NOTE: Yeah. So this wasn't my best moment. In my defense, I didn't know everyone everywhere on all possible sides of the arguments would use the Kylo quote to drive their blogs home. Also, I wrote this the weekend the movie came out. I had a rough couple of months and really felt this movie. I went on to see it 14 times in theaters.
I stand by what I wrote. Especially the stuff about Rey and the parentage issues. But as long as you stay away from plot hole arguments, almost any criticism you make could be valid. This is merely how I felt about The Last Jedi. I understand it's not the best overall movie. These are my feelings and I still feel them. Enjoy the next few thousand words :-).
“Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way you’ll become what you’re meant to be.” - Kylo Ren from Star Wars: The Last Jedi
That’s not just a quote from the movie. I imagine that’s what Rian Johnson said when he pitched his ambitious plans for The Last Jedi. I also imagine Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of Disney looking around the table with excited interest.
Star Wars unintentionally helped to spark a retro craze back in 1997 when the Special Editions of the Original Trilogy were released in theaters and on VHS. After all the pop demand for 70s retro clothes and music peaked, the Prequels started to come out in 1999. That helped lead to a backward shift in long form narrative storytelling.
The retro trends have never completely subsided. But for most TV shows and movies, the trend was to revisit an era with the primary draw being the nostalgia over the plot or reason for being there. Star Wars doesn’t have that. It’s literally based a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
What it does have is Skywalkers.
The Prequels and the popularity of Darth Vader in the Original Trilogy turned Star Wars into the Skywalker Saga. That popularity withstood Anakin Skywalker murdering children and committing spousal abuse on his way to becoming Vader.
How far can that really go? Luke chides Rey about this in The Last Jedi. He became a legend that believed in the myth of his mighty Skywalker blood. Luke literally says mighty Skywalker blood. He’s not being sincere. He’s being scornful of his own past beliefs. A Skywalker gets trained, turns to the dark, and helps build a Death Star. It’s not tenable as a repeated storytelling device. Fans sounded off as such when they complained that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was too much of a rehash of Star Wars: A New Hope. The Anthology films, like last year’s Rogue One and next summer’s Solo, are keeping the franchise afloat. Rogue One did more than that. But, still. They are telling parts of a story who’s ending we already know. There needs to be a new direction that widens the scope of possible characters past 1 small family.
The point of Star Wars: The Last Jedi is to make this argument to the fan base by showing, not telling, them how strong the main saga films can be without Skywalkers. It could easily have been titled: Star Wars: The Last Skywalker.
The concept of having the Skywalkers being the central theme of the Saga films is toxic. It’s a villain to the storytelling. And that is personified by having Kylo Ren, the last of the Skywalkers that will make it to Episode IX, become the Supreme Leader of the First Order. The Big Bad. Totes for sure not the good guy. (Princess Leia survives TLJ, but Carrie Fischer passed away and there are no current plans to include her in IX).
Ben Solo’s seemingly total embrace of his existence as Kylo Ren, which rocks the core of the Star Wars mythology, was deeply satisfying.
In the Prequels, Anakin asks Padme to join him and overthrow the Emperor so they can rule the galaxy as a family. In the OT, he does this again, albeit it as Darth Vader, when he asks Luke to help him rule the galaxy as father and son. (He leaves out the part about the Emperor tagging along because, you know, he is the one keeping Vader alive. You can’t blame Vader for leaving it out, though. That storyline wouldn’t be written for another 25 years.)
Both times, Anakin/Vader ask before actually doing the work of overthrowing the power structure. It’s a pipe dream. When Kylo Ren asks Rey to join him, it’s after he kills his master, Supreme Leader Snoke. For the first time in aStar Wars film, this offer is made and it carries weight. This is when Kylo talks about letting everything die. The First Order, The Resistance, the Jedi, and even the Sith. He’s not just pitching this to Rey. He’s pitching it to every fan and would-be fan of the franchise. I translate it like this: “Hey, hey. Fuck this shit. It’s getting old. Let all these storylines run their course and then start everything over again. Clean. Fresh. Together.”
This is sandwiched in between a couple of fun plot points. Snoke’s origins and Rey’s parentage.
Snoke takes some deduction. The Internet was overflowing with Snoke Theories for the last 2 years. Why is he disfigured? Is he a returning character? Who did this to him? In TLJ, when Kylo and Rey become connected through the Force, Kylo immediately states that Rey could not be doing it because the “Effort would kill you.” When Luke projects his younger self across the galaxy to confront and stall Kylo and the First Order, it literally does kill him. Snoke reveals to Kylo and Rey that he is the one exerting this effort to connect the two. I suggest Snoke is just someone who uses the Force in such a way that it literally eats him alive. It saps his life force and that is visible through his deformed being. He did it to himself.
Snoke had his own theory about who he was. Clearly, he fashioned himself as the second coming of Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine. He had found a Skywalker, turned him to the Dark Side, and used his weapons to take over the galaxy.
One problem: Palpatine used Anakin’s fear of losing his loved ones as leverage to turn him. Palaptine’s unnatural manipulation of the Dark Side is what kept Vader alive.
Snoke had no such leverage over Kylo Ren. In fact, he insisted Kylo kill those he loved as part of his training. While Snoke seems to be more powerful with the Force at the beginning of TLJ, he is not keeping Kylo alive. In fact, Snoke risks Kylo’s life often.
The benefits of bringing Kylo along in this way carried a fairly even risk to reward ratio. If it worked, you’d have a cold blooded, soulless weapon at your disposal. If it failed, all Kylo would have to do is balance his feelings and strike Snoke down. Which, of course, he does. One of Snoke’s last declarations is that Kylo cannot betray him. Well. Sorry, brooooo. You were so wrong.
Now, Rey’s parents. Rey and Kylo looking at each other eye to eye, turning back to back, and fighting the guards as a team on the Supremacy after Snoke was killed was bad ass and satisfying. That’s my favorite part of the movie. When that’s over, Kylo makes Rey admit that she knows her parents were no one. They traded her to Unkar Plutt for drinking money. Kylo: “You have no place in this story. You mean nothing to no one. But you mean something to me.”
Rey looks at Kylo and for a second she actually feels acceptance. Rey got none of that from Luke. Until the events of The Force Awakens, aka the last week or so, she’s never gotten that from anyone. Kylo points out that her weakness is her desire to be completed by knowing who her parents are.
The cave on Ahch-To tried to show Rey that her true parent was herself. In The Force Awakens, Rey is seen scratching tallies into a wall that represent the number of days she’s been stuck on Jakku. When Rey enters the cave on Ahch-To Island looking for answers about her parents, there are a number of Reys that appear that lead to a mirror where her parents are to be revealed. Except, it’s just another Rey. I suggest that all of the Reys represented the tallies she was scratching into the wall. The Rey that appears to her is just her own reflection. Rey has always been her own parent. Her own family. She has no people.
Rey has no baggage. This makes her potentially difficult to corrupt. And, since she is sadly make-believe, her story can unfold on the screen before us. There are no novelizations or backstories out there that were relabeled Legends/non canon when Disney purchased Lucasfilm.
So far this seems to have outraged fans. This is as human a reaction as Rey’s feelings toward her reality. Everyone wants to feel like they are a part of something bigger. Something special. Something connected. Most people are not. The mistake fans and Rey made is that this doesn’t mean she isn’t something bigger. Rey is special. She is connected to everything. And she admits that she’s always known that. Rey is afraid of her strength for the same reason most women are: they’re trained and gas lighted to fear their independence and strength by the power structure/men. Let’s be honest. Just men.
Rey develops a certain attitude during TLJ. As time goes by on Ahch-To she seems to realize that she could use Luke’s guidance, but is capable on her own. For the first time in all 9 Star Wars films, a character is driven by their desire to do the right thing. All of the Skywalkers are motivated by fear, loss, or revenge. It gives them focus and makes them stronger, but at great cost. Rey’s focus and strength are built truly on the light.
All that aside, who gives a shit who Snoke is. Forget Rey’s parents. Give that an anthology movie. Let’s get to the story at hand with the characters we have and move it forward. The Prequels looked like video games and functioned like them with their many side quests. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi do not do this.
One of the other major irritants with fans is the story’s treatment of Luke.
You can’t forget the past unless you admit it existed. From 1999 through 2005 the 3 prequels came out and told us shockingly little in the way of story. Instead there was this huge focus on explaining the rules of the Force, galaxy, and people that we did not know existed in the world created by the Original Trilogy.
The Jedi were greater in number and revered and accepted as part of the galaxy. But their rules. The rules were pointless. And there were so many of them. You can only begin training before a certain age. You have to renounce your family. You can’t have romantic attachment. There are thousands of Jedi, but maybe a dozen that belong to the Council. And the Council didn’t even function properly. Anakin, who seemed like a pretty well adjusted kid, was identified as being scared and lonely, which could lead to the Dark Side. They agree not to allow him to be trained. Twice. But Obi Wan says he’ll do it without the Council’s help or approval if he has to, so Yoda just lays down and lets him. What? It’s not like Obi Wan gets help or seeks approval from the Council any other time in regards to Anakin. There’s the one time in Attack of the Clones where Obi Wan admits that Anakin isn’t ready to take an assignment yet. He leaves out the part about Anakin’s personal feelings towards Padme being the reason for the concern.
The Jedi and their Council were pompous and overly dogmatic. Palpatine uses this as a sales pitch to Anakin on joining the Dark Side. And, since these movies are canon, they have to be addressed. Luke is the best character to do this. He has gravitas. He can explain it in a training session to Rey instead of it just being clumsy, prequel era exposition. We are lead to believe that Luke went on a lot of Jedi fact finding missions after Return of the Jedi. He probably learned all of the dumb codes of the Jedi. I mean, I still can’t get over how fucking silly their rules were. The code basically invited people to at least take a vacation on the path to the Dark Side. These rules diminished the Jedi ability to use the Force, allowed Palpatine to rise, and lose Count Dooku and Anakin Skywalker. Luke was right to be jaded against the Jedi Order.
This is not out of character for Luke. The character was restless and moody in A New Hope. He was reckless, scared, and dismissive in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s only in Return of the Jedi, where he has purpose, that Luke Skywalker is balanced and peaceful. And it’s not even for the whole movie.
Luke is in control when he rescues Han and, to backup my argument, when he confronts what is left of the Jedi Council. The polar opposite of Rey, Luke is given a brief line about his parents and never shows signs he was really affected by their absence. When he does find out who his father is and is then instructed to kill him, Luke appropriately balks. Fans were 22 years and 3 prequels away from knowing that Anakin had to shed the Vader persona and take up the mantle of Chosen One in order to end Palpatine’s reign. But even in May of 1983 when Return of the Jedi was released, Luke tells Obi Wan “I can’t kill my own father.” Luke’s signature whine also conveys a tone of ‘are you serious?’ Instructing someone to kill their parents again sounds like something out of the Dark Side’s travel brochure. Both the Prequels and the Sequels have shown that’s something the big bad usually requires of their apprentices. Not anyone remotely good.
This was likely the seed of Luke’s mistrust in the old Jedi Order. Seeing his father as a restored Force ghost felt great for him. And the fans. But when Luke undoubtedly learned the true extent of Vader’s deeds, you can see why Luke would chuck that particular lighsabre over his shoulder on Ahch-To. It was used to kill children and decimate the Jedi. I get that it has significance. But it’s only Luke that understands it’s true significance. Well, maybe Kylo Ren gets it. That was the sabre in his grandfather’s possession when he assumed the persona of Darth Vader. That could be why Kylo wants it so bad. The true commitment to the Dark Side of the Force was made by Anakin Skywalker with death strokes from that lightsabre’s blade.
When Luke ignites his own sabre over a sleeping Ben Solo, it’s eerily similar to Vader igniting the same sabre to Luke’s back in Return of the Jedi. Vader and Luke had fleeting moments of killing the person before them. Where Luke was able to understand this as conflict in his father, Kylo got scared. Again, another Skywalker motivated by fear.
To me, this fear of Luke Skywalker is what still drives Kylo Ren to exist at the end of the TLJ. He has the First Order fire every gun at Luke. That’s the move of a person that is scared to their core. When Kylo goes to confront Luke, he doesn’t launch right at him. He looks like he’s pumping himself up like he did after he killed Han Solo in the Force Awakens. When he realizes that he faced a ghost of the man that he is most fearful of, he is noticeably shaken. Kylo undoubtedly feels Luke pass on to the Force and knows he will now literally be haunted by that which he fears the most. Kylo’s last human moments are longingly looking towards Rey through the Force. And she shuts the door on him. Ben Solo is may truly be dead and a Skywalker is the main antagonist of Star Wars.
But, back to Luke for a second. As I mentioned, in the Original Trilogy, Luke Skywalker was never completely balanced. Even in Return of the Jedi, he has a moment of weakness and moves to strike the Emperor down in anger. Master Yoda comes back to drop this knowledge bomb on Luke. Once Luke finally goes to the Force Rock and establishes connection to the Force, his old mentors are able to connect with him.
Yoda is great. He’s purely exposition, but it’s Yoda, it’s less than five minutes of movie, and he’s great.
“Young Skywalker. Missed you, I have.” Luke is still the same confused preoccupied kid he was in The Empire Strikes Back. And Yoda schools him to that point. And then blows up the sacred Force Tree. Which also pissed me off because, clearly, the Force Ghosts can interfere in the corporeal world. So when Obi Wan says he cannot help Luke in The Empire Strikes back, it’s more old school Jedi Council bullshit. We must let him forge his own path. This is another even risk to reward proposition.
Rey told Luke to his face that his mistake was thinking that Ben Solo had already made a decision to join Snoke. Yoda reminds Luke of the same error and ties it in to his ability to look towards the horizon without acknowledging what is in front of him. These fucking Skywalkers.
Also, Yoda knows he can blow up the Sacred Tree and the Ancient Jedi Texts within them because he is aware that Rey took The Ancient Jedi Texts with her before she left. Again, Rey knowing she needs help, but if she can’t get a trainer, she’ll just read the books instead. (When Finn goes into a drawer on the Millennium Falcon at the end of the movie you can see the texts are safely tucked away.)
There have been a lot of nods to the first 6 movies in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
When Rey first duels with Kylo Ren, there are 3 main sections to the fight. The first showcases Obi Wan moves from The Phantom Menace, the second shows the same evasive moves used by Yoda in Attack of the Clones, and the third clearly shows iconic moves from Anakin vs. Obi Wan in Revenge of the Sith. Most notably, we see Rey forced to a cliff and then Kylo and Rey holding off sabre strikes by locking their arms.
Luke’s appearance omniscience’s Crait is reminiscent of Yoda’s appearance in the hangar bay on Geonosis in Attack of the Clones. Both showed machismo towards their opponents.
As alluded to before, Luke’s knowledge and lecture about the actions of the old Jedi Order from the Prequels. He also uses the name Darth Sidious to refer to the Emperor, which further incorporates the Prequels into the story.
The Last Jedi also does away with a lot of the shortcomings of the first 6 movies in the saga.
The Prequels featured Jar Jar Binks, who, to put it mildly, was a bad racist composite of stereotypes. I don’t care what the intention was. It was ill fated.
They also featured Neimodians, which seemed to pioneer racism in a new way. Several different racial stereotypes were crammed into these offensive characters that were essentially responsible for being manipulated into banking the Galactic Civil War.
The most offensive part of the Prequels for me has always been its definition of slavery. Anakin is introduced to us as a slave boy. Yet, he gets to live in a multiple room apartment with his mom. There is ample food. He’s allowed to foster his interest in science and technology. He builds Threepio to be a butler for his mom. I get that he and his mom don’t get paid for their work, but their existence is more reminiscent of the American Middle Class than slavery. The Prequels were marketed towards kids, and made in America, and this is the lesson we give them on character and slavery? It is shameful. It also explains, in some part, how our country has gotten to the point it is in. Too far? I don't care. This is what I believe.
One of the biggest shortcomings of the beloved Original Trilogy, and the Prequels, was the toxic masculinity in the storytelling.
Padme Amidala and Leia Organa were powerful in The Phantom Menace and A New Hope. The were still strong characters, but became more focused as characters subject to romanticization by male leads in Attack of the Clones and The Empire Strikes Back. The were totally written off as a fretting pregnant woman and a sex slave desperate to save her lover over all else in Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi. This mother and daughter dup started as powerful characters and were degraded over the course of the films. They went from protagonists who moved the plot forward to characters designed to become part of your spank bank.
Rey, Leia, and Vice Admiral Holdo are powerful. The story of the Sequel Trilogy does not exist or move without them.
Rey’s character, so well acted by Daisey Ridley, is the main character of the films. She has a solid moral compass and a level of basic human understanding that was lacking in the Original Trilogy. Finn may have a new love in Rose. Rey clearly senses this as she watches Finn cover Rose at the end of TLJ. But she’s not angry. She doesn’t storm off. Because she doesn’t need a romantic relationship to be whole. Luke ultimately did not need one in any of the movies. He had the same arc with Leia that Rey has with Finn, minus the awkward brother sister aspect of Luke and Leia. Rey’s story is rich without any romance. She does not need a man to be complete. That’s why I hope the smile that she gives Poe at the end of TLJ is more along the line of, people know who I am and I am finally part of something bigger, instead of, oh, look, a boy!
Fans are upset over Leia’s space flight. I’ve literally heard people say, “That’s not the way the Force works!” First, your life is sad. Second of all, in the Prequels Jedi could literally fly and the Force could keep someone from by dying by using another person’s life force. Really? I prefer Leia knowing she’s about to take a direct hit, taking a deep breath, and using the Force to pull herself back in from the vacuum of space. A lot of the sex slave Leia fanboys were also upset that Leia all of a sudden uses the Force. We don’t know what she did between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Plus, she has the mighty Skywalker blood. I loved that moment. If you hated kit, there’s another reason to move beyond Skywalkers.
Vice Admiral Holdo has purple hair and Poe was not expected someone in an evening gown to lead him. Toxic masculinity. The way it’s handled is awesome, though. Poe is not dismissed. He is not attacked by every female in the movie. In fact, half of Poe’s mutiny squad was female. He relies on help from Maz Kanata, in a great cameo, for help. Poe’s character represents that toxic masculine that doesn’t know why they are toxic. Poe is clearly not a misogynist. He’s misguided and learns the error of his ways on the way to becoming the leader the Resistance will likely rely on in Episode IX. Also, Holdo is just a badass. She takes harsh, public criticism on her chin, gives some of her own to Poe in a less public setting, and flies a giant ship at light speed directly into the Supremacy which is the definition of badass. One YouTube reaction video claimed that they did not know who played Holdo, but claimed she was a terrible actress who was in one movie he couldn’t remember. Well, broooooo, Laura Dern has been killing the acting game for 30 years. And that thing you remember seeing her in was Jurassic Park, which is one the highest grossing films ever. Broooooooo.
Rose, played by Kelly Marie Tran, is an exceptional addition, as well. This is her first appearance in the story and she feels like a fully conceived character. Her declaration of love for Finn comes out of nowhere, but does have build up, fits a proper story progression, and is ten times better than any of the shockingly horrible romance between Anakin and Padme that was drawn lout and painful to watch.
I get that this is the 9th movie in the franchise. It’s naturally dependent on all of the story that came before it. But I believe The Last Jedi is the best of all of the Star Wars movies by far. Remember, inclusion and representation are not ‘political correctness.’ They are tenants of reflecting the real world in fiction. Enjoy this ride. There’s not a lot of movies like this.