ST Major Missed Opportunities for Greatness (Hyperspace / Binary Sunset etc.)

With all the early reviews talking about massive new additions to the lore, how the Force is viewed etc. and that halfway through the film, everything is turned on its head, I was expecting something profound and core-rattling beyond just Snoke dying.

Here's what I was hoping and wishing would happen, particularly after the intriguing Cave scene with the infinite # of Reys, snapping to come around full circle, as though multiple realities were in play at once and/or that Rey had been there at that moment before.

The setup was perfect. Snoke dead, Rey and Kylo fighting for the Chosen One's lightsaber, Kylo firmly established as Dark and Rey firmly established as Light, having rejected Kylo's offer to join him. Essentially a full-circle reset of the light/dark balance with the establishment of a new light-side/dark-side, Jedi/Sith dichotomy. Holdo (should have been Leia) setting up to hyperspace through the Supremacy, effectively shattering space/time for anyone in its path.

What would have been truly ballsy, mind-blowing and amazing is this:

At the exact same time as the lightsaber shatters in two, Holdo (or Leia) hyperspaces through the center of the ship, directly through where Kylo and Rey are. Both lead characters are engulfed in the space/time shattering catastrophe, and the splitting of the fabled lightsaber causes something truly amazing to happen. Kylo and Rey are both vaporized in the "explosion", and are presumed to be dead in that moment. Minding-blowing in and of itself to the audience. However, they each awaken (their spirits) in their own strange personal place in the Force, ---- like a trial or purgatory type area, reflecting their own personal demons and required trials to become pure founders of this newly reset light/dark balanced order for the galaxy.

Perhaps we don't even see t hem for the rest of the film. Perhaps their awakening and subsequent trials would have come in Episode IX and could have played a major part in the storyline, parallel to the First Order / Resistance struggle. All would be united near the end in a climactic showdown after both Kylo and Rey had gone through their own personal trials and had grown exponentially in their knowledge and power in the Force, either for good (Rey) or for bad (Kylo).

That would have flipped everything on its head. Not only do you lose the main bad guy, but you subsequently "lose" both main characters in a galaxy shaking event, which could have been even more amazing if it had been Leia doing the hyperspace sacrifice.

Also, if the whole sunset and Luke vanishing needed to happen in the end, here's how it should have gone down. Leia had sacrificed herself for the preservation of a "good" resistance by hyperspacing through the First Order fleet. Extremely emotional and truly characteristic of Leia's personality ---- a fitting end.

When Luke decides to become one with the Force, Leia's spirit should have reappeared, perhaps just symbolically in his memory, and both of their themes should have played intertwined, perhaps with the Luke & Leia theme, before sweeping into the Binary Sunset music, as Luke gazes off one last time into an actual binary sunset.

Finally, full circle, the binary sunset would have happened ---- not just representative of Luke and his passing, but of Luke AND Leia ---- the twin sparks of light for the galaxy --- and the sun setting on them both, twin suns, as their spirits pass.

The whole binary sunset motif was begging to be used for this sort of sendoff but somehow, no one at Lucasfilm thought to do this and just stuck with it representing Luke's lone passing..............a true missed opportunity (one of so very many in this film.....)

 

That sounds far far worse than we got.

It's not a bad idea itself it just isn't SW to me and it pushes the Force even further than TLJ did.


Why couldn't Leia have used the Force to move the rocks whilst Luke confronts Kylo?

When Luke sees Leia she realises that there's a way out and that she can use the force to do so. Obviously this takes that away from Rey but she would still be there to rescue them.

 

The major missed opportunity was to make a SW movie coming from the heart with scenes and details that have a lot of depth throughout the entire thing.
The not too bad plot was ruined by plot holes, continuity fails (Poe/Maz), directing fails (blue/green saber on Crait) and mistreatment of old characters (Luke, Ackbar) and dumb scenes.

 

You're saying that idea of going all-in with adding to the layers of the Force, its existentialism, pushing the two main characters into a new plane of the Force for further challenges, growth, etc. is far worse than space-floating Leia who can survive her ship's cabin being demolished by proton torpedoes?

Leia hyperspacing and sacrificing it all to save her Resistance/Rebellion one last time is worse than Holdo, a one-off character that we know for about 20 minutes of screen time, getting that glory?

 

@Darth Saxman
Yes.

Space Leia was bad because of how it was shot and how ridiculous it looked.

Don't take it as a slight on you, I just don't like the idea of "force planes" or "phantom zones". The Force should not be that save for the afterlife and even then the ghosts shouldn't be able to interact with the world.

You can't say that your idea is better because something else is worse. That's not how storytelling works.

 

I like the creativity in your thinking, but for me, I don't like Star Wars to stray in to parallel dimensions. I'm all for force visions and dark side caves etc - that's spiritual and psychological, feeding in to the mythology of the force. If Rey and Kylo are supposed to train to become the strongest they can be, they should encounter the challenges required of them in the real world, to make it more authentic and keeping the stakes high.

 

This sounds awful, sorry. I think I'll stick with the greatness the film provided instead.

Oh, and the reason Leia doesn't sacrifice herself is that no one knew Carrie was going to die and so she was due to have had a much bigger role in 9. So not really a missed opportunity, such as real life tragedy getting in the way.

 

I agree- we saw this kind of thing in The Clone Wars with Mortis- story and I absolutely hated it at first- didn't feel at all like Star Wars to me (TLJ did). Later my opinion is slightly changed but I still don't think it's the best SW can do- it's just odd and bit disturbing. Visions and weird scenes need to be short but powerful rather than sagas inside bigger saga.

I do love Force visions though, I thought absurd cave sequence was pretty neat, a different than on Luke had on Dagobah which is also cool and Force Bond conversations between Rey and Kylo were nice too. But "parallel dimensions" may go too far and be just silly rather than cool. About Holdo, I think it was cool that this character that didn't do much else had this one absolutely powerful moment here- that shows how Poe misjudged her completely and that is what serves his storyline well. I don't see Leia doing the same would have worked even in theory- she surely has guts for it, but she is also too important at the moment so if she would kill herself she would also potentially kill the Resistance.