Five Points of Controversy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi That are Actually Beautiful - Part IV (Spoilers)

4. Not my Luke Skywalker

Acknowledgement: “Not my Luke Skywalker” is a hashtag gaining momentum. I doubt it will ever rival the somewhat entitled sounding “not my president,” but clearly those who use the hashtag feel just as passionate. Maybe even more.

I laughed when Luke tossed the lightsaber over his shoulder. Rian Johnson trolled me and I guess I just like that sort of humor. Andy Kaufman would have been proud. I will admit, The Last Jedi had me worried about Luke, and I thought, “Oh no . . . Mark Hamill was right.”

I think if you found this blog you probably know about Mark Hamill talking in several interviews about how he fundamentally disagreed with what Rian Johnson had in mind for his most iconic character. Just in case you didn’t, here is one of several hundred Youtube videos on the subject. Of course, this isn’t the best way to promote a movie, but I think Mark was honest when he made sure to start talking about how he had come around to Johnson’s vision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djJ6GAplhFU

 We all could kind of predict Luke would not want to train Rey at first, and then he would grow and give in. However, we all assumed Luke had gone looking for the first Jedi temple because he wanted to correct his mistakes somehow. Come to learn he intends to just live out his days as a hermit until he dies. We all wanted Luke to be inspired by something, pick up his saber and go help Rey. We all wanted bad ass moments with him taking down the Knights of Ren, or maybe crushing First Order Walkers. We did get a blaze of glory moment, but despite the incredible final act, I can understand how it would feel underwhelming. Even Yoda didn’t fade into the force until Return of the Jedi. For years we have been reading stories, which are now legends, on how Luke managed to find himself a wife, have a son, and take down several more threats to the galaxy. We didn’t necessarily expect to see all of those things, but we wanted a hint of them. We were hoping for two more movies with Luke as a mentor for the next generation. We still might see him around in the next film, just not the way we hoped. However, when the story is examined in a big picture context, the poetry of Luke’s arc in this film is gorgeous.

How Luke was written: Considering the flashback sequences, Luke hasn’t been gone for twenty years. It seems like maybe two or three at the most. His failure with Ben Solo is relatively recent on the time scale. It leaves plenty of room for some of the badass stories we were hoping for to still be back into canon. What we have to come to terms with as fans is this: The Last Jedi is the story of the final days of Luke Skywalker. It is the story of how he placed his hopes in a young girl and decided to let his legend give hope to the galaxy. It is the story of how he came to terms with becoming more powerful than we could ever imagine, by moving from this life into the next. Han Solo was a mentor for Rey, but he doesn’t have the power to be her spiritual guide.

Luke does.

Since this trilogy as a whole is about the new generation, it is a fitting place to be. If I am Rian Johnson, I have to imagine how Luke would react to feeling responsible for losing Ben to the dark side. I also need to include things like how Luke probably found out about the old Jedi order and how his father fell. I will have to trust my audience to understand what my worst fear might be as a Jedi Master losing his student to the dark side without explaining them. The circumstances surrounding the fall of Ben Solo will be the final section in this series, so I am only going to state the obvious here. Considering the context of the moment of doubt Luke had that caused him to even consider the unthinkable, the person Luke becomes makes total sense.

 He is a man racked with guilt. Even touching a lightsaber again must disgust him even more than it disgusts us to see him milking weird space walruses. As a writer this broken man is who I build my story around. I can’t just have Rey show up and suddenly he changes his mind. I can’t have him return to heroics for his buddy Han Solo. So what really brings Luke back to us?

The Point of View of Master Skywalker: The real moment of triumph in this film is a quiet one. It’s when Luke opens himself up to the force again. This happens after R2D2 takes his “cheap shot” and shows Luke is original call to action. Something about his training with Rey prompts him to reach out to Leia. Her pain and suffering might have caused him to want to go to his sister, but as Luke rushes to find Rey he walks in on her and Kylo Ren physically touching through the force. All his fears come rushing back, and he does not respond well.

He tells Rey to leave, but she is determined that Kylo Ren could come back to the light. Luke tries to tell her not to go to him, but she won’t listen. However, Luke is open to the force now, and a certain green Muppet can at last make contact. Yoda is more than a cameo. He is the turning point in the film. Up to this point, both Luke and Kylo Ren are trying to burn down their past in different ways. Luke is trying to hide from his greatest mistake, and Kylo Ren is trying to literally destroy his past to gain power.

However, Yoda offers the balance. It is fine to destroy your past, as long as you learn from it.

“Failure is the greatest of teachers,” he says.  

The crux of the movie becomes that Luke needs to break free of his existential quandary. He needs to burn down the past of his failures, but he also needs to realize that he has learned from them, so that he does not have to be in constant fear of them happening again. This is the balance for Luke. To continue to pass on what he has learned to a new generation to include the lessons of his failures. Yoda bonks Luke over the head with his ghost walking stick—and it hurts. Then he destroys the tree. These two acts give us a new perspective on what Force Ghosts can achieve, so we should be perhaps a little excited that Luke no doubt becomes one.

 As for the texts, we learn at the end of the film that Rey has already taken them. Yoda knows this, so it is symbolic of the Force placing its trust in Rey to be the balance of the future. But Luke has also placed his faith in Rey. He knows his final act will create a legend, but he also knows he will not survive the effort it will take to project himself across the galaxy. He is both inspiring hope to the galaxy and placing hope in his last student. I find this notion beautiful.

I want to point out that we couldn’t get these motifs done correctly if Luke is physically at the final battle. Luke cold have destroyed the squadron of walkers, but he would still have to lose. Some people would have perhaps like to have seen him go out in this blaze of glory, or even sacrifice himself to Kylo Ren the same way Obi Wan did to Vader. This all sounds good in theory, but I think in execution we would have not been as pleased with the result. People would argue, “If Luke was so powerful why he couldn’t have just crushed Kylo Ren and ended the threat right here?”

We would never have bought Kylo Ren besting Luke in a duel. Could you imagine the outrage compared to the sort of small squabble we have over Luke’s death now?  Moreover, from the point of view of the character of Luke Skywalker, sacrificing himself might be significant for Rey, because he would be able to talk to her as a force ghost. Yet the rest of the Galaxy would see Luke Skywalker be defeated. Nor would he have been able to keep the First Order from advancing. Even if he could destroy several walkers it would not have bought enough time in my mind. Hope might have been in danger of being extinguished. 

Instead, Luke chose to goad Kylo Ren into a fight he could not possibly win, even with all his might. I became the kid at the end of the movie, creating my own legends of Luke Skywalker in between the films while still in awe of the way he showed us why he is one badass Jedi Master.

Five Points of Controversy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi That are Actually Beautiful - Part III (Spoilers)

PART 3 of 5

DONT MISS THE FIRST TWO PARTS

PART 2
PART 1

3. That Crazy Plot Though!

Acknowledgement: The movie begins with the bad guys figuring out where the good guys have their base. A huge armada is sent to destroy our heroes, but they manage to escape through some ingenious heroics. Unfortunately, because of some shenanigans involving hyperspace, the bad guys stay in hot pursuit.  The heroes have to place their faith in a less than scrupulous character, who ends up betraying them. This sudden but inevitable betrayal (Yes, I am quoting Firefly in a Star Wars blog) is thwarted by the good guys thanks to the help of a resourceful little droid, and the heroes escape again. By the end of the movie, the good guys are still on the run, but their numbers have been severely depleted through attrition. Also, I should mention the main protagonist has a separate adventure where he is trained by a deranged wrinkled master of the force. The Jedi master thinks it is a really bad idea for the protagonist to rush off and face the main bad guy, but the protagonist does not listen. Fortunately, he escapes his encounter with the bad guy (albeit after a heart-to-heart about his true parents) and rejoins the other heroes.

That is one crazy plot leading to nowhere. I agree, it would be much better if the plot had actually mattered, because at the end of the Empire Strikes Back our heroes are pretty much exactly where they started. Oh, I know  . . . I know. This is supposed to be the acknowledgement section, where I explain how I understand why so many people are upset. Instead I am giving you some sass. I feel the need to point out how I am surprised, after the amount of backlash The Force Awakens got for being similar to A New Hope, that nobody on Youtube or Reddit has complained about how The Last Jedi is just a rehash of Empire. Instead, people are complaining about a plot that does not make sense, and some have even gone so far as to call this film a mess.

I would not go that far, but here is where my acknowledgement begins. The Last Jedi, while following the same basic plot structure as Empire, is filled with lots and lots of distractions to sway your attention from this fact. Perhaps the largest fault with the movie’s plot is it is filled with too many of these distractions. It also tries to use the padded plot to drive home some life lessons that the Empire Strikes Back could not. Did they try to do too much? Probably. Can I forgive Rian Johnson or Disney for the attempt? Absolutely.

 How the plot was written:  Disney approaches me to write and direct The Last Jedi, and I say yes immediately. I would not hesitate. Would you?  However, Kathleen Kennedy gives me some parameters to work within. She tells me I have to work within the same plot structure as The Empire Strikes Back, but I am free to add my voice to this structure so it will be different enough that people won’t notice. The formula worked so well for Disney with The Force Awakens that they sticking with it. However, she stresses that they caught too much flak last time about reusing too many elements from A New Hope. This time the movie needs to be different enough that nobody could possibly complain. Kathleen has the utmost trust I will be able to make it work.

“This isn’t so bad”, I would think. “I can tell a good and different story within these boundaries. Especially since they want me to really dress the film up with some things Star Wars fans have never seen before.”

Naturally, there are a few other key plot points that J.J. Abrams and his crew came up with back while writing The Force Awakens, so I need to include those in my movie as well. Also, also, I must not forget to use Finn, Poe, and a shiny new character. This new character needs to be female, ethnic, and maybe a potential love interest for Finn. Wink-wink.

             “We will leave that up to you,” I imagine Kathleen would say. “In fact, anything else you want to do . . . go nuts.”
             Great!” I say. “I’ll get started.”
             “Oh, one more thing,” Kathleen says. “And this is super-secret. You can’t even tell Mark. Not that we don’t trust him to keep a secret, but he won’t be able to emotionally hide it if he gets asked about it. I promise we will make it up to him.”
             So secret I can’t even tell Mark? This makes me apprehensive. What could it be?
            “Luke Skywalker has to die in the end.”
             My face drains of color. I don’t want to be the one to do that. I grew up with this character. And I can’t even tell the great Mark Hamill?  Kathleen has anticipated my reaction.
           “But it isn’t as bad as you think. You see, he’s going to become a Force Ghost like Obi Wan and Yoda. So all you have to do is make him fade away at the end.”

 I might argue about how a lot of people aren’t going to like it, and eventually I would give into the vision under the stipulation that Luke will have one last grand moment. I knew when I was offered a part in writing the new trilogy that a major motif was for the old generation to make way for the new, but this is a very bold way to do it. So now, even though Disney is giving me a lot of power and freedom for my own artistic expression, I have to use a familiar story outline which leads to Luke Skywalker fading into the force. This is NOT going to be easy. My entire plot must build toward an epic Luke Skywalker moment that he won’t survive.

How the Plot turned out:  This roleplaying scenario of how I think the conversation went down between Disney executives and Rian Johnson is not meant to bash either Disney or their director. It is meant to say I sympathize with their task. Kathleen Kennedy worked with George Lucas for a long time, and her business model is not based on rehashing the work he did, but on his philosophy. When Lucas was making the prequels he gave voice to this philosophy.

 “It’s like poetry, sort of. They rhyme. Every stanza kind of rhymes with the last one.” ~George Lucas

For a lot of people, his attempts to make things rhyme did not work with the prequel trilogy. However, is Kathleen Kennedy and the new Disney regime making this philosophy work?

The numbers and the critical acclaim seem to indicate the answer is yes. At the same time, something odd happened with reactions to the last Jedi. People aren’t focusing on the way it rhymes this time. They are focusing on the ways the film is different.

 One sidebar: I don’t know if Kathleen Kennedy really kept Mark Hamill in the dark about his final fate at the end of The Last Jedi. This speculation is based on his mood and demeanor before and after the world premiere of the film. Here is a link to good Youtube video where you can judge for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FntZKz9fXp8&t=1s

 I don’t want to dwell on Luke’s story too much here, because I will be devoting the last two sections of this blog series to him. Nevertheless, I had to point out that one of the major deviations from the Empire plot structure involves a build up to Luke’s final act.
For now, let’s take a closer look at some of the key events in The Last Jedi.

A slow grind through space – Some of the problems people have with this film have to do with suspension of disbelief. For example, since Hollywood has conditioned us to think that we will die instantly if we get sucked into the vacuum of space, some of us find it hard to give space Leia a pass. I find this odd since Guardians of the Galaxy did it and nobody complained. Second, everybody know you have to gesture to use the force. And finally, it stands to reason it would take much less force power to pull yourself toward an object in zero gravity than to try to lift something super heavy in the presence of gravity. Still, it’s these moments that caught people off guard that took them out of the film. It’s these moments that I think people are more likely to suspend their disbelief on in a second or third viewing.

 Let this be reason number one people like this movie more each time the see it.

 After Leia force-pulls herself out of danger, the main plot for the Resistance revolves around what seems like contrived chase through space where all the ships can’t help but go the same top speed. I think there is a sneaky explanation for this chase that you are just supposed to realize, but the movie does not beat you over the head with it. If the same people are selling weapons to both the first order and the resistance, it stands to reason both sides have similar engine speeds for their big ships. Now, for some reason the First Order doesn’t want to launch any more fighters, (which are shown to be faster) do a micro-hyperspace jump, or send any ships in a longer hyperspace jump to cut the resistance off. Allow me to put on my Star Wars tactical nerd glasses and explain away all of these.

Launching fighters is a waste of resources. Kylo and his wingmen were able to fly inside the shields when they caught the Resistance by surprise, but any fighters launched would risk being shot down. The First Order, and Snoke in particular, know that all they have to do is wait for the Resistance to run out of fuel. If the First Order made a small hyperspace jump, then their special hyperspace radar would not be trained on the Resistance Fleet. Admiral Holdo, if she is as smart as she seems, would use this window to make her own hyperspace jump and escape.

 Hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy. ~Han Solo

While micro hyperspace jumps are possible, Star Wars is full of lore as to why they would not be able to be accomplished with much accuracy. Why couldn’t the Death Star simply have come out of Hyperspace on the side of Yavin with the Rebel base? We are supposed to assume Hyperspace is for vast distances, and the best you can hope for is to not bounce too close to a supernova or go right through a planet. Smart fleet commanders use techniques like hiding a Starfleet at the edge of a solar system, and then jumping to the middle, but it would be super tricky to jump in front of the Resistance, and again, you might end up giving them an avenue for escape. The best tactic for the First Order is to let the battle of attrition run its course.

The Plan: Poe actually has the best plan. The best chance for the Resistance is to disable the special hyperspace radar. (They should have called it something like Hyperspace Radar, because at first I thought they were talking about the physical tracking devices we have seen used in both of the other trilogies.) The fact that he and Holdo do not trust each other and do not communicate is a little contrived, but as a ten and a half year veteran of the Air Force, I will tell you it is not unrealistic.

Even if it seems she should explain the plan, Holdo wants Poe to trust her without having to explain everything. She wants to teach him a lesson. Her hubris in holding on to her plan even causes other members of the Resistance to try desert in the escape pods. So I can forgive this little bit of manufactured conflict. Especially since this really produces an interesting arc for Poe Dameron where his mutiny ends up hurting the plan, rather than helping.

The most contrived device about the plot is how they are able to send Finn and Rose light-years away from the battle, then expect them to return with a magic slicer man, infiltrate Snoke’s ship, and then shut down the Hyperspace Radar. I will defend Rian Johnson by saying this isn’t lazy writing. The Canto Bight sequence is creative and fun, and it expands the universe. However, next time Rian should take some advice from Stephen King in his book, On Writing.   

 Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings. (King, 2000)

I feel like Rian Johnson would have had two directives from Disney. Make good use of Finn and Rose, and make sure you use a Lando-type scoundrel character. If you are going to have DJ the slicer, there is no reason you have to have a whole adventure to find him. If you are able to establish a connection with Maz Kanada, then she should be able to connect you to this guy. There were apparently a lot of deleted scenes on the Supremacy with Finn, Rose, and DJ trying to accomplish their mission. Put these back in the movie and give us the other lesson Luke taught Rey. It makes sense for Luke to go with Rey after his chat with Yoda. Once he opens himself up to the force again, he should sense Leia is in trouble and want to go to her. He would still try to convince Rey not to face Kylo Ren, but would relent and remain on the Raddiz with Leia. These deleted scenes and my little “what if” story are part of what Stephen King calls the true story—the one that develops on its own after the first draft. King says the writer must stop writing for himself and come to a place where he listens to what the story is supposed to be. (King, 2000)


I am not unhappy with what we got. I enjoyed seeing another corner of the galaxy. I even liked the bunny-horse race. I think it is one of those Star Wars moments the kids of today will remember fondly. Maybe it is a place Luke and Rey could have gone, since it makes more sense for them to run an errand for the Resistance, and then join up with Finn and Rose. Together, Finn, Rose, Rey, and DJ would have all used the Falcon for their infiltration. However, one of the main story devices was the new force projection force power. Rian Johnson built his entire movie around this new power, and it works. Unfortunately for Luke, it meant Rian was moving his story toward Skywalker’s ultimate, and last force technique. As I have pointed out, Luke could have physically gone to help out and we would have believed his reasons for doing so. He could have faced the entire First Order and destroyed multiple walkers with the force in an awesome display like we all thought was going to happen. Instead, we got something unexpected and yet beautiful. I will explain why I am elated with the results in the next section.   

Five Points of Controversy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi That are Actually Beautiful (Spoilers)

PART 1 of 5

        A small boy recounts the legend of Luke Skywalker facing down an entire battalion of giant First Order walkers, and how he came away without a scratch. He does this with some homemade toys as his friends look on with a mixture of skepticism and amazement. A bulbous, angry, alien slave master barges in to ruin their fun. One of the boys runs outside to the peace of the stables on Canto Byte, where he absentmindedly calls a broom to his hand with the force. He stares up at the night sky as a shooting star flashes by overhead. The John Williams score swells, and the silhouette of the boy looks a bit like a Jedi holding a lightsaber. The credits roll, and the audience applauds. I sit through the scrolling names and try to process the film I just watched.

            I am in love. There is much to ponder—so many layers. I feel like I am seeing modern myth go to a place it has never dared. I was not prepared for anyone not to feel the same. Never in a million years would I consider that I would step outside of the theater, pull out my phone, and find an internet full of youtube videos titled, “Why the Last Jedi Sucks!”

            One Youtuber with a Star Wars-themed channel hates the film so much he decides to quit making videos. Quit. He stops doing something he loved, just like that. Poof . . . gone. In his farewell address, he blames Disney. Disney has de-monetized his videos for using John William’s score. Disney has catered too much to young kids in other Star Wars media. The Last Jedi is the final straw, proving to him that Disney is ruining Star Wars.

Maybe he will come back to youtube in time. My youngest brother had many misgivings about the film as well, and I have been able to shed new light on The Last Jedi for him. I hope I can do the same for anyone who reads this blog. I will acknowledge that I understand why some people have deep emotional problems with the film. I have found five different points of contention. I intend to examine each one from the standpoint of a writer, and from the context of the characters within the Star Wars universe. However, first I would like to share a section of a movie review from the Washington Post on May 23, 1980.

…when light entertainment is done well, someone is bound to make extravagant and unsupportable claims for its being great art. You will hear that this sequel to "Star Wars" is part of a vast new mythology, as if it were the Oresteia. Its originator, George Lucas, has revealed that the two pictures are actually parts four and five of a nine-part saga, as if audiences will some day receive the total the way devotees now go to Seattle for a week of immersion in Wagner's complete Ring Cycle.

Nonsense. This is no monumental artistic work, but a science-fiction movie done more snappily than most, including its own predecessor. A chocolate bar is a marvelous sweet that does not need to pretend to be a chocolate soufflé; musical comedies are wonderful entertainment without trying to compete with opera; blue jeans are a perfect garment that shouldn't be compared with haute couture. There are times when you would much rather have a really good hot dog than any steak, but you can still recognize that one is junk food and the other isn't.

"The Empire Strikes Back" has no plot structure, no character studies let alone character development, no emotional or philosophical point to make. It has no original vision of the future, which is depicted as a pastiche of other junk-culture formulae, such as the western, the costume epic and the Would War II movie. Its specialty is "special effects" or visual tricks, some of which are playful, imaginative and impressive, but others of which have become space-movie clichés. (Washington Post, Judith Martin)

             
        This review for perhaps the most beloved of all the Star Wars films is very telling, and there were many like it at the time. Who among Star Wars fans would say this about Empire today? People forget (or were not born) how families used to have heated arguments around the dinner table as to whether or not Vader was lying to Luke about being his father. I find it incredibly interesting that some of the same complaints are being made of The Last Jedi today. Now we argue in a much more self-indulgent and entitled way on the internet as to whether or not Kylo Ren was telling Rey the truth about her parents. We used to scoff at the idea of a nine part saga, and even Lucas gave up on this at one time. Yet here we are in film number eight. What will become of The Last Jedi? Will it stand the test of time like Empire, or has Disney truly gone too far? Let us now examine five different points of controversy in The Last Jedi. 

1. Snoke

Acknowledgement: The name says, “bad guy” even more than Voldemort, Scar, or even Dr. Evil. It’s some kind of weird conglomeration of “Snake” and “Smoke”. This is the most Disney name Disney has ever Disney-ed into Star Wars, and it ruins nothing. His name alone makes him sound like he is going to be the main villain of the series, especially considering how much both Episode 7 and 8 hype him. So I can understand the shock and annoyance some fans have that it seems like we are never going to learn why this guy was such a threat. Sure he plays force marionette with Rey, bops her on her head with the Skywalker lightsaber when she goes for it, and says some mean things to Kylo Ren. Sure he seems really stinking powerful. However, considering he is the reason for our beloved original trilogy characters not getting their happily ever after, we wanted to know more about how he infiltrated the Skywalker – Solo family. We never got to know the half of it. Snoke is gone and with him important information which might have made Kylo Ren a little more redeemable. Or is he?

How to Write Snoke: If I am writing this new trilogy, I have to decide who my main villains are going to be. I have a few options when it comes to Star Wars. I could—as many feared would be the trend after The Force Awakens—redo the same classic story, but with different characters. I could play it safe. Conversely, I could go completely off the rails and just do whatever the hell I wanted. Star Wars is my playground and maybe if I burn down everything that has come before, nothing can stop me from telling my story. This is what many fear is happening after watching The Last Jedi. These fears exist for all five of my points of controversy, not just Snoke.

When it comes to this trilogy, the writer in me gives the same advice Anakin gives Obi Wan when they find themselves trapped in a force field in Revenge of the Sith—"I say patience". Episode Nine will develop Snoke more through the point of view of Kylo Ren and his quest for power. I use this particular example because, like Anakin, I am often not a very patient person.

I advise patience because this was always going to be a nine part story. It is True Lucas called The Force Awakens his divorce from Star Wars. And yet, he showed back up at celebration. No matter how much he becomes old and crusty like Luke is in Episode 8, this story is still the brainchild of George Lucas, and it always will be. This is not blind faith. You can find Lucas’ fingerprints all over The Last Jedi if you know where to look, and it all begins with Snoke.  

Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards, J.J. Abrams, and anyone else who gets to play in this sandbox recognize where this story comes from. They may deviate from the original vision, and Lucas himself might dislike those deviations, but the people telling this story are writers who recognize that the story won’t work without the key mythology. For example, in my opinion Lucas probably didn’t like the idea that the reason for the fall of Ben Solo was that Han and Leia were pretty much bad parents. He didn’t even want to name the kid Ben. He probably wanted him to be called Sam. Rey was supposed to be a fourteen year old girl named Kira. Much of Lucas’s original vision can be pulled from the visual dictionary of The Force Awakens, and the original villains were supposed to be a group of Dark side people called “Jedi Hunters.”(Force Awakens Visual Dictionary,  2015)

So what was the original idea for Snoke and his Jedi hunters, and how much did Kathleen Kennedy and her Star Wars crew stick to the original ideas? It is hard to say. We can infer the Jedi hunters became the Knights of Ren, but that tells us nothing about Snoke. In order to find clues on Snoke, we need to go all the way back to early drafts of Return of the Jedi. In those drafts, the emperor survives or escapes. In fact, he is not even revealed in person. He is not brought down until episode nine of the final trilogy. (Kurtz Interview, 1999)

This leads me to believe that the avatar of the dark side would go into hiding, rather than be destroyed. This would mirror the way Yoda was forced to go into exile. Snoke can be seen as a stand in for the Emperor who would have survived. However, to give my saga significance, he has to be more than a stand in. He has to be connected. Snoke is the embodiment of a dark side that went into hiding, and of a force that is still not balanced. In the throne room scene with Snoke, we even get the Emperor’s theme song when he is demonstrating the full range of his powers. They are telling us with music that Snoke is connected somehow to the Emperor we used to know. So as a writer, if I am to follow Lucas’ original ideas, I need not just a new villain, but someone who is taking up the mantle of Emperor Palpatine and the dark side.  He even twists Kylo Ren to have a desire to finish what Vader started, and he considers Luke Skywalker to be the greatest threat to him. These are thoughts that perhaps manifest from the Dark Side itself. In other words, the dark side is rather pissed at Luke for messing up its plans. 

If I am a writer and I want to deviate a little bit from Lucas, maybe I make Snoke not a Sith. Maybe he is even more ancient than Yoda, and has been lurking on the sidelines this whole time in the unknown regions. The books and comics are full of clues as to Snoke’s origin, but we shouldn’t need books and comics to flesh out a movie. They should be extra. Still, the books and comics seem to promise a large backstory for Snoke. I do this as an author. I build huge backstories for all my characters. Usually, I only end up using a small percentage of this backstory as the main story moves forward. It has been the same for Snoke. However, from the standpoint of the Force Awakens Era mythology, Snoke still has a role to play even if he never pulls himself together. I believe we stand to learn more of him through Kylo Ren.

  

Snoke as a point of view character. Perhaps the most important aspect we need to know about Snoke is how he managed to manipulate a troubled but extremely powerful child to the dark side. We are given glimpses of a marriage between Han and Leia that for one reason or another did not work out, and we get the impression it may have been over whether or not Ben Solo should be trained in the force (Sent Away to train with Luke). We get the impression that Ben felt shunned or out of touch with his parents. I will touch on this more later as I am working on a whole section on Kylo Ren’s turn and his point of view versus Luke.

The only thing The Last Jedi tells us about Snoke’s perspective is that Snoke “Found” Kylo Ren and that he was surprised by his power. He thought he had found someone “truly special” and he tells Kylo Ren that he may have been wrong in an effort to shame him. We are shown once again the abusive sort of relationship the dark side is known for, and it works. We don’t need any more from Snoke than this as a character. Why does it work?

Because Snoke is so well realized in his short amount of screen time we sympathize a lot with Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi. If we did not sympathize with Ben and his turn to the dark side, then it would be safe to say these films are not working. Nobody is angry about the way Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is portrayed. They were angry because Snoke made our beloved Luke Skywalker look like a fool by stealing his student out from under him. Not only that, but he had Luke so afraid that he considered, even if only for a fraction of a second, that maybe he should end the darkness in his nephew by striking him down. How Snoke managed to do THAT is never fully explained. I maintain that it will be in Episode Nine. The reasons have everything to do with what the dark side is to the saga as a whole.

An underlying theme throughout the entire saga is in the way light and dark achieve immortality. The crux of what the dark side is about is in the Opera Scene between Anakin and Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith. The ultimate goal of the dark side is to cheat death, and have ultimate control over life. However, the pursuit of this power, instead of transcending or letting go by becoming one with the force, warps an individual physically. Snoke looks like he does for a reason. He has cheated death time and again. To me, this says he will come back in some form. But even if he doesn’t we will see him again as an avatar of the dark side in some future film, probably that trilogy Rian Johnson has planned.  

The way we will learn more about Snoke if he does not return outright will be through Kylo Ren as he seeks more power. No matter what direction they take the story, Kylo Ren will seek more and more power until either Rey is able to find balance with him through a loving and equal relationship (more on that later), or until he is redeemed or destroyed. He might even literally give us some exposition on some of Snoke’s teachings. However this trilogy ends, the dark side will not be destroyed as it was before, but rather it will be finally left in balance with the light. It will be an interesting and thought-provoking conclusion. However, just as Rey had her Jedi texts, Kylo will have some studies of his own. We will see the meaning of Rey’s vision. We will see the Knights of Ren. We will see the influence of Snoke and the dark side through all of it. No matter what happens, Snoke is never truly gone until Ben can balance the darkness within him and accept Rey’s light. (Or literally, a Ray of Light). This leads me to the next point of conflict for some fans. Rey and her nobody parents. 

Go on to Part II HERE