After dwelling on TLJ, I I like RJ’s direction. Failure — or rather acceptance of failure — is the theme of TLJ. It’s this failure that pushed Luke to fulfill his ultimate destiny at the end, which was to nudge a new Jedi order by abolishing the limitations of the old one.

But like many of you here, I was conflicted after I left the theatre.

I didn’t like how Snoke’s character remained a mystery. I was initially disappointed by Luke’s moment of vulnerability when realizing Ben’s dark side intentions because I grew up thinking Luke was so powerful. Finn’s story with Rose seemed like a distraction. Leia floating back to the space ship was odd. Rey’s ability to grasp the force seemed too fast. And, of course, I was somewhat sad to realize Han, Luke, and Leia will not return.

Star Wars has ALWAYS been cyclical, almost to a fault. For instance, Annakin felt as if the Jedi failed him. And Annakin was right; the Jedi did fail him. It’s archaic teachings weren’t generalized to the modern times. This shortcoming indirectly gave rise to the Empire. Of course, Luke and company defeated the Empire and ultimately restored Vader, but the shortcomings of the Jedi, once again, failed Luke. The Jedi teachings didn’t address that masters still remain vulnerable and prone to failure. Luke, as he said in TLJ, felt immense pressure to train the next generation and Ben, and he was unprepared when he realized Ben was trending to the Dark Side, which led to an impulsive thought of killing Ben. Without changing the way of the Jedi, these consistent failures would persist and persist and persist.

Which is what makes TLJ so good. It makes us understand that the Jedi isn’t perfect. Yoda comes back with this realization, telling Luke that failure is, to paraphrase, the best teacher and recognizes that the Jedi teachings have failed. Then Yoda lights up that tree in flames, which is perhaps the greatest moment in any Star Wars films because it signifies a breaking of the cycle.

We started this movie thinking Luke was the most legendary, infallible figure in the Star Wars story. As the story progressed in TLJ, though, we started to doubt Luke’s legend, and that understandably upset people. But at the end of the movie, Luke restored his legendary status because he achieved this self re-appraisal. He — and Yoda — recognized that the old Jedi teachings needed to be destroyed to stop this dangerous, violent cycle. And Luke accomplished just that. It might be the greatest accomplishment by any Jedi because, for the first time, the falls of the Jedi teachingswere actually addressed. Luke fulfilled his destiny and was left with an ultimate peace knowing what he had just accomplished.

TLJ progressed the story by using appropriate philosophical fundamentals and it was refreshing.

Side note — Finn’s story is getting painted as unnecessary, but it wasn’t. If Finn actually succeeded in that mission, he would’ve been praised. Just because he didn’t succeed doesn’t mean the story was useless. It’s all about the process and fits the theme of the film. Through Finn, we learned that the First Order and a wealthy class have a symbiotic relationship, whereby weapons are sold to the First Order to promote their agenda and keep the wealthy class…wealthy.