The Struggles of a Modern Star Wars Fan: Or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Last Jedi”
Piece by Mike Sullivan, Certified Star Wars Fan
Star Wars means a lot of different things to many different people. Its fan base spans ages, generations, countries, and about everything else in between. Since George Lucas released Star Wars in May of 1977, nothing in film and media has ever been the same. People love to throw around the expression “Everything changed when they made (Blank)”. With a film like Star Wars, there’s no better way to emphasize the monumental impact it had upon release. The legacy of the Star Wars franchise is one of innovation, of massive scale, of challenging what film and film narrative can be. In the nearly half a century since the film’s release, that legacy is in flux. Series creator George Lucas made the decision to sell the franchise rights back in 2012, letting Disney take the reins. Many Star Wars fans can agree that this was a bad idea. But that’s where the agreement stops. This fanbase is no longer of a single mind, there’s no more common ground to share. Just like Star Wars had a monumental impact on film and media, no film had a greater impact on the Star Wars franchise than the second entry into Disney’s sequel trilogy: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Its release tore the fandom to shreds, it forever changed the trajectory of the Star Wars franchise, and it’s the only film since Lucas’s departure to come close to Lucas’s vision for the franchise.
Disney’s tenure with the Star Wars franchise began with a promise, with a brand new sequel trilogy. It promised three exciting new installments in its sequel trilogy, paired with side films that filled out other corners of the Star Wars canon. The first installment, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015). Everything about this film was designed to get fans back into Star Wars. It introduces our new cast of characters, pairs them with the old and familiar, and poses question after question about who our characters are, where they come from, the mysteries that surround them. But the film never answers any of these questions. It gets by on the fact that it has two whole movies following it. The film is an appetizer. When it was released, it did exactly what it was meant to do: get people excited about Star Wars again. For two years, people discussed fan theories, analyzed trailers, and set their expectations high for Episode VIII. This was but the calm before the storm, a storm that would wreak havoc on the Star Wars fandom.
I remember the night I saw The Last Jedi for the first time. I went in hoping for something special. I got a film that changed the way I thought about Star Wars. I left the theater feeling excited for the future of the franchise. When I went online to see how others felt about it, and was met with a massive divide. Critics praised the film for its willingness to take risks. Some Fans declared it the worst Star Wars film ever made, and how it’s a slap in the face to everything Star Wars stands for. I was hit with a question: did I watch the same film they did? Others like youtuber Just Write tried to tackle this disoriented feeling in video essays like this one where he discusses the concept of reader response theory. Reader response theory suggests while every reading of a film is unique based on the viewer, viewers will often fall into interpretive camps that other readings of the film line up with. The Last Jedi is an amazing film with a lot of flaws. Those flaws may detract from the viewing experience of some, but for me, those flaws only highlight what make the film so special. This is a film about failure in a franchise about heroes fighting against overwhelming odds and coming out on top. This is a series about myth, heroism and a battle of good versus evil. But that’s only what Star Wars is at its surface. Star Wars is so much more than that.
Fans who criticize the film’s choice of theme and story fail to see the precedents set for this film’s message throughout the first six films. Failure is baked into the DNA of each of the films, because failure is at the heart of any good story. Without struggles, without hardships, victory is meaningless. The prequel trilogy is about the failure of the Jedi, to combat the rise of the Sith and to uphold their ideals in the midst of a galaxy spanning civil war. Their failure to prevent Anakin’s fall to the dark side and transformation into Darth Vader. And yet, despite that failure, hope still remains. People will always stand up and fight against injustice. In the original trilogy, we see this fight through the eyes of the series’s main protagonist, Luke Skywalker. For Star Wars fans, Luke Skywalker IS Star Wars. He’s the hero people all want to see themselves as. To many, he’s this perfect, wise figure who saved the galaxy. And when his character is reintroduced in The Last Jedi, fans were outraged to see him portrayed as a bitter, regretful hermit, living in isolation after his failure to restore the Jedi Order. To them, this was slandering the image of their childhood hero. By fixating on that aspect of the film, they fail to understand Luke as a character and his heroic redemption by the end of the film.
Luke is a protagonist that connects with people more than any other because of how deeply human he is. In the first film, he’s restless, wishing for something more out of life. Something greater than himself. When he’s given an opportunity to take part in this grand adventure, he turns it down. Luke, like all of us, is flawed. He’s often arrogant, headstrong, and quick to anger. Throughout Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these mistakes almost cost Luke his life. But these flaws don’t detract from his heroism. They only make his actions more heroic, more meaningful. What makes Luke a hero is not his bravery or his strength, but his willingness to learn from failure, to pick himself back up and keep fighting. But after a lifetime of loss and conflict, we find Luke rejecting those heroic ideals he once held. Life has worn him down to a shadow of his former self. This portrayal connects with people on a different level. Here is Luke reflecting on our worst impulses, the sides of ourselves we don’t like to acknowledge. It’s no wonder that so many fans reacted as viscerally as they did. They entered the film with an idealized image of his character only to see Luke as he truly is. What these fans fail to realize is that that idealized image of Luke is still there, beneath all those flaws. The qualities that make him a hero remain, he only needed to be reminded of that fact. In one last heroic act, Luke faces the full military might of the First Order and comes out triumphant. When describing The Last Jedi as a film about failure, we fail to bring up the fact that it’s really a film about overcoming it.
This may be the issue that most fans who dislike the film cite as the film’s main flaw, but that is only one reading of the film. If people simply disliked the film, it wouldn’t have dominated the cultural conversation over the last seven years. No, the reason the film has continued to be controversial was through a change in how culture is interacted with. At the time of the film's release, we were in the midst of the Trump presidency and the rise of alt right and far right hate groups online and throughout the country. Politics and culture will always go hand in hand, as art is most often a reaction to the world around us. Star Wars has always reflected that reality, taking inspiration from revolutionary forces like the Vietcong for the Rebel Alliance and the evils of the Nazis to portray the Galactic Empire. But for the online right, politics and culture began to interact through the culture war, the claim that Hollywood and companies like Disney are trying to push their agenda onto everyone. To the right, franchises like Star Wars are being corrupted and ruined by diverse casting and “woke politics”. Reducing film criticism to these accusations of some liberal agenda ruining film has only one purpose: to spread hate. This reactionary movement had its start within other nerd spaces and fandoms with movements like “Gamer Gate”, an effort to remove women, BIPOC and LGBTQ voices from the gaming space. But movements like these are often limited by their reach. These voices will always be in the minority. In order to rectify that, reactionary politics insert themselves into spaces with mass appeal. Nothing has more mass appeal than a franchise like Star Wars, making it the perfect vehicle for recruitment.
We have a contingent of fans who are feeling alienated, feeling like Star Wars, a franchise that has been a part of their lives for years, has abandoned them. It no longer fits into the box fans once put it in. Instead of looking deeper, considering why the film is so upsetting, they find a reason. A place to lay blame. They channel the passion they have for Star Wars and funnel it into hate, causing real damage in the process. The most high profile case of this was the harassment of actress Kelly Marie Tran, who portrayed Rose Tico, a character introduced in The Last Jedi that these fans claimed was the biggest example of the film catering to the left and ruining Star Wars. She was bombarded with death threats and harassment, deactivating all of her social media accounts. Kelly Marie Tran is only one example in a pattern of harassment and abuse that has dominated the conversation surrounding the Star Wars fandom ever since. This vocal minority has been painted as the representatives of the Star Wars fanbase. In order for the fandom to come together, this minority needs to be condemned and excluded from the greater fandom.
I wish, more than anything, that I could happily call myself a Star Wars fan. After the last seven years since The Last Jedi’s release, Star Wars just hasn’t been the same. The last theatrical release, The Rise of Skywalker, took all the criticism it’s predecessor received and caved to those demands. Instead of moving forward, keeping with the spirit of this historic franchise, it feels stuck and mired in the world of streaming television. While hope remains with shows like Andor continuing to push the franchise forward, often it feels as if it’s drifted too far out of reach. People can lay blame at the feet of The Last Jedi, marking it as the film that destroyed any hope for the future of the franchise. For me, it was the future of the franchise. A bold new direction for the greatest film franchise ever put to screen. And to see the direction we’ve taken, it’s hard to see how Star Wars could ever find its way again.
The last image of the film is of three enslaved children recounting the story of Luke Skywalker’s heroic final stand. After being chased away and sent back to work, one young boy walks out into the open air. He looks up, stares up at the vast expanse of Stars, the possibility. He hopes. That’s what this franchise is all about. And that’s what I’m gonna do. Hope for more. Hope for a brighter future. Hope that one day, I’ll feel proud to once again call myself a Star Wars fan. I hope that day comes soon.
Genre Analysis:
I went into this piece attempting to write an Op Ed to the Star Wars fanbase, to illustrate my frustration with them in the wake of the release of The Last Jedi. After reading and working on this paper. I am still unsure as to whether or not I was able to capture those ideas. Typically, most Op Eds open with an opinion. I feel like I accomplished this goal with my opening, as right away, I lay out what the piece is about and hint at the problem from which my opinion leads into. This problem is the fact that Star Wars fans are not a monolith. They can’t be grouped together easily, especially in the wake of the Last Jedi. I open with the necessary background information needed to set the stage for my opinion and reading of Star Wars, the fandom, and the cultural background that led to the fandom’s current state. That said, I don’t spend too much time on background in order to keep the piece moving forward.
Stylistically, Op Ed’s are known for a rather loose style and a focus on making their case while inviting in possible criticism. An opinion piece will always be rather one sided, but without inviting in criticism and opposing perspectives, the argument loses its weight. Throughout my piece, I acknowledge the feelings behind the backlash to the Last Jedi, mostly because I understand the frustration of feeling like someone doesn’t understand Star Wars, but for the opposite reason. This does not prevent me from drawing a line in the sand with this piece. It’s made clear from the first paragraph my position on Star Wars, how much I care about it. I draw on my experiences watching the film, expecting other fans to share my opinion, my viewing. I get personal with this piece, because when I speak about Star Wars, I just can’t help it. As much as I try to take a step back and look at things critically, I can’t help getting worked up when the topic comes up. I used this piece as a way to release that tension and frustration I feel when this topic comes up. As such, I don’t know if I avoided slandering the opposition. In this case, this racist and vocal contingent of the Star Wars fanbase is something I see as unacceptable. While this might not win many of those fans over, that’s not my intention with this piece. This piece is meant to convince the fans that are on the fence, that might dislike the film but see its positives.
When trying to nail down my audience for this piece, I began with assuming my audience would mostly consist of Star Wars fans, so I wouldn’t need to get too much into the small details. But frustratingly, when thinking about how I wanted to go about this open letter, I found myself describing these details anyway. This stems from my reading on the situation that many Star Wars fans don’t have the best media literacy. So my audience broadened to not just Star Wars fans, who I aimed to explain my frustrations to, to fans of film and media as a whole. To explain how, after all that’s happened, after the fanbase gained this negative reputation, I still love Star Wars. I wanted to close the piece out the way I did for that very reason. After writing page after page about how upset I am at the state of Star Wars, I wanted to remind the audience where this passion comes from. Where this defense of a much maligned film comes from. Because with how people describe this movie, the average person expects a movie with nothing of value, an insult to any movie fan. I wanted to add my voice to the torrent of negative opinions about this film by getting negative myself. If people want to fight dirty, then so can I. I channeled all that anger into this piece, and let it carry me through to the end. To those who read this piece and find themselves willing to give the film another chance, to look deeper, I want them to know I wouldn’t go so hard to bat for this film if I didn’t think it was worth it. I want people to change the way they look at Star Wars, to look deeper into the franchise’s roots and deeper themes. Because this franchise offers hidden depths that can be seen by any willing to engage with it. It’s all about perspective. If there’s any opinion I want to argue for in this piece, it’s that Star Wars is awesome. But it can always be more awesome.