People are Freaking Out about “The Last Jedi”

I liked it.

Before you trust my opinion, as a kid, I loved the prequels. Especially the futuristic (or distant past) cities Anakin Skywalker found himself in. It reminded me of the Fifth Element, which I also loved. As I grew older, these movies became ridiculous. Especially the annoying Jar Jar Binks (who was, arguably, the subject of the mono-mythic Cambpellian tradition).

People are freaking out about Episode 7. My thoughts below.

—Some Spoilers Below —

This Star Wars attempts to separate from the “royalty is key to heroism” line of thought that seems to be in every Disney production. Instead of Rey being a Disney princess, we come to find out that she might not be (if we are to believe the information Kylo Ren gives her). Instead, she is the daughter of some “filthy junk traders” who then found herself on the planet Jakko. Even Luke Skywalker admits that Jakko “really is nowhere” after pressing for an answer to Rey’s origin. Not the father.... I guess.

It also ends the story of Luke Skywalker as far as I can tell. I saw a petition on Change.org asking Disney to take episode 7 our of the cannon. People are freaking out. People DEMAND the reputation of Luke Skywalker be restored so that their heroes won’t be metaphorically “dead.”

Going in to the movie, and most of the way through it, I thought that Rey might be Luke’s daughter, Kylo Ren’s cousin.

Finn found someone else to love aside from Rey. This keeps open a romance between Kylo Ren and Rey. There was a few times when I though of Finn as the new Han Solo. Rey as the new Leia. But roles shifted unpredictably and Lucas Films has the courage to not make Luke a flawless hero, nor Kylo Ren pure evil. Lines are blurred, and that makes for some good “Rick and Morty” type questioning of the distinction between hero and villain.

-Redemption can be had for almost everyone. Kylo Ren didn’t pull the trigger that could have killed his mother, Princess Leia. Indeed, he looked distraught when another fighter-pilot pulled the trigger. He did kill his father in “The Force Awakens,” an incident that Rey witnesses and that incites her passion to be the opposite of Kylo Ren, but even as Snoke pointed out, he is conflicted.

But we can liken this story to that of a drug addiction. The drugs got the best of Kylo Ren. As he seeks to increase his high with the disfigured Snoke as a mentor, we see a loving set of parents who just want to intervene and who would go to great lengths to have him back in their fold. Power and drugs are similar. They corrupt the soul and the skin respectively. There are scenes where Princess Leia looks out into the distance, wondering where her son is, and what kind of destructive things he was doing to maintain his power/high.

I like this story. I liked the movie. I liked the humor, the silliness, I liked it all. There were parts of it that got under my skin just a bit, like a proletariat “fuck the wealthy” tilt, but none of that was necessarily untrue.. just like none of the complaints the antifa levy against the current regime are untrue, despite the solutions be as harmful, if not more harmful, than what they are trying to fix. More Rick and Morty cynicism.

I’m sure I’ll have more to write on the subject, but until then.... in the words of Project 86: “Your heroes are dead, they were all in your head, when nothing is left we’ll start again.”