LogFAQs > #985074885

bfslick50 posted...

The Last Jedi is an Empire Strikes Back What If movie.

What if the escape to hyperspace at the start didn't work?
What if Luke accepted Vader's offer to overthrow the Emperor?

But otherwise let's keep as much of Empire as possible: the Imperial walkers attack, Yoda being reluctant to train the new Jedi, the evil cave, the Jedi recruit getting Force message that friends are in danger, Lando's betrayal, Cloud City being a neutral location but we might have to move it to the ground because a second cloud city would be too on the nose. Let's just kill Yoda in this movie so the next movie has more freedom and doesn't have to circle back again like in Return of the Jedi.

I feel like these are reductive and superficial similarities. Some of the basic elements are the same, but the context is completely different.

Yoda doesn't want to train Luke because Luke is hotheaded and reckless. Luke doesn't want to train Rey because he doesn't think there should be any more Jedi. The dark cave in ESB has Luke confront his dark-side while foreshadowing the idea that he may end up becoming like his father. The dark cave in TLJ is about Rey trying to solve the mystery of her past and being shown that her past doesn't matter. Cloud City was a "neutral" city that had secretly sold out out to the Empire for their own safety; Canto Bight was an actually neutral, hedonistic place that was profiting off of the war by selling to both sides.