Some Questions That Come To Mind After Seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi

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Well, after waiting for two years, I have to confess that I was quite impressed by The Last Jedi. An excellent film for a new generation!

Sure. Sure.

Let me guess. You have some questions?

Absolutely! The most obvious one is what the hell happened to DJ?

Really? That’s the most obvious one?

Did he survive? Is he coming back?!? I need to know!

Wow, you’re really crushing hard on that one, aren’t you? Well, since there wasn’t a death scene, it does look like Benicio Del Toro’s stuttering slicer did survive the events of The Last Jedi. As to whether he comes back in Episode IX, that’s for JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio to decide. But since it was such a small role, I can’t really imagine that happening.

But we did get a death scene for Captain Phasma! And they still didn’t use her!

Come on! You don’t really believe Phasma’s dead, do you? She fell into a pit. Have you never read a Batman comic? (Though no argument on the “still not using her” part)

So she’ll be back for Episode IX?

As guaranteed as Luke Skywalker turning up as a Force Ghost.

Oh yeah (sniff), Luke died!

That he did. Become one with the Force he has.

But I wasn’t sure how he died?

The film makes it clear that projecting himself from his island home of Ahch-To all the way to the planet of Crait was incredibly draining. It’s possible that Luke may be the only Force user that has ever done something like that. The effort undoubtably killed him.

But Snoke managed to make a Force connection between Kylo Ren and Rey. More than once! And that didn’t kill him!

That’s true. It’s possible that projecting yourself through the Force is far more intense than making a connection between two people. But it also raises the interesting question as to who was more powerful: Luke or Snoke?

I suppose we’ll never know. I can’t believe they killed Snoke though. 

Got to be honest, even I was expecting Snoke to be the big bad for all three movies.

After all those Snoke theories you think they would have told us something!

Not necessarily. After all, the Emperor was barely explained in the original trilogy. One hologram appearance in Empire and then only appearing in the second half of Jedi.

I suppose…

Both Snoke and the Emperor represent the same thing: ultimate evil. And they only exist to be defeated. It’s just that on this occassion the defeat has come in the second film rather than the third. You honestly don’t need to know anything more about either of them to understand that.

*sigh* Fine. Looks like my Jar Jar/Snoke fan fic is going in the bin.

You should have done that anyway.

There were a lot of things either ignored or barely followed on from The Force Awakens. Like who were the Knights of Ren?

The Last Jedi makes it clear that Kylo wasn’t the only person that turned against Luke. Several of Luke’s students went to the dark side and joined Kylo. We can assume that they called themselves the Knights of Ren. The question now is what happened to all of them. Since they were created by JJ Abrams, and he’s returning to write and direct Episode IX, there’s a good chance that might be explained.

And who created that map to Luke Skywalker? Seems a bit pointless considering he never wanted to be found.

Yeah, that’s definitely a question that slipped through the cracks. I doubt any future films would answer it. Maybe one of the expanded universe books will instead?

Urgh! Fine. By the way, going back to the Force Ghosts, how did Yoda control the weather?

We haven’t seen a lot of what Force Ghosts can actually do in previous films. As Yoda has become “one with the Force” and the Force is “an energy field created by all living things”; it stands to reason that a Force Ghost might have some kind of control over the natural elements. Or at least enough to burn a couple of books.

But the books weren’t destroyed! I saw them at the end!

Good catch. It looks like Rey took the books before Yoda went all dracarys on them.

But why did she save them?

I actually think this is less a plot issue, and more of a thematic one. As I said in my review, Rian Johnson rejects the idea that the original Star Wars should be held up as the equivalent of a religious text. So having Yoda, the ultimate example of the old Jedi, destroy the tree/temple the books were stashed in would be the utmost representation of this rejection.

But it’s not as if everything from the past should be let go, and this is represented by Rey keeping the books for future films. In other words, not a continuation of the old, but something new built on what came before.

Speaking of Rey, how can her parents be nobodies? I was expecting her to be a Skywalker / Kenobi / Organa

Honestly, I think that was an utter stroke of genius. This was the single biggest subversion of expectations. Luke had his life turned around by a revelation about his family. We, as an audience, expected the same thing. But Rian Johnson turned that completely on its head. There’s still a reveal (admittedly not quite as shocking); it’s just a reveal that goes in the opposite direction.

So where the hell do we go next?

That’s a good question. Almost every major plot point was tied up in The Last Jedi. Now that we also don’t have Carrie Fisher (RIP), there’s a good chance that there’ll be a large time jump before Episode IX starts. Maybe even 5-10 years.

Hmmmm, still wasn’t that great of a film. There were so many problems!

Really? Like what?

Why didn’t the First Order just continue attacking the Resistance fleet with Tie Fighters? There were like thousands of them! Or why didn’t they hyperspace jump in front of the Resistance fleet?

Errr…

And why would the First Order pull off every single Tie Fighter to chase the Millennium Falcon?!? It’s one ship!

Well, maybe–

And what the hell was The Resistance’s plan in sending out 13 tiny fighters against an entire ground assault? Those fighters didn’t have any guns! What were they planning to do?

They could–

Also there’s no gravity in space. How on earth did those bombers “drop” a payload?

You know there’s also no sound in–

And for the love of God, why didn’t Laura Dern’s character just tell Poe what was going on?!? It would have taken, like, 10 seconds and hundreds of lives could have been saved!

I suppose–

And didn’t you say you hated The Force Awakens because it was a carbon copy of A New Hope. Last Jedi was exactly the same as Empire Strikes Back!

I don’t think—

Seriously! There’s a wise old Jedi master reluctantly training a young upstart. There’s an extended sequence of the bad guys chasing the good guys. The main character has to struggle between the draw of the light and dark side. There’s even a massive familial twist! Literally, the only difference is that they put the Hoth battle at the end rather than the beginning!

Yes, but–

And worst of all, they don’t say the phrase “I have a bad feeling about this!”

*sigh* I’m going to bed.