Another year has come and gone, with a new one once again taking its place. And with a new year, new revelations also come. In this case, I recently rewatched all the Star Wars movies with a friend and was surprised to see how often I got frustrated while watching The Last Jedi’s story unfold. Now, I’ll still defend some of my earlier beliefs about this movie, but I noticed so many mistakes (which I don’t know how I never realized before) that my enthusiasm for it has greatly decreased.
Holdo and Poe Messed Everything Up
One of the things that frustrated me the most in this whole movie was how the writers portrayed Poe and Holdo’s characters. In my original article, I wrote about how I was captivated by the constantly rising stakes, part of which included Holdo maintaining peace while Poe, Finn, and Rose execute their plan to save the fleet. However, I now realize how stupid this whole plot point was. First of all, if Holdo knew that Poe was a “trigger-happy flyboy” and didn’t want to risk any rebellious behavior, then WHY DIDN’T SHE TELL HIM THE PLAN? Also, while Poe was rightly demoted because of his earlier stunt, and maybe how much information shared depends on military rank, Holdo still could have given him SOME details instead of keeping Poe in the dark. Seriously, the only reason Poe went ahead and did his own secret plan was that he didn’t know Holdo was trying to get them to their nearby secret base on small, undetectable ships. It was so simple. It was so unbelievably simple. Sure, Poe would probably still want to jump into his X-Wing and go wild on the First Order, but he would have some level of comfort knowing they at least have a plan. What’s worse is that Holdo’s actions and the lack of explanations for said actions made her look like an incompetent leader to Poe and several other rebels. For example, when Poe saw that she was filling up the unarmed, defenseless escape crafts, she didn’t even attempt to give any explanation. Instead, after standing there and letting him call her a coward, she kicked him off the bridge without another word. Not only did she make herself look incompetent to the whole Resistance crew, but arrogant as well, and that’s not the kind of leader anyone needs or wants in a moment of crisis. That’s why it makes me so mad that Admiral Akbar got such an unceremonious death, because he would’ve done a much better job at handling the crisis.
But just because Poe decided to rebel against Holdo’s crappy leadership, it doesn’t mean he’s exempt from this judgement. As I’ve stated, Holdo should’ve told him the plan, but even if she hadn’t, Poe should’ve respected her rank at least. Like it or not, Poe is now a captain, and Holdo is the default leader of the whole Resistance. Whether her decision to keep Poe in the dark was right or wrong, he had a duty to follow orders even if nothing made sense. But instead, he allows and encourages Finn and Rose to go to Space Vegas, and find someone who can (long-story-short) help the fleet sneak away from the First Order. The whole plan was unnecessarily complicated, yet very thrilling at the same time. That is, if there was no other option. Granted, Poe didn’t know about the secret base on Krait, but it still frustrates me that his actions basically led to the First Order finding out about their escape plan, decimating the survivors, and leading them to hold up in a barely functional facility. The worst part is that Poe’s plan wasn’t even executed to perfection, because instead of finding the master codebreaker Mas told them to find, Finn and Rose find an extremely shifty lowlife who sells them out after they all get caught. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when Poe finally told Holdo his plan, he staged a mutiny when she disagreed with him, which made things twice as difficult for the Resistance’s escape plan. If the shifty guy didn’t tell the First Order about the transports, everyone would’ve gotten to the surface unharmed. If it weren’t for Holdo light speeding into the Star Destroyer, everyone would’ve died. Heck, if it weren’t for Luke Skywalker’s diversion, everyone would’ve died. Thankfully, we still have a hopeful number of survivors by the end, but that number would’ve been doubled if Poe hadn’t been stupid. In contrast, whenever Anakin Skywalker made a brash decision, he would suffer through some consequences, but nine times out of ten, he would be successful in the end. Poe’s actions, on the other hand, led to numerous disasters that almost killed everyone, and he didn’t even suffer any consequences other than his earlier demotion. This whole thing is just so frustrating, and it boggles my mind how it wasn’t resolved as easily as it could’ve been.
Luke Skywalker: From Jedi Master to Depressed Hobo Loser
The more I listened to YouTube videos about Luke Skywalker, the more I grew to understand Mark Hamill’s complaints about “The Last Jedi.” In Legends, Luke is arguably as powerful in the Force as Anakin ever was: the man can teleport, use a light-side version of force lightning, and even use battle meditation, and that’s the tip of the iceberg! Luke is just as much a symbol of hope as he was in the OG trilogy: he not only created a new Jedi Order, but made it better by allowing emotional attachments and not inducting members as babies. Even in stories where he did give in to the Dark Side by becoming the resurrected Emperor’s apprentice, or by killing the woman who he believed killed his wife (yeah, that’s right. Luke had a wife in the EU!), he always returned to the Light and took responsibility for his actions, especially when he didn’t actively work to fix those mistakes.
Now, let’s compare this to the Luke we see in “The Last Jedi.” He’s a tired, depressed, old man hiding in “the most unfindable place in the galaxy,” just waiting to die because he almost killed his own nephew out of fear he’d become another Vader. Now, I’ll still defend this portrayal to a degree because Luke is still human, so he’s not the perfect hero we idolized him as. He also bore the weight of the whole Jedi Order on him as he tried and failed to bring it up again. HOWEVER, even though I see what Disney was trying to do, I’ve come to realize that this was a huge betrayal of Luke’s character. Again, after listening to many videos about Luke’s character and heroics, it’s very hard to believe Luke would sit on an island for—what, 30 years?—feeling sorry for himself and wasting his life while lives were in danger. He didn’t ignore Leia when she was going to be executed on the Death Star, he didn’t ignore his friends’ distress on Cloud City, and he didn’t even hesitate to go to Darth Vader on Endor if it could save his friends.
But the icing on the cake is when he redeemed Darth Vader, the fallen Chosen One who’s committed countless horrific crimes, and brought him back to the Light. And yet, when Ben has a bad dream, Luke’s first reaction is to kill him? I get it: he doesn’t want to take risks, especially not with the pressure of rebuilding a new Jedi Order. Even so, Luke sensed darkness in one of his students in the EU novels as the guy was manipulated by the spirit of Exar Kun, yet he STILL tried to teach him in the hopes that he could help him. And even when the student met a horrific end at the hands of Kun, Luke didn’t spend 30 years wasting away, but kept his Jedi Order going. So it makes no sense that, before Ben even did anything, Luke would rather kill him than actually try to keep working at his heart. I mean, how can he actively work to redeem Darth Vader of all people, but not his innocent nephew? Luke is the very definition of “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” and it can’t be understated how he’s one of the most iconic symbols of hope in all of fiction. So to see him in this state, with no Jedi Order to his name, and eventually dying from an overdose on the Force (even though he’s accomplished MUCH MORE POWERFUL feats in the EU books), is just insulting and heartbreaking to many fans, including myself.
Other Characters/Plots That Were Fumbled
Apparently, mishandling the OG GOAT wasn’t enough. They also had to mess up the characters that this new batch of movies was supposed to revolve around. For instance, take Rey. First of all, I love how she strives to convince Luke to rejoin the fight and attempt to redeem Kylo Ren, just like Luke redeemed Darth Vader. However, that’s pretty much all she does in this whole movie. She doesn’t really do anything else that’s significant enough to move the plot along, or her arc is overshadowed by other ones, such as the slow ship chase or the Space Vegas fiasco. Instead, her character is mostly rushed, and important details are overlooked, such as picking up on Force abilities and lightsaber combat after only a short time with Luke. The worst part is when they suggested Rey’s parents were nobodies who sold her for drinking money, which I believe would’ve made her origin story A LOT better and added more depth to her. But instead, “Rise of Skywalker” would immediately go back on that and make her a Palpatine with absolutely no build-up or hints to this development. Rey could’ve been an awesome and beloved character if the writers and developers had only taken the time to properly dive into her character, making a slow and steady growth that fans would’ve appreciated more.
Finn is another case of suffering under bad writing and handling. There was so much hype for the character way back in “The Force Awakens,” with numerous focuses on him in trailers and even emphasis on him holding the Skywalker lightsaber. While his potential in the Force wouldn’t be fully explored or developed (unless you count him sensing Rey’s death in ROS), I still appreciate that they stay true to his character in how he tries to protect Rey while also learning to fight for others. However, didn’t he already learn this in the previous movie? You’d think picking up a lightsaber and fighting your former Sith boss would’ve given you at least a little courage to fight the First Order, but instead, his first response to impending doom is abandoning his newfound family just to save one of his only friends. Then he has that pointless Space Vegas adventure, and only after does he come back to fight again. While the climax of the movie would attempt to correct this, it still isn’t satisfying enough to redeem his arc. I do love his fight with Captain Phasma and his attempt to sacrifice himself to stop the Battering Ram Cannon, but I feel like those two actions should’ve been saved for the final film of the trilogy. I mean, he’s fighting his (other) former boss in a burning and exploding ship, and that’s too crucial a moment to just make a one-time deal in the middle of the trilogy. And even though I don’t like how he would’ve died so soon in the trilogy, I do see what people are saying when they talk about how his sacrifice would’ve been amazing for his arc. But instead, this random girl he just met stops him and then kisses him, only to have that relationship completely forgotten about in ROS, and fans are left outraged even to this day. I really hate it when characters or plots are rehashed instead of further developed from previous movies or arcs, and Finn is unfortunately no exception.
As for the others, the explanations for their mishandled arcs are shorter but still significant nonetheless. For instance, there’s the previously mentioned but heavily hated Rose. I don’t even understand why they introduced her character if they were just gonna have her in one movie, although her thwarting of Finn’s sacrifice probably had something to do with it. I’m not as angry about that since I do love how she saved Finn so he could continue fighting in the next movie, and how (in some cases) it’s better to save those close to you instead of letting them die. But the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it looks in this movie. Her falling for him feels completely out of nowhere since they just met a few hours ago, and (again) I hate seeing Finn die so soon, but at least his sacrifice would’ve been the noblest expression of love for his friends. But instead, Rose not only ruins that but also essentially gives the First Order a chance to kill everyone off if Luke hadn’t stepped in. Also, after placing a lot of emphasis on her character, her beliefs on how the higher classes treat those beneath them, and her clear affection for Finn, you’d think they’d do more with her character afterwards. But no! They completely sideline her for the stupid reason of analyzing the Final Order star destroyers or something like that, and ROS goes out of its way to make the audience forget this character ever existed.
Moving on from her, let’s shift our focus to the bad guys. First off, there’s Captain Phasma. How do you introduce such an evil military leader, clad in silver armor with a cape, and make her a crucial part of Finn’s origin story, only to kill her off in the first movie? Oh, don’t worry, she’s revealed to be alive in this movie…only to be killed off five minutes later. All the while, we don’t get so much as an offhanded summary of her backstory, not even a face reveal (if you don’t count that one eye peaking out of her shattered helmet). Instead, she’s just a two-dimensional foil for Finn, and she’s never touched on again after this. But saving the best for last, we’ve got the big bad of two-thirds of the trilogy: Supreme Leader Snoke. As a kid watching “The Force Awakens” in theaters for the first time, I was in awe of this mysterious figure. I wanted to know more about him, how he started the First Order, and what his connections to the previous Empire and Emperor would’ve been. Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for. The first in-person appearance of Snoke, and he gets killed off in the climax. That’s it. No origin story, no complications. Despite all the power he has, he just gets Darth Maul’d by his own apprentice very easily. The worst part is when they revealed that Snoke was revealed to be a clone of the resurrected Palpatine in ROS. While this makes sense given the context we know now, and also makes sense for someone of Palpatine’s character, it’s such a quick and offhanded explanation that it feels very anticlimactic. This was the sequels’ chance to keep doing their own thing like they were in TFA, but instead, it feels like they depended on the popularity and success of previously established material to make up for their blunders in TLJ. Worse, they once again had no buildup or foreshadowing to legitimize this reveal. Also, and this is the most important part, but if you’re going to introduce the new big bad for your movies, don’t kill him off halfway through the story. At the very least, they could’ve either made Kylo Ren the sole big bad of ROS or maybe even done this huge reveal that Snoke cloned himself instead of serving as a clone of the Emperor. But they had to give him one of the weakest stories and lore in the whole franchise, with the only upside being Andy Serkis’ impressive motion capture performance.
Conclusion
To a degree, I’ll still defend this movie and some of its plot choices, but my eyes are definitely opened to the MANY mistakes in it. Rewatching this film and writing this article have helped me further realize how all of these movies are complete disasters, and make me twice as outraged that Disney decided to completely ignore George Lucas’ own sequel plans in favor of these dumpster fires. I’ll bet if “The Acolyte” was never made (or at least actually somewhat successful), “The Last Jedi” would be the second worst Star Wars project I’ve ever seen next to “Rise of Skywalker,” despite my reservations for this movie.
