Star Wars! A few thoughts and a linkspam

We saw The Last Jedi on Sunday but for various reasons I'm just now getting around to writing about it. Spoiler-free summary: I enjoyed it a whole lot, am on board with most of its various twists and turns, and appreciate the way it subverted a number of expectations. Also, as if losing Carrie Fisher hadn't already been awful enough, I am super bummed that she can't be in the next movie in any meaningful way. I would say that, if you liked The Force Awakens, you will almost certainly like this, and if you were bothered by how much TFA repeated the beats of Star Wars, you may be pleasantly surprised by TLJ. (Is anyone else bothered by how we've now lost the ability to refer to one of the movies as just "Jedi" and be clear on which one you mean?)

Anything more I could say is better informed by the thoughts of others, and those thoughts are all full of spoilers, so let's put up the spoiler wall. ( Spoiler wall! )