I found this old post that I never published because I was tired of beating a dead tauntaun, but here goes. Originally written December 15, 2018.
Well, it’s been a year since The Last Jedi split the fandom more violently than Admiral Holdo crashing through the Supremacy. I still love the movie, and those who didn’t are still just as angry. So I’m going to sit down with a hypothetical dissenter (who will supply many of the arguments I’ve heard parroted over the last year) and I’ll do my best to debunk their arguments with a year’s worth of reflection.
Let’s get one thing clear. There’s a difference in those who hated TLJ. There are lots of reasonable, totally-not-racist-or-sexist fans for whom the movie just didn’t land. And there are the nutjobs. It would be doing the reasonable dissenters a disservice to lump them with the idiots who sent Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson, and Kelly Marie Tran death threats. However, the arguments I’m about to face will come from both contingents of TLJ detractors.
So, let’s get started.
DETRACTOR: You’re an apologist! Or worse, a shill!
I’ve stopped caring if you agree with me, but please realize that art is subjective. It’s difficult for some to wrap their minds around the forbidden notion that an intelligent person can like TLJ, but it can be done.
DETRACTOR: It disrespected the franchise!
Definitively an opinion. If you were hoping for a slavish buffet of fan service or a dutiful bullet-point list of answers to your questions, then sure, maybe.
DETRACTOR: It was so full of plot holes and lazy writing!
Please tell me about plot holes, Mr. Random-Internet-Guy-Who-Thought-Batman-v.-Superman-was-a-“Modern-Masterpiece.” A plot development that wasn’t fully explained is not necessarily a plot hole or lazy writing. And a character action you didn’t agree with isn’t necessarily poor characterization. Keep that in mind when we talk about Luke in a couple paragraphs.
DETRACTOR: Leia flying in space was stupid.
It was a Force pull. No different than Luke Force pulling his lightsaber in the cave on Hoth, except she was pulling on a much larger object—the Raddus—so it makes sense that she would move toward it instead of vice versa.
DETRACTOR: Okay, sure, but it looked stupid.
It could have been filmed in another way, yes. I’ll give you that. But that’s it—there’s precedent for people surviving in space in Star Wars—watch Rebels, for instance.
DETRACTOR: The hyperspace ramming scene didn’t make sense in the context of Star Wars. Why not just ram a few X-Wings into the Death Star next time?
It’s clearly a one-in-a-million maneuver. It’s about timing—jump to hyperspace too soon and you miss your target; jump to hyperspace too late and you crash into your target at sublight speed. Simple enough.
DETRACTOR: TLJ ruined Luke Skywalker. Luke defeated Vader and then spared his life. He’s a great warrior. Why would he refuse to fight?
Well, no. He could have defeated Vader, but he realized how he was straying close to the dark side and stopped. In TLJ’s climax, Luke’s fight—or lack of one—is the truest expression of Jedi ideals. Don’t believe me? To quote Yoda: “To Obi-Wan you listen!”
Remember when Obi-Wan said, “There are alternatives to fighting”? Or when Yoda himself said, “Wars not make one great” and “A Jedi uses the Force for defense, never for attack”? Or Mace Windu: “We’re keepers of the peace, not soldiers.”
When the Jedi gave into the their martial urges and became warriors, leading soldiers in the Clone Wars, they lost sight of who they were, and it led to their destruction.
DETRACTOR: Luke still died for nothing, though.
If by “for nothing” you mean “by holding off the entire First Order so the Resistance could escape—all while maintaining a fiendishly difficult Force trick and upholding the Jedi’s ancient pacifist spirit”—then sure, I guess.
DETRACTOR: So why would he regress, then? Why would he become a jaded, nephew-murdering creep?
You think that once a weakness is conquered, it stays conquered forever, never rearing its ugly head again? It’s refreshing to see a hero struggling with something real—the resurgence of weaknesses of youth, which he must conquer anew. I’m sorry if Luke Skywalker is no longer a pristine vessel for vicarious wish-fulfillment, but his trajectory in TLJ feels real to me. I’ll take a flawed hero over an overpowered bada** any day.
Character development doesn’t have to always be in an upward direction. Don’t confuse it with leveling up—you can develop a character without just making him more and more powerful.
And let’s not forget that he didn‘t kill Ben—he only thought about it for the briefest of moments. Who among us hasn’t nurtured ill-advised impulses from deep within our darker natures—Luke just had the misfortune of being caught while doing it at the worst moment.
DETRACTOR: So he refused to kill an evil mass murderer like Darth Vader, but he could kill an unarmed child?
First, Ben was an adult in his 20s, not a child. Second, Luke saw in Ben a repeat of all the horrors committed by Darth Vader and the Emperor, destroying all he’d ever built. And for just an instant, he was tempted to stop it before it started. It’s like the old question: would you kill baby Hitler, if you knew what he’d grow up to be?
DETRACTOR: Okay, but you have to admit the alien breastmilk scene was unnecessary.
Maybe. It served the dual role of trying to scare Rey off while showing that Luke had returned to his roots—remember the blue milk from Tatooine?
DETRACTOR: And Rey? She didn’t get any character development. She’s just a Mary Sue.
It was a said day for conscientious discourse the day the Internet discovered the term “Mary Sue”—and a happy day for angry misogynists who could now use it as a catch-all for any female character they didn’t like. As I said earlier, don’t confuse leveling up with character development. Her development is all about learning to let go of the past (her need to return to Jakku, to know who her parents were, to belong) and face the future. I don’t really need to see her Jedi training—we’ve seen that before. So she’s a prodigy who has a lot of innate skills without having to go through some kind of Rocky montage to learn them. So what? It’s not like she blew up the Death Star on her first try, then had like a week tops of training with Yoda, and somehow emerged as a powerful Jedi, right?
DETRACTOR: What about the jokes? Those were stupid.
They didn’t all land, it’s true. Mostly I’m talking about visual gags with BB-8, whom the filmmmakers turned into a ninja. Those were unnecessary.
DETRACTOR: And the Canto Bight storyline?
It had some pacing and tone issues, but overall it was a necessary part of Finn’s arc. Remember, he was never 100% committed to the resistance after The Force Awakens. We assume he should be a Rebel by the end of the movie, because that’s how Han Solo was presented, but when TLJ begins, he’s mostly just interested in finding Rey safe. Then he sets off on this adventure with Rose and DJ as the angel and devil on his shoulder, respectively—one telling him to dedicate himself to a cause, and the other telling him not to join. Sure, their attempt to save the Resistance went awry, but that storyline brought Finn’s arc to a good place.
“You were always scum,” sneers Phasma.
“Rebel scum,” replies Finn. That’s the moment when he finally chooses a side.
DETRACTOR: Okay, but what about the bombs in space/slow-speed space chase? Rian Johnson clearly has no idea how space works.
So, sound in space, explosions in space, starfighters making sharp turns despite having nothing but forward thrusters, spaceship engines being on the whole time despite Newton’s Third Law, and ubiquitous artificial gravity don’t bother you—but you’re drawing the line at bombs in space?
DETRACTOR: If the movie really were good, you wouldn’t have to put so much thought into defending it.
So you’re saying you’d rather have your cinematic experience free of thinking? People like you are the reason they made five Transformers movies, five Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and eleventy billion Fast & Furious movies.
DETRACTOR: ... [mutters incoherently about SJWs ruining Star Wars]
TLJ brought Star Wars where it needed to be: out of the tropes it’s been mired in for years and into the heart of a new generation of fans. I just wish the old generation would calm down about something that was—and always has been—made for the young and young at heart.
DETRACTOR: Fire Kathleen Kennedy! Star Wars is dead! Ruin Johnson destroyed my childhood!
Sigh.
Read my previous posts on the topic here:
