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Lucasfilm Has Turned to the Dark Side


There are spoilers in this post if you haven't seen The Last Jedi.

In my experience most Star Wars fans like Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back the most. I do, for one. It is a movie without death stars and megaweapons. It doesn't end particularly well, either. So why do we like it? I think it is mostly because we get to know Yoda and his teachings about the force. Yoda's teachings are at the core of Star Wars. We love to hear that being a Jedi is a challenge, because life is a challenge. We love to hear Yoda speak old wisdom, telling Luke about the easy path being the dark side and that a Jedi must have the most serious mind. The Star Wars saga is captivating because it is a struggle and therefore a true hero's journey.

So what did they do in The Last Jedi? Invalidate all of it. Yoda appeared as a force ghost, encouraging Luke to burn books of Jedi wisdom – yes, burn books. And the reason he gave is that Rey magically has all the wisdom within her that she needs, with almost no training or studying.

Indeed Lucasfilm, not only validates the quick and easy path for the Jedi in this movie, but it seems to embracing it as a business model. In the last movie, The Force Awakens, they created a much bigger Death Star than ever before, diluting the greatness of the Death Stars in the original movies. Call it Death Star Inflation. This sometimes happens in sequels, e.g. there is dinosaur inflation in Jurassic World. But it is a shortcut. Turning up the volume on an old tune instead of writing a new one. The force is more important for Star Wars than the Death Stars (remember that the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force.) Making the force easy and quick makes the spectacle of the movie greater, but it hollows out the story in the long run. Force inflation is worse than Death Star Inflation.

Lucasfilm has turned to the dark side. But I still believe that there is good in it.


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