Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi was a… divisive film, to say the least. While some praised many of the bold decisions made in the second installment of the latest trilogy, others have criticised the film’s plot, especially treatment of returning characters such as Luke and Leia.
Chris Avellone worked as a writer and designer on the beloved Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic II and has made his return to the franchise with Respawn’s upcoming Jedi: Fallen Order. He recently told VGC that while he liked much of The Last Jedi, he wasn’t a fan of the “execution” of the film’s story.
He told VGC that, among other things, he wasn’t a huge fan of the way Luke Skywalker came off in the film. For many fans of the iconic franchise, seeing the noble Jedi hero reduced to a hermit ashamed of his past was a particularly difficult pill to swallow. Even Mark Hamill himself was quick to distance himself from The Last Jedi’s version of Luke, though he’s since backtracked to an extent.
Avellone explained:
I thought that portrayal of Luke Skywalker was very weak. I thought they gave him a scapegoat role that wasn’t merited and didn’t fit with his character, in my opinion. I like the fact that they were playing around with it, but at the same time I didn’t like the execution and I thought it could have been handled a lot better or differently.
The writer also criticised the amount of comedy, as well as the “detour plots” that were “rapidly introduced.” With that said, he stressed that he liked what the film was trying to do, but acknowledged it wasn’t for him. Imagine that – a reasoned criticism of The Last Jedi.
Avellone went on to chat with VGC about his experience with returning to the franchise for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order after working on KoTOR II so many years ago. He described it as “very smooth” and teased some of the “unusual directions” the latest game will go in.
He said:
The themes were established when I came onto Fallen Order. KoTOR 2 tells its own story and I feel like Fallen Order was an opportunity to explore new themes and go in a very unusual direction, because there is some stuff in there that I was not expecting. I think Fallen Order is going to offer a Star Wars experience, but there are also some interesting new perspectives that I think players will appreciate
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 15 2019.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.