In Defense of the Last Jedi

by Mike Lunsford, Editor-in-chief

There are a lot of people out there who are bashing The Last Jedi pretty fiercely. Now, what I'm about to do might seem petty, it might seem unnecessary, heck, it might even be a waste of my words as those who oppose The Last Jedi so fervently will not listen to reason. However, I feel like a simple statement of "these guys are dumb" is not enough. I am taking it upon myself to obliterate the biggest "issues" people have with this movie. In my previous article, I tackled the sex/race bias that was happening. For my next trick, it's the ridiculous "flaws" that many point out with this movie. I find their arguments ridiculous in nature and downright idiotic. The racist and sexist stuff is obviously horrid, but it's the other arguments about narrative structure, "missing weapons," out-of-character leads and the like that irritate me to no end. 

All that being said, I think it's important for someone who loves Star Wars as much as I do to destroy some of these arguments I've read as to why Last Jedi is horrible. So, let's put these to rest. 

- Finn, Rose and BB-8 Travel to Canto Bight

The angry fanboy statement: "The trip was pointless! It didn't accomplish anything and the relationship between Finn and Rose is forced!"

Just because you didn't like that the trip by Rose and Finn to Canto Bight didn't produce any real results, it doesn't matter. That's how life is. How many times have you wasted time doing something? How many times have you thought "I need to do something instead of just sitting here!" This is EXACTLY what Finn, Rose and BB-8 did. Under the direction of Poe Dameron, they were sent to find a "slicer" to help them deactivate the tracking device the First Order was using. This mission blew up in their face as it was completely pointless, except that it showed that Poe was too hotheaded to be a leader and had much to learn. He learned this lesson as he's going to be a critical part of the Resistance going forward. People have to learn lessons in order to grow. 

In going to Canto Bight, they also meet DJ (Benico Del Toro). He provides some much needed perspective when he reveals that these "evil arms dealers" are not making their riches simply off of selling arms to the First Order. They also sell to the Resistance. Things are not always so black and white. This really develops Finn's character as he's only seen things from the First Order side of things and is automatically biased against anything they have to say. The trip to Canto Bight also built his relationship with Rose and gives him much more depth for his reasons to fight. His motivations before this mission were mostly to protect Rey, in fact he put them above the Resistance, ready to use an escape pod before being stopped by Rose. 

While on the casino planet, Finn, Rose and BB-8 encounter the seedy underbelly of this idyllic planet: slave labor is used to keep and maintain the animals that many of these arms dealers are betting on to win. These slaves they encountered were given hope when they met Finn and Rose as they mentioned they were with the Resistance. That was an underlying theme in this movie; that even when things seem the bleakest, there is still hope. 

And let me make a huge point: remember The Empire Strikes Back? The movie that everyone swoons over and says is the best Star Wars movie ever? Let's talk about that movie's wasted trip. Luke goes to Cloud City to "save his friends." What did he end up accomplishing? He got his hand chopped off, found out Darth Vader was his father, wasn't able to stop Boba Fett from flying off with Han Solo and didn't save Chewie, 3PO or Princess Leia. One could argue that he needed to go to Cloud City in order to further his training and learning a valuable yet painful lesson. When looking at accomplishing a goal, he certainly sucked at that. In fact, you know who was the hero? R2. He reactivated the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon to save all of them INCLUDING LUKE. So, his mission was wasted, too. He just happened to bring along R2 who was the real hero. 

C3PO: "I'm standing here in pieces..."
R2D2: "For the love of the Force, shut up 3P0. I'm saving our butts otherwise Anakin is going to kill us."
C3PO: "Anakin? Who is that?"
R2D2: "Oh yeah...they wiped your memory. Nevermind!"

but hey, while we're on the topic of Rose and Finn...

- Rose Stole Finn's Moment

The angry fanboy statement: "Rose and Finn have only known each other for like 2 days! How does she already love him and why does she steal his heroic moment?"

Let me paint the picture for you: Finn decides that he can't let the First Order win. He decides that he's going to fly the equivalent of a rusted out hover-Schwinn into this miniature Death Star laser.

"PEDAL FASTER FINN! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!! *Flips tassels and honks horn*

Yes, it's symbolic that Finn finally has something to fight for and die for but Rose flies in at the last second and saves him (almost kills him, but this is who these 2 characters are at this point). There's been some discussion that Rose stole Finn's big opportunity to be a hero, to show his character is no longer a coward who's running away from danger, rather towards it. I would respectfully disagree with this point and for a simple reason: the young heroes of the Resistance (Finn, Poe, and Rose specifically) are idiots. They're impulsive, brash, want to shoot first and ask questions later, they let their emotions rule their decisions, almost exactly like a young Luke, Han and Leia. Plus, Finn sacrificing himself in his tinfoil speeder would have done nothing to that cannon and we would be out the former stormtrooper for the next film. Plus, with Rose saving him it shows that this group is more about "saving what they love, not destroying what they hate." Yes, the line may have been cheesy but Star Wars has always been about the why you do something and how you go about it, so this is an important distinction. 

Oh, and Han and Leia fell in love in a meteor hole. Get over it. Star Wars love happens quick. Must be all that hyperdrive flyin'. 

- Leia Should Have Died

This one is very delicate. You have to remember that Carrie Fisher passed away 5 months after principal filming for The Last Jedi concluded. I know that it would make it easier for all of us who were touched by her to see one final powerful performance and go out in a blaze of glory. Many have stated, logically, that she should have replaced Laura Dern's Admiral Holdo on the bridge of the Resistance cruiser that went hyperspace kamikaze on the First Order (btw, Hyperspace Kamikaze is a killer band name). It would have made sense, but it also would have been retroactively putting General Leia Organa into that sacrificial role. It wouldn't fit her character in this movie to do that. 

Now, for the OTHER time she should have died. When the First Order takes out the bridge of the cruiser, killing Admiral Ackbar and seemingly Leia as well, we all sat and watched thinking "oh, this is how they dealt with her death." But wait! She's not dead! She floats in space for a moment then magically flies back to an open airlock.

The angry response has been: "This was so cheesy! We've never heard of Leia being able to do anything like this! And it looked horrible! What about the concussive force of the explosion that killed everyone else on the bridge?"

I've heard all of the clamor about Leia not knowing anything bout the Force, how implausible this would be. but that's the thing. The Force is tricky. It binds the universe together, it's in every thing, every where and can do incredible things. Often times, it's will can be seen. Remember in Rogue One when Donnie Yen's Chirrut Imwe, who is blind might I add, walked across an open landing pad in range of at least half a dozen Death Troopers and didn't get hit once?

That right there. THAT is the Will of the Force. Not only that, you combine that with someone who is the daughter of one of the most powerful Force wielders ever and you wonder how she survived that? In the Legends novels, Luke survives the vacuum of space by going into a "Force Coma." No one complained about that. The Starkiller character from the Star Wars The Force Unleashed video game was stabbed through the chest by Darth Vader and thrown out of a window into the vacuum of space and he survived. You can't use that sort of logic when it comes to a series that is essentially a space soap opera.

Now, if you thought the way it was filmed/shown/etc was poorly executed that's one thing, but the act itself? That's not that bad. Han Solo was turned into a stone wall ornament and then "unfrozen" with the only side effect being some temporary blindness. Let's all not get our space undies in a twist. 

- The Disappearing Knife Trick

When Kylo and Rey teamed up to take on the Praetorian Guards, we got to see the two really show off their abilities with a lightsaber. The fight scene was intense, frenetic and one of the most exciting points of the movie. We had seen Kylo Ren show off his abilities with the Force in The Force Awakens, but his incredible skill with a lightsaber were not on display before like it was in this scene. He destroyed the elite guards of Supreme Leader Snoke. 

Rey held her own in this fight but is part of a "butt-hurt fanboy" conspiracy that says the choreography or the editing missed a huge error. Take a look at the GIF below. 

You see how this guard had 2 knives? Then all of a sudden he only has 1? The issue they have is they feel that the guard, after performing this move, should have been able to stab Rey in the back. Here's the problem: you can see the guard drop the knife. Period. It's over. There's no other reason to discuss this. The scene never cuts, it doesn't switch cameras, there is no edit here, the guard dropped the knife! Why is this even a thing? Why would you try to pick this apart? The most infuriating part about this "error" is that it's obviously part of the scene. It was scripted, choreographed, rehearsed probably a dozen times and you think that somehow they missed something or they had to edit out the other knife in post-production? My god, this one is infuriating. Next. 

- "Luke Skywalker was not heroic"

"I wonder if Han ever changed the discs in the stereo" *pushes play and Slow Ride by Foghat plays* "Sweeeeeeeeeet." 

This is the big one. OK, so full disclosure: Luke Skywalker is my hero. He has been since I was 4 or 5 years old. I practiced lightsaber moves in my basement pretending to be him. I imagined him (me) saving the galaxy countless times. In fact, my movie review I did for The Last Jedi focuses almost solely on Luke. I've read most of the "Legends" novels that depict Luke like most of us imagined him being after the Battle of Endor: the father of an entire new generation of Jedi. I played the Jedi Outcast PC games that showed his Master status. He was a hero to another generation and re-created the Jedi Order. Then these Disney guys came along, they bought Star Wars from George Lucas and RUINED IT ALL! Haha, not really. But that's how a lot of the naysayers act when discussing the direction the new Star Wars trilogy has taken. And it has taken a different turn indeed.

When we meet Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi he is a far cry from the hopeful young man we saw in Return of the Jedi. Many fans, even Mark Hamill himself were critical of this change, of the "New Hope" being hopeless. Hamill was quoted as saying

(To Rian Johnson) I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision...Jedis don’t give up. I mean even if he had a problem he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake he would try and right that wrong.’ So right there we had a fundamental difference...

Mark Hamill is still one of my heroes, but that doesn't mean we agree on everything. Theoretically, who would know better than Luke Skywalker himself as to how a Jedi SHOULD act? But I have to side with Rian Johnson's take on things. Let break down what Luke Skywalker really was. When you compare him to other Jedi like Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker, Luke only got a mere fraction of the training they did. Of those 3 famous Jedi, 2 quit being Jedi essentially and the other quit the Jedi for a...cabinet position with the Imperial Government we'll call it.  

which one of you punks called me "Annie-Annie face like a fanny???"

Jedi quit all the time! Obi-Wan and Yoda went into hiding, and they were his mentors! When things get crappy, it makes sense that Luke would follow in their footsteps. No one is saying he was weak for making this decision, in fact cutting himself off from the Force as to not cause any more harm is actually quite a heroic move, he essentially sacrificed himself to save the galaxy. 

Let's destroy this "Not the real Luke" narrative even further. There is evidence in how Luke acted in the previous movies to show that his actions or lack-there-of in The Last Jedi were exactly what he should have done. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan tell Luke repeatedly that he must face and defeat Darth Vader and the Emperor in order to succeed/be a real Jedi. And when he is finally at the point where he is in front of the two most evil people in the galaxy he refuses to fight. He continues his refusal until he gets baited into it. For the most part, he continues to refuse to fight Darth Vader. That is, until his father threatened to turn Leia to the Dark Side and then Luke SNAPPED. He aggressively attacked Vader. And what did he do after he had his father lying on the ground disarmed and defeated?

Ha. Disarmed. Get it?

Luke realized what had happened: the entire fight had been about avoiding anger, aggression, and hate but in the end that's how he defeated his father. AND, to top it off, in order to defeat Vader he had to do exactly what the dark lord had said to him in Empire Strikes Back:

Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me. 

Fighting, his lightsaber being used as a weapon of attack, giving into his anger and hate, that was leading to his corruption to the Dark Side, just like it had done to his father. There's a moment in this scene where Luke looks at his father's severed machine hand and his own mechanical hand and it dawns on him. "It wouldn't take much more for me to be exactly like him. I'm on the same path." That is when he realizes fighting won't lead to victory, so he throws his saber aside. He refuses to kill the bad guy who threatened his sister and he refuses to fight the even worse guy with the lightning hands. 

This realization is echoed in Luke's flashback to the night he confronted Ben. He decides to confront his student about the darkness within him. As soon as he ignites his saber in deciding that ending his nephew's life is the only way, he has that same moment of realization. He looks at his hands and realizes that he's made this decision before: when he was on the second Death Star with his father and the Emperor to be exact. Killing evil is not the Jedi way. Unfortunately for him, this decision not to attack was met with equally painful results, an awful reminder that the path to the Dark Side is easy, but always ends in pain and suffering. 

When Luke makes his decision to finally aid the Resistance, he does quite possibly the most Jedi thing ever. He comes full circle and uses all the lessons he's learned in studying the Force. In fact, before he makes his last stand against the First Order he has a tender moment with Leia. This scene was incredible because it shows that Luke did finally get it.

Luke: I came to face him, Leia, and I can't save him.

Leia: I held out hope for so long...but I know my son is gone.

Luke: No one's ever really gone.

In that moment, he speaks of the duality of people and the nature of the Force. Luke can't save him, but in facing him in the way he intends, he may be able to help Ben save himself. No one is irredeemable, but they have to choose to do so. It can not be at the end of a lightsaber that they make their choice.

In his fight with Ben Solo, Luke showcases another lesson he learned. He embodies Yoda quote from Empire Strikes Back. 

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.

Luke took a barrage of laser fire without even igniting his lightsaber, he dodged and danced around Kylo's attacks and reminded his former pupil of the ills of the Dark Side. Luke atones for his mistakes by apologizing to Ben for his failings as a teacher and warns him that no matter what, both he and Ben's father Han will always be with him. And when Kylo finally realizes that the entire thing was an astral projection? It was quite possibly the most Jedi thing that's ever been shown in the Star Wars franchise.

Not heroic? "Out of character?" Luke was exactly who he should have been and in fact, was exactly what was needed for this film. Rey wanted a warrior to join her for an attack on the First Order. Instead she got true heroism and wisdom from a man who didn't think he was a hero or courageous any longer. John Wayne had a great quote about courage in one of his movies that is one of my favorites to this day:

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyways.

Luke was afraid of being seen as a disappointment. He was ashamed of not being able to save the galaxy again but finally comes to grips with that. He "saddles up" and embodies courage in the climatic confrontation of The Last Jedi. He takes on his greatest failure and never even raises a hand against his fallen protégé, in fact he was never even on the same planet. If you were expecting him to be mowing through people with his green-bladed lightsaber like a buzz saw and pulling Star Destroyers out of the sky, all the while shooting lightning out of his butt, while satisfying that may have been, it would have been a disservice to this character. Luke's story is one of hope and tragedy, each one dependent upon the other. We see Luke as a tragic character when we meet him in The Last Jedi and leaves that film instilling hope again to the galaxy. And he did it by following the principles of the Jedi even after he was convinced that their legacy was failure. 

This movie, more so than any other Star Wars film, has caused quite an uproar. I bring that up to say this: the majority of fans liked the movie. Critics gave this movie a solid rating and review. There is a very vocal MINORITY that did not like this film and a lot of people are mistaking the volume of their complaints with frequency of total detractors. In the end, just like any other film, The Last Jedi is not without flaws, but most of the critiques are not valid points. It's almost like they are looking for any excuse to not like the film so much so that they will over-inflate any small perceived issue. You can't keep everyone happy, but as a fan, if you didn't like the film then state just that. Don't over-analyze the darn thing in hopes of finding some damning flaw. It's just a movie. Don't be a juicebag. :)

For the next trick in my Star Wars series, I'm going to attempt to explain one of the biggest plot holes to date in the new trilogy: How in the heck Rey got to be so powerful and I will discuss the issues that I had with the film. After that, we'll discuss how the Star Wars community already had a follow-up trilogy for Han, Luke and Leia.