If you'd rather listen to me narrate this same post with some pictures for visual aids and all that, here's a 26 minute video.
Otherwise I've written up a full transcript here (fair warning, this is gonna be VERY long) for all of you at work or who can't listen to audio or whatever. Skip past the following parentheses for the transcript to begin.
(Some of you may recognize the video from a couple days ago when I posted it. A few of you immediately made me aware of some big flaws in my logic in one of my early answers; which pretty much destroyed my credibility from the beginning. So I took the post and video down and reworked a bunch of it. Some questions have entirely different/better answers now. I replaced a segment of the intro narration with another segment where I more clearly define what is and isn't a plot hole so we can all be on the same page, and made a few other minor tweaks. There's nothing like putting 26 minutes of your opinions/logic out there for a big community to see and watching 1000s of brains rightly pick it apart. I mean that in the best way possible! It's a pretty beautiful process haha I'd like to think the video, and therefore this post is better for it. So thank you to those who commented a few nights ago.)
Anything from here on out in parentheses is not discussed in the video, but I feel I can explore some additional thoughts here for those that want to read them.
Intro
There's been a lot of really interesting and valid criticisms of The Last Jedi that I've been seeing around, but also a lot of really strange questions ("plot holes") being parroted around masked as criticism. And that's what I take issue with. This is in response to a video made by a fairly big YouTuber called "70 Plot Hole Questions For Star Wars The Last Jedi -" (YTer is Levelcap fyi). And what I'm going to do is use some very simple abilities that we all have: to infer, to critically think, and to read between the lines (and occasionally do some research). And we're gonna see how many of these questions we can answer without the movie having to spoon-feed us every little detail.
Now it seems to some people the definition of a plot hole has broadened so much that it now includes questions like this (I believe they are wrong). So for the sake of this post, let's agree on a definition. I really like the urban dictionary definition the best (there's surprisingly few actual definitions of the term, but the ones that exist pretty much say the same thing. This one just puts it most succinctly to me).
In a piece of fiction, a Plot Hole is a completely implausible occurrence or series of events that contradicts logic or previously established events in the story. Includes things such as unlikely behaviour or actions of characters, illogical or impossible events, events happening for no apparent reason, or statements/events that contradict earlier events in the storyline.
A Plot Hole is NOT a simple omission of information or unanswered question. These can only be considered a Plot Hole if said omission has no plausible explanation AND is essential information to the overall story's outcome. Plot Hole: Something that goes against logic or the previous events in the fiction. Not a Plot Hole: A small unexplained event in the story.
(ACTUAL Plot Hole: In Batman Begins a microwave emitter is used to vaporize the water in Gotham to release a psychedelic drug that the water has been laced with. However, the microwaves would in all actuality cause all of the water molecules in every human body to boil and kill everyone very painfully. But this does not happen in the movie.
NOT a Plot Hole: In The Dark Knight Rises, not explaining how Bruce Wayne manages to get back onto the Island of Gotham after it has been cut off from the rest of the world. You can reasonably infer that because he is Batman, he can manage to get himself back onto the island and the movie does not need to show this)
The key element I'm using for this post is that an unanswered question can only be considered a plot hole if the omission has no reasonable explanation. (Someone commented on my previous video that: going by this logic then plot holes wouldn't exist, because then you could say the characters just ate a magical jelly bean off screen that allows them to resolve whatever question you may have. This is categorically untrue, because this would be a very unreasonable explanation. Granted, I did not clearly go over this definition of a plot hole in my previous video so their point was more valid.)
Several times throughout this post, I'm not going to know the 100% correct/canon answer, and I'll begin with something like: "I don't know, but here's my best explanation...". I don't claim to be all-knowing when it comes to this movie (or Star Wars in general); but I am still refuting that the question is a plot hole by offering up a reasonable explanation. One that makes sense within both Star Wars canon, and the storyline of this movie particularly.
So with that being said, I'm about to begin answering these questions point by point in the order that they appear in levelcap's video. I condensed a few of them down because he asks the same question twice or they are similar enough that they could be answered with the same explanation (so the end total of questions will not be 70, but 58). Without farther ado, let's get going! Obviously there will be spoilers ahead.
MY REFUTATIONS
1. Why did the First Order fighters pull back from attacking the Resistance fleet?
In the movie, Hux calls Kylo Ren and his wingmen off of the Resistance fleet because they were out of range of the FO fleet who couldn't cover them any longer. (very quickly Kylo Ren's wingmen are blown up to show this.) One might imagine that the First Order didn't want to needlessly risk resources seeing as how the Resistance was in such a terrible spot, and their fate was looking inevitable. (Another factor is that while Kylo did blow up the launch bay of the main Resistance ship, some of the other ships did still have launch bays of their own and could scramble fighters if the FO did send their own after the Resistance fleet, and would likely result in heavy losses. The win-win scenario for the FO was that waiting 18 hours for the Resistance's fuel to run out means they wipe out the Resistance, AND get to keep many of their Ties alive)
2. Why are Resistance ships able to outrun First Order ships?
Take your pick. Either the Resistance ships have faster or more efficient engines than the FO ships, or they have to burn more fuel in order to keep distance from the FO fleet. Throughout the movie there is dialogue (from both the FO and Resistance) explaining they are able to keep a safe distance, but they just won't be able to sustain it. Do they really need to explain why exactly?
3. Why did the Resistance ships slow down when they run out of fuel? Wouldn't Newton's First Law Apply here?
Alright this one's pretty stupid-- So Star Wars has a loooong history of not obeying the laws of physics as you may know. But as long as we're using Newton's First Law, I'll spell this one out. (It actually sorta works here!) If one space ship is chasing another ship, and both are accelerating equally, and everything else is equal, and the lead ships stops accelerating-ie runs out of fuel (mind you just because it stops accelerating does not mean it is slowing down), then the chasing ship (as long as it is still accelerating) will catch up to and overtake the lead ship. This might appear as if the lead ship is slowing down though. (Relativity! There's a little animation in my video to help illustrate this. None of the ships in it ever slow down per se, but one does stop accelerating and is therefore overtaken by the (still accelerating) chasing empire fleet just like in the movie)
4. Why can't Hux have some of his destroyers hyperjump in front of the Resistance fleet to block them off?
This is a really good question and one that I've been seeing around a lot. But I think there's a good explanation. And it has to do with hyperlanes. Throughout the galaxy of Star Wars, there are pre-established hyperlanes that ships use when hyperjumping to other locations. These are sure to be safe trails to travel on. It's incredibly risky to make a jump without a hyperlane. This is why it's very important for the galaxy geopolitically when a new lane is discovered or explored, because big military fleets typically only use these to make advances. So what do we know about D'Qar and Crait? They are both in the Outer Rim of the galaxy and basically have far fewer hyperlanes than in the core populated places of the galaxy. Crait is even totally unmapped, so I think we can reasonably infer there aren't ANY established or widely known hyperlanes nearby. (also worth noting that hyperlanes are not omnidirectional). Therefore, the First Order probably deems it too risky to make a micro jump like the one described in the question just to speed up what they thought to be inevitable. Now, should the movie have included some throwaway lines of dialogue describing this? That's for you to decide but I really don't think so. It'd basically be totally unnecessary exposition just to address a question that 99% of people won't even think to ask. But there's your answer for you crazy 1 percenters.
(Other factors could include fuel usage. We clearly hear that making a jump takes a large amount of fuel in the movie. So if the First Order captains wanted to pull a maneuver like this, they better have perfect calculations or they might wind up out of the chase altogether.
And Also to address any related questions like: The Resistance jumped in the beginning of the movie so wouldn't that mean they used a hyperlane? First, to that I would say not necessarily. I don't think they would be that worried about making a blind jump seeing as how they are about to be wiped out anyway. The FO would only be following their jumps because of their tracker. And second, the Resistance & FO could have very well used a hyperlane to jump from D'Qar to close-ish to Crait, which then probably didn't have any other hyperlanes nearby as they headed to Crait.)
5. Why don't blasters affect shields at long range?
I have no idea what this question is in reference to. I've seen the movie 3 times and still don't.
edit: A New Hope establishes that lasers in space do have a range. Source: http://www.st-v-sw.net/STSW-WeaponRange-Wars.html
6. Why can shields stop capital ship weapons, but fighters can pass straight through?
We already have examples of shields behaving similarly to this. For example in the Battle of Naboo when the bubble shields block blaster fire, but let the battle droids through them. The Shields of the Raddus (the Resistance flagship) appear to behave similarly. Also it would be really inconvenient for a ship to have to lower its shields every time it sent out/in a fighter from its launch bay... So I think ship shields have always behaved like this if I'm not mistaken.
7. When did spaceship shields become bubbles?
Check out the last answer. But also there are different types of shields in the Star Wars universe. You don't think there might be different manufactures/brands of shields, all of which probably behave a little differently from each other? Or is a universe as large as Star Wars' only allowed to show you one type of shield.. Thermal shields and deflector shields are two different types just to name a few.
8. Why did the Resistance transports get blown up so easily when flying to Crait? Couldn't they have tried evasive maneuvers? Poe was able to dodge like 20 dreadnought turrets earlier.
Hmmm... Could it be that transports might handle a little differently than fighters? (especially one piloted by Poe) Those escape transports are probably a liiiittle less nimble than fighters, and are therefore much easier targets too.
9. Why didn't Holdo try to block the incoming fire on the transports?
Holdo didn't really have all that much time to come up with something once she saw the transports getting blasted, and what she did come up with was pretty damn effective.
To give a more direct answer, I think this would be easier said than done given how the artillery shots from the Supremacy (Snoke's ship) traveled in an arch, which might just arch themselves over the Raddus even if she did line herself up perfectly.
(I would also say that if she were to only block the incoming fire, the Resistance probably wouldn't have ever made it off of Crait. When she did her Kamikaze run (don't worry we'll get there too), she crippled the FO forces that could then assault the base, and destroyed their ability to keep up the chase)
10. Why did the FO only find out about the transports when DJ told them?
There actually are a couple throw away lines that give us enough to fill in the details. As the transports are leaving the Raddus, a Resistance crew member aboard a transport says: "we're cloaked and shouldn't show up on their scopes." I take this to mean that these scopes might behave somewhat similarly to submarine sonar, where you kind of have to know exactly what you're looking/listening for on the radar to see what you are looking for. This is backed up by a FO officer telling Hux that they ran a decloaking scan and were then able to identify the transports.
11. Why did Finn & Rose tell DJ about the plan?
They didn't. But you clearly see him perk up once he overhears them get word of the plan from Poe or whoever fills them in on it as they're approaching the Supremacy.
12. Why didn't Holdo have all her ships jump away in different directions?
I'm not entirely sure but it probably has something to do with the plan to hide out on Crait. If it had worked, they would have all been safe. Also safety in numbers and all that stuff.
13. How come ships can hyperjump in/out of the Resistance fleet without the FO doing anything?
Again I'm not totally sure. They could have noticed Poe and Rose's single escape shuttle leave and decided not to chase it. Or they didn't notice it at all. (also this is the only time it's done without explanation. When Finn, Rose, and DJ jump back in, DJ cloaks their approach, and when the Falcon jumps in, it immediately jumps back out once it releases Rey in her escape pod.)
14. Why do the bombers fly so close together if they blow up so big?
Check out bombing operations in WW2. Turreted bombers pretty much exactly like the ones in the movie stayed in close formation as a means of defense against fighters. Any fighter that wanted to attack a bomber had to expose himself to several different fields of fire from several different bomber turrets. Any bomber on its own was an easy kill for any fighter pilot.
15. Why were the bombs operated by some guy with a remote?
This is an infinitely retarded question. Again look at any bomber in history and you'll find the bombs were operated by a guy with some kind of remote.
(for a more direct answer, What else would they use? The resistance is known to have to scrape together whatever resources they can get their hands on so those bombers probably aren't state of the art technology. Many of the resistance ships/tech are fairly low tech, we see that in both movies. I would also highly doubt that's the only way to release the bombs; it's just the one she (as the tail gunner if I remember correctly) was closest to (good chance it was a backup/manual bomb release, maybe the visual dictionary or cross sections book explains better ). The pilot or other crewmembers might have controls too but they were incapacitated. Also, and most importantly, how exactly do the controls being an analog control vs a fancy computer screen or whatever change any of the outcome of the scene? It's a really dumb thing to even bring up in the first place)
16. Why do the bombs fall down in space?
"Bombs don't technically "drop" in microgravity, but are impelled from their racks by sequenced electromagnetic plates in the clip. The bombs are then drawn magnetically to their unfortunate targets." - From TLJ visual dictionary
17. Why didn't the bombers just release their bombers from farther away?
I would assume it probably has something to do with the electromagnets discussed in the last answer needed to be within a certain range to activate.
18. Why doesn't the dreadnought fly away when it sees the bombers coming?
Wow this would have been a really valuable tactic in say, the Battle of Midway. If only the Japanese Captains just sailed away when they saw the American bombers coming. I keep bringing up WW2 naval and aerial combat because Star Wars has always taken a huge inspiration from that.
(and if you ask: Why not just hyperjump away? well, to that I'd ask how long does it take to spool up a hyperdrive in that big of a ship? If we're going off of when Holdo does her kamikaze maneuver, it takes the Raddus (a smaller ship than the dreadnought) a good 30-60 seconds (depending how you interpret the timeline of that scene).
19. Why doesn't the First Order release fighters immediately when coming out of hyperspace and into a battle?
My favorite character in the movie, the dreadnought captain (RIP. We hardly knew ye...) seems to share this exact same sentiment when he exclaims: "We should have released fighters FIVE BLOODY MINUTES AGO!" which kind of implies they were off to a sloppy start to their attack. (also remember this is probably many of these captains very first major space-battle experience. The dreadnought captain was older and probably had a lot more experience with these things which is why he was so pissed in the first place.)
20. Why did the First Order think Poe was just a messenger ship? (Why not blow him up immediately?)
They were probably just curious about what he'd have to say with him not being considered much of a threat (you can hear this in the way Hux laughs as he says: "A single fighter approaches??"). We also know that one of the major flaws of both the Empire and now apparently the FO too is arrogance. Poe is trying to exploit this here by buying as much time as he can.
21. Why can Holdo use Hyperspace travel as a weapon and why hasn't this been done previously? Especially against the deathstar etc.
This one's making lots of people angry. But there's a couple theories I've seen that I really like. They would very neatly explain why this was only a viable tactic in this particular scenario. The simplest one is taken directly from some dialogue in The Force Awakens when Han, Chewy, and Finn are hyperjumping into Starkiller Base. Han says this when asked how they are getting in: "Their shields have a fractional refresh rate. Keeps anything traveling slower than lightspeed from getting through." I can totally buy that the First Order uses these same shields on their big ships too. He doesn't specify in the dialogue that only Starkiller Base has this kind of shield when he says "their shields", which implies he knows something about First Order shields in general.
(The other less likely but completely awesome theory is basically this: Since the Supremacy can track ships through hyperspace, and hyperspace is known to basically be another dimension. The tracker must physically exist in both dimensions at once and therefore when Holdo kamikazes the Supremacy she is slamming into the unshielded, unprotected tracker in the hyperspace dimension, causing the insanity we saw in the movie. Hopefully I did that theory justice. Because I think it's cool as hell. Thanks neutronknows for this one)
22. Why build such a big ship if something so small can destroy it?
There's actually precedent for this in previous Star Wars movies as well as in real life history. Regarding Star Wars, the Executor (the super stardestroyer) is taken out by a single A-wing pilot when he careens into its bridge. And then in real life there are tons of examples of single small planes doing enormous damage to huge ships with torpedoes, or bombs, or even by crashing into them. Point being that these huge ships need to be protected be cause their utility far outweighs their fragility.
23. Why does Poe have to land aboard the Raddus before it jumps to hyperspace? Don't X-Wings have hyperdrives?
Yes X-Wings do have hyperdrives but they may not be comparable to the ones on the bigger ships. So it's probably so they can stay together. Another possibility is in the beginning of The Last Jedi, Poe's X-Wing is outfitted with an additional booster engine on the back. This might have required removing his hyperdrive. Maybe the cross sections book will explain better.
24. How did Finn & Rose escape the Supremacy if Ties were chasing their shuttle the whole time?
There's actually nothing to suggest ties were chasing them the whole time. We see several shots of them flying away freely and only their landing approach is when they are chased by ties. It also doesn't appear that the ties are even shooting at them until they almost reach the door so the ties were probably racing to catch up to them.
25. How did Rey get from the Supremacy back to the Millennium Falcon?
In the scene where Hux finds Snoke dead and Kylo unconsious, Hux tells Kylo that she took Snoke's personal shuttle.
26. How do Finn & Rose know how to fly speeders? Isn't Rose just a mechanic?
There are many examples throughout Star Wars of families, even poor families owning some type of speeder. It seems to be a common enough skill akin to driving a car. We also see Finn struggling to keep his speeder up until Rose has to tell him to drop the mono-ski.
27. Why doesn't Finn melt in the beam but parts of his speeder does?
It looks like he would have melted if he'd stayed in the beam much longer. I'm sure it didn't feel good while he was in it but someone operating on adrenaline can tolerate some crazy stuff.
(upon watching the movie a third time I kept a close eye on this scene and never saw anything in his cockpit melt. Just the guns on the outside. So I think we can conclusively say the cockpit was shielding him from the bulk of the heat.)
28. Why does Rose think crashing into Finn will save him? Did she calculate the impact speeds exactly so they both wouldn't die?
No I really don't think she calculated the impact speeds. But I bet her thought process went something like this: "Finn has a 100% chance of dying if I let him fly into that cannon, but less than 100% if I crash him out of the way. So I'll go with that option."
Related Bonus Question: How was Rose able to catch up to Finn when she clearly turned off from the attack run earlier?
Finn's speeder was being significantly slowed down by flying directly into the beam. To the point where even if he had collided with the cannon it probably wouldn't have done anything-- another reason Rose saved him.
29. How was Finn able to drag Rose to safety?
Honestly this one is probably lazy writing. But if you want me to make a stretch, on the Battlefront 2 map of Crait, there are all kinds of small caves and trenches out there that he may have used to hide and move closer to the door. But either way, it's a pretty ridiculous feat.
30. Why do Tie Fighters keep chasing the Falcon into tight spaces?
Because Kylo literally told all of his Ties to go kill the Falcon there and they didn't want to let it escape.
31. How was the Falcon able to land and save the Rebels safely? Wouldn't there be Ties patrolling around?
Again, because Kylo told all of his Ties to go kill the Falcon. The First Order probably didn't have access to all the fighters they may have wanted after Holdo crippled the entire fleet. That's probably why there aren't as many Ties as you would have thought. Thinking a little bit about what you just watched a few seconds ago might help with answering some of these questions before you call them plot holes.
32. Did the First Order leave the planet Crait once they saw the Resistance was gone?
Uhhh, probably they did, yeah. But I seriously doubt the First Order fleet's capability to continue the chase at that point. It really seems to me that information just enters your brain and gets spat out completely unprocessed. So maybe you do need to have everything spoon-fed to you... Either that, or you are intentionally, artificially inflating how many plot holes you think are in this movie...
33. If the entire Resistance can fit aboard the Millennium Falcon now, is it even a Resistance any more?
Well, we're gonna have to wait until the next movie comes out to find out. Buuut I'm gonna go out on a limb and say "Yes."
34. How are they so confident people will sign up for the Resistance now?
I think you could answer this by asking another question. That is: How many people in the galaxy do you think want to live under the rule of the First Order? Also after Luke did what he did, he provided the new spark of hope that's getting people fired up to join. (We see this by the story of him facing down the entire First Order with his lazer sword being told by the kids on Canto Bight.)
35. How is Finn so good at fighting? Wasn't he just promoted from a janitor?
Without doing a whole deep dive on Finn's time with the First Order, here it is in a nutshell. Finn was regarded as one of the best of his corpse. He worked directly under Phasma too. And many soldiers are assigned various upkeep duties while they are deployed and not fighting.
36. Why does Phasma suck at fighting?
She doesn't. She pretty clearly beats Finn here and would have won if it weren't for him falling onto a rising elevator perfectly, and then hitting her while she was surprised.
37. How come Phasma's armor can block blaster fire but no one else's can? Shouldn't all the troopers have that armor?
Phasma's armor is made from chromium. The same stuff the coated the Royal Naboo yachts that we see Amidala aboard in the prequels. It's very rare.
38. Why did Finn & Rose park their ship on the beach?
Again I'm not entirely sure but a little inference here doesn't hurt. They probably didn't want to have to register in a parking system and risk being identified, hoping instead no one would notice before they left. This obviously did not work out.
39. Why does BB-8 have a casino coin shooter?
I don't think the only purpose of that is to shoot coins. But you really got me there....
(Upon looking at TFA visual dictionary, it explains BB-8 has a bunch of different modules he can swap in and out of.)
40. Why doesn't the Resistance have their own codebreaker guy?
Right. Seeing as how they apparently grow on trees. The resistance is shown to have only about 400 people in the fleet at the beginning of The Last Jedi. I'm sure they would love to have their very own codebreaker among their ranks.
41. Why does Maz take a phone call in the middle of a firefight?
Because Maz is one kooky girl. (seriously though I don't know, this scene felt like what you would see right before you get on the Star Tours ride...)
42. Why are there only a few hundred people in the Resistance?
Because the rest of the New Republic didn't view the First Order as a threat. So only Leia and her loyal followers were left as the watchdogs against them. The New Republic was also nearly entirely demilitarized prior to TFA. Granted neither movie of the sequels does a very good job at establishing any of this. But it is discussed in the books.
43. Why is Poe so quickly forgiven for disobeying orders and even mutiny?
The Resistance couldn't exactly afford to lock up one of their most influential heroes at that point. They had more pressing matters and we clearly see Holdo kind of understand why he did what he did. Her and Leia both knew at the end he was trying to do the right thing based off what he knew at the time.
44. Why does Holdo dress like she's going to an Arcade Fire concert? It clearly causes people to undermine her authority.
First because Holdo is a senator. And second, I really don't think THAT'S what caused Poe to undermine her...
45. Why didn't Holdo just tell Poe about the plan to escape to Crait?
Poe was just demoted and had displayed serious issues with authority and leadership. (This is her very first impression of him. I think if you look at it from her perspective, it makes way more sense.) It's also probable that Holdo was about to tell Poe right when he noticed the transports being fueled up and freaked out, kicking things, and calling her a coward and traitor in front of the crew. (Not exactly what the crew needs to hear at that point.) Going off the info she had at the time, most commanders in this situation would kick Poe off the bridge or worse.
46. Why did we get a topless Kylo Ren scene?
I mean, Kylo is pretty hot.. Just be thankful it didn't happen while one of them was on the toilet. For real though I just read an article that says it was basically a fun way to show the audience how much they could see of each other.
47. Why can ghost Yoda control lightning?
I don't know but I do actually have a theory. I think it might have to do with how force "rich" the area is. Especially since it was the first Jedi Temple. The island seems to be very powerful with the Force. This will be an interesting thing to theorize about though and I'm actually kind of happy they didn't answer this.
48. What's the deal with Chewy's crazy arch? He goes from hating cable chewing minocks to loving porgs... Who even is Chewy any more?
Right. Because minocks are totally equivalent to porgs. Minocks aren't disgusting at all. Would Chewy have had the same dilemma if he were to eat a minock as others watched? I really don't. Minocks are really gross. This question was really dumb.
49. How can Luke project himself to another location across the galaxy? Have Jedi always known about this power?
That was pretty crazy, right? Again we don't exactly know. But it's really awesome and seems like it requires an absurd mastery of the force in order to do that. But if you really take issue with any new force abilities being explored, then you probably shouldn't be watching any of the newer movies.
50. What happened to Luke's green lightsaber? And why didn't he just use that one in his projection instead of the blue one that just got broken in half?
No idea what happened to Luke's green lightsaber. But it could also have something to do with that being what he used in his greatest moment of shame. So he wanted to appear to the Resistance as his best self. It's also worth noting that Luke may not have known about the status of his blue saber going into that scene. But there's also a chance that he did it in order to troll Kylo even more once he finally realized he was fighting nothing all along. It's a great way to display the downsides of fighting with so much literal blind hatred.
51. How did Maz get Luke's blue lightsaber?
This question should go to JJ Abrams. I really don't think the answer to this is all that important to the story of these 3 sequel movies. But maybe it will be answered in episode 9.
52. Who was Snoke and what was his deal?
I'll let Rian Johnson take this one, and then add a little bit to his answer afterwards. This is from a really interesting IGN article where he explains a little about his thought process in this scene. I highly recommend reading it if you want to know more. "It's not about where he come's from. It's not about his backstory. He is the guy behind the guy, and I think he plays out his part in this movie as is appropriate." What Rian's basically saying here is that his backstory doesn't matter to the story going forward. Snoke served a purpose and fulfilled it. I'm 100% sure at some point we will get a proper backstory on Snoke. But I'm totally in agreement with Rian here. I think Snoke was one of the weaker characters of the last movie and I'm kind of glad to see him gone.
And I know that Snoke's sudden death is one of those huge things that some fans are really upset about. And it deserves it's own video/post just on that (and I've seen a few good ones here and there already.) You don't have to like the answer. That answer being that it doesn't matter. But it certainly is not a plot hole.
53. Why can Snoke detect every thought Kylo is having but he can't sense he's about to get killed by him?
The movie does a really nice job at visually addressing this. Snoke wasn't exactly reading Kylo's direct thoughts here. But reading his lack of conflict. Snoke sensed total darkness in Kylo and took that to mean that surely he was about to kill Rey (why Snoke laughed at the notion of Rey turning him to the light). He also sensed Kylo's physical actions with the lightsaber that he was masking with the force. He totally caught Snoke off guard here.
54. If it's so easy to manipulate lightsabers from afar, wouldn't Jedi stop carrying them for fear of someone else activating theirs?
I didn't get the impression this was easy to do. It probably takes a ton of dexterity and fine control over the force to be able to pull this off, as well as an unsuspecting victim.
55. Why is Rey even better at fighting in this movie?
To me, the answer is still the same as in the last movie. Rey has grown up fighting for herself and already has a pretty good understanding of melee fighting mechanics. She benefited especially in her TLJ fight by having Kylo Ren back her up. Once they got separated she struggled. She only won by using a cheeky move from a bind. I think Kylo shows her up big time here. He handles 3 praetorian guards at once during the fight. (Her sudden and seemingly exponential growth in the force might also help with her lightsaber control too.)
56. Why do they think Snoke is dead? Couldn't he just get robot legs like Darth Maul in Clone Wars?
I'd say the closeup of his lifeless body, with eyes rolled back and tongue out to be pretty conclusive. BUT. People already have their theories out that he somehow survived so who knows?
57. Why is the slave kid able to move things with the force already? Doesn't that take tons of training to accomplish?
His midichlorians are off the charts. But seriously he might just be a savant with the force. He only moved a broom about 4 inches so let's not freak out about this..
58. Why did Luke leave a map to himself if he didn't want to be found?
Luke never made a map to himself or to the island. Han says that it was people that knew him best that thought he went to the first Jedi Temple. It was Lor San Tekka that helped research making a map to the first temple; where they thought he MIGHT be.
CONCLUSION
So there's all of the questions answered and holy hell that was exhausting typing all of this out. I did want to put some closing thoughts to wrap up this post. As someone who actually totally adores this movie I wanted to address some of the more ridiculous criticisms I've been seeing around with this post, and show why they are actually pretty much invalid for the most part. And I thought Levelcap's video would be a good place to start doing that. I know this isn't all of the plot holes or questions out there. Most of these aren't even plot hole type questions, they're just questions. If you're adamant about saying these are plot holes, I could guarantee you could make a similar list as long as this one or longer about each previous Star Wars movie. There's a lot of unanswered questions in these movies that are answered by looking deeper into the lore, or the visual dictionaries and wikis I've been mentioning. The movie should not have to answer most questions like these. They aren't related to the plot and don't move anything forward. I really don't think plot holes were much of a negative factor in this movie at all. At least any more so than any other Star Wars movie. So let's get to the substance of our criticisms. Why didn't you like how they handled Luke, or Snoke's death? Or why was the movie poorly structured? I think that kind of thing is where the substance of criticism is for this movie even if I disagree with a lot of it, but that's where the criticism has the most value. That's what I wanted the point of this post to be. Just clearing up some misconceptions so we can get to the good discussions. For those of you that have read this whole thing, there is something wrong with you, and especially me for making this. But thank you so much. I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on this kind of stuff.
TLDR
Is it even possible to make a TLDR for this kind of post? haha I don't know but I'll try. Basically most of the plot holes people have been throwing around aren't actually plot holes.
until next time, and happy 2018.

 -squatch00