Everybody who knows me knows I’m absolutely crazy about The Last Jedi. Even people who don’t know me know I’m crazy about it. So you can imagine how perplexed I am by how much hate the film gets from fans who say it “ruined their childhoods,” etc. Particularly since I saw the very first film in theaters in 1977, and was absolutely crazy about that one, too. So I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the ruined-my-childhood crowd.
One thing you learn as a writer is how subjective entertainment is. The Twilight books are ultimately what drove this home for me. They were a cultural phenomenon on the order of Harry Potter. Zillions of people were crazy about them. Me? I had to force myself to read them, and finally gave up in the last book. (The masochism it described finally pushed me over the edge.) I didn’t necessarily have the same objections some had about the books, but mostly just found them incredibly boring. Like, I really don’t care about hearing about Bella’s day at high school. Obviously, I’m in the minority here.
TL;DR: I understand that there are people who legitimately hate TLJ. They have every right to their opinion. But I have to address some of the reasons given for the hate, which, in my opinion, just don’t hold up.
**SPOILER ALERT** If you’re one of the two or three people left in the world who haven’t seen the movie, don’t know the major plot points and still want to see it with virgin eyes, be warned: spoilers follow.
Not My Luke
There were a lot of complaints about how Luke’s character was handled in the movie. Even Mark Hamill reportedly had issues with it. The last time we saw Luke, in Return of the Jedi, he was still the optimistic, courageous, adventurous young man we’d met in A New Hope (simply called Star Wars when it was released). Some 35 years later, when we really get to meet him again the TLJ, Luke is a bitter, literally closed off man. And fans were highly offended.
As a middle-aged person, let me tell you something: you aren’t the same person in your sixties that you were in your twenties and thirties. Lots of shit happens in between. Huge disappointments. Bitter sorrows. Wrenching tragedies. Things that can completely change the way you look at life, the world, and other people. And now here you are, realizing that there isn’t a lot of time left for do-overs. What’s worse, even if you want that do-over, the world won’t always let you. Want to change careers? Good luck finding someone who wants to hire a fifty- or sixty-something worker. Simple physical limitations come into play, too. You just don’t have the same strength and stamina you once did.
So I have no trouble believing that Luke could change as much as he did between Return of the the Jedi and The Last Jedi— especially when we realize exactly what caused the change. Many would argue that Luke would never have even considered murdering his nephew. But everyone is prey to fears, and mistakes, and terrible miscalculations. A moment of fear overcame Luke– just an instant, according to his account. But that single instant was crucial. If his crisis of faith had gone unwitnessed, Luke may have struggled with shame, but to compensate, he might also have redoubled his efforts to save Ben from the darkness that plagued him.
Rey’s Parents
Countless theories were spun about Rey’s heritage, everything from her being a Skywalker offspring to a Kenobi to being a descendant of Darth Sidious or some other Sith. I think the outrage that came from the reveal that her parents were “…nobody, filthy junk traders who sold [her] off for drinking money” came from disappointed fan theorists: “But my theory was perfect! Kylo Ren is lying!”
Okay, here’s the thing. Rey was abandoned around the age of four or five. I’m sorry, but if you abandon a kid that young in a place like Jakku, that’s tantamount to a death sentence. The odds of her surviving a year in such an environment, much less to adulthood, are vanishingly small. So if you want to hide someone you care about, whether it’s your own blood or someone valuable for their heritage, dumping her completely unprotected on a lawless, backwater planet isn’t the way to go. Unless you actually want her to die, and then why not just kill her outright?
And here’s what bugs me the most about the people who are still insisting that Rey has to have some kind of heritage. Remember Kylo Ren’s infamous, “You come from nothing, you’re nothing…but not to me,” line to Rey? Much has been said about abusive, manipulative tactics on his part. Honestly, since when does a bad style of communication constitute abuse? Kylo clearly hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to verbally express his emotions, so I’m not surprised that he flubs a really big one under pressure.
But look at the sentiment he’s expressing: “Anyone who looks at your background will see you as nothing but an abandoned, impoverished, uneducated orphan. But I don’t. I see how valuable you are. I value you, for who you are, regardless of where you come from.” How ironic that the people who keep insisting that Rey has to be descended from some vaunted lineage are saying the exact opposite. They’re saying that Rey can’t possibly be “somebody” unless she comes from “somebody.”
This is completely rejecting the movie’s message, one I really love: anybody has the potential to be “somebody.” You don’t have to be descended from kings and queens and powerful Force-users in order to be special. How much more democratic and uplifting can you get?
Curiously enough, in the very first Star Wars, Luke was a “nobody,” an ignorant, orphaned farmboy from a backwater planet. No one rose up in arms, insisting that he couldn’t possibly be a hero because of it. Maybe the rules are different if the hero is a girl?
Which leads me to he racial and gender backlash to TLJ (and to lesser extent, The Force Awakens). I’m not even going there. The only thing I’ll say how cool I found it that the film portrayed middle-aged women as strong and pivotal characters. Bravo, Rian Johnson, Lucasfilm and Disney!
On one of my Reylo Trash posts, a commenter said, “I agree with the title of your article– Reylo and The Last Jedi ARE TRASH.” I think the moral of the story is what I replied to her: “To each his own, I guess.” I won’t say mine is the definitive opinion. It’s just mine.
If you love The Last Jedi and Reylo as much as I do, you can read my story, Darkness, Take My Hand here on my website or on Archive of Our Own. Let me know what you think. I love your comments!
