#stop tryig to be empire

[swan2187]

Show, Don’t Tell: Hope

I keep seeing gifsets and quotes from The Last Jedi talking about how “the rebellion doesn’t die today--it is reborn” and “Hope!” and reviews mentioning the hope that we find in the very end...and I just sit there thinking “Where?”

Because for a movie that is supposed to be about hope (the theme of every Star Wars movie since ever), it does a really pathetic job of providing it. They can talk about it all they want, they can pretend that there are reasons to be optimistic about the future (besides, you know, the fact that these are movies and good is going to defeat evil simply because it’s a narrative mandate, maybe), but if you don’t show me a reason to be hopeful, I’m not going to feel it. You can’t just say “be hopeful!”, you have to illustrate it.

And since this movie wanted to be Empire Strikes Back so badly, let’s look at the glorious classic film and see what it did right.

The first true moment of Hope in Empire comes with the infamous line: “The first transport is away! The first transport is away!” We are treated to a dramatic scene of a menacing Star Destroyer approaching the planet, then a calm woman giving the fire command to a massive ion cannon, which fires several rounds into space and disables an entire Star Destroyer with three shots. 

We watch the transport soar past, the music of John Williams swells, and the call goes out: “The first transport is away!”

The men cheer! The rebellion lives! We won!

...then the battle itself takes place, and suddenly, rebels are dying. Speeders are exploding. The base is collapsing. Space is still thick with star destroyers, TIE fighters roar after our heroes, and worried generals start talking about how much more desperate their situation is becoming. Even though the transports are away, even though the rebellion is surviving, it is still obvious that the rebels are dying. Throughout the rest of the movie, we focus on our main characters as they struggle to elude the Empire--and fail. 

Then at last, we come to the end of the movie. Luke’s training has lost him his hand and his lightsaber, Han is gone, the Rebel fleet is scattered, and everyone is sad. 

But Lando still smiles as he punches in the commands on the Falcon’s controls. “We’ll find Han. I promise.” Though Han is lost, they’re on their way to rescue him. You can still find that spark of hope.

Luke, Leia, Threepio, and Artoo are together. Leia and Luke are worried, they’re shaken, there is no medal ceremony or applauding crowd, but there is a beacon of light in the distance--the light of the galaxy, the light of hope. They stare into the light of billions of suns, quiet, concerned, but perhaps daring to feel a slight twinge of hope. John Williams does his thing...

...and we watch the Rebel fleet swinging off into deep space. The Rebellion lives on. Hope lives on. We know this entire fleet is no match for the Super Star Destroyer that’s still out there, but it could be enough. There’s more to come. There are still so many of them.

Now let’s compare this to The Last Jedi.

In this movie, we watched the Rebels escape at the beginning...only to be tracked down again. We watched them run and slowly fall, one ship at a time, to the inexorable, irresistible First Order fleet, until there was one ship left. Then, our heroes Finn and Rose returned to save the fleet--but their mission was betrayed, and once again, failure occurred. Transports began being blown up--all of the optimism we felt at Holdo’s escape plan was dashed by fresh attacks. Then, Holdo did the one thing to save everyone: blew herself up and most of the First Order fleet. 

And that was amazing, don’t get me wrong.

But the First Order still had more ships. The Supremacy still flew, even without half of its structure. They brought the hammer down on the dying Resistance with its clunky remaining speeders. The Resistance put out the call for help--but no one was coming.

Not “no one is going to get here”--”No one is coming.” They slowly accepted that hope was gone and the war war over...but then, Luke Skywalker appears! He saves the day! He stands alone against the army, and promises that hope is reborn! The Resistance lives, and there is a future!

...and then he just goes and dies.

They frame it with the hope of the binary sunset, we see our heroes all escaping on the ship--one ship--and we hear hope! Joy! We made it! Finn and Rey are together!

But then...that’s it. There’s no rebel fleet at the end, there’s no promise to bring Luke back, there’s nothing except a quiet assurance that Luke was happy when he passed on, and the crushing loneliness of Kylo Ren. Also, Rey has the books (that were...apparently just books? Not that important? Disparaged by our mentors, Luke and Yoda?). A little white boy in the middle of nowhere shows off his Force Powers.

The First Order still has hyperspace tracking. They still have fleets of Star Destroyers. They still have Kylo Ren. They still have the six Knights of Ren. The galaxy is being conquered by Nazis. What we saw at the start of The Force Awakens--villagers being rounded up and massacred--that’s happening everywhere. There was no hint of a power vacuum in Snoke’s death, no hint of further resistance throughout the galaxy...Carrie Fisher is dead, so we don’t know what Leia can do in the next movie...the Rebel fleet is gone, the Republic fleet is gone, the First Order still has all of the worlds they came from, Luke is gone...so where’s the hope coming from?

Are we supposed to trust that they can do it? This entire movie spent its time repeatedly belaboring that your hope means nothing. You want to take down a dreadnought with some really cool bombers? Too bad, all the bombers are going to blow themselves up. You want to escape to hyperspace? Nah, they can track you. You think Rey can bring Kylo back from the Dark Side? Nope, he’s just doing this because he belongs to the Dark Side. You think DJ is going to help save the fleet? No, he sold you all out. You think Luke lives? Nope. Time and again, the movie dangles hope on the end of a string and pulls it away...so why should the end be any different?