"The greatest teacher, failure is," Yoda tells Luke. Everyone in The Last Jedi is faced with defeat, and Rian Johnson's greatest achievement is by focusing more on paying off these character arcs rather than delivering all-out spectacle (which he still manages to accomplish with the smoothest, momentum-driven editing and detail this franchise has seen). Poe wants to destroy everything, then learns to retreat; Finn wants to abandon the mission, then is willing to sacrifice his life; Luke wants the Jedis to be done with, then accepts Rey will carry on their legacy; Kylo is skeptical about the morality of his path, then wipes everything clean and becomes the new leader; and Rey is searching for answers about her past, and after learning her parents are nobodies and her idol thinks he’s a failure, is still is able to harness the force and save the day. Everything we thought we knew is wrong and only by having the courage to not let an emotional connection with the past consume us will we move forward.

Also, I loved how Johnson retconned the worst parts of The Force Awakens: straight-up murdering Snoke and making a total joke out of Domhnall Gleeson’s character.

My hope for Episode 9 is they jump 10-15 years later or beyond. The young kids sharing stories about the resistance across the galaxy are older and ready to fight, Leia dies, Kylo and Rey are respectively more powerful and a massive battle across the galaxy takes place, which is what Abrams is better at anyway.