this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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I'm always interested to know what people like about TLJ.
To me it just didn't do much of anything.
In my opinion In empire strikes back we see the might of the empire and the stakes of losing. In TLJ, the only thing that really happens is snoke dies. Ben still is evil and wants to rule the galaxy, the resistance is barely getting by, the first order continues to fail to do anything (at least on screen), Rey still has no motivation for doing anything (she does get some development, but it's weak given Rise), and Luke felt like a wasted character.
You almost described empire strikes back word for word.
Except in the empire strikes back we see the empire take over hoth (while showing the resistance is an actual movement, not three people that can fit on the falcon). Additionally they freeze Han, take over the cloud city, chop of Luke's hand.
Additionally, Yoda actually trains Luke on how to use the force and we can see that growth as well as setting up the whole plot that Vader is his father (motivation).
So after empire strikes back you have, characters that need to be rescued from a powerful empire, Luke being trained to be a Jedi, and the motivation for the final confrontation. At the end of the last Jedi there is no longer any resistance (cause they all fit in the falcon) and Rey's only motivation is to stop Ben because he's evil.
I think the real life time difference between ep7 and ep8 is what does it for most people. Ep4 and ep5 was an in story jump. There wasn't for 7 and 8. On top of nothing in ep7 have any back story setup etc with snoke, Ben and Luke. On top of that the first scene in TLJ the whole new public was basically nuked. But that's in the background because it was ep7. And it feels distant because of irl time but it like literally just happened in ep8. The whole way everyone goes into ep 8 I think changes their view. My first time seeing it was a 24 hours showing ep1 all the way through. I love discussing it. But I love it dearly haha