TurtleFrenzy

1. Rey is explained to have a lot of raw potential and energy by Luke. He says the only other person he's seen that level of innate strength before was Kylo. You can write off the unknowingly using mind tricks as raw power being carried by the will/want of the action to overcome the lack of expertise or finesse that comes with experience.

2. i'll have to relook at the map references in 7 since there was literally no mentions of it in 8 lol

3. Rey fighting on par with kylo. Can't really give this any credence given that we now know Kylo definitely had a lightsaber at the Academy when he defends himself from Luke, so one can all but assume he's had training with it. Before that, one could perhaps argue he had never actually dueled another lightsaber, but we now know that other lightsabers definitely exist, probably made by Luke or looted remnants. Cop out emotional rage and emotional instability from Rey/Kylo respectively factoring in? Heck, you could argue Luke had the same problem. Who is he going to practice actual duels against in that world beyond Vader? thats probably a weaker argument to make though.

4. Holdo didn't really have a plan from the looks of it. I interpreted it as "Hey, as time has passed and nothing else has turned the tides into our favor, we'll abandon ship now that we've gotten into position near the planet and go from there." Not like going to an abandoned facility with who knows what resources is a viable plan one would go with without an alternative in the situation given whether or not they would even get off the planet w/o millenium falcon since no allies were willing to come to a rescue. I think Holdo was hoping for allies of some sort to come. I don't think she wanted to sacrifice herself which is why she took so long to come to that decision, yet she was never going to ask it of anyone else as a leader. Heck, sending everyone on shuttles and immediately turning around and kamikazi'ing at lightspeed sounds like a REALLY good strategy now that you've seen it in action, it just requires sacrificing troops, and who would want to volunteer for that. If anything, Poe is the catalyst for her to give up her notions of trying to find some other method. She loves the fire that he has and she is willing to let go of herself in order for the survival of that fire of rebellion to live on.

4.5. Guillermo del toro's character was.... weird. I understand the notion of going to another planet and giving this universe expanding view of a place where the rich elite exist and profit from war and such. I liked the idea of it, but think it was executed poorly. Very brief glimpse of these people beyond "haha we have money lets gamble and party woo". I like the introduction of Guillermo showing Finn "Hey, you think ALL of these people are bad, but this isn't black and white good and bad, there is no perfectly self righteous side to choose here." His motivations and his connection with Phasma were obviously very poorly planned. Questions of "well how did they really know that finn was going to look for help, and why have a guy waiting on standby looking for rebels to lure in unless it was to be expected, and it what scenario would you -really- have expected that to happen?" etc. etc. I can understand the only move in a positive direction for the rebels to try and even attempt in a non-combative way seeing as they had literally nothing in the movie was to go the espionage/infiltration route, but I felt like I had already seen that with Rogue One and didn't care for any of it, and with how little of the infiltration actually mattered, makes me feel like the directors felt the same way. Phasma could definitely have had a more fitting role. Oh well.

5. don't care for the love interests thing. Not really any groundwork to build upon given there werent really that many characters in the OT (nor in the prequels I suppose) to really build anything like that on. New water to tread, sort of flops. asian chick's character feels way to forcefully (heh) rushed. On a similar note, the humor was okay. I didn't care for the mom jokes and that crap, but the some of the more snide humor fits. Favorite perhaps being Rey asking Kylo to put a shirt on when theyre having a connection at one point. Very human reaction to a new uncomfortable scenario.

6. Luke's death was perfectly fine. Dude's old and using a power he's knowingly forsaken and blocked out for years, and the extent he's using it (projecting himself who knows how far away) after having just gotten it back might come at a physical cost. But more than that, I see it as him finally coming to peace with himself, the thing that's been causing him to live this hateful secluded life all this time. The view of the sun is supposed to give you that notion that he can finally put his lingering doubts and anger to rest with how the situation is resolved and how he handles it, and can move on.

7. Luke reveals that his thought to kill Ben was a fleeting thought. It came and quickly disappeared, and he was mad that he ever let fear take hold of him like that, but like he said, that one split moment decision created a permanent impact on Ben. He didn't know what was going on, he was the scared animal thinking of survival at that point, and becomes a huge part of his character development which I loved.

8. Learning the force, again, could perhaps be written off as just the raw strength inside manifesting faster or stronger since she's supposedly on par with kylo and theyre the two innately strongest force residents Luke's ever seen. Series seems to be leaning towards this idea that it comes as a sixth sense to some people just like the broom kid.

9. I don't mind Poe's development. Finn's/Rose's sucked because it seemed to be a parallel to Poe with nothing new or expounded upon beyond the 7th (if anything I feel like Finn's characters already been shafted from what it originally was set to be in 7 [in no way does he resemble a counterpart to Rey like say Han was to Luke]), but Poe's seemed fine. On the topic of what @Travesty also stated, the movie deals with a lot of themes of self sacrifice. It's by no means a happy movie per se. It sucks for the good guys. Lots of deaths and lots of struggling to accept that. But it's by no means a new concept to Star Wars. Literally look at it's supposed counterpart in the OT, Revenge of the Sith. Lots of crap goes badly. Battle of Hoth sucks for the Rebels overall. Luke loses a hand and gets mentally crushed by learning of Vader's identity. Han gets backstabbed and frozen in carbonite. Leia gets sold off to Jabba. (C3P0 gets disassembled... but who really cares). It sucks for the protagonists and a lot of the themes of that movie are definitely reflected in 8. The battle isn't always going to go good for the good guys. People you love are going to be hurt or die, there are going to be losses that you can't accept. The pacing of RotS is very similar to me as well, not much happens in the grand scheme of the passage of time or overall objectives being taken by the rebels. So I don't think any of the underlying themes were an issue at all.

10.The big stinker everyone seems to hate. Snoke. I hated it too for a bit, but after thinking on about it for several days, I think the overall character of Snoke is BRILLIANT. It's very understated and perhaps just bs being spewed by someone trying to rationalize the lack of any substance to the character, but if you look towards Snoke moreso in regards to Kylo and his newfound backstory, it makes a lot more sense. Snoke is given 0 clarity as to who he is in this movie. Because he's a nobody. Who Snoke is doesn't matter. He's a sham. He has force powers obviously denoted by his ability to use lightning and also choke over long distances, but he has nothing beyond his actual force powers and his controlling nature. He is to Darth Sidious what Kylo was to Darth Vader, he's just someone who wants to imitate the great before him and gain something in trying to be someone he's not. Kylo had a similar mask to Vader? Snoke has similar royal guards and a throne room. All Snoke is good at doing is prying at Kylo's insecurities and trying to mold him by making Kylo think that Snoke is more powerful than he is, most likely by demonstrations of using his force and being generally aggressive towards him like we see with the yelling and what not. On the same vein as the other force users, he appears to have a lot of raw power, but again, probably no teacher to really know how to hone any of it or know what to do with it in a manner beyond just using it. He mentions linking Kylo and Rey's minds, but did he really? We see the connection was still there even after Snoke was dead when Rey leaves on the Falcon at the end and Kylo stands on the salts after Luke's disappeared. Did he really see that much into Kylo's mind seeing as he couldn't identify the emotions he was feeling as being towards himself opposed to Rey? He has raw power, but not finesse, and is trying to compensate and be something he isn't in order to bolster himself to a higher standard just like Kylo has been trying the past two movies. Ironically, he helps Kylo get rid of this notion of trying to be a child chasing Vader which ultimately gets himself killed. Ironic he could save everyone but himself...  where have I heard that before. None of this comes out squarely in the movie, but I hope that its what the writers were going for, even if it wasnt, it turned out beautifully if you think along that line of reasoning which is why I'm sad so many people hated Snoke not having any expounding upon. I think what they did with the character was awesome and any trying to paint him as another random Sith leader who rose to power through tyranny and is an ultimate bad guy to defeat is cliche and overdone by this point. Snoke was able to pry on the scared animal mentality of Kylo in order to use him, and we can definitely come to the conclusion that Kylo fits that stereotype more than any other in the way he treats the main characters in his life. He's not truly bad, he hesitates to kill his mother, most likely the body who actually raised him. He doesn't want to hurt her. Han? Why would he care for Han, he was never there in his life. He was a father in name alone. He feels nothing killing him and is where he gains his hopes of trying to climb to some higher ledge than where he currently is, scared. Same with his uncle, who he thought would help him but he now thinks wanted to kill him. Can you blame the guy for having trust issues? This makes Kylos killing of Snoke so much better when we get to see that he truly is beyond that past idea of letting his scared animal phase control him and who he is. He wants to move forward with Rey. He wants to trust people again. He doesn't want to be alone, and he probably never did, and was just chasing the rabbit holes that Snoke was laying for him up til then. I'm losing my focus on what i'm trying to say so i'll probably stop there for now.