no time jump (i think that is the technical term, but i'm willing to change the title if it's wrong)

hey.

so i've been thinking about why we don't have a time jump after TFA and how it affects the story.

i am not interested in how well done it is or how much it is botched, i'm interested in structural reasons why we needed to know *exactly* what happened after TFA.

if you have them, give them to me.

i can tell you that i am currently imagining a last jedi movie that has a delay and we never learn luke's first words to rey and we meet them after time has passed (a few months?) and basically the relationship is told through their interaction then. i guess it would presuppose that rey stays with luke longer and he has more wisdom to impart.

the resistance bit would be changed by finn having woken up and had some piloting training, which, you know, makes more sense in the movie. ... i just kinda imagine the story to have settled into something and people arguing from that kind of settled space if that makes any sense?

i think it gets rid of the weird timeline problems in the movie. i also *like* it, very importantly

I think Rian had only two options: 1. Completely change planned by him arc for Luke and Rey\Luke relationship as teacher\student 2. Timejump after Rey gives Luke the lightsaber

To have a timejump somewhere in TLJ means you need to change Luke\Rey relationship and Luke's attitude. She can't live on island for weeks if Luke doesn't teach her or doesn't want to return. You can't skip their two-three interactions in the beginning because it removes dramatic impact.

I don't think the lack of a time jump between TFA and TLJ was a problem- what bothered me was the tight time frame during TLJ...we were told 18 hours.
And I have a hard time imagining all events on Ahch-to, Canto Bight etc. occurred in less than 2 days. Or maybe 18 space - Star Wars hours are 10 times longer as earth hours- who knows ?
No, seriously - they shouldn't have given us an exact number... it was unnecessary.

I personally hope we don't have much of a time- jump between TLJ and IX either. They could continue right where they left on Crait in IX...

@Night Huntress

Pablo confirmed time on Ahchto was the same as Dagobah, so Rey probably spent weeks there but it was 18 Hours in "normal" time.

@Riri yeah, whatever serves the narrative, right? It's Star Wars- so I don't care

special_cases wrote:You can't skip their two-three interactions in the beginning because it removes dramatic impact.

@special_cases

well, we never get the convo rey presumably has with leia and we can guess? there is a ton of things that can be left out of stories and guessing is half the fun?

like, the convo between han and his son is pretty rich with history without us ever having seen them in anything else together. the drama doesn't necessarily derive from the thing you bear witness, you can bear witness to an aftermath and just guess away.

She can't live on island for weeks if Luke doesn't teach her or doesn't want to return.

well, he does teach her in the end. we just have a shorter time frame. he could be reluctant for weeks and still allow her little bits now and then and compel her to stay because he's all the pointer she's got. i think it would change almost nothing. there is no particular urgency to her being there. she wants to figure stuff out, then decides to save a soul and that's basically it, no?

@Night Huntress

I personally hope we don't have much of a time- jump between TLJ and IX either.

but if the compressedness of the narrative is already your problem, how do you suppose this will be better next time around?

@guardienne

I meant during the movie- but not between the movies... you can have a movie taking place throughout several weeks or only a few days or hours like in TLJ.

I had no problem with the time inconsistency in ESB because we were never given an exact time-frame. We don't know for example how long it took for Han & Leia to travel to Bespin. It could've been weeks since their hyperdrive didn't work...so enough time for Luke to train on Dagobah even if time didn't pass differently there.

But if you have a big time jump between TLJ and IX we would miss the most interesting developments in my opinion.
What happened to the Forcebond, how Kylo will handle his new role as SP and the rabid cur Hux...and it would minimize the chance we will get a boring Rebellion against Empire 2.0 plot since almost no-one is left of the Resistance.

@Night Huntress

yeah someone pointed out how ESB has the same weird time frame problem but it's never noticeable or it never occurred to me. when i think about it now, it's like, er... so luke trained for all this time and presumably even longer than rey spent on Ack2, which makes it all even weirder.

i wonder why johnson bothered to give an exact time frame at all.

guardienne wrote:

i wonder why johnson bothered to give an exact time frame at all.

@guardienne

yeah, I don't really understand that decision. It's hard to imagine all what we see on screen happened in 18 hours...I get that they can't keep up that slow-space-chase for too long - and that's why I would have done that polt differently...not sure how, but without having to limit the time to less than 2 days

I finally  started to read the novel (slowy slow) and had an idea that maybe the lack of gap and the really short time period TLJ was to show how much things can change and happen in a small period of time if you take action vs sit and do nothing. I know probably a stretch but there was this quote from the book where Rey thinks that well just few days ago she saw that much green for the first time and now she is in this masive flora and fauna. And it feels like she is kind of understanding it herself that stuff is possible vs when she waited for parents she knew were dead.