soldiers the first order begins building massive super weapons such as Starkiller base note ship in the dread-nots Lea leaves the new Republican forms of resistance the resistance grows to become a well known galaxy wide sin blippo Luke forms a new Jedi Order and begins training students Ben solo gets old enough to show he's force-sensitive any begins Jedi training with Luke a new powerful said the rises depart from nowhere even though we know there's never been more than two snow takes over a supreme leader of the first order Snoke begins tempting Ben solo then begins swaying all the students to the dark side with him whatever the Knights of Ren are are established Ben solo subdues looks and kills most of the classmates and burns down the New Jedi Temple Luke disappears in exile han and Leia break up how long should we go back to smuggling on and Chewie lose the Millennium Falcon the first order now has a fully established military the force ghost of Yoda Anakin and obi-wan have disappeared Lando and Mon Mothma have disappeared at least three new force powers are discovered now I know I'm generalizing a good bit but does everyone see the problem here in the previous films almost the only important things that happen off screen are improvements people growing older or getting stronger or gaining new skills or getting promotions or getting pregnant these are all steps forward that we can come back into the next film glad to see because they move the story along in a positive direction emotionally now in between episodes 6 & 7 not only do we see every major character progressed dramatically we also see for the first time ever major major storyline aspects have happened off screen this is very poor storytelling yes there are always exceptions but most of the time for an audience to be able to accept a character changing they have to see the change occurring over time in a natural way or they can't identify with the character anymore what if Rowling announced another Harry Potter book and in it Harry has given up magic and exiled himself after Ron and Hermione son went evil and joined a Voldemort worshipping cult run by the old Death Eaters who are somehow more powerful than ever how did all of that happen it would have been jarring it would have made no sense to the audience what if they announced a Lord of the Rings sequel where Aragorn was suddenly no longer king and had reverted back to a broken hermit and there was another one ring to rule them all except it was twice as dangerous as the last one and some different hobbits had to travel to new Mordor and throw it into an even bigger volcano that would have made no sense not just because it's basically the same story repeated over again solely for a nostalgia sake but it also doesn't make sense because you can't revert every single story arc off-screen and have it not feel confusing to the audience as a final example let's compare a film similar in concept The Matrix we have a chosen one who was found by two wise leaders who trained him to use his powers and the first film or films is all about him learning to harness his abilities and everyone anticipated in the next film we'd really see them come into their powers now let's imagine if the episode 8 storyline happened with The Matrix - in between the first and second Matrix and neo failed and most of his friends were killed and he disappears off into the matrix exiling himself in disgrace the movie is all about Trinity searching for neo and when she finally finds in the last minute of the film he's a broken down remnant who's disconnected himself from his chosen one abilities remember when neo looked like this and after 32 years they finally make a sequel and now he's suddenly like this if the story of the matrix had gone in this direction fans would have hated it just as many Star Wars fans hated Luke in the last Jedi and the ironic thing is it isn't necessarily the character changing that fans hated is the fact that the change happened off-screen so we never saw the transition and thus can't identify with the new character this is how JJ Abrams single-handedly destroyed all three sequels we needed to see these things happen on screen for the story to feel natural and make sense I am NOT a fan of any aspect of the storyline that Ryan Johnson decided to go with but the only reason he had so much leeway to do what he did was because JJ Abrams created an ambiguous fluctuating storyline that had every single major plot point happen off screen leaving us as an audience confused and disconnected from every bit of character development regarding the established heroes I expect film schools will be tearing apart the last Jedi for years to come as an example of what an incoherent script looks like but the harsh fact is the downfall of the Star Wars franchise began here with JJ completely failing as a storyteller in a Q&A with co-writers JJ Abrams Michael Arndt and Lawrence Kasdan aren't admitted that Luke wasn't in the film because they couldn't figure out how to have him in a scene without upstaging everyone he said it just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie he just took it over suddenly you didn't care about your main character anymore because Oh Luke Skywalker's here I want to see what he's going to do I know this wasn't your quote mr. Abrams but you were in charge of this film if you can't introduce new characters and have us care about them they are not well written characters and you've failed as a writer it's very normal for a competent writer to introduce new characters who are in nearly every scene as an established favorite and yet are not overshadowed I mean Mara Jade is basically introduced side by side with Luke throughout the Thrawn Trilogy and she's a huge fan favorite that series also introduced Thrawn and Sabbath who also became fan-favorites despite also having Luke and Leia and Han in the story and then I was it's one of the greatest villains we've ever seen we only had one film that really established his character and notice how he's able to be in a scene with Loki without totally being overshadowed and noticed they didn't sent Robert Downey jr. or Chris or Chris or Chris off to the side so they could focus on the new guys and how they managed to introduce a dozen new characters next to the old ones and still even have the minor characters stand out the force awakens was badly written its storyline was fractured and incomplete its characters were underdeveloped and it set a terrible precedent for what the future of the Star Wars franchise would be now despite my harsh words I obviously don't believe the franchise's beyond saving if I did then I still wouldn't be a fan however I do believe the sequel trilogy is beyond saving episode eight not only didn't fill in any plot holes but it created a nearly unprecedented number of new ones episode 9 won't be able to retroactively Lee fill in enough of these potholes to make this sequel trilogy feel like a uniform story that naturally continues our hero's journey after Return of the Jedi the future of the franchise will be in how Disney approaches the next film after episode 9 I wouldn't be surprised to see them start from scratch and count episodes 1 through 9 as a Skywalker saga which ray will likely be revealed to be a part of then they'll start over again with episode 1 following a new Jedi and what will be dubbed a fresh new beginning for the Star Wars franchise and if they can give us a cohesive storyline that's not packed with open-ended mysterious possibilities and give us character development we can actually follow on screen then maybe the next part of the franchise will have a shot granted that'll put us right back to where we were in 1977 with brand new characters the audience has to grow to love but if Disney puts the right directors in charge this time and puts the story group 100% in charge of all major plot points then at least the franchise will have the chance to start over at least once again the franchise will have a new hope [Music] [Music]

Channel: Darth'd

Views: 13,231

Rating: 4.7668872 out of 5

Keywords: star wars sequel trilogy ruined, JJ Abrams ruined star wars, The force awakens video essay, the force awakens film analysis, star wars sequel trilogy video essay, star wars sequel trilogy film analysis, star wars character arc, Rian johnson star wars storyline, star wars sequel trilogy review, star wars sequel trilogy plot points, the force awakens, the last jedi, the rise of skywalker, star wars, jj abrams, rian johnson

Id: 1H-1AIjsUcI

Length: 29min 6sec (1746 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 07 2019

Reddit Comments

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[u/Hasil3d]

I didn't watch Lost, but I did watch Cloverfield movies. "Cloverfield Paradox" was the reason I didn't believe from the beginning, that JJ had anything planned out for Episode VIII.

[u/BespinFatigues1230]

The biggest problem with Disney Star Wars is it’s missing “Story by George Lucas”

[u/Cbird54]

I still disagree with this. JJ might have sputtered out of the gate but there was at least momentum. Rian cut the brake lines and sent the franchise off a cliff. He's even giving interviews where he says he's cool with retconning as if that's how good story telling works. No RETCONNING IS BAD it means your story is broken and the only way to fix it or have it go in a particular direction is to say ignore what just happened it didn't actually happen.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/PendraMer]

Thank you, I agree and I really enjoyed this.

I had no idea JJ had written Armaggedon. I was upset by his Star Trek work, I didn't know he wrote that awful thing too. How does he keep falling upwards?

[u/bluraymarco]

NO. IT. WASN’T. JJ had a plan and an outline for the trilogy that Rian totally discarded, if you wanna blame JJ for TFA that’s totally fine, it was his movie but blaming JJ for TLJ and the fact that TFA and TLJ are not cohesive is bloody dumb. Any talented writer and director could’ve cooked up a sequel to TFA that would’ve been awesome, despite TFA’s flaws it did set up the trilogy pretty well, if only someone who knew what they were doing was at the helm of Episode VIII. It was Rian who discarded JJ’s treatments, it was Rian who dismantled all of JJ’s plot threads, it was Rian who killed Star Wars not JJ. I’m getting sick of people trying to put the blame on JJ in an attempt to be different to other people on YouTube when this is a legit quote from Rian “I would be worried if everybody across the board was like yeah that was a good movie, it’s much more interesting to me when you get a lot of people who are like really excited about and than there are other people who walk out furious saying that was the worst movie they’ve ever seen, having those two extremes is the mark of the type of movie that I want to make.”

[u/pewmonger]

That no mystery all answers vs all mystery no answers comparison at the 6:30 mark is spot on! I didn't believe it at first, but yes, I've only recently come to terms with the fact that maybe TLJ didn't retroactively ruined TFA. It just helped me open my eyes to the fact that TFA was already terrible to begin with now that I really had time to think about it.

[u/Yrguiltyconscience]

Thanks, great video!

It’s obvious looking at JJ Abrams work that he loves to use “mystery boxes” as a narrative device and to keep the audience interested/intrigued.

But usually, the mystery box is empty. There’s nothing inside, and Abrams doesn’t have the answers to them.

It’s cheap, narrative crack cocaine, and looking at TFA it sure worked. Heck, we still have people today trying to figure out Rey’s parents or who Snoke is, despite the fact that not even J.J knows.