1:Failed as a sequel to TFA

Rather than try to take the story into logical places and continue the threads opened in the TFA, Rian Johnson (whom the fans have dubbed, “Ruin Johnson”) decided that he was going to make a film all for himself; you know, the smart thing to do when you're handling one of the biggest and most beloved stories of all time that's several decades old.

TFA set ups that TLJ either ignored or “subverted” (aka ruined)

Rey's parents, a big mystery right? It was hyped up in both movies - drunks who sold her for drinking money

Snoke's identity - doesn't matter, killed him.

Phasma's arc - doesn't matter either, just did the same thing she did in the first one and then died.

Kylo's knights - he had knights?

Rey's hearing of obi wan and Yoda's voice when she touched Anakin's saber - lol

Why was Luke searching for the first jedi temple? Why did he only leave a secret map? - to hide away drinking green space lizard cow milk and die apparently.

What is the almost cult like connection that Kylo has to vader? - nothing, he forgets about that.

Why did Leia hug Rey first before Chewie, an alleged stranger before a life long friend? - don't know, don't care

Where is Rey and Fin's implied relationship going to go? - No where, prefer to ship her and her (potentially) brother, Kylo. But Finn gets to meet Rose Tico!

This movie just reeked of bad writing, and it was a horrible sequel to what TFA set up. When I was in middle school, we had an assignment where we would get into groups of 2-4 and all take turns writting a story. When I wrote my start and then passed it around I began with a setting for a horror story (that genre being my favorite at the time) and after two or three passes from other people, I got it back and the others continued it by completely disregarding my set up; they just made some story about a pimp going around with women hanging off of his arm while he ran around and killed police men with the same name and allegedly main character. They clearly didn't even read the story I began because they didn't even know that the main character was a teenage female. This is what TLJ feels like, he brushed off what was set up almost entirely and just used the same characters and called it good. Granted, JJ didn't even have an outline for the trilogy, but even the most basic writing skills would have been able to do something that could build off of a clearly established base, rather than tearing down the base and trying to make a new one.

2: Fails as a stand alone film.

The film also fails in many regards by itself; here are almost always going to be plot holes here and there, but if this plot was cheese, it would be swiss.

Why did they call the Resistance rebels when they were the ones coming to conquer the new republic? You can't rebel against someone who's not in power.

If they are in power, how did they get there? This movie takes place directly after TFA and lasts no more than a week. How did they conquer the new republic so quickly when they lost an enourmous amount of resources and men in the destruction of Star killer base last week?

If the First Order has such overwhelming might how did they not completely decimate the New Republic and take control of the galaxy so fast that Alexander the Great was flabbergasted?

How did the First Order (which was supposed to be a a smaller and weaker remnant of the Empire) get such numbers and man power that surpases their allegedly larger and stronger predecessor, the empire? (It shares this one with TFA)

Why didn't snoke know about the hyper space tracking device before it was even constructed? If he's the supreme leader, one would think he'd have to give permission for such research and construction to be done, or would at least would be notified of such a useful device being put into HIS OWN SHIP.

If Snoke apparently didn't manipulate Kylo by using Vader, his grand father, as a device to turn Kylo to the Dark side, why did Kylo almost worship Vader?

When and where did Leia get the force powers to save herself from outer space? Luke took 3 years to barely be able to pull his light saber towards him, and Leia wasn't as strong in the force as him.

Why did fuel become an issue since space ships wouldn't slow down in space?

Why didn't the Resistance use the smaller, faster, more maneuverable Y-wings as bombers instead of those stupidly designed, large, slow, hulking ships? If the smaller rebel force from 30 years ago could afford and/or build them, why couldn't they?

Why did Leia blame Po for the loss of their bomber fleet when she still had communication with the bombers and could've ordered them to fall back? The blame still falls to her just as much as it does him. Just because Po flipped his own communicator off doesn't mean she lost all connection to her whole fleet from their command ship.

If Po flipping off the switch in his singular fighter DID somehow cut her off from the rest of her fleet, why did she decide to give a small fighter so much control as to stop all communications from the mother ship to the fleet? Even if Po hadn't disobeyed her orders, he was a lone fighter above an enemy dreadnought, if he had been shot down (which there was a good chance of happening) she would've lost all ability to command her fleet.

Why didn't the First Order have surrounding systems hyper speed in front of the fleeing resistance? If they apparently had control and resources and men out the whazoo, why couldn't they have had the fleeing resistance surrounded? Why couldn't they at least themselves hyper space away and then back again in front of the Resistance?

Who was Holdo? Why was she necessary? She came out if no where and had no emotional connection to the audience. Why couldn't her place had been taken by Admiral Ackbar? Considering her sacrificial ending, it would only make sense to make it a character who people loved and cared for rather than some random purpled haired lady in a prom dress.

What was it that Snoke meant by "completing Kylo's training"? Afterwards, he promptly did nothing other than use the force to allow Kylo to Skype with Rey.

Why didn't Holdo at least tell Po that there was a plan? If she was afraid of a mole (another point that was forgotten) she still could have assured him that she at least had the situation handled. Po even said in exasperation "At least tell us we have a PLAN!" She couldn't have at least given the only other high ranking commanding officer assurance of there being a plan even if she didn't tell him the details? This ultimately led to Po leading a coup and sending a two man team (one man and one woman team actually, sorry) off on an expedition that would ultimately lead to their secret plan being found out and them losing a whole lot more of their people. At least when Po was starting a coup and holding her at blaster point she could've at least seen then that he definitely had the Resistance's best interests in mind, or at least their lives, and said "Po, you're being stupid right now, put down the blaster and I'll explain to you what's going on" instead of "Gee, Po, I certainly hope you know what you're doing."

How did Rose and Finn know that the random hobo in the same jail cell with them could hack the Hyper tracker? Because he hacked the small time jail cell door? Is security that weak in the First Order's systems?

If apparently any random joe schmo would be able to hack the Hyper Tracker, why did that yellow wrinkly goblin lady tell them that only one person could? Why couldn't they have gotten some hacker from a closer planet to hack it for them, or even already had one their own ships?

How did Finn and Rose find out about the secret plan to tell it to DJ? If they knew of it why didn't they keep it secret? Who would tell the guy they met in a jail cell a few hours ago about a top secret plan?

Why is there a scanner to find hidden ships and then a "special" scanner to find cloaked ships? Wouldn't they just scan for all available and known signals and just have that as their normal scanner?

How did Snoke not notice or hear the metal lightsaber turning on his metal arm rest? Why couldn't he detect the force manipulating an object literally a few inches from him when he was so powerful and sensitive in the force that he could read Kylo's thoughts and could connect two minds from accross the galaxy without knowing where they are or seeing them?

If hyper drive is just ships going really fast and not through a worm hole why hasn't anyone else decided to use it to kamikaze enemy ships before? Do note that hyperdrive has been around for tens of thousands of years in SW. Why was a special tracker needed to track through hyper drive if it was just moving fast? They make no turns, so why not just deduce where they went by their trajectory and follow?

Why did Holdo wait until 2/3 of their escape pods were destroyed before acting?

If Phasma's suit was able to relfect blaster shots, why was she doing as commanded when held at blaster point in TFA?

If even the FO capitol ships shields can't withstand the ramming of a ship so much smaller than it what's their safety against meteors and commets and other dangerous space debris?

If Luke's projection was able to touch Leia, move a chair, and open doors, why couldn't it physically interact with Kylo?

If Snoke was able to make images and sounds project to two people accross the galaxy whose locations he didn't know why did Luke die from making his? Luke was not only a prodigy in the force, but one of the strongest force users to ever exist.

If Luke was going to die anyway, why did he use a force projection? If Rey was able to get there in time, so could he.

These are the ones I could come up with off the top of my head. I'm sure there are some that I missed. As a stand alone film, it still is plauged by some VERY big plot holes and it fails to hold up under even a little scrutiny. It was poorly written, and likely rushed as well.

3:Fails the legacy of the series

One of the most exciting things to wait for in any new entry in any series is what new things an entry will add to the existing lore and world of which it inhabits. This movie seemingly just tossed all that previous lore out the window.

Fuel was never mentioned or even hinted at before in this series. How did Vader get back to civilization after A New Hope if his little Tie fighter would've run out of fuel soon?

How did Luke disconnect himself from the force? The only ones who were able to do that were sith.

If Luke, being a prodigy in the force, being the son of the chosen one of the force, being in a desparate time which needed him to become a jedi quickly, took 5 years to finally beat a fully trained sith lord, how did Rey beat a sith lord and several highly trained praetorian guard with zero training (other than getting her hand tickled with a leaf) and just hearing about the force and just picking up a lightsaber for maybe the second or third time in her life?

How and why did the very same Jedi who saw the light and good inside of space Hitler (Vader) and refused to kill him so that he wouldn't turn to the dark side immediately go for the kill when he just saw that his nephew was having a bad dream and was being tempted by the darkside?

Why was Leia tossed aside in favor of Holdo? Or even Ackbar? She literally served no purpose and offered nothing new, yet got a glorious send off. But no cared about her, yet legacy SW characters were sidelined for her.

Why did yoda destroy the sacred texts? Wasn't the whole purpose of his last 20-30 years of his life spent hiding in a swamp to PRESERVE the Jedi way?

Since when could force Ghost stay with us indefinitely and even interact with the living world? Shouldn't an army if Jedi ghosts from tens if thousands of years then rise up against the first order?

This is more TFA's problem, but why was Han Solo's rogue to hero arc overturned and he became a smuggler again? This movie disregards just about everything in the previous movies, from rules to characters to technology.

This movie failed in just about every way it could. It failed as a stand alone movie, it failed as a 2nd in a trilogy, and it failed to be a good entry in a long running universe that spans decades. And this isn't even all of why fans hate it. It has a 45% (or lower if I remember) score from fans on rotten tomatoes.

Even in profits it failed compared to its predecessor. 36% drop off is not a good thing, sure 1.3 Billion is a lot, but that's because fans were duped by being told Luke would be in here. (Most fans agree with Mark Hammil and say that it wasn't Luke, but Jake Skywalker since he didn't act like Luke at all) and the rest of the fans didn't come. The next movie, unless it fixes a good portion of these problems, will make even less. Solo didn't even make 40% of what Rogue One made (1 Billion to 395 million) at that rate, Episode IX would only make about 520 Million, which after deducting the production and advertisement costs (probably around 250-350 hundred million) is not much. Even at 40% of the more successful TFA it would only be at 800 Million. Which may sound like alot, but it would be nearly 200 Million dollars LESS than the least successful Prequel movie, Attack of the Clones (When adjusted for inflation). This part is just my speculation and thoughts of course, but the numbers don't lie, their toys aren't selling and their movies are making less and less. They may try to blame fatigue and other stuff, but it's because their stuff just isn't good. And if that wasn't enough, they are acting like children and accusing the fans who don't like it of being nazis, sell outs, and other names. Insulting your customer base and making products they don't like is a sure fire way to make yourself bankrupt. Disney's pockets may be deep, but they aren't bottomless. They'll run out of money before fans accept sub-par SW movies.

I'm not even all that big of fan myself, not until recently, but that just makes it worse since I can see this much wrong with it.

gotta love bad#ss Rose! :)

loving the plot twist that has Kylo work together with Rey and co, nothing like a common enemy to unite against ;) speaking of which, loved how Hux is enjoying himself, that should be Supreme Leader Hux of course (don’t want to get Force choked to death now ;) glad Poe and Finn have called a temporary truce too. thanks for writing and sharing this~~~

loving the story and your writing style, I appreciate how you’re experimenting with their bond and pushing its boundaries, especially how you’re translating that into narrative. and I also like that Hux is the baddie in an unexpected way seeing the Sith seem to use him as their vessel. thanks for writing and sharing!

Brilliant chapter! The pacing was perfect from start to finish and the dynamic between Poe and Finn was superb (including those stormpilot vibes! ;) Also loving the fact that you brought in the trooper insurgence theme, that has so much potential and you kicked that off splendidly in this chapter. Thanks for writing and sharing this~~~

The conversation between Rey and Leia was heartwrenching and hopeful at the same time, a scene which I would’ve loved to get in ep9. This story so far, even though I’m just at the beginning of it, simply feels so much more like an ep 9 that would have me on the edge of my seat more so than the movie managed to do. Thank you for writing and sharing this~~~

Another beautifully written chapter, the dynamic between Kylo and Rey has such a fascinating intensity. Thank you for writing and sharing this~~~

Such an intriguing first chapter! And so well-written too, it’s like no word is out of place or superfluous. Curious where you’re going to take this. Thanks for writing and sharing~~~

He definitely underestimated Rose. I love her sweet sass. It's nice to see Kylo being a gentleman, but I hope he isn't beaten to a pulp first. Poe is (stick my tongue out) a stinker. He didn't try very hard. :/

"Han shrugs. "Apple of my eye. Saber in my gut."

That's a great line! Ha!

"Ah, great," Kylo sighs, shoulders sagging. "Then we're all dead."

This about sums up my feelings ;p Kylo is being a poophead still. Ungrateful dork.

(screams of surprise) woahhhhh! You are doing strange and interesting things with their Force bond. What the wocka!? I love it. Hux is possessed... Woah. I need emojis to express my feelings, lol. Silly FF won't let em though. O.O

Okay, the last chapter had me gasp and this one had me gaping! Oh. My. Gosh.

Great chapter! Can't wait for the next :)

Definitely interesting developments!