so far, the ST was a 'retelling of events' in the same way that JJ abrams rebooted Trek.
at the end of ROTJ, Luke is left with no jedi order to tell him how to interpret the will of the force *gasp* at the end of TLJ, Rey is left with no jedi order to tell her how to interpret the will of the force *yawn* it's the same thing.
the story of the 'force' has not progressed one iota from where it left off with Luke.. the only difference is, they shifted his role as 'Lone Jedi' onto a different character.. for the sake of it.
-=================-
here's my take on anakin's fall:
(and "Rey's Role" in the story):
people are annoyed with TPM because they say it has no protagonist, and it doesn't contribute to the 'origin of vader' so therefore it is irrelevant to the saga.
I submit that TPM tells the origin of the Rebellion and the Empire from the OT -- the rebellion came from qui-gon and the Empire came from padme -- these are the two protagonists of the first movie.
- TPM gives us 2 noble ideas from 2 likable characters: "Padme's Militarization" and "Qui-gon's Defiance". the audience agrees with both. Padme's arc tells us that "militarization" is a good thing, under certain circumstances -- she militarizes a peaceful planet against hordes of killer robots, by using the gungan's "Grande Army" to save the day (jar jar's word) she pulls an army out of her own ***; qui-gon shows us "defiance" of authority is necessary under certain circumstances -- he defies the Jedi Council when it comes to "the will of the force"* -- yoda says to obi-wan: "quigon's defiance.. need this you do not".
- AOTC (or "Attack Of The Slippery Slope") uses 2 decidedly UNsympathetic characters to push these 2 noble ideals down the Slippery Slope. the audience DISagrees with both. jar-jar is the gungan half of padme's planet, these 2 characters are inextricably linked -- jar jar takes padme's ideal one step too far when he militarizes the entire galaxy, by using the "Grande Army" of the Republic to save the day (jar jar's word) the republic pulls an army out of its own ***; dooku is qui-gon's jedi master, these 2 characters are inextricably linked -- dooku takes qui-gon's ideal one step too far when he creates a separatist movement in "defiance" of the entire galaxy now. jar jar is motivated by Fear; dooku is motivated by Anger; (both are 'darkside' influences; both characters are hated by the audience).
(yes that's right -- any personal hatred of Jar Jar you may feel, is INTENTIONAL and you are being PLAYED as GL says: "Jar Jar is the Key To Everything" -- GL needed an innocent childlike "scapegoat" character to blame for the creation of the Empire -- someone who the audience would NOT sympathize with, for his childlike innocence -- HOW do you create an "innocent childlike character" whom the audience is comfortable to HATE!? this was, indeed, the key to everything... perhaps he went a bit too far?)
- ROTS makes anakin choose: padme or qui-gon. he chooses the "padme" position but loses her BECAUSE of the slippery slope (he loses her because of FEAR) -- he burns-to-vader ON a "slippery slope" just to drive the point home visually -- this is the origin of the Empire (note: PADME thought it up -- padme created the Empire when she made the decision to Militarize Naboo against the hordes of killer robots -- Jar Jar was the ONLY one who was present in the room when she made this decision: "yousa peoples gonna die" and "wesa got a Grande Army, that's why you no like us" this is the moment where the lightbulb goes off in her head and she makes the decision to use the Grande Army of the Gungans to militarize her planet. later in AOTSS, jar jar is asked "what would Amidala do" and he KNOWS because he was THERE when the lightbulb went off in her head LOL. he does EXACTLY what she did in TPM, he makes the decision to use the Grande Army of the Republic to militarize the entire galaxy now. it was HER decision from TPM, telegraphed through jar-jar's Fear in AOTSS, which created the empire); when anakin chooses "padme" this forces all remaining jedi (aka: yoda and obi-wan) to follow "qui-gons path" of defiance now -- (but without the slippery slope of the separatist movement) -- this is the origin of the Rebellion.
^^ I submit that this is a BETTER story kernel than the OT; the PT is BETTER written than the OT, hands down. the PT only fails in its 'execution' (which results in 3 seriously BAD movies) because these origin stories fail to translate from the screen to the audience -- most people think these movies are -only- about vader.
* Qui-Gon's Arc tells us the secret of the "balance" prophecy: qui-gon explains in TPM that the role of the Jedi is to interpret the will of the force, and act it out on the macroscopic world -- from his experience we learn, a Jedi who uses the force to enact the will of the force, brings balance to the force and is rewarded with Imortality; a jedi 'order' who uses the force to enact the will of corrupt & evil politicians, brings imbalance (and is destroyed by the Chosen One). it follows, that the Jedi Order ITSELF brings imbalance to the force. because they ignore their own role in the universe -- they ignore the 'will of the force' -- and when Qui-gon called them on it, Mace&Yoda physically rolled their eyes at him.
in this scene we see: the political institution called "Jedi Order" intentionally prevents the individual Jedi Knights, from following the will of the Force... why? because the Jedi Order is tied to the Senate; because they had surrendered their moral authority to the government, 1000 generations ago. when the Republic was formed, the institution called "Jedi Order" was created to keep the "Knights" in line -- in the end, "separation of church and state" was required to bring balance to the force --- but HOW did the "union of church and state" EVER happen in the first place..? now THAT is a story worth telling....
...and it is ONLY told in the "Last Samurai" -- this was the BEST star wars movie that Lucasfilm NEVER made. LOL (it is "required watching", to give context to TPM) otherwise people get bored in the Senate Scene because they don't understand the exposition *yawn* xxx senate scene!
the Jedi Knights are based on old samurai movies, afterall. recall: in "The Last Samurai", the last remaining Samurai were given a choice: to surrender their Moral Authority** and become government lapdogs.. or face oblivion. they chose "oblivion". they REFUSED to surrender their 'moral authority' to the State. but unfortunately, when when the Saga STARTS in TPM, the Jedi have already done this -- they surrendered their Moral Authority to the state, 1000 generations ago -- at this point, it's all over but the crying. (it's like a "what if" riff on the Last Samurai -- "what if" the Samurai had joined with the government at the end of that film -- how would this destroy them, 1000 generations later?)
** Where the Force is a metaphor for God, and the ability to 'use the force' is a metaphor for god-given Freewill...
..then Star Wars is NOT about "good v evil" -- it's really about Morality (in general). ie: now that you have this thing called Freewill, then WHAT governs your actions?
SW gives us three paths (not just two): the Jedi are concerned with "the needs of the many" -- they use the force to benefit the moral majority -- they derive their moral authority from the popular vote (of corrupt politicians); the Sith are concerned with the neeeds of the Few (or the One) they only care about themselves -- they derive their moral authority from their own selfish whims. in the opera scene on ROTS, this is given as the difference between the jedi and the sith --- the very difference between "Good and Evil" -- but this is not enough to explain "morality" in general***
qui-gon illustrates the third path: follow the will of the force, the way a christian is meant to follow the will of god (for lack of a better metaphor) -- this leads to immortality. qui-gon derives his moral authority from a Higher Power (as if 'Jedism' was a "religion" *gasp*). qui-gon;'s arc reveals the secret to religious immortality in the SW universe, thus proving that HIS mantra from TPM, was indeed the "correct" path all along: a jedi who uses the force to enact the will of the force brings balance to the force. and a jedi council who uses the force to enact the will of the Senate (when the senate is ruled by a SITH LORD) brings imbalance to the force. hands down.
the "union of church and state" allowed the sith to take command of the Jedi Order -- to control both sides of the force. at some point, there was NOBODY following the will of the force anymore. both sides were "using" the force, like a piece of meat LOL -- (they were using the force AGAINST ITS WILL). so the Force responded in self defense: it spawned the chosen one to wipe out all force users who were ignoring the will of the force. this included the younglings in the temple, the political institution called "Jedi Order", and yes, the destruction of the sith in ROTJ -- anakin killed every known force user who was using the force 'against its will' -- and he destroyed the institutions which made this possible in the first place.
in the end the only one left alive is Luke, and Luke has been taught qui-gon's path -- "let go your conscious self" and "let the force guide your actions". (aka: follow the will of the force). when all jedi are free to follow the will of the force again, then this marks the return of the jedi and brings balance to the force. (when the senate is destroyed and the JEdi Order no longer exists -- aka: "Separation of church and state" -- then the individual Knights are free to follow their OWN "moral authority" again, like the Samurai of Old...
((UNFORTUNATELY : in the time between trilogies, unseen and off-screen, Luke tried to recreate the Jedi Order as the military companion to Leia's Government and the cycle repeated itself -- but that's OK because Kylo's attempt to "kill the past" was like a "Reset Button", destroying the "Jedi Order" all over again, and killing the snoke-character -- (which is really sort of redundant, since that's exactly what the first 2 trilogies did: 'killed the past', by eradicating the 1000-generations-old "jedi order", and killing the OT-snoke-character Palpatine) --> kylo has now accomplished everything the first two trilogies managed to accomplish BEFORE "TFA" got involved -- (so why did they bother with the ST at all, so far?) -- TLJ has resulted in Rey now following the force blindly, with no "institution" or "Order" to tell her what to do. she must figure it out for herself. she follows her OWN moral authority now, just as Luke was MEANT to do at the end of ROTJ, before "TFA" got involved --> ie: she is the new Luke now, picking up the torch from the exact spot in the story where Luke was standing at the end of ROTJ, where Luke was meant to 'figure it out for himself' and 'follow the will of the force' with no "institution" or "Order" to tell him what to do -- so what's the difference!? she just took over Luke's Story (rather than give her a story of her own). Luke's Role In The Universe from the end of ROTJ has been transferred directly to Rey as she becomes the "new luke" (in his own story) and Rian Johnson burns Old Luke to the Ground for the SAKE of this blatant transposition-of-characters... it's weird.. the story of The Jedi is now back to Square#1-- Rey is standing in the exact same place of the story where Luke was standing at the end of ROTJ -- ((so why did they bother with the ST? so far? it has accomplished exactly nothing. it has returned the story of the Jedi Knights to the final frame of ROTJ)) -- when the JEdi order no longer exists, and the individual Knights are free to follow their OWN moral authority again, like the Samurai of Old...))
*** consider the following scenario: it's the end of the world, the sun has gone dark in a nuclear winter, there is no food. the Government has decreed: there will be no 'hoarding' of food -- they dispatch an army of Jedi Knights to keep the peace, and ensure that NOBODY gets more than their share (the Jedi follow blindly) -- as a result, humanity runs out of food and becomes extinct. meanwhile: the Sith Lord thinks only about himself. he hoards food for himself (and his family) and as a result, Humanity is spared from extinction -- his family goes on to re-populate the planet.
--> which result is "good" and which is "evil"?
as you can see, sometimes "selfish v selfless" is NOT enough to describe the concept of good v. evil -- and WORSE: sometimes the definitions of good v. evil can CHANGE over time -- this is how the Sith were able to take command of the Jedi Order -- by exploiting the concept of 'dynamic morality' (vs the 'static morality' of actual "religion", which is literally written in stone).
example: time was, human beings on planet earth would sacrifice virgins to make the crops grow. they thought this was for the GOOD of all society. but now we know that SAME action to be EVIL. in a system of dynamic morality tied to politics, the definitions of Good and Evil will change over time, depending on the popular vote.. and it is just as easy, for it to swing the other way.. (for things once thought to be "evil", being now considered "good", by a bunch of corrupt politicians). the "union of church and state" ensured that the Jedi's very source of Morality, would ALWAYS change over time, with no moral compass to guide it -- (given that their 'source of Morality' was the Dysfunctional Galactic Senate) -- Palpatine need only take control of the senate, to take control of the Jedi Order (to control both sides of the force). this is how the Jedi Religion lost their way: by surrendering their moral authority to a system of Dynamic Morality which changes daily according to 'politics', leaving them with NO moral compass of their OWN.
^^
THIS is what Luke inherited at the end of ROTJ: he inherited his OWN moral compass -- as per qui-gon
"a jedi who uses the force to enact the will of the force brings balance to the force" -- Luke inherited the ability to interpret the will of the force FOR HIMSELF, with no government-controlled "jedi order" telling him what to do.
^^(and this is what Rey inherited at the end of TLJ: she inherited Luke's Role In The Story -- LOL -- because she HAS no story of her OWN). LOL :P
they have shifted Luke's role as 'The Lone Jedi' onto a different character.. for the sake of it.
and in doing so, they did not allow "Luke's" story to progress.. at all. ((Luke's story ended with ROTJ)).
anything his character was meant to do afterwards.. will now be done by Rey. ((THIS is the net effect of the ST (so far): she has been transposed on top of Luke's story, exactly where it left off at ROTJ -- the "Lone Jedi" with NO 'jedi order' to guide her actions nor tell her what to do -- the story of the 'Jedi Knights' has not progressed AT ALL from the last scene of ROTJ -- the ST has accomplished exactly nothing -- it has ONLY served to 'pass the torch' to a different character...
without advancing the story of the Jedi Knights, at all)).
the story of "Luke The Lone Jedi" -- (interpreting the will of the force for himself, with no "Jedi Order" to guide him) -- was put on HOLD for 30 years..
.. while we waited around for a new politically correct "Lone Jedi" instead.
LOL