ST The impact of the compressed time frame between start of TFA and end of TLJ

The timeline between the start of TFA and the end of TLJ is the shortest its ever been in Star Wars history. It might only be a period of 5 days or so. I went back and re-watched TFA before a recent screening of TLJ and it really clicked. When people question why characters are behaving a certain way and criticizing nuanced character growth, or character setbacks, by comparing what happens here to time gaps in sagas that were in the years, rather than days, I have to shake my head.

Shouldn't we factor that into the following factors:

1) That Luke hasn't been in exile for a very long period since things really started escalating to the degree that they have or following Han's death or Leia's call (though they also make it clear he's shut him self out of the Force temporarily anyway) but still.

2) That he actually does answer Leia's call within probably a day of hearing it?

3) That Rey has spent more time talking with Kylo Ren about her past, and her place in the Force Story, and occupied his mind more than Luke and probably any other character in the saga including Finn?

4) That Rey has been on one heck of a roll the past 5 days or so with her visions of the island being true and her ability to influence others working pretty well and that such a roll could lead her to overconfidence in thinking that her vision with Ben will play out as she thinks and end with her becoming a Resistance asset?

5) That it's the same for Kylo Ren? He doesn't talk to Snoke. He doesn't talk to Hux. His moments with Rey are the only times he's talking to anyone about anything beyond orders and he feels like he's making progress with her and that she will come to like him and rule alongside him so that he isn't alone in this power.

6) That Finn has spent about as much time with Rose by the end of TLJ as he did with Rey?

7) That Finn has gone from Stormtrooper who spent most of his life at Starkiller base to seeing a couple new planets, two experiencing the glitz and glamour of Canto Bight for the first time in his life?

8) That Finn's defection is still fresh in the mind of Phasma and the FO and vice versa and that Finn's hatred of Phasma is as strong as it is because she's been the embodiment of the child slave program that abducted him and he's had to put up with her crap for years and has only been away from her for like 5 days?

9) That Finn hadn't connected with many members of the Resistence except for Poe and Rey due to the timelines and coma? And that because he doesn't know these people, and has only even defected for like a week, it's probably not all that strange for him to wonder if they were doomed and need to feel included in ways he wasn't in the FO to discover purpose beyond Rey herself?

10) That Rey still isn't that far removed from being the naive young girl we saw at the start of TFA who seems completely oblivious to Finn's initial deception and advances and who was accustomed to a solitude life where she rarely had company and had to make up games for herself between scavenges and defending herself and scrapping for portions?

11) That Rey's time on Ahch-To might actually be her longest time period in the saga so far in one location and that she might be anxious to get back into the fight and turn Ben in the hopes of minimal losses? Also, that her time there may not be that different than Luke's time on Dagobah, depending on how long the Falcon was travelling to Cloud City.

12) That the First Order caught the Resistance quickly, sensed this was the end, and had no reason to rush things given the position of power and the inevitable victory they sensed? In warfare a plan decided upon that involves the idea that the opposition can't escape and that victory could be secured within a time period of 20 hours or less by simply staying the course isn't uncommon.

13) That the distress calls themselves haven't been occurring all that long so if they're answered in the outer regions following news of Skywalker's return, the defeat of Snoke, the destruction of crucial First Order ships, and a new Jedi rising that's on their side it won't be that strange.

So much of the logic in the characters and their motivations and in the film is more clear when you are reminded that the time frame is very compressed, allowing for realistic errors of judgment, nuanced character growth, and some small setbacks.

 

Great points in general, especially about Finn. A few days ago, this guy was a stormtrooper.

 

To make things even shorter, the book Cobalt Squadron establishes that the D'Quar evacuation began the day that Starkiller Base was destroyed (at least according to D'Quar's rotation). It's unclear how long exactly it took to get from Cobalt Squadron's end to Last Jedi's beginning, though. The Rey's Story novelization of TFA states that there was more than one day between between the Battle of Starkiller Base and Rey's leaving for Ach-To, but it's not very specific (it's just mentioned in passing that Rey waited in Finn's recovery ward when she could and that she left the morning after Leia visited on one of the multiple nights she's been waiting) and could very well've been overwritten by Cobalt Squadron and other Last Jedi materials.

 

I think the small time gap acts as a hindrance more than a help for most aspects of the movie. Things like how in two days Ren goes from worshipping Vader to never mentioning him again. Or how Rey doesn't seem to have much of a grudge left against Kylo despite how he cruelly murdered her newly-found father-figure in front of her eyes and then put her friend in a coma. Or the FO suddenly reigning the galaxy (according to the title crawl) immediately after losing their superweapon when previously no one considered them a serious threat. A lot of this would be more plausible if there were at least six months of time between the movies. Not that it matters a lot to how the movie itself plays out, but I think it would make these incongruities less noticeable.

 

See the way I see this was that the SK strike against the NR was the opening move of a long planned out opening gambit. So they were fully prepared to move in before the NR's member systems could organize any sort of defense, thus taking the whole Galaxy with relative ease. There is a scene in TFA where Hux reports to Snoke that the planet's collapse has begun, and he says it in such a way as to make me believe that Snoke fully expected to lose SKB. So in my mind, they had been prepared for everything that happened at the end of TFA. I don't think that Snoke foresaw what happened to him though.

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Thank you. I’ve been saying this from day one. A lot of people’s criticisms of the characters in TLJ can actually be explained if you remember that, essentially, TFA and TLJ is basically a two-parter. Seriously, I genuinely think a lot of people forget that the two films literally take place over three or four days. The timeframe plays a huge role.

I somewhat agree about saying the First order "reigns". However, I think the reason why the crawl says this is because they've basically just destroyed the New Republic. Now they're in charge.

 

Sorry, I missed the edit time out thingy. Anyway, this film is also still dealing with Rey's awakening.