I swear to god I didn't want to get into this again...I'l try to cut it short. I shall assume full responsibility for derailing the thread and apologise to everyone. Meanwhile continue the normal discussion...
The First Order has limited resources.
The First Order reigns. This is the first sentence in the entire movie.
Imagine 8 destroyers being escort craft for the larger carrier. This flagship also happens to hold the presidency, and all the leadership. You protect the carrier at all costs, even if that means prolonging the fight to do so.
What's the imminent danger, 3 crippled ships on the run? Can they not let 2 star destroyers go ahead after the medical frigate ran out of fuel to cut the whole travesty short? Watch The Hunt for the Red October and see how a chase movie is done well.
In ESB, the commander (Vader) was on board the command ship (the Executor) while the other, smaller, Star Destroyers surrounded the Executor and refused to break formation even if that meant allowing Rebel ships to escape.
I probably missed that where this was explicitly stated..?
Because they're at a far enough range to where their turbolasers are ineffective against the Resistance's shields. They literally explain this in the movie. Imagine being so far away from something (because this is how space works. It's vast, if you needed to be reminded of that) that when you shoot it, the bullet just sorta bounces off of it. You shoot a cannonball at it, but again, the distance is so great that the projectile just stops at the shield. As for why they didn't jump ahead of the Resistance fleet? IDK.
They were pretty effective against the escape pods. I know, I know, shields, but the Falcon was losing its shields too after so many hits. Plus the TIEs seemed to damage the cruiser pretty well with tiny lasers instead of turbolasers so again, let 1 or 2 destroyers go ahead, release the TIEs and byebye?
There's a lot of stupid fleet decisions in the OT, too. But those seem to always get a pass... for some reason. :rolleyes
Such as?
Holdo is a rear admiral, she doesn't have to explain squat to anybody but her fellow officers. Just become some ace pilot comes up and starts demanding to know what's going on, doesn't give said ace pilot clearance to the information. That's how it is in the military. You shut up and follow the last given order. Poe's last given order was to shut up and remain at his post. Poe's the one at fault here for his little escapade, not Holdo. When you question orders, people get killed. Like during Poe's little stunt against the Dreadnought. His orders were to protect the bombers, not to take out the dreadnought. In defying orders he got goot soldiers killed, and rightfully deserved his demotion.
So again, the message of the movie is shut up and obey orders blindly. I thought the First Order was the fascist militaristic organization. Here's the thing, you're absolutely right that Holdo didn't need to explain. Vader also didn't need to throw Palps down the shaft. Luke didn't need to go with Obi-wan to Alderaan. When you tell a story you give motivation. Why did she? Why didn't she? "She didn't have to" is simply saying "just because". Example: Obi and Anakin chase an assassin in Clones through hell and high water and when said assassin is shot by Jango Fett they just look and are like ah well, sod it. They didn't need to chase Jango Fett. But the question is why didn't they, coz it would have made sense. I haven't been to the military but I doubt any competent commander would say "just hope for the best" when your soldiers are awaiting your orders. And the janitors were filled in when they were preparing the escape pods, if not fully at least more than Poe and friends who resorted to mutiny. There was absolutely no reason other than she didn't have to.
Luke was sick of the Jedi business, but figured he wasn't going to get rid of Rey unless he gave in a little. In the end of it all, he sees Rey making the same mistakes he did (running off and not completing her training, embracing the Dark Side, etc), and once again goes back to sulking. As he's talking to Yoda, he has a change of heart about destroying the Jedi Order
I probably missed this one. I remember him having a torch in hand, telling Yoda that he's gonna destroy the books then Yoda shrugs, tells him off and lightnings the cave to which Luke freaks out.
Yoda admonishes Luke, telling him that the future of the Jedi Order doesn't lie in dusty old books and dogma, but in the hope and acceptance for the future that Rey has.
Which is underpinned by showing that Rey has the dusty old books.
The whole point was for Luke to make an appearance that he was out there fighting the First Order. The Resistance didn't need to see him being struck down, or dueling Kylo Ren. They needed legendary Luke Skywalker. The Resistance needed only the hope that Luke Skywalker could provide, not the defeat he would be obviously unable to give.
So if nobody saw what happened then what's so inspiring in an old guy turning up, walking out and dying? For all they know he could have been blasted into smithereens for no good reason by the walkers or chopped down by Ren. And again, what was in Luke's head, like what was his plan, how was the entire move designed coz as far as he knew the friends were trapped there and he was gonna die at the end anyway? Like most things in this film the idea I get behind, execution, not so much.
I really don't want to hijack the thread more, so if you consider the answers you gave satisfactory then it's great I've got nothing against people liking this movie, good for them. I and a few others obviously have further issues and it's not just the ones I listed and not just plot-wise. If you check in the Kingdom of Crystal Skull thread there is a similar discussion about how much one can suspend disbelief in a movie. God knows I love BTTF trilogy or Indy movies and they do have quite a few plot holes in it, but the rest of the movie, characters, tone, ideas are strong enough to shrug those off. Unfortunately for me TLJ did not have much to offer me to gloss over plot contrivances and some of these plot points were really jarring in the overall story. That's pretty much it for me. If you'd like to discuss, I'm at your service via PM, but it's not the thread really.
Well, it did manage to anger fanboys who can't let go of the past.
That was done already in 1997, so not that much novelty there...:lol