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this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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TLJ takes a bunch of the exact same elements from the original trilogy including the young jedi training in a remote location, the empire/first order finding the secret rebel base with the main characters escaping at the last moment, the protagonist being captured by their rival and being brought before the sith leader where they wind up battling, the protagonist finding out that they're related to their rival, the hermit jedi master sacrificing themselves etc, etc, etc. The last trilogy is just a recycling of the original to the point that they had to add stupid dialog like "it's salt" in a vain attempt to convince people that they aren't just copy and pasting major plot points from the original
TFA and RoS are rehashes, TLJ is a deconstruction
That seems like a distinction without a difference.
Just for the fun of it, I took a screenshot of Google AIs take on the "deconstruction" argument:
"Challenging the Chosen One narrative"
Rey's parents were "nobody" yet so were Luke Skywalker's parents. The final film is titled "The Rise of Skywalker" on her path to becoming the chosen one.
"Revisiting Luke's Heroism"
Rehashes the same failures Obi Wan felt for not preventing Anakin from going to the dark side.
"Undermining Jedi Ideals"
Irrelevant point that could just as easily signify the film's creator's not being familiar with the intricacies of the source material.
"Exploration of Failure and Complexity"
Throughout all the films, the rebels are constantly facing failures. They get attacked, captured, fail to prevent events from occurring, etc.
"Subverting Expectations"
An expression ripped straight from the final season of GoT and widely mocked. This film didn't subvert any of my expectations as it all plays out quite predictably in Disney fashion where the "good guys" come out on top in the end. The fact that this argument is even made illustrates the similarity to the previous films which set an expectation for how things are going to play out. I don't see how they really differed in any meaningful way as it all plays out the same in the end.
Only losers and goobers use AI to make their argument for them. Try thinking like a real human.
I didn't use AI to make my argument for me. I used AI to make their argument since nobody was willing to actually make an argument outside of saying the movie is a "deconstruction" three separate times without stating what they mean or how it isn't just a blatant ripoff of the older films.
You were the one using AI, goober. Stop.
Maybe you should actually read my comments in this thread before jumping on the reply button to give your hot takes about things that aren't even happening.
I did read your comments. I lost any and all respect I could have ever possibly had for you when you used AI to formulate a comment.
i ain't arguing with a machine
Well, I mean nobody has actually made any defense for the movie here other than repeating the word "deconstruction" without elaborating any further, and I'm not going to do a deep dive and write out a counter argument to my own position, so the machine will have to do. For all we know this is the same machine that Disney used to recycle these old plot points for TLJ ๐
The "subverting expectations" thing is was ruined it for me.
You could feel the "Too-clever TV writers" at work here. It felt like later-GoT and LOST where stuff randomly "just happens" and has zero payoff because it was written without any kind of grounding or plan, but it sure was surprising and subverted expectations!!! ...and then you catch on that there never was a plan, it was just a moment to get an emotional rise out of you, and nothing makes any sense outside of a very limited 5-minute window.
But it's a self contained story and doesn't get potentially-numerous "seasons" to come up with a reason "This totally makes sense, you guys. I had it planned all along!"
So yeah, what we're left with is a "deconstruction"...as in:
"Someone kept loosening bolts and pulling off panels until the hangar was a total mess, but they still don't understand how an X-Wing works...annnd CREDITS ROLL!"
Also, the way they completely dumped Finn's character and relegated him to "Guy who shouts 'RAAAAAAAAAY' every 10 minutes." is an absolute insult to competent acting and what could've been a beloved and deep character.