The Mandalorian Season 2

[Fyraltari]

The sequel trilogy had a plan?

Spoiler: J.J. Abrams leaked secret original plan for the sequel trilogy

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Step 1: remake Star Wars with a bigger Death Star.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit.

In A New Hope, the Stromtroopers start out as being nigh-superhuman as they invade Leia's ship and slaughter an unknown number of rebels in minutes,

While Ibam generally on the side that the stormtroopers' poor reputation is undeserved, I fell thisbis swinging the pendulum the other way too far. In this scene the 'troopers get stuck at the door for a long while unable to shoot their opponents down even though most of them have no cover whatsoever and R2 and 3PO can just waltz through the fireline just fine. When they do get through they've had some losses and they suffer another one when they capture Leia. This scene shows them as competent soldiers not nigh-unstoppable killing machines.

I actually disagree that Rey was all that powerful in a sense; she clearly progresses far faster than anyone else we've seen on film, TV, or books in the canon, yes, but this isn't so much "Rey is super powerful" as it is "Abrams has no grasp on how to handle power creep and Johnson just went along with it". Poe is objectively the single greatest starpilot in the galaxy; in TFA, he shoots down 8 TIEs in 10 seconds - the number may be a bit off, since I don't remember the exact count, but it's close enough for the point: it's an insane level of skill not seen anywhere else in the SW universe, because Abrams believes the only way to showcase someone being a good and effective pilot is for them to be ridiculously over-the-top. Poe flies better than Jedi do. TLJ worsens this, as he's able to single-handedly take on a dreadnaught, which is seemingly made of papier-mâché, and still managed to destroy TIE fighters despite an entire enemy squadron flying against him alone while he has non-functional weapons.

This is, quite simply, a ****ing insane level of skill. And the rest of the characters aren't far off. Han has literally faster-than-lightspeed reflexes. Holdo can absolutely nail a one-in-a-million shot where both her allies and her enemies are completely, 100% sure it will work. Palpatine can fry a hundred-thousand Star Destroyers (actually probably a million or more) at the same time.

Rey is absurdly powerful by the standards of the rest of the Star Wars universe, but by the standards of the sequel trilogy? Rey is a pretty average Jedi. Everyone's powers, skills, and abilities in that series was jacked up to a frankly stupidly high level to the point that if Rey weren't as powerful as she was, she would be worse than the non-Force users. So no, I don't think she needs the "Force Nobility" line when nobody else needs to be descended from god-tier pilot parents or hyperspace-fast-hands grandparents.

Hm, that's an interesting take. I hadn't considered it that way before. (It was ten TIEs and three stormtroopers, by the way. Twice the number of hostiles a pilot needs to shoot down in an entire engagement to earn the title of "ace".)

For most of these I'll agree with, but TLJ did have non-sensical/nonexistant characterization (the lack of any chemistry or romance forshadowing with Rose and Finn until she kisses him), it does have logically inconsistent plot devices (Rose and Finn crashing in No Man's Land far from the base while actively under heavy enemy fire, yet somehow returning to the base without dying was super easy, barely an inconvenience, the aforementioned capability of ships to leave the chase and then return (especially the capability to do this while returning within incredibly close range of the opposing fleet)), and Deejay was (arguably) the very definition of inorganic (and inarguably a plot device rather than a character). Regardless of whether people like or dislike the movie, there are definite issues with the structure, though I do completely agree that it is wrong to call it objectively bad.

I am not saying the narrative structure is flawless. I am saying that 1) it isn't the utter nonsense some claims, and, in my opinion, it's good enough to work and 2) narrative structure is just one criterion on which to judge a work of fiction not the be-all-and-all that the Internet collectively seems to believe it is and that flaws in the narrative refer to things bigger and more important than the cinemasins-like nitpicks that are all too frequent these days.

I would normally agree with you but in this case it's not a question of spatial physics so much as it is a question of continuity. We never see any lasers curve in any other Star Wars movies or shows. We even see other First Order Star Destroyers in the other movies, which do not have curving lasers. Having them curve in one and only one movie breaks from how they are established to work in every other Star Wars media.

*Shrug* maybe it's new weapons, maybe that's what happens when you shoot at something that's barely out of range. I really don't see why it would matter.

A very brief instance of interest which has no staying power. Something which disappoints by failing to deliver anything of value, despite a showy beginning. A sudden spasmodic effort that accomplishes nothing. One that appears promising but turns out to be disappointing or worthless.

Multiple dictionary definitions that don't really nail how I mean it (because I somehow can't quite put it that well myself at the moment) but point in the general direction.

Okay, I think I got it. Thanks.

There's plenty of Star Wars stories where the main character is a nobody that becomes strong in the Force. Rey being a nobody or of "nobility" SHOULDN'T have even been a thing, but it BECAME one because of how absurdly powerful that Rey was.

No, it became one because Rey spends the whole of TFA longing for her family and when the main character focuses on something for the whole movie, the fans want to find an answer and because SW has had an issue with always tying everything back to the original trilogy including by having protagonsists be related to the heroes of that trilogy.