But was Anakin the chosen one? The jedi (mainly Qui Gon) assumed he was, but even Yoda had his doubts. He literally said the prophecy could have been miss read.
Misread, as in how to define balance. The sanctimonious Jedi of course believing that "balance" is everything in the light; everything good. This is not balance within the natural realm. Take Ryloth for example. Its north pole points toward its sun, leaving the northern hemisphere completely in the light, and burnt to a dead crisp. On the flip, the south is shrouded in perpetual darkness, and dead from the other extreme. The only habitable area is around the equator; where the Brightlands are cool enough, and the Nightlands are warm enough to sustain life. Anakin's choices led to the downfall, but not the extinction, of the Jedi.
In fact, I doubt Anakin was ever meant to the be chosen one consider he was created by Palpatine by manipulating the midichlorians for nefarious intentions. They just assumed he was the chosen one because he had such a high midichlorian count.
I might need to reread Darth Plagueis, because although I recall the "experiment" that shook the Force, I don't recall it ever being directed at creating a specific life in a specific place. I viewed Anakin as merely a side effect. Although his power was derived from being directly sired by midichlorians, I also believe it was an insurance to guarantee his survival. I stand behind the idea that after Bane fulfilled the prophecy of the Sith'ari, the sudden imbalance shifted the Force to the light. This imbalance remained for a thousand years, until finally the Force allowed the Dark side to push back, in order to bring itself back into balance. The problem with this is that the Dark Side remained in power through military might, leading to another prolonged imbalance.
Now, think about Rey. She was a direct descendent [SPOILERS, DUDE]. If midichlorians and the force are inherited then surely she was already strong with the force and just didn't know it. Remember, she was basically a loner on Jakku. It is hard to know if you are good or strong at something if a) you don't exactly what you are supposed to be strong in (yes, she apparently knew about the force, but not too many details) b) never get a chance to used said skills (probably not much opportunity to use the force) c) don't have anyone to compare your skills to (probably not too many enemies or the force uses on Jakku. Once she figured out she had this skill she began to explore it further and it began to grow exponentially as it should for someone who had this much potential and determination. I don't consider her a "Mary Sue" I just don't think her character arc was fleshed out very well at the beginning and left a lot of questions to wrap up quickly.
Strength in the Force is not an immediate guarantee of skill. Said [SPOILER] ancestor was also born powerful, but wasn't made aware of for some time due to the fact that they were an oddity within their family; non-sensitive parents and siblings. In fact, Force sensitivity is NOT determined by parentage. If it were, then how did the Jedi replenish their ranks, when they didn't reproduce? TCW already made it clear that the Force shows up in whoever it wants. {There are plenty of other examples, canon and Legends, of sensitives being born of non-sensitive parents.) Ezra Bridger had non-sensitive parents, but his ability had started to manifest before the opening of SWR. Only through training with Kanan did his true potential start to come out. Considering other SPOILER events due her emotional nature, Rey should have easily manifested abilities in her youth, IF she was indeed as powerful as she was supposed to be. She carries a staff for protection, so obviously she is used to feeling insecure about her safety. That scene in TFA where the goons grab her and try to snatch BB-8 should have ended with her unleashing a Force repulse, or any variety of defensive ability, or even offensive. Essentially she should have already been aware that she had this ability, just not how diverse in application it was. Think of it like weight lifting: just because you are strong enough to lift 400lbs, doesn't mean you are instantly able to lift it over your head. That takes training and practice. And even those that can do that fail from time to time. Rey never failed when it came to her use of the Force. If her power and ability had grown steadily over the course of say 20 years, it would be far more believable than "I just learned about the Force 18mo ago, and now I'm more powerful than any of my masters." The only logical conclusion is that the Mouse-minions don't understand the Force, and are only concerned with
selling OOHs and AHs.
For me, the best parallel is a swinging pendulum. When Bane reduced the Sith, and held the imbalance of 2 Sith to tens of thousands of Jedi for a millennium, it was like lifting the weight higher and higher (in physics this is known as potential energy). When Order 66 was given the pendulum was released. During the Great Purge, the pendulum swung to the bottom, but since the Sith were backed by a supreme military force, they stayed in power after the Force was balanced. This is upswing. THEN, the Rebels fought the Empire and the Skywalker kids grew up. This was the swing back from the Dark Side, and thing got good again. Then things went back to $#!% with the First Order, then things swung back toward peace. You see where I'm going with this? IMO the story of "balance" is not over yet; not until the pendulum stops swinging (runs out of kinetic energy).
Yes, I could go scene by scene if needed, but that would be a waist of my time and I would need to watch it again. It may be less about the dialog that it is the acting (I think Hadyen Christensen got WORSE at acting and delivering lines by that 3rd one) but there are a lot of lines that just make me cringe. Heck, even Sam Jackson seems to be phoning it in throughout most of the movie. The only ones seeming to give any effort at all are McGregor and McDiarmid, and even then there are some questionable moments. Yo may not like the story in TLJ but at least the dialog tight (for the most part) and the acting is believable (even if you don't agree with the character's intent).
As I learned long ago from (I believe) the Nostalgia Critic: a good actor cannot trump a bad director. Lucas is a great writer, but a horrible director. I used to think as you do. If you really want to know Hayden's acting ability, pay attention to the scenes where Anakin has no spoken lines. My particular favorite is after he slaughtered the Separatist Council. I was thoroughly convinced that this was a man in pain.
That said, all the prequels had their stinker moments and ideas. Just don't say anything negative about podracing, or Ima hurt you bad.
