So let's briefly talk about Canto Bight, the casino planet where the new character Rose and Finn visit on a side mission. Obviously one of the weaknesses of this sub plot is that it is profoundly unsuccessful. Rose and Finn do not make contact with the person they are supposed to find, and as a result the entire plan is a failure.
What was actually lost, however, is something musch more important. The one thing that needed to happen at this point in the oveall story is that we needed a moment when the main characters are adventuring together, when they learn about each others strengths and weaknesses, where they learn to trust one another and where they form the backbone of the team that will eventually rise in importance to face the ultimate evil.
In Empire Strikes Back, this was the long journey escaping from the Imperial ships where Han and Leia hide in the asteroid belt, where they escape from the asteroid worm, where they escape from the star destroyers by pretending to be space debris. "You do you have your moments," says Leia. "You may not have many of them, but you do have them." This is a key establishing scene where we all recognize that Han really is an accomplished pilot and smuggler. He's not just a lightweight who's all talk, like we think in the begining when he's bragging to Obi-wan in Mos Eisley. And more than that, we identify Han, Chewie, and Leia as a force to be reckoned with; as an effective team full of resourcefulness, cunning and strategy. Later, when we see them attacking the shield base on the Endor moon, we already know that they bring some competency to the table.
Now, here's the problem. We need a similar moment in this trilogy as well. This canto bight scene was the moment when we had Finn and Poe go off and have adventures together and we see them learn to trust one another, and we demonstrate their competence as heroes. Maybe everything doesn't go as planned, but they come out of it as a team and they grow in stature not only as part of the Resistance, but also in the eyes of the audience as well.
Except that none of this happens. This was the reality of what was missed by framing that scene as we did. Rian Johnson said that he originally wrote that scene for Fin and Poe. Later, he changed it to better match the ethos of the film, introducing Rose instead. What we sacrificed, though, is that we lost the team-building moment between Fin and Poe. Right now, they seem fundamentally unrelated to one another. Previously, Fin went off with Han Solo to Starkiller base, and Fin and Poe haven't crossed paths in any meaningful way since the opening scene of Force Awakens, so we haven't established that they really know or like or trust one another. Certainly after the Canto Bight fiasco, Poe has even less reason to trust Fin's capabilities than he had before.
And the truth is that neither does the audience. Everything that Fin and Rose attempted, from parking the ship, to contacting the slicer, to escaping on horseback, all of it was a failure and ultimately pointless. Even the audience, who are wholeheartedly behind Fin, really don't know what strength he brings to the table. What is his competency that makes him valuable to the Resistance? This was the story's chance to demonstrate it for the sake of the audience and the narrative. Instead, we demonstrate his incompetence.
This same opportunity was present for Rose, as well. I enjoyed Rose as a new character, and recognize that character type from anime stories: the un-glamorous and slightly annoying but loyal sidekick. But even though I like her, I still don't know what Rose brings to the table. The same ambiguity that Fin struggles with is a problem with Rose's character as well. Is she part of the team, with Fin and Poe? The story is unclear. The problem is that the story didn't set up enough hooks to tie Rose into the greater story line. Rather than wondering with breathless speculation about how Rose might develop in the next movie, the audience wouldn't be surprised if we never hear about Rose again. That's how little hinges on her character. Is Rose a Lando figure, or is that DJ? At this point, we shouldn't be guessing. But literally nothing else about Rose is interesting in any way, and her presence doesn't set in motion any plot premise or suggest any payoff for the final movie in this trilogy.
And this is the larger problem with the trilogy as a whole. At this point in the trilogy, we should be thoroughly introduced to these new characters and ready to hand off the narrative from the old guard to the young heroes. But currently, Rose is a dead end, in a movie where we should be establishing plot arcs and giving each of our principal characters motivations. At this point, each of them is a blank slate, one the Last Jedi has carefully scrubbed clean.
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