Thoughts on The Last Jedi
Reading this only makes sense if you have already watched The Last Jedi, and probably the other seven Episodes as well. Given how many surprises and twists have been in Episode VIII, I expect to be completely off, and to be delightfully surprised and entertained when Episode IX appears. For now, here’s my incomplete understanding of watching Episode VIII once and not understanding all of the dialogue. I really should start using subtitles in cinemas.
“You were the Chosen One! You were to bring balance to the Force, not leave it in Darkness.” That is what Obi-Wan yelled at Anakin (back in Episode III). The Chosen One spoken of in the ancient Jedi prophecies — which are probably written down in the exact books that Luke thinks destroyed by Yoda, just before he performs his last sacrifice in order to give the Resistance enough time to flee in the Millenium Falcon. Yoda though already understood the prophecies better than Obi-Wan or Luke, he said that they likely have been misread: the Chosen one was not meant to destroy the Sith.
What does balance mean? The Jedi were basically the top security power of the Republic, the prime power next to the Senate. The Sith? Just a legend, and even in legend there were only two of them at a time, forced into hiding by the powerful Jedi. If the Chosen One was promised to bring balance between the Jedi and the Sith, the near destruction of the Jedi is indeed the most effective step to reach that goal — something Yoda seemed to have known.
From the middle of Episode III to VI, both Sith and Jedi were in a similarly precarious situation, both sides locked in existential fights. When Luke trained Kylo and the other young Jedi, he was starting to tip the balance again to one side. The fateful night when Luke was contemplating killing his own nephew in his sleep, when Kylo turned to the Dark Side, the balance shifted, and a champion for the Light Side was needed — enter Rey in Episode VII. Snoke himself said that Rey only came in in order to balance Kylo. Does he realize that the goal of either of the sides winning must be doomed if the Force — the all powerful Force! — will always plot to overturn any victory, will always counter any time any side starts winning, even if it means to create beings as powerful as Vader or Rey?
The lesson of Episode VIII — the message of the movie, not just within Star Wars, but also for everyone’s life — is about the importance of failure, how effective failure is as a teacher, as long as one is resilient enough to use it as a lesson. And indeed, the film is full of failures, so full of failures one might question half of the plotlines because they don’t lead to any pay off. Poe fails to stay loyal, starts a rebellion on the fleeing Resistance ship because of Vice-Admiral Holdo’s failure as a leader to communicate her plan. Finn’s failure to bring the beacon to lead Rey back into a safe space gets him into a crazy plan to shake off the First Order. Finn and Rose’s quest to find the Codebreaker, and then to switch off the tracker, failed miserably on the last second, and made that whole storyline look so futile. Luke’s failure to train and raise Kylo. Or Rey. Leia’s failure to keep the Resistance safe. Rey’s failure to bring Luke with her to the Resistance. Rey’s failure to attack Snoke. Rey’s failure to turn Kylo to the Light. Kylo’s failure to convince Rey to join him in creating a new order. Kylo’s constant failures in Snoke’s eyes. The film is full of failures, and these almost entirely annihilate the Resistance, and indeed Leia’s legacy of ending the Empire and creating the New Republic, a Republic spanning the whole galaxy. At the end of the movie the active part of the Resistance fits inside the Millenium Falcon.
These failures, once processed by the numerous protagonists of the movie, can lead to a great pay off in Episode IX. Destiny — and the Force — have probably taught our protagonists exactly the lessons they need in order to be in place to finally fulfill the prophecy and bring balance to the Force. Poe already showed a little of that new found wisdom, as acknowledged by Leia in her beautiful handoff — “What are you looking at me for? Follow him!”
How could that look like? An end to both Sith and Jedi, an end to the dichotomy of the Light and Dark Side of the Force? Well, that’s certainly one way to have balance, both being at zero. But that’s where the boy with the broom comes in. The Force remains present, even if the Skywalkers end their little family feud (and there are not that many Skywalkers left anyway). Will Rey and Kylo find their own new ways to a new world? To a new balance? Maybe one where balance is not defined by which order is stronger, by whether the Jedi or the Sith rule the galaxy, but by a balance in each and every force wielder themselves?
Luke said that he saw the Dark Side in Kylo, but it was clear that this was his own perception. Kylo was very strong, and Luke always was suppressing his Dark Side very much, so the Dark Side in Kylo, even if it were much weaker than his Light Side, would have certainly looked frightening to Luke. If you ask Kylo it was Luke who triggered the Dark Side in himself by, well, trying to murder him. But Luke also saw how reckless Rey was with regards to the Dark Side. Rey went to the Pond of the Dark Side, and seems to have left it untainted. What if the Dark Side and the Light Side are, indeed, just sides of the same Force? If that division is meaningless to the Force but an invention of the Sith and Jedi? If they were not meant to be separated inside individuals, but kept at balance within?
Did you notice the Jedi symbol in the fountain in Anch-To? It was half black, half white, not the representation of the symbol I usually remember. Was there a long lost time where the balance was already achieved?
Balance does not have to be at a near zero level. But the story of the galaxy as told in the saga is a story of millions of deaths, of planets and stars destroyed, of entire fleets annihilated, and in the end it will always be without effect, because the Force will always overturn any victory. Either we have to achieve a new synthesis of Dark and Light, and find a new way to balance the powers — no matter how it looks like — or we have to continue the circles of destruction, which was quite deliberately started anew with Episode VII mirroring so much of Episode IV, and the star wars will keep going on and on.
P.S.: Now you may ask what if the balance is restored, does this mean an end to Star Wars? And even for that this movie offers the answer, by the peak into the world of Canto, where we see that even without a mythological Force that splits the world in Dark and Light, the world offers enough shades of gray to generate conflicts and interesting stories into all eternity.
