My (late) Thoughts on The Last Jedi

(Major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi! If you seriously haven’t seen it, then go watch it and come back!)

The following are thoughts that have been floating around in my head ever since I first saw this movie in theaters. I’ve only now pinned them all down into some coherent writing, and I am very excited to share them with you!

Just so you’re aware of what you’re about to read, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is my personal favorite Star Wars movie. I thought that as soon as I walked out of the theater, and I was really surprised when I discovered almost no one shared my opinion.

Do I think it’s flawless? Of course not! Does it have to be your favorite too? Again, not at all. I simply think it deserves a little more credit then people are giving it. You may have your reasons for disliking it, but these are my reasons for loving it.

One word is at the center of my enjoyment for this movie, and that word is failure. As Yoda states about halfway through, “The greatest teacher, failure is.” I believe this theme is showcased at every level in this movie, from the attacks, their escapes, and even the character’s beliefs.

Let’s begin with the big ones. The Resistance fails to find a new base, they fail to outrun the first order, they then fail to hide from the first order. Their scattered allies fail to send aid. And of course, Finn and Rose infamously fail to do anything “useful” on their rogue mission to Cantobyte.

This failure to “accomplish” anything in the movie, is one of the biggest complaints I hear about it. However, this is the very reason I loved it. Let’s not jump ahead though; we still need to discuss the characters.

The obvious one right off the bat, is none other than Luke Skywalker. His big character motivation in this movie is his failure to save Ben Solo. (“Leia blamed Snoke, but it was me. I failed.”) It drives him to isolate himself and keeps him from teaching Rey. (“The legacy of the Jedi is failure.”) This all culminates however, when Yoda confronts Luke in a very Rafiki-esk style.

“Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery, but weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.”

Luke learns here that he should be learning from his failures rather than running from them (and that’s where the Lion King reference came from).

Let’s move on to our protagonist, Rey. Where does she fit into the failure spectrum? Well, she fails to bring Luke back to the Resistance (he does eventually come help, but that was his decision to face his past rather then a response to Rey’s plea). She of course, fails to save Kylo Ren, which is the main one I’ll focus on. She saw a kindred spirit in him: someone else searching for meaning and wrestling with their past. Her failure to save him, then, almost felt like a betrayal in her eyes. She started out the movie hating him, leaned to trust him, and was again stabbed in the back. This feeling was mutual, and what we’ll be discussing next with Kylo Ren.

He started off the movie with the failure of having not killed Rey. He failed to live up to Snoke’s expectations, and this shakes his commitment (“You’re no Vader. Just a child in a mask.”). This then leads to Kylo failing to kill his mother, and him reaching out to Rey. But he honestly even fails to do that, as his redemptive feelings were being stoked by Snoke.

What does this cause him to do? Well, kill Snoke. Destroying the supposed source of his disappointment, not realizing that he is still on the wrong side. Rey then fails to join him, and the emotional rage he lives in for the rest of the film causes him to not kill Luke and let the Resistance get away. I honestly can’t wait to see how these failures effect him in the next movie.

But let’s move on to Finn, whose change in this film is simple, but meaningful. He starts out in cowardice, caught trying to run away. Yes it was for Rey, but you know he would have been happy to be safe as well. His failure with Rose on Cantobyte really causes him to step it up, and by the end of the movie he is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the mission.

This directly mirrors Poe’s character growth. He is brash, hot-headed, thinks he can solve everything by “jumping in an x-wing and blowing it up.” This of course, costs the Resistance a lot of life in the first act of the movie. The Cantobyte mission was brash and impulsive: and Poe was the one who allowed it to happen. When Finn and Rose almost die from it, Poe bears the responsibility and makes a change. He humbles himself before authority, and by the final battle, he even calls off the mission, valuing the lives of his friends above victory.

These failures made the happy ending where they escaped feel so earned in my eyes. The way failure re-shaped these characters made me so much more invested when they did finally succeed. It has given me a lot to think about in these past months, and I hope that maybe now you’ll look at it in a new light.

To hop down off my soap box, I’d just like to say thanks for reading! If you want to have further discussion, or you like this type of content, please leave a comment! I’d really love to hear what you guys think!

So until next time, Namárïe!