The Last Jedi: a timeless myth destroyed

  I saw Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi. Twice. I thought about it. I have discussed for a long time with my relatives and friends. And I’m deeply convinced that this film shows us what happens when a timeless myth is poisoned by the political ideology of the moment. I will try to explain why (sorry for my bad English):

SPOILER ALERT!

  Star Wars is not just science fiction. It’s more like a fantasy with a science-fiction setting. Star Wars is born as a modern revival of mythology, legends, fairy tales (is set “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”). Its plot therefore contains the “mythemes”, i.e. the fundamental nuclei of the action, which are found in the main mythologies of the world: the virginal birth (Anakin from Shmi), the prodigious weapons (the lightsabers), the father-son conflict (Vader vs Luke), the recognition between family members (Luke-Leia), etc. It’s not so strange that ancient myths reappear in contemporary narrative. I wrote a thesis about it, so I know what I’m talking about.
  The pioneers of these studies were Claude Lévi-Strauss (author of comparative analysis between mythologies of different cultures) and Vladimir Propp (who compared the Russian fairy tales and recognized the presence of fixed patterns). Two key texts on the subject are also The Hero with a Thousand Face of Joseph Campbell and The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers of Cristopher Vogler. In these works it is shown that the most exciting stories follow a fixed pattern, the Hero’s Journey:

- The young protagonist abandons his home (the status quo), at the invitation of a messenger (the Herald) or to remedy an injustice.
- Abandoned the family environment (Ordinary World), the hero is in a strange place (Special World), full of mysteries, spells, transformations. He’s at the beginning of an initiatory journey: the discovery of the world and the self-discovery.
- He receives the help of an elderly and wise teacher (the Mentor), or by creatures with strange powers – often incarnations of natural powers, or aspects of human nature (the Helpers).
- He gets a magic weapon, or other magical tools, with which he manages to successfully complete a series of tasks.
- He overcomes a series of obstacles, of thresholds, guarded by increasingly terrible guardians.
- He reaches the “belly of the whale”, i.e. the biggest challenge. He is imprisoned, or faces his greatest fear, or mortal danger (the Shadow). Sometimes he even suffers a “symbolic death”, from which he returns stronger and more confident.
- He conquers a “treasure” of some kind (often symbolic: wisdom, trust) or marry a princess.
- He goes back home (often with a magic instrument) and start a new life, wiser and freer. He has matured, has taken his destiny into his own hands and is finally free to live.

  Star Wars fully reflects this path (especially Luke Skywalker in the Original Trilogy). The saga also tells us about the great philosophical themes that have fascinated humanity since the beginning. These themes are as old as humanity itself, and therefore precede contemporary political ideologies. I’m talking about family dramas and the dualistic conflicts: good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, predestination vs. free will, revenge vs. forgiveness. These are the biggest and most engaging topics that can be told. In comparison to them, the contemporary political ideologies appear small and transitory.
  Star Wars was great and timeless, as long as it told us about the great existential themes of humanity. But The Last Jedi has forgotten or denied this and has begun to reflect the political ideology of the moment, the one that is raging in Hollywood. That – say things like they are – is the leftist, liberal ideology. Now, I’m not saying it’s wrong in itself. I’m saying that it’s wrong to always and only propagate that, because in this way pluralism is lost. Democracy is transformed into demagogy, and “freedom dies… with thunderous applause” (Padmé Amidala, Episode III). I will give some examples, to show how the major film franchises - some of which have lasted for many decades - have converted to the liberal ideology (in its most gross version).

- Star Trek started in 1966 with the Original Series. At the time it was very progressive: there were women on the bridge and in command roles, the cast was multiethnic (Uhura, Sulu, Chekov). Everything good. But the new series, Star Trek: Discovery, is studied as a manifesto of the liberal and gender ideology. I mean that, unlike in the past, ideology takes over the characters and the plot. While the previous series were choral, Discovery has an absolute protagonist, the first officer Michael Burnham. She’s the image of the politically correct agenda: woman (feminism), Afro-American (multiculturalism), with a masculine name (gender ideology) and she’s always right. All the episodes are focused on her, even those that would have been better to focus on other characters in the cast. The captain of Discovery, Gabriel Lorca, is a white male; but for the first time in Star Trek, the captain is a character that cannot be fully trusted. Why? Because, according to the liberal ideology, white men aren’t trustworthy.

- The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been fairly balanced till now. Of all the franchises in recent years, it’s my favorite one. But in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Michelle "MJ" Jones says she doesn’t want to visit the Washington Monument because “it was built by slaves”. Her professor - a white male - hesitates, and the custodian - a black guy - confirms. What does this mean? Perhaps we should close or destroy all the monuments built by slaves or by underpaid workers? I live in Italy: should we close the Colosseum, the Pantheon and all the Roman monuments, just because there were slaves in the Roman Empire? If the answer is yes, then over 90% of the monuments of the world must be destroyed. We would become like the Nazis who burned books, or the Islamic terrorists who destroys the cultural heritage of their own countries. Unfortunately, this hatred for history (only the Western history!) is increasingly a cornerstone of liberal thinking, as evidenced by the destruction of Christopher Columbus’ statues in America and the erasing of Greek philosophers from the study programs of many Western universities. I’m sorry to be so harsh, but I have studied Cultural Heritage and I firmly believe that erasing your own cultural heritage (art, literature, philosophy…) is suicidal. A nation without a past is a dying nation; it’s without future.

- In Justice League (part of DCEU), at the beginning of the film, a group of “Christian terrorists” (all men, all white, all dressed as in the 1920s) take a group of civilians hostage, including women with the Islamic veil and children. They expressly say they want to kill them to bring back the Dark Ages and the “fear of God”. Naturally, Wonder Woman, the feminist heroine, arrives and slaps them and has them arrested by the police. Pathetic. We all know that the exact opposite happens in the real world: terrorists are Muslims and the victims are non-Muslims (or Muslims of other confessions). It happens every single day, around the world; it happened also in the USA and in Europe. To say it isn’t racism, isn’t islamophobia (a nonsense term, coined to prevent criticism): it’s the sheer reality of facts. Because recognizing the problem is the first thing to do to deal with it. But as often happens, the sense of reality is deeply buried by political correctness.


  So far, Star Wars had saved himself from this hypocrisy and politically correct epidemic. So far. With The Last Jedi, even Star Wars falls completely in it. I’m sorry to say it, because I deeply loved Star Wars. But precisely because I loved it, I must say clearly that it took a bad road. These are the most serious problems:


1) “The First Order reigns”.
  It’s the first sentence of the opening crawls, and it has already made me understand the absurdity of the plot. How it’s possible that, 30 years after the Battle of Endor and the defeat of the Empire, the First Order once again has near-total control of the Galaxy? It’s clearly a pretext to put our heroes in a desperate situation, as in Empire Strikes Back. But it’s absurd. Both the prequel trilogy (with Clone Wars), and the Expanded Universe (with the novels about the New Republic) have shown us exciting stories with more balanced forces. At the end of The Last Jedi, the First Order - despite having lost the Starkiller Base, the Mega Destroyer Supremacy, the Dreadnought and many other Star Destroyers - has almost absolute control of the Galaxy. The Resistance, on the other hand, was reduced to 20 people on the Millennium Falcon. It isn’t “dramatic”; it’s simply foolish.
  But let’s get to the ideological problem. The officers of the First Order - the bad guys - are dressed as Nazis and they even make the Nazi hail with arms (in The Force Awakens when Starkiller Base shoots). They are all white and almost all males (Snoke, Kylo Ren, Hux, the other officers). In a discarded concept art, Kylo even had shaved hair, like a neo-nazi skinhead.
  In reverse, the Resistance fighters - the good guys - have vaguely communist uniforms. The leaders and the heroines are women: Leia, Holdo, Rey, Rose. They are all strong and wise. Instead, the males die (Ackbar), or make mistakes (Poe, Finn) or betray (“DJ”, Del Toro’s character). Luke even refuses to go back to fight, despite Rey’s heartfelt appeals. In short: the message of the film is that men create problems and women solve them.
  Leia even flies in space without a suit, as if she were Kryptonian. No, seriously? When I saw it the first time, I thought it was a joke. The space, in Star Wars, has become like in superheroes’ comics: a bit cold, a little lacking in oxygen, but other than that, no problem, it’s like being in the high mountains. Poor Ackbar and the other officers, however, are all dead. Only Leia survives, just to show the public that she too can use the Force. And the Rebels don’t even seem very surprised of her exploit. In their place, I would have made worse comments: “General, since when have you been able to do it? Does it only work once, or you can do it again? If we throw you out again, what is the maximum distance from which you can return?”. Sigh.

2) Holdo’s strategy.
  The whole mission of Finn and Rose on Canto Bight is not necessary. If Admiral Holdo had revealed her strategy, instead of keeping half crew in the dark for no reason, they would not even leave. But the pink-haired Admiral roughly silences Poe, explaining that the Resistance doesn’t need hot-headed heroes, and she doesn’t reveal her plan even when he mutinies in an attempt to save the situation. Eventually Leia (who really must be Kryptonian) recovers, shoots Poe and compliments Holdo. Why the hell she’s complimenting?! Holdo was a terrible commander: she made his men believe she didn’t have a strategy and lost their trust, until she suffered a mutiny. And in the end, Holdo even says she likes Poe! If she had not appreciated him, I suppose she would have killed him on first sight.
  By the way, why every time a ship of the Resistance ends the fuel, and it’s abandoned by crew and destroyed by the First Order, the Captain remain on board? What is, the cliché of the Captain that sinks with his ship? They have no reason to stay, they doesn’t have to do anything. The ships are already doomed. Holdo herself, later, has no reason to remain on the Raddus: at that moment she didn’t know that the First Order would have detected the concealed transport, and therefore didn’t think she had to make the kamikaze maneuver.
  Speaking of the kamikaze attack, which is so fashionable in this film (Rose’s sister vs. Dreadnought, Holdo vs. Supremacy, Finn vs. ground cannon, only he is stopped). If a single ship, launched at hyperspace speed, can destroy a spaceship a hundred times as large as Supremacy (and the other surrounding Star Destroyers), why aren’t space battles always like that? Just build very simple spaceships, with hyperspace engines and autopilot, and send them against enemy ships. But judging by the sacrifice of all the Resistance’s Captains, it seems that in Star Wars doesn’t exist the autopilot, not even to go in a straight line.

3) “Don’t join”.
  Maz Kanata tells Finn and Rose to go to a planet, find a guy with a red flower in his jacket that is ALWAYS in a casino and ask him for help. If I told you: “Go to planet Earth, find a guy in a casino” [which casino?] “who is always there and always has a red flower”, would you do it? Without even knowing his name?!
  Anyway. The two heroes go on Canto Bight, escaping the pursuit of the First Order, with the intention of returning to board the Supremacy and deactivate the sensor. How do they know that there is only one sensor, and only on the Supremacy? But above all: if they can escape into another star system, why all the Rebels don’t do it? It’s like entering a house by the chimney, stealing the keys, leaving the house and coming back in again using the keys.
  But speaking of break-ins. Finn and Rose are arrested (because they parked on the beach, sigh) and were thrown into a cell. There they find DJ (Del Toro’s unnamed character), who wakes up and goes out, as if it were normal. If he could go out when he wanted, why he hasn’t already run away?
Was he waiting for them two? And how did BB-8 (who doesn’t have arms) tie and gag the guards? During the escape, Finn and Rose free the alien horses - because animalism is beautiful - but they forget to free the horse-raiders, that are slave children. Then DJ explains that the same billionaires manufacture weapons for both the First Order and the Resistance, enriching themselves with their wars (I thought I was listening the Pope). So, the real villain of Star Wars is not the First Order, nor the Dark Side, but... capitalism.

4) “I know only one truth: the Jedi Order… must end”.
  Luke Skywalker. Sigh. When I say that a timeless myth has been destroyed by the current ideology, I refer mostly to him. Throughout the original trilogy, Luke embodies hope. And yes, I think he also embodies Christian virtues such as compassion and forgiveness. In Return of the Jedi, Luke goes to Vader in hopes of redeeming him. Luke doesn’t really know his father: he knows only that Vader has exterminated entire civilizations, he is the sworn enemy of the Rebellion, he has killed his mentor Obi-Wan and cut off his hand. Still, Luke chooses to believe that there is still a spark of humanity in him. And he bets his own life on it. Luke manages to do what the Jedi - even great masters like Yoda and Obi-Wan – haven’t, what they believe impossible: redeem Darth Vader. To do so, he surrendered to the Empire, knowing that Vader would take him to the Emperor, and that one of the two would most likely kill him. But he goes there anyway, because he considers it his duty.
  In The Last Jedi Luke is simply another character. The actor, Mark Hamill, admitted in interviews that he don’t approve how his character was treated, and I can only agree with him. This Luke is not the wise Master Jedi we have seen in the novels of the Expanded Universe. He is a broken, defeated man. In The Force Awakens it seemed that he had gone in search of the first Jedi Temple for an important reason, to rediscover the original teachings of the Order. But in The Last Jedi, Luke says clearly that he is just “waiting to die”. He has even isolated itself from the Force, so that he didn’t perceive the destruction of the Hosnian planet and the death of Han Solo in the previous film. Despite admitting that the island is sacred, and that the Jedi texts are sacred, he isn’t trying to use that ancient knowledge to do some useful. On the contrary, he wastes his days in repetitive and almost animalistic gestures, aimed at mere survival: to fish, to milk those horrible alien slugs. This Luke is a failure, a loser; even a coward.
  But how did he get to this point? He simply feared that his nephew Ben would go to the Dark Side, and he activated the lightsaber to kill him in his sleep, cowardly. Of all the absurdities of Episode VIII, this is the most huge. Never ever did the Luke of the Original Trilogy do something like that. That Luke – a timeless hero – faces a probable death because he hopes for his father’s redemption. The new Luke – a white male in liberal times – is about to kill his nephew, not because he has gone to the Dark Side, but because Luke merely fears he can do it. And so Ben really turned against Luke. Not even the Jedi of the Prequel Trilogy are so dumb. But above all, the “new” Luke surrenders: he doesn’t try to correct the mistake, nor to rediscover the ancient Jedi wisdom, but goes on that island waiting for death. Not even the passionate speeches of Rey make him change his mind. Neither Yoda and Obi-Wan, in the moment of maximum power of the Empire, were so hopeless. And when Luke finally confronts Kylo Ren, we discover that he isn’t really present (it was a sort of “astral projection”), but... he dies the same. For the effort. Because Luke is a white male. And the best he can do – according to the feminist ideology – is to accept his mistakes and die.
  [I immediately understood that Luke on Crate was a vision. He appears younger, leaves no footprints, holds the laser sword that has just been destroyed. And he avoided Kylo’s blows without ever crossing the blade. But I still thought that Luke was on Crate, after pulling out the X-Wing from the water. But no, Luke is still on Ach-to. For a crazy moment, when I saw Luke dissolve into the sunset, I thought maybe he had always been a Force Ghost since the beginning of the film, and for this reason he couldn’t leave the island. But no, at the beginning of the film Luke eats and drinks, so he cannot be dead already. And if he had ever been dead, he could have talked to Yoda whenever he wanted].

6) “…and get rid of that ridiculous mask!”.
  Kylo Ren in this film behaves a bit like a stalker, a bit like a spoiled brat. For FIVE TIMES he communicates at distance with Rey, inviting her to his side and complaining that he was mistreated by Luke. It’s incredibly childish, as Snoke points out to him. The same with General Hux (who is heavily mocked by Poe in the first scene).
  All the villains of this film are childish and pathetic, so much so that they cannot really scare. We are light years away from the majestic Darth Vader, but also from the aristocratic Count Dooku or the icy Moff Tarkin: those were antagonists that made you shiver. The new villains are crybabies. Why? Because they represent what the feminists – in their Orwellian neo-language – calls “toxic masculinity”, the worst of male behavior. They are not characters with a personality. They stay there just to demonstrate the feminist point of view.
  The only partial exception is Snoke, which is almost identical – even physically – to Emperor Palpatine of the Original Trilogy: a disfigured old man who weaves diabolical plans from his throne room. For two years, we fans have speculated on his identity: if the Sith Order had died with Sidious and Vader, who is Snoke? Where does he come from, how he masters the Dark Side? Who trained him? According to a widespread theory, he was Plagueis (Sidious’ master) revived. His terrible scars could be the sign of when his apprentice Palpatine had tried to kill him (to take his place, according to the unwritten rule of the Sith).
  Actually, it doesn’t seem like that. But the problem has completely lost importance, because Snoke already dies in this film (and not even at the end, but two-thirds of the length). So, while Palpatine-Sidous is the main villain for six films (the prequel and original trilogy), who deviously manages to destroy the Jedi Order and transform the Republic into the Empire, Snoke dies after brief time, without have achieved much. Of course, “the First Order reign”: but it does so by military force, not by the cunning of Snoke. And while Palpatine had converted Dooku and Anakin to the Dark Side with great craftiness, Snoke didn’t seem to have done much to convert Ben Solo / Kylo Ren. In short, Snoke is a completely wasted character. And his death doesn’t change anything: Rey remains loyal to the Resistance and Kylo Ren remains with the First Order. All the characters maintain the previous alignment, without any plot twist.

7) “You are a system’s error”.
  Ah, Phasma. Judging from Episode VII merchandise, she looked like an important character, the new Boba Fett. But damn it, I’ve never seen a character wasted as much as Phasma. In The Force Awakens, she agrees to lower the shields of the Starkiller Base only to save her life. What drives me crazy isn’t that she does, but that she CAN do it: just access any console, no password, and no one in the Command Center sees the problem. Then, apparently, Phasma is thrown into a trash compactor. But hey, in Episode VIII she is still with the First Order, and no one blames her for betrayal. Maybe she managed to hide it. But even this time, Phasma is totally useless. It’s not even she who recognizes Finn on the Supremacy. But nevertheless she takes the credit for his capture, and Hux congratulates her.
  [By the way, Hux also had taken merit of having followed the rebel fleet in hyperspace. But the credit was of the sensors, not of Hux: he had been so incompetent that he has lost the Dreadnought. Furthermore, why do the Star Destroyers chase the rebel cruiser Raddus for days?! They always keep the same exact distance, without approaching nor fall behind. Why Hux doesn’t send a few Star Destroyers ahead - with a hyperspace micro-jump - encircling the Raddus? Why he doesn’t use all his resources, at least one time?].
  I was saying that Phasma takes credit for having captured Finn. She wants to kill him, “but not with the blasters, because it’s too little for a traitor” (sigh). It’s the old cliché of the villain who, wanting to kill the good guys in an elaborate way, loses the chance and gets defeated. When an AT-ST walker fired on the Stormtroopers, I thought it was DJ who wanted to redeem himself. But no, it was BB-8, which as usual can do everything (even what requires the use of hands). I begin to believe that if the Resistance used more droids of that kind, it would have already won the war.
  [By the way. The mission of Finn and Rose is FAILED. They managed to deactivate the sensor, but then they were captured, and DJ shows the First Order how to detect and destroy the Resistance transports that were leaving the cruiser. So Finn and Rose are responsible for the extermination of almost all the Rebels].
  In the end, Phasma confronts Finn. It’s the first and last time we see her fight. Although her chrome armor rejects blaster blows, Phasma manages to get killed in the most banal and predictable way: falling into a fiery abyss! Hm. If her armor protect her from the blasters, why did she give up so easily in the previous movie? And if the First Order has invulnerable armors, why it don’t give this protection to all Stormtroopers?

8) “Not an exciting read, hm?”.
  When Rey leaves Luke, dissatisfied with her training (or lack of it), the old Jedi has the brilliant idea of setting the tree and the ancient Jedi books on fire. Yep, let’s burn these texts of 25,000 years ago! Even Yoda’s ghost says they were boring. And just when Luke seems to come to his senses, it’s Yoda who burns the tree. With a powerful lightning. Let me understand: the Force Ghost can act in the physical world? Can they throw lightning at their opponents, like Thor? So why the ghost of Obi-Wan didn’t throw a lightning strike at Vader, roasting him?
  I cannot tell you what anger I felt when Yoda LAUGHED after destroying the ancient Jedi wisdom. The same rage I felt at the beginning, when Luke took his old lightsaber, looked at it as if he didn’t understand what it was, and threw it away with contempt. It’s the attitude of the whole film towards previous movies: contempt. Even Kylo Ren says it clearly: “Let the past die. Kill it if necessary”. It’s the philosophy of Episode VIII: kill the old Star Wars, to create a new Star Wars... politically correct. Killing the myth, because nowadays someone could be offended by it.
  Perhaps mine is professional deformation. Having studied Cultural Heritage, I feel a deep disgust – indeed a horror – in seeing people who destroy books, or any historical testimony. The past must be understood, not erased. Once it’s destroyed, it’s like when an animal species dies out: a loss without remedy. But unfortunately, the liberal activists really like to destroy history. I saw a video of protesters knocking down a statue of Christopher Columbus, laughing, playing music and cackling. Many spit on it, or pose, proud of their ignorance and cowardice. I felt the same feeling when I saw the footage of ISIS soldiers who were destroying the historical artifacts of Mosul Museum. This is Obscurantism, really.
  And now Star Wars shows us the most venerable Jedi Master, Yoda, who destroys the sacred Jedi texts “because their time is over”. Mind you: the Jedi in Star Wars symbolize moral guidance. They were the soul of the Old Republic, then of the Rebellion, and finally of the New Republic. They are teachers of ethics, of morality. But now they destroy their own original texts, in a dark nihilism. It’s as if the Jedi Code represented the Western civilization of the past (with its Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian roots), while the new heroes represent the Western civilization of today / tomorrow: to hell with the rules and knowledge, hurrah for the emotions and “diversity”.
  To justify himself, Yoda says that although the ancient Jedi texts contained wisdom, they are no longer necessary, because “young Rey already knows everything”. It would be funny if there were not to cry. Rey has literally discovered the Force a few days before. At the beginning of the film she says that “The Force is a power that allows Jedi to control people and lift things up”, and Luke must contradict all. As much as he tries to explain it, two or three brief lessons are not enough to instruct someone on the Force. Rey cannot, absolutely, “know everything already”. Saying that knowledge is useless, because instinct and emotions is enough, is a dangerous message of contempt towards culture – our culture.
  [My friends say they saw the Jedi tomes on the Millennium Falcon at the end of the film. If it’s true, it means that Rey saved them from destruction, that is, she stole them before leaving Ach-to. Provident, the girl. If so, then the film’s final message is not so dark and self-destructive. But Luke didn’t know that the texts had been removed when he wanted to set the tree on fire. And I wonder if Yoda knew it. If he knew it was empty, why burning the tree? Who he wanted to deceive? And if he didn’t know... the negative message remains. Besides the oddity of a Force Ghost that can throw lightning, but doesn’t know if the books are in there or not].

9) “Young Rey already knows everything”.
  Do not get me wrong, I really appreciated Daisy Ridley’s acting. It’s one of the few good things in the movie. And I’m very happy to see a Jedi woman, I think it’s time. The problem is her exaggerated abilities, that makes her a Mary Sue [a female character too perfect to be credible].
  In The Force Awakens, Rey believes the Force, the Jedi and Luke are just myths. Then Han Solo confirms that they exist, and Maz Kanata provides some more details about the Force. Rey has strange visions when he touches the lightsaber (visions that no longer match the flash-backs: now we know that Kylo Ren destroyed Luke’s Academy before wearing the mask). Then, suddenly, Rey begins to master the powers of the Force. Within a few hours:
- She resists Kylo’s mental probe and reads his thoughts.
- She influence a Stormtrooper to get free.
- She catch the lightsaber instead of Kylo.
- She defeat Kylo in a duel, although she had never held a lightsaber (as rightly underlined by Snoke in Episode VIII). This last point is really absurd: I study fencing and I can assure you that you don’t learn the techniques from nothing. It takes time, exercise and a good teacher.

  In The Last Jedi, Rey’s performances are even more incredible:
- She talks to Kylo Ren and sees him light-years away, even transmitting the tactile sensations and water on her fingers. Because the Force is better than Skype.
- She falls into that strange well (the cave of Dagobah 2.0) and, although she has always lived in a desert planet, she can swim. Then she has that incomprehensible vision of herself multiplied, and her parents who are actually... herself (?!).
- She fights Luke with sticks (there’s not a single lightsaber duel in the whole movie, damn it!). And she throws him to the ground.
- She launch herself against Supremacy in a rescue shell and, mysteriously, is greeted on board without being killed on first sight. Okay, it’s like Luke delivering himself to Vader on the Death Star: a brave gesture of sacrifice, in the name of a faint hope. But it all happens too soon. A similar scene had to be put at the end of Episode IX, not half of Episode VIII.
- She confronts Snoke’s Praetorian Guards and, once again, she wins the duel. Although she hasn’t received a lightsaber training, it’s her third consecutive victory (against Kylo Ren, against Luke with sticks and now against the Praetorians). She even manages not to lose a hand or an arm, as happened to Anakin in Ep. II and to Luke in Ep. V. During the fight, she even saves Kylo Ren.
- Rey and Kylo attract Luke’s lightsaber with the same force, breaking it. The sword explodes (why?) and Kylo faints. When he recovers, he discovers that Rey has escaped with Snoke’s personal shuttle (which we never see: when she reappears, Rey is on the Falcon). So Rey recovered before Kylo and left, leaving him alive.
- Last but not least, Rey raises the stones that clogged the tunnel, allowing the escape of the last Rebels (20 people at most: very few to save the Galaxy). And when, rightly, she asks Leia how they will save the Galaxy, Leia looks her in the eye and replies that “we have all that is needed”. That means the almighty Rey / Mary Sue.

  Rey in front of Snoke is like Luke in front of Palpatine; the filmmakers practically played the same scene with other characters. The difference is that Rey is so powerful that I didn’t perceive the sense of danger. Even today, when I watch Return of the Jedi and Luke meets the Emperor, I shiver down my spine. I had seen that scene at least 30 times, and I still wonder how Luke will save himself. Because it’s done well; it’s an excellent scene. With Rey, however, I didn’t perceive the sense of danger. She’s too perfect. Even without training, she never makes a mistake. She even manages not to be seduced by Kylo’s promises of power. What to say? She’s smarter and more powerful than all the Jedi of all the previous films.
  And this leads us to the plot twist. Who are Rey’s parents? For two years, since the release of episode VII, we fans have not talked about anything else. Maybe she’s a daughter of Luke. Perhaps of Leia. Perhaps she’s a descendant of Obi-Wan, or even of Palpatine (they have the same way of dueling). Or maybe she’s the reincarnation of Anakin Skywalker (!).
  Nah. Rey is the daughter of two Jakku scrap merchants, who sold her for a drink and then died in a mass grave. Wow. So... why she’s more powerful than Yoda, Anakin and Palpatine put together? All right, I understand the democratic message that the Force can manifest itself in anyone. But even Anakin wasn’t so powerful; and he was born of a virgin mother, like a Messiah of space. Rey was born of two parents; but she’s even superior. She is a new Chosen One? It doesn’t matter anymore. She already knows how to do everything, and this is all.


  Ultimately, The Last Jedi is a disaster. The plot doesn’t make any sense, the characters act in an unnatural way (especially Luke). I have the unpleasant feeling that the film was conceived from the mains scenes (such as the collision between the Raddus and Supremacy) and the plot was invented later, to glue the scenes already designed. This would explain the appalling screenplay holes.
  It also seems to me that the script has never been subjected to serious scrutiny. It’s as if nobody has read and questioned the script, before filming started. With all the people involved in this gigantic production, why they all fail to notice such gross errors that any group of friends, talking about the film, can detect it? Perhaps no one has had the bravery to express criticism, not to be accused of being “against progress” (i.e. against liberal politics).
  The most serious mistake of the film is adopting the extreme leftist ideology that is raging in Hollywood. I think that’s why the underlying message is so pessimistic, nihilistic, hopeless. Yes, in the last scene we see a child talking about Luke, grabbing a broom like a lightsaber and looking at the stars. A symbol of hope. But that’s not enough, after we saw Luke reduced to a miserable, defeated hermit. With Anakin / Vader and Ben / Kylo gone to the Dark Side, and Luke turned into a failure, the Skywalker family comes out very badly. In my opinion, the “real” Luke is that of the Expanded Universe: a wise and powerful Master Jedi, who can also make some mistakes, but never loses hope and never ceases to fight for a better future. Because Luke represents what Anakin would have been, if he hadn’t fall in the Dark Side. But the liberals hates the idea that a Western man can transmit positive values and be a model to follow. So they destroyed his myth, and they transferred his role to Rey (but she’s so powerful and perfect that she isn’t credible).
  At this point, honestly, I lost interest in Star Wars. I don’t even have the curiosity to see Episode IX, if it will be another political manifesto. I’m happy with the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy, i.e. Star Wars as it was before ending up in the wrong hands. The Star Wars that thrills, and that will be remembered for a long time, is the one that speaks of the great existential themes; not the political propaganda of a fleeting historical phase.