Star Wars: The Last Jedi> Eight Years Later

I need to use another filler video. It’s a long one and my time is short, so probably not going to say much. Plus Literature Devil already says so much in 2+ hours. Supposedly we’d someday reassess Star Wars: The Last Jedi and see it as a true masterpiece. That’s what defenders say. Defenders were wrong.

While the prequels, while still subpar, has been reassessed due to Lucas’ intent, the sequel trilogy came out as intended, or at least the individual movies were. While Disney’s Lucasfilm tossed out a lot of what George Lucas had suggested for the sequels, so did Rian Johnson toss out the direction J.J. Abrams had set up in favor of a movie that subverted everything, including the desires of the fanbase. Subverting expectations is fine and keeps things fresh, but when you subvert desires, you lose the fans and the story bombs.

It doesn’t help that The Last Jedi is basically The Empire Strikes Back in reverse. Where Empire starts on a snow planet, Last Jedi ends on a salt planet. Where the older movie shows heroes rising only to hit a huge brick wall as the middle part of a trilogy, the younger movie tries to end the trilogy early with everyone practically winning and the villains already defeated or looking so weak as to be ineffectual. Finn’s character arc (and I’m not part of the “he should be a Jedi” camp because his story arc doesn’t need it any more than Han or Lando did) was tossed out, Luke fails in a way contrary to his hero’s journey and redemption of his father, and unnecessary stuff added nothing to the drama while the big generals escape plan seemed to kill more resistance fighters than it saved.

Enough about me, though. Let’s hear what Literature Devil has to say.

I already wrote extra thoughts in the comments of the video’s post, so let me just copy/paste that with some minor editing. Low on time, remember? The scene with a woman shooting a bunch of guards and giving the gun back to the man happened in Spaceballs, but it was done for comedic effect. Lone Star hands Princess Vespa a gun, and she is wary about it until one of the guards shoots her hair and she goes Rambo on them. On the blog I can even show you, which I couldn’t in the comments. One swear, but deserved.

That’s also meant to be a comedic moment, but when you do the silly thing for real that doesn’t work nearly as well.

Hux’s punishment was just so the big bad can prove how evil he is by torturing a subordinate. When Piet’s predecessor is bumped off, it’s because his arrogance cost them a decisive victory by allowing the Rebels to escape by leaving hyperspace too early, a dumb plan that was apparently the latest in a series of them.

Clone Wars also added to the degradation of the Jedi, especially his treatment of Ashoka when she was framed by a “dark Jedi” who was upset about Jedi being generals in a war, the second “dark Jedi” we see in the series. Had the Council apologized instead of writing everything off as “the will of the Force” and not taken responsibility, they wouldn’t look so bad. Sure, it was just to get Ashoka out of the way for Revenge Of The Sith, but they chose a way that made the Jedi look worse, like they deserved to lose to the Sith due to their arrogance. They made Ventress’ statement in the first Clone Wars cartoon by Tartakovsky correct. (I couldn’t find the right clip.) The website had “news” reports of the Jedi taking kids away from their parents if they were Force sensitive.

Luke’s fall could have worked if they did it right. I’ve had an idea for years that can tie in to Literature Devil’s take on Ben’s fall and it’s one I’ve brought up before. Have Luke suffer his father’s mistake. Anakin misunderstood what the Force was warning him, not that Padme was dying but that his current path would lead to her death, which happens by his “hand”. He didn’t have anyone to turn to for help in interpreting the vision and he wasn’t very good at it.

Meanwhile Luke never had any training in visions that we saw, so what if he didn’t understand the Force was warning him that he was making Ben’s turn more likely rather than less. By not understanding the vision it allowed Snoke the opening he needed to corrupt Ben and turn him into Kylo Ren. Also, he should warn Rey that while she might be right it takes more than just a confrontation. Vader had to be led back to Anakin at the end and he had to fight his own father (twice) and his own temptation, while at one point Rey dives right into the Dark Side during her journey into the Force. It might be possible, but she had so much to learn first.

Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures is part of my head canon.

I often use Rowan from Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures as an example of Rey done right. He has no early Force training but is drawn to the Kyber Saber, a saber made from one large Kyber crystal and containing great power. While he has to train himself at one point, using his Battle Droid friend’s memories of being cut up by Jedi as his guide, he got early training from what he thought was a Jedi who turned out to be a Sith working for Palpatine and just wanted the Saber. In season two he learned his real destiny was as a Force Builder (a power that can only exist in a Lego universe) and had to train that to learn how to build the ship from his vision. There was an immediate connection to the Force but he still had to hone that connection and become a proper Jedi.

Totally original wrap-up: If anything, the reassessment of The Last Jedi is worse now that we’ve had time to really think about it. Rian Johnson made a bad Star Wars movie, and it’s questionable if it was even a good movie period. DisneyFilm has just gotten worse and worse with their Star Wars movies and shows to the point that the only shows that get praised are kids shows, The Mandalorian until it became about selling “baby Yoda” toys and guest-starring actors in a way that breaks the immersion, and a prequel to Rogue One that still had bad moments and like the movie didn’t really have the same tone that we expect from an action sci-fi franchise with space wizards and spaceships. Disney Star Wars, like Disney Marvel, fails from lacking people who care about the franchise or good storytelling and it’s obvious with each new product. It shouldn’t be super easy to ruin a franchise that’s been around longer than the current creators, but it seems every department at Disney is filled with people whose destiny, intentional or not, is to do just that.