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My Thoughts on The Last Jedi

This is going to be a long post.

I think I’ve waited long enough to make a spoiler post about The Last Jedi. Obviously if you haven’t seen it yet stop reading now.

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Ok, I enjoyed the film and am really shocked by the negativity it’s received. It’s so refreshing to have such a shakeup in terms of the “normality” of the Star Wars formula. If this film had been a retread of Empire like Force Awakens was to New Hope it would have kept the series in a stagnant cycle of fan service and repetition. That it goes against those expectations and does something new is fantastic.

Now to get into some of the complaints. I’d like to make some comparisons to elements from previous movies that people seem to have forgotten or are ignoring.

1. That’s not how the force works.

Luke and Leia’s uses of the force, how are they any less believable than say Starkiller bringing down a Star Destroyer from orbit, or hell even one film earlier when Kylo Ren holds a blaster bolt in place for what, 15 minutes while he talks to Poe and wipes out a village. It was something we had never seen done before and yet it was a new aspect of the force and I don’t remember anybody complaining about it. Kylo even questions if Rey is projecting herself, and then dismissed it as it would “tear you apart” it is literally established in the film before Luke even does it.

2. Snoke and Kylo Ren. Does nobody else remember we knew literally nothing of Palpatine before his appearance in Empire Strikes Back, and back when it first came to theaters, they didn’t have an actor yet so his hologram was actually a woman with heavy prosthetic makeup. Then we meet him proper in Return of the Jedi and still we know nothing about him save he rules the Empire. Yet nobody complained that we needed to know who he was or where he came from before Vader dropped him down a reactor shaft. And what Kylo does to Snoke is a great show of how far he’s progressed as a Dark Side figure. He did what Vader never could, he overthrew his master to take his place as ruler of the galaxy. That’s real character growth, and establishes Kylo as THE Big Bad.

3. Rey’s parentage. They weren’t Skywalkers or Kenobies or anyone really, they were nobodies. And that is great! It makes Rey that much closer to Anakin to make Kylo even more envious. Anakin was a nobody before Qui-Gon found him, he was a slave to an alien jerk, with a gift for machinery and skilled at piloting. And what is Rey? A slave to an alien jerk (for food at least), with a gift for machinery and skilled at piloting. That her path so closely mirrors Anakin’s puts her further on a hero’s journey and makes her a perfect foil to Ben Solo’s turn to darkness. She’s a hero who can truly stand on her own and doesn’t need some genetic ties to make her great.

4. Luke’s temptation by the Dark Side. It’s not the first time it’s happened to him. In Return he totally walked the fine line when he severed Vader’s hand and almost finished him, but in his hesitation he realized what he was about to do was wrong and stopped. And that’s exactly what happened with Ben, he felt the darkness Snoke had established in him and for a brief moment reacted exactly the way he did years earlier when facing Vader. But that he overcame it shows he was a stronger person. And if you want to get into speculation who’s to say Snoke didn’t have something to do with pushing Luke to that point to give Ben the incentive to turn.

5. The Knights of Ren. People saying they are meaningless seem to forget we have another movie coming. With Kylo now the Supreme Leader he’s going to need to replace those Preatorian Guards, and who better than the freaking Knights of Ren?!? They’ve been established, and he was even called out as their leader in Force Awakens, so they will most definitely be at Kylo’s side for the final film, unless JJ forgets that he even introduced them, in which case it’s on him for not using his own material.

6. The Kid. His name is Temiri Blagg. The first revealed in a new generation of force sensitive children. How does that not inspire hope and possibilities? We are seeing the beginning of the Resistance’s “Spark” light the fire in those who are oppressed and downtrodden. There were so few force users in the original trilogy, and yet the prequels established that anyone could potentially be a Jedi, it makes sense that years later there would be countless force sensitive people who don’t even realize what they can become. It pushes the franchise in a new direction and shows that there are others out there with the power to fight back. And ending on that kid staring up into the sky is a perfect reflection of where Luke started his journey all those years ago.

7. Time for the Jedi to end. Let’s face it, the Jedi in the prequels are pretty much established as arrogant and flawed. For all their talk of balance they go pretty out of their way to wipe out all that is seen as evil. The Clone Wars goes even further in showing the issues the Jedi seem too self absorbed in their hunt for the Sith. That both Luke and Yoda (freaking YODA!) acknowledge this show that it is time for something new. To just bring back the Jedi as they were would go against what Yoda talked about at the end of Revenge and would have just put the series back into a cycle of good and evil. That Rey now has the possibility to make something new, possibly something even better than the old Jedi order is fantastic, and paved the way for even more creative elements. And I don’t know if I’m the only one who noticed but it seems Rey took at least some of the old Jedi texts as they can possibly be seen in a drawer of the Millennium Falcon when Finn gets a blanket for Rose.

So you may hate it or love it, but it happened, I give Rian Johnson credit for pushing the series in a new direction, I only hope with JJ Abrams back he doesn’t try to play it safe and undo all the great new possibilities we’ve been given to expand and explore in that galaxy far far away.

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How much must Luke Skywalker be freaking out right now?

Can you imagine?

You are moping on your island of self-imposed exile, and then this girl shows up.

She’s flying your best friend’s ship. The ship that Han thought he lost for ever. The ship that was stolen and passed through so many hands that he was sure he’d never see it again. The same ship that took you away from home for the first time.

She’s accompanied by your personal droid. The droid you left behind and abandoned. The droid that C-3PO was sure would never be the same again.

She holds out her hand and she’s holding your father’s light saber. The sword you were sure was lost forever. The light saber that you dropped down a bottomless air shaft on a gas giant thirty years ago. The light saber you knew you would never see again.

You look up and you see her eyes. Maz Kanata says that if you live long enough, you see the same eyes looking out of different faces. The girl’s face is different, but those eyes are the same. You know those eyes. They’re the eyes you thought you’d never see again.

And that’s when you know it.

You’re screwed.

They say sometimes the Force works in mysterious ways. Sometimes, the Force will send you little signs. Subtle clues.

Other times, the Force will just beat you repeatedly over the head with a gigantic neon sign that says: “You can’t run away from your past anymore, Luke. I won’t let you. Look, here is your past come back to haunt you. Now deal with it.”

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