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

PART 3 of 5

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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 - 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