@gundamguru said:
@cornfed40: Poe goes from super-ace pilot in TFA to traitorous mutineer in TLJ, for basically no good reason, and then is just handed command of the rebellion without any real redemption. Finn spent the last film growing out of being a coward who runs away, and he's right back at it at the start this movie. He's still doing it when he tries his senseless sacrifice. They also throw away his entire relationship arc with Rey to have this diversion with Rose, only to have him rebuff her at the end when he finally reunites with Rey for a nice friendly hug. Empire is where Han and Leia's relationship was established. Finn is still stuck in a holding pattern.
And, yeah, the father reveal in Empire is a big deal. The mentor becomes a liar; the villain becomes family. The entire conflict becomes morally greyer and more nuanced. Does Luke stand with the rebellion or his blood? Will he be able to kill his father for the good of the galaxy? He's far more than "a little more leery" of the dark side. Yoda and Ben already start talking about a backup plan (the sister). Before RotJ, it was entirely conceivable that Luke could fail or go evil and Leia has to save the galaxy. It only looks cut and dry with the benefit of hindsight.
Poe goes from arrogant super-ace pilot "hero" (which is why he thinks he's justified in his mutiny), and through the lessons of Holdo and Leia realizes that sometimes it takes sacrifice and swallowing your ego (i.e. losing ships and "running away") to ultimately succeed. He has to learn humility to be a better leader - that it's not about him.
Finn spent the whole first film learning not to be a coward and to face danger to protect people he cares about and who care about him. However, he still has much to learn because in this movie, he abandons "the cause" to selfishly protect a person he cares about and who cares about him. He's learned courage, but not how to use it intelligently and rationally when he tries to senselessly sacrifice himself. He doesn't rebuff Rose, and while he happily welcomes back Rey, he goes back to care for Rose by putting his jacket over her while she sleeps, which Rey bittersweetly notices, happy for him but a bit disappointed. Finn has clearly chosen Rose as his love-interest, and Rey sees it too. Finn fought in The Force Awakens for people he cared about, but thanks to Rose in The Last Jedi, he now believes in a cause, too.
And yeah, the father reveal in Empire is a big deal, and so is the parentage reveal in Last Jedi, in what it says about Rey, and what it says about the franchise. It retroactively affects Rey's relationships with all of the Original Trilogy characters, and adds more shade to her character and what the Star Wars franchise has stood for up to that moment. It's not a twist that the next movie will hinge on, but it is a meaningful bit of information that the series as a whole (and her character) hinges on. It reinforces what Star Wars began as, and refutes what it became. It's a recalibration of the franchise, and in fact, it's core to who Rey is. Kylo Ren even says, egotistically, that Star Wars isn't Rey's story, but he's willing to let her be a part of it, since he has inherited it as a Skywalker descendant. The three main characters all learn to redefine what it means to be a hero and move forward with that newfound knowledge.
The only issue is that these characters only really come into their own in The Last Jedi, at the end of the 2nd of 3 movies, and THAT is because the first movie had to pay so much lip service to Han and Luke that the characters had less room to grow, something, again, that the parentage reveal puts a lampshade on.
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