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

Part 5 of 5. From a Certain Point of View – The Passing Shadow and Luke’s Failure

Acknowledgement: Even if you were fine not learning anything about Snoke, loved that Rey was a nobody, loved silly plot points with bunny-horse races, and liked the idea that Luke had become a grizzled old hermit who gave up on the Jedi, there was one moment in the film you still cannot bring yourself to forgive. I was right there with you the first time I watched the film. When Kylo Ren explained that Luke had come in to kill him in his sleep, I thought, “No. That’s an outright lie. They wouldn’t bring Luke Skywalker so low as to basically give in to the same temptation he defeated in Return of the Jedi.

But they did. The film has Luke explain that for a fleeting moment “that passed like a shadow” he considered nephew-cide. Nephew cide? Is that a word?

Murder a “kid” in his sleep.

 Even if it were to save the galaxy, I acknowledge how this can make Luke look pretty despicable and perhaps even ruin his character for some people. However the real flaw in the film here, if any, is that, as a writer, Rian Johnson is perhaps placing too much trust in his audience to figure some important details out on their own.

“Show. Don’t tell.”

This is the mantra of every experienced story teller. The ability to find the balance between when to show, and when to add exposition through telling is the greatest challenge every author has. Most of the time, it is better to ere on the side of showing at the risk of telling too little.

Trust your audience.

The rule of thumb on showing is to trust the audience to figure out your intent without beating them over the head with exposition. Rian Johnson figured he could trust his Star Wars audience in comprehending Ben Solo’s turn to the dark side. (Therefore leading to Luke’s lowest moment) The big divide in fans indicates he may have been wrong. Star Wars fans are a difficult fanbase to gauge. I do not envy his task.

The problem with Kylo Ren’s turn is over the course of two films we are shown only a little, and told even less. We are shown Han and Leia reuniting in the Force Awakens, and most of their conversation revolves around their son. We are shown a key moment with Kylo Ren and Han Solo (you all know the one). We are shown some limited flashbacks of the tragic end of Luke Skywalker’s attempt to rebuild the Jedi. We are told over and over Snoke was behind the whole thing. This is the core at why people wanted to know more about Snoke, is that he somehow ruined the Happily Ever After of our heroes, but he is dispatched before we ever learn how he did it. So I acknowledge that the reason The Last Jedi is not working for some people, is because they were not shown enough for their imagination to fill in the gaps.

Naturally, I feel it my duty to help point out what Rian Johnson was hoping his entire audience would figure out on their own.  

The Tragic Tale of Ben Solo: Somehow people got the idea that Disney and Lucasfilm are making this up as they go. People say the decision to have different story tellers is ruining Star Wars. However, there is enough connective tissue from The Force Awakens to The Last Jedi to suggest there is a bigger plan for these films than most people realize. Most, if not all the misdirection from Disney is to preserve the ending of this trilogy. They want to surprise people—a feat near impossible this day and age. But they aren’t building surprises without purpose. 

If Star Wars fans would calm down and consider all of the information we had on Ben Solo and his turn up to the moment where Luke gives Rey the truth of his most shameful moment, I think you will empathize with Luke more. All of these conclusions I reach from only watching the movies. Sure, there are plenty of books and comics that can fill in some gaps, but the movies are what counts for most people. The information is there in the films nonetheless.

1. The slow turn of Ben Solo to the dark side destroyed Han and Leia’s marriage.

We are given plenty of information (from both show and tell) to draw this conclusion. Some people think Han and Leia were bad parents leading to a troubled kid. I did not see this at all. They were both parents out of their league with the very special child they had. They both perhaps had some flaws which Ben resented, but in the end it is clear he still loved them both. As the dark side grew in Ben, Leia sent him away to train with Luke. Han probably disagreed with the decision so much that it caused him to leave and go back into smuggling. Leia resented him leaving and probably pushed Han away. Everything for Han and Leia revolves around sending Ben away, not as parents who did not care, but as people who didn’t know where else to turn.

2. Luke Started a New Jedi Temple, not an Academy.

We are used to books where Luke trained his two nephews and niece from the moment they were old enough to hold a training lightsaber. Han and Leia were frequent visitors on their adventures as young Jedi. We need to let go of that vision. I need to stress this again in bold letters. Leia sent Ben away. Luke didn’t have a Jedi Academy like in the books we all cherished for so long. He started a Jedi Temple. The difference in these two words is critical. Luke was trying to restore the Jedi order to what it was in the prequels. If he did that, he may have tried to discourage attachment . . . even in himself. Can you see why Han would object to something like that so passionately that he would give up his marriage over it? I can.

I don’t think Luke realized the folly of the old ways of the Jedi until it was too late. After his mistake, he learned much. But he also grew to hate the old Jedi ways and their hubris. So his lesson to Rey in the Last Jedi comes from experience at almost becoming just like the old Jedi Order. He wants those teachings to die with him. However, the beauty of the Last Jedi is He realizes a new way for the Jedi to move forward, and places his hope in Rey.

3. Snoke found and Corrupted Ben BEFORE he went to train as a Jedi

Everything about the way this story has been told over the course of two movies suggests to me that Snoke found Ben at a very young age. Leia and Han did not want to have been trained. It was a last resort to them. They probably wanted a normal family. Who can blame them?

But Snoke probably offered the young boy power and started to manipulate him away from his parents. Maybe they had normal parent problems. Maybe Leia was away too much trying to build a new nation. Maybe Han couldn’t relate to Ben on the same level his mother could, but maybe he could show his son a thing or two about how to fly around space. Maybe this is all we need to know about Snoke since we have been shown how easily Snoke could communicate through the force (and force other people to speak to each other).

I think a lot of people are missing this in the timeline of events in their head, so I am thumping it over your head like Yoda bopping you with his wooden stick.

  

4. Ben Solo corrupted at least a few of Luke’s other Students

This comes from one throwaway line as Luke (somewhat desperately) tries to explain the whole truth to Rey. Yet, it could be critical to the big picture and explain the Knights of Ren.

It is not a huge complaint that the Knights of Ren do not show up in the Last Jedi. Compared to other things people are finding to complain about, it is a relatively minor grievance. However, I think it should be greater. I think maybe this is where any disconnect in story telling vision between Rian Johnson and J.J. Abrams did actually effect things. The Knights of Ren should have made an appearance in this movie, because when they inevitably show up in Episode 9, I think people are going to find it a little jarring.

“Where the hell have these guys been the whole time?”

Perhaps they were busy subjugating all the other worlds while Kylo Ren and Snoke were busy trying to crush the last of the Resistance. It doesn’t matter though, because the reason they should have been shown in this movie is it would have given some context to Luke’s failure that maybe a lot of people needed.

Ben – or maybe he was pretty much Kylo Ren already at this point – managed to sway some of Luke’s other students. Can you imagine Ben running up to his friends and telling them Luke just tried to kill him, so what they should do is murder all of the other students and burn the place down?

No. Ben and Snoke had been working darkness into the other students for some time in order for them to turn on Luke that night. Luke was trying to protect students he loved from the dark side by probing Ben’s mind. It just so happens Luke might have been too late for those other students as well. But as Rey points out, even then, there was always hope.

Conclusions:

Considering all the context I have given to this point, it is obvious Luke was looking for a way to break Snoke’s link with the boy when he crept in to Ben’s quarters at night, but saw he was too late to do anything. He was NOT creeping in thinking he might have to take drastic measures.

The movie even tries to give us an audio cue for the future Luke sees in Ben. We are treated to the sound of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber and screams. Some of these screams even seem to be from Finn and Rey when Han Solo dies. Luke’s mistake was only for instant, but it was the worst timing. Luke faces the same temptation in Return of the Jedi, only when he faces it in that film, he has time to reflect. He has time to stare for a moment at his father’s severed hand and then look at his own robotic one. Ben Solo wakes up and the frightened boy assumed the worst from his point of view.

I think this was obvious to most people. What wasn’t so obvious was all the events leading up to the crucial moment, because we as the audience are trusted by the filmmakers to piece it together ourselves. Isn’t it ironic that for a film sage in which “point of view” and the truths we cling to are such a large motif, that we should bicker so passionately because our point of view on a single moment is also so drastically different? My hopeful conclusion is that episode 9 and time will help our point of views merge, and we can all continue loving Star Wars together for it is. 

The most awesome-est, dumbest, goofiest, thought provoking, bad ass, modern myth ever told.

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

PART 2 of 5 

Part 1 Here: http://hightowerdreamland.blogspot.com/2017/12/five-controversial-moments-in-star-wars.html

2. Rey is a Very Special Nobody

Acknowledgement:  The Force Awakens ended on an epic note, music swelling, Rey almost in tears as she extends “Excalibur” back to its rightful owner. And then he takes it and tosses it over his shoulder as if it is a meaningless piece of junk. It is symbolic of the message of the whole movie. Throw your expectations off the cliff. Luke’s first action of the film seems like it is only for a cheap laugh, and already he is rubbing some people the wrong way. I totally get it. But wait a minute. . . the lightsaber isn’t gone. It is saved by porgs. Sort of. I digress. 

 Rey recovers the saber and soon begins training with it when her trademark staff seems lackluster in comparison. After witnessing this self-training, Luke asks her, “Who are you?” She tries again to identify herself as a messenger for Leia and the Resistance, but Luke stops her and asks her again. “Who are you?” Again, Rey seems confused by the question, answering, “I am Rey. From Nowhere.” Luke presses her and she reveals that she came from Jakku. Luke agrees the dust ball of a planet is pretty much nowhere. And here is where the theme of Rey coming from nowhere really begins to set in. At this point some audience members are shifting uncomfortably in their seats about Rey’s parents, because we, like Rey, were hoping Luke Skywalker would have some answers for her. Instead, it is he who is asking the questions.

The question of Rey’s heritage started in Force Awakens and has been the subject of heated debate for two years. First, the question is twisted around by Master Skywalker. Next, it is given a WTF acid trip sequence from a hole in the ground filled with dark side power, and then it culminates in this film with Kylo Ren, who assures her he knows the truth about her parents. Like Vader in Empire, Kylo isn’t exactly trustworthy, but we sort of expect Kylo to be telling the truth since Vader was for Luke. Dark side dudes tend to be truthful when they tell you who your daddy is. 

The answer—her parents were nobody. Worse than nobody, they were drunks who sold her for money. Audience members who hate this revelation blame Disney for trying to make it seem like anyone can be a Jedi. The act of writing Rey as a nobody, Disney executives thought, would make Star Wars appeal to a wider audience. It must be about money. And so builds the image of the evil mouse sitting in his throne room cackling in glee like the emperor, except with a high-pitched cartoonish voice. Coorporate film making has infected a lot of big tent pole movies, so the fear of what Star Wars could become under Disney is understandable. Rey coming from nothing is now the prime symbol of that fear. And yet . . . is Rey really nobody?

Let us take a deeper look at her hero’s journey.

How Rey was Written:  Again I place myself in the shoes of Rian Johnson who has the honor of not only directing, but writing The Last Jedi. Rey is my central protagonist for my new trilogy. Everything that happens must in some way connect to her. It is interesting to note that her story arc in The Last Jedi is done by the second act. This almost defies expectation, but it follows a pattern for this trilogy. She is so sidelined in the third act she isn’t even flying the M. Falcon. She is only a gunner. The third act belongs to Luke Skywalker, and that should tell us something about Rey. This isn’t really Rey’s movie. It is Luke Skywalker’s film.

Don’t get me wrong, Rey has a fully realized arc, and it is done really well. However, her single largest motivating force is to find her place in the universe. Contrast this to Luke’s main motivation in his second movie, to become a Jedi like his father before him and later to protect his friends. At one point, Luke might even be thinking he is about to avenge his father. Luke was always chasing after his father. At first, he chased an ideal—where his father was the best star fighter pilot in the galaxy and a good friend. Later, his mission became to face his father and save him if he could. Rey, on the other hand, has nothing to chase after but a family she doesn’t remember. She is also seeking answers as to why this strange force is on the move inside her. However, Rey forms a bond with Kylo Ren, and her mission now parallels Luke’s in that she hopes to save Ben Solo.

Rey is an active protagonist for the first time in this movie. In The Force Awakens, she was a strong, but passive protagonist. Everything happens to Rey in the first film. Her only decision is to reject going to work for Han Solo, and to reject her “call to action”. I am using terms from A Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. It is a must read for any Star Wars fan or fan of epic stories in general. Rey’s call came when the lightsaber shows her a vision and Maz Kanada tries to explain that she needs to let go of the past and move forward. Until this moment, she has no reason to do anything but go back to Jakku.

(Incidentally, Finn also rejects his call to action in the prior scene. Finn completes his arc by the second act and is literally taken out of the story in the third. Does the pattern look familiar yet? The Force Awakens was Han Solo’s movie with Finn coming of age. As awesome as Rey is in the third act, she hasn’t really grown as much as Finn, the active protagonist.)

After talking with Maz Kanada, Rey thinks moving forward means finding Luke Skywalker. She gets kidnapped by Kylo Ren while she is literally running away from her call. However, in this trilogy she makes a decision to leave Luke Skywalker behind and attempt to turn Kylo Ren back to the light. She becomes an active protagonist.  And yet, this revelation that she came from two drunks still hangs over her. I am driving toward the conclusion that we are not done learning about Rey’s origin. We still have not explained her visions, or why so many powerful characters seem to think she is so important. Luke recognizes her power and her potential for light or darkness, Yoda recognizes her importance and asks Luke to put his hopes in the girl, and Snoke fears that she is the light rising to meet the darkness so he wants Kylo to destroy her. Clearly, Rey is the most important nobody since Anakin Skywalker himself. So who is she?

Rey as a Point of View Character: Is Rey nobody? It seems to be her worst fear, and whether it is true or not, Kylo Ren tries to use it to manipulate her into joining him. This means that if it is true, then Rey must conquer her greatest fear. If it is false, then Rey might not get to find out who she is until she can be at peace with being a nobody and still finding her purpose.

Let us examine her vision in the dark side hole. Luke very much wants her to resist the call of this place, but from Rey’s point of view, Luke has shut himself off from the force. Therefore, he can hardly know what dangers she will find. She jumps in a dark pool, and a massive creature swims behind her. It is not a threat to her, but it is there . . . lurking.

Next she gets out into a fog, and walks forward to find mirror images of herself spread single file in both directions. She waves her hand, and her hands go up in succession. They do not move at the same time as if it were a reflection. She snaps, and her snaps echo down the line and back like dominoes. What are we being told visually?

Either time has slowed to show Ray she has infinite possibilities and limitless potential, or she is but one of an infinite version of herself. Next Rey asks to see her parents. She begs to see them. Two shadowy figures approach her through the glaze of what looks like an icy mirror. They merge into one figure. I feel this merge into a single figure is more significant than her fear of loneliness. I feel the entire vision sequence may be telling us Rey is a clone. We will save the crazy theories for another time. Rey wipes the mirror and finds her face.

Be honest. Does this seem like the kind of vision that sets up a person’s parents to be just nobody? Clearly there is some kind of meaning behind this vision and the sequence of visions in The Force Awakens. Where are the Knights of Ren? Why did Han Solo give Maz Kanada a troubled look when she asked, “Who’s the girl?”

People were really upset because part of Star Wars is that being a Jedi has always been something special. Becoming a magic space wizard was hard and rare. Now, of course the force would not play favorites with gender or race, but you still have to be special to be as powerful as Rey. Either you have the genetics like the Skywalkers, or you are a vergence in the force like Anakin himself.  The film suggests that the force itself manifests so powerfully in Rey so she can be the light to balance the rising darkness. Is the reveal of Rey’s parents being of no consequence the evil attempt by Disney to be overly progressive, or is it just the bold decision of Rian Johnson to surprise people? I feel the question can be answered by thinking about Rey’s point of view. This will not be the last time I will say how point of view is the central theme of The Last Jedi.

Let’s get the progressive concerns out of the way. In the case of Rey, her gender may be of some importance, but that goes hand in hand with building her relationship with Kylo Ren. So if the force CHOSE Rey, her gender may be one of the reasons. Still, her gender is not the overall driving factor of her existence. I think it all comes back to the dark side vision and how different characters interpret the moment. As I write this, I can hear Yoda admonishing Luke in Empire.

“The cave, the cave, remember your failure in the cave!”

Remember, dark side cave visions are not just visions. They are a test for the hero. A decent into facing their darkest fears. Rey has much more to fear than just being alone. Rian Johnson himself explained in a recent interview with Collider Media.

“I was thinking, what’s the most powerful answer to that question? Powerful meaning: what’s the hardest thing that Rey could hear? That’s what you’re after with challenging your characters.”

“The easiest thing for Rey and the audience to hear is, “Oh yeah, you’re so-and-so’s daughter. That would be wish fulfillment and instantly hand her a place in this story on a silver platter…The hardest thing for her is to hear she’s not going to get that easy answer. Not only that, but Kylo is going to use the fact that you don’t get that answer to try and weaken you so you have to lean on him.” (Collider, 2017)

The director himself is telling us that Rey can’t get the answer at this point in her journey. We are told something about her parents, but in actuality we are told nothing. So we are left with a choice. How much do we believe Kylo? How much does Rey believe Kylo? Rian Johnson commented on this as well.

“And there’s always, in these movies, a question of ‘a certain point of view,’ . . . but for me, in that moment, Kylo believes it’s the truth. I don’t think he’s purely playing chess. I think that’s what he saw when they touched fingers and that’s what he believes. And when he tells her that in that moment, she believes it to.”

 Since Rey believes it, she is free to discover herself. She is free to strive toward her destiny in a way Luke never had the chance. Luke’s family always defined him, and defined the choices he would make. Now we have a character in Rey, who even though is obviously special, can move forward without a destiny hanging over her. To me, that means she won’t find out who she really is until her journey is done, and it is going to be one hell of a journey that I can’t wait to see come to a conclusion in Episode Nine.


GO ON TO PART THREE: HERE