by Luke LoPresto

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a film series went completely insane–or so you’d think from the Internet, where, to some, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a daring sequel in an overcautious era, taking a blockbuster series into uncharted territory. To others, it’s a disorganized mess that betrays the childhoods of everyone involved. In an era where, as Chesterton warned, campaigns to abolish right and wrong have nearly abolished right and left, politics have come to dominate the debate over The Last Jedi. (Because we all know how much people loved the politics in the prequel trilogy.)

After two viewings, I want to explain why I love this movie and why you shouldn’t be put off by the ideologically “progressive” interpretations of The Last Jedi emanating from Hollywood and Manhattan.

Attack of the Thinkpieces

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some trepidation walking into the movie theater, worried that the movie from left-leaning Hollywood would consist of Disney spitting on my values as a cradle Catholic and a conservative. It was small reassurance to know that Disney loves money far too much to risk no longer getting it from white men like me.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see the movie was not a heavy-handed left-wing propaganda piece. General Hux never says “Make the Galaxy Great Again” or anything like that. But this didn’t stop all the usual suspects from posting commentaries on how the film was a condemnation of the usual feminist buzzwords like “toxic masculinity” and the most “feminist” and “diverse” Star Wars movie ever made (which is at least plausible; logic dictates one of them must be). Predictably, right-wingers have risen to the bait and condemned the movie for selling out to SJWs, unintentionally validating the thinkpiece-writers’ projections and letting them win the argument.

That’s not the narrative I read into the movie at all. I instead saw a broader parallel to the friction between the Millenial generation and Boomers or Gen X, represented by the younger and older contingents of the film’s cast, respectively.

A New Take

Poe, in particular, is so focused on destroying a First Order dreadnaught in the opening battle that he gets an entire Resistance bomber squadron killed, for which Leia demotes him. Then Leia is incapacitated and Laura Dern’s vice admiral Holdo takes over. Despite the Resistance fleet being tracked through hyperspace – bringing up the very real possibility of a mole in the heroes’ midst – by the First Order, who is now slowly picking off the fleeing heroes, Holdo refuses to explain her apparent non-plan to the recently demoted Poe, who apparently has never heard of operational security or “need-to-know,” except he uses the latter term later, so I guess he’s just an idiot.

Now the “I don’t like just sitting here doing nothing” trope is nothing new, but consider how the word “resistance” has gained whole new connotations in the two years between the releases of The Force Awakens and this film. The pyrrhic victory against the dreadnought, and later the disastrous consequences of Poe’s unsanctioned mission for Finn and Rose (specifically, the fleeing Resistance lifeboats being exposed and shot at, necessitating Holdo’s epic sacrifice), almost seem like an admonition of the modern “bash the fash” mentality. Rose’s lines about “saving what we love” instead of just “destroying what we hate” may sound uncomfortably close to the “Love Trumps Hate” slogan, but it’s not a bad lesson, not by any means. We should fight to defend the things worth fighting for, not just to crush our so-called enemies.

Meanwhile, on Luke Skywalker’s island, Rey begs the original trilogy’s hero to return to action, beat up the bad guys, and save the day. Luke, however, tempered by thirty years of experience and wisdom, is reluctant to act, knowing how the wrong move can have disastrous consequences. He’s not entirely right, but he’s not entirely wrong, either.

Rey, much like the audience, is convinced things will play out much like they did thirty years before, with herself in Luke’s role of young hero and Kylo Ren in Vader’s role of conflicted villain poised to return to the light. In the end she is…less right than she thinks. After Rey, so-called Mary Sue, gets Force-ragdolled around the room by Snoke, Kylo betrays his master, but it’s not out of the goodness of his heart; he’s just sick of taking orders. So all Rey has accomplished is replaced one dictator with a slightly less stable dictator. Whether this is good or bad for the galaxy at large remains to be seen.

Rey drawing hasty comparisons between the myths she grew up with and her current situation reminded me of those who compare “Trump’s America” to Nazi Germany. In both cases, we see people jumping to conclusions and reacting accordingly, with less-than-ideal consequences. Luke, having experienced a lot more of history himself, doesn’t fall for this trap (RIP Admiral Ackbar) and warns: “This is NOT going to go the way you think!”

The Phantom Controversy

I could go on. Kylo Ren’s declaration that he and Rey should “let the past die” and “kill it if you have to” echos the progressive sentiment of sweeping away any references to less politically-correct, less “enlightened” eras of history, the sort of mentality that leads to the removal of statues of anybody who ever said anything racist. And near the film’s conclusion, just when you think the last traces of the old Jedi have been burned to ashes, it turns out Rey salvaged the ancient Jedi sacred books. “Page-turners they were not,” but that doesn’t mean she can’t learn from them.

Did I also mention Poe’s rather hasty jump to the conclusion that Vice Admiral Holdo is a full-on traitor just because he can’t personally figure out her plan and/or doesn’t agree with it? Trump-Russia collusion scandals, anybody? Not only is Poe wrong, his subsequent mutiny is cut short so quickly it’s downright embarrassing. I’m sure people who break the chain of command usually think they’re doing the right thing, but the chain is there for a reason, guys, and breaking it can cost lives.

All of that sounds very different from the thinkpieces you’ll see elsewhere, right? Almost like I watched an entirely different movie. Did I discover the film’s creators’ true intentions? Well I can’t prove that I’m right…but you can’t exactly prove that I’m wrong, either.

Why did I come to such different conclusions? Probably because I love Star Wars enough to give it the benefit of the doubt, or because I want to hold out hope that not everybody in Hollywood is a full-blown social justice warrior.

Or – and hear me out on this one – maybe it’s because I focused on “who” the protagonists are: an isolated young adult desperately seeking her purpose in life, a recent defector of conscience who is still too scared for his own life to commit fully to the cause, a dedicated soldier who isn’t ready to watch his comrades die seemingly for nothing, a naive orphan grieving her sister’s death, a subordinate leader thrust to the top of the chain of command and now responsible for the lives of hundreds, an aging veteran at the end of his life who believes that his life’s work and purpose have all come to naught.

Those clickbait websites, on the other hand, are too focused on “what” the protagonists are: a white woman, a black man, a Hispanic man, an Asian woman, an older white woman with pink hair for some reason, an older white man.

The proper reaction to the ethnicity of the cast is “meh.” Far too many commentators, on both sides, have rejected color-blindness… which has helped make them blind to everything else going on in The Last Jedi.

The Franchise Awakens

A lot of people have rejected The Last Jedi because they don’t like the direction it takes the series, or because they think it betrays the earlier films, or because its subplots are subpar. I recognize there are plenty of valid criticisms for this movie, but I don’t think it is bad. I think it is challenging. It challenges the viewer’s preconceived notions about the Force, about Luke Skywalker, and about the very nature of storytelling itself. When was the last time a franchise blockbuster movie did that? In the age of comparatively interchangeable and disposable superhero films with minimal consequences, characters who are cornerstones of modern culture are being evolved in The Last Jedi, and our assumptions are being shattered, our preconceived notions disabused.

I know not everyone is as passionate about Star Wars as I, so I won’t begrudge anybody the right to hate this movie. But I will step in and argue with anybody who claims this movie is bad. As far as I can tell, nothing in this movie is indefensible. It’s well-executed, thought-provoking, and highly entertaining. You can dislike something and still acknowledge that it is good. I don’t particularly enjoy reading Shakespeare but I won’t claim it’s garbage.

But… if you were disappointed in the film, if you wanted to love it and found it wanting, I hope I’ve helped you find something to love about it. Find something you like about it and try to keep it in your mind. Find something you hate about it and try to explain it away in your mind. This isn’t real-world politics. It’s a movie. It’s a galaxy far, far away. A little bit of positive bias won’t hurt. Or at the very least, learn to respect it for what it is and for what it’s trying to do. It’s good practice for all of us in dealing with our fellow man. And when it comes to art and its influence on our thinking, inspiring us to engage with new and challenging points of view, whether we decide to agree with them or not, is definitely a goal worthy of a Jedi Master.

At first blush, it doesn’t seem like there’s any good reason to listen to NPR’s 1981-1996 radio adaptations of Star Wars. Take away all the groundbreaking visual effects, iconic actors, and revolutionary design, and it sounds like all you have left is the dialogue — not exactly Star Wars‘ strongest point. But with Brian Daley’s writing and John Williams’s legendary soundtrack backing it up, you actually get something well worth listening to! Here’s ten reasons why you should pick up NPR’s Star Wars radio plays:

10. The Lost Biggs Scenes

These deleted scenes are some of the most well-known, giving the audience a look at Luke Skywalker’s life on Tatooine before a pair of robots came into his life. They also establish Luke’s friendship with fellow pilot Biggs Darklighter, who is defecting from the Empire and will later fight in the assault on the Death Star. In the movie, Biggs gets about two lines of dialogue and an out-of-place moment when Luke mourns Biggs’ death, like they were BFFs. Well, that’s because they were.

However, this sequence, which takes up the first episode of the radio drama, does suggest quite a backstory. Biggs mentions that he’s still first mate on an Imperial starship, having not yet joined the rebellion. The plot of the entire movie probably takes place over no more than a few days, yet in that time Biggs managed to jump ship, find his way to the rebellion, and become a member of Red Squadron in barely more time than Luke did! Not impossible, but still seems improbable…

9. “Low is your ceiling…”

Luke delivers this line upon bumping his head inside Yoda’s hut, unconsciously mirroring Yoda’s famous speech pattern. Nothing really significant about it; I just think it’s funny.

8. Arica

In Jabba the Hutt’s palace, an added scene brings C-3PO into contact with a dancer named Arica. To casual fans, this is little more than filler that provides a less-awkward means for characters to narrate events. To die-hard Expanded Universe fans, however, this is the closest one of their favorite non-film characters will get to the movies, for “Arica” is merely an alias for…Mara Jade.

First introduced in Timothy Zahn’s 1991 novel Heir To The Empire, Mara Jade was once a Force-wielding assassin, answerable directly to the Emperor. There it was revealed that she went undercover at Jabba’s palace on a (failed) mission to assassinate Luke Skywalker. Luke would eventually help her move past her dark past, eventually (highlight for spoilers!) marrying her.

The great thing about this scene is Mara’s friendly demeanor. Most depictions of her past indicate that she’s not evil, merely misguided, working for an evil master. Her polite banter with C-3PO, of all people, one of the most chronically abused characters in the franchise, helps to humanize her. She’s an assassin, but she’s just one step away from redemption. And really, redemption is what Star Wars is all about.

7. Stranded on Hoth

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke loses consciousness / slips into delirium when Han Solo finds him in the frozen wastes on Hoth. It’s implied he stays that way until he wakes up in a bacta tank and a diaper back in Echo Base. The radio drama adds a tense conversation inside the temporary shelter (so presumably Luke isn’t still in that tauntaun carcass) between Han and a lucid Luke as they discuss their odds of survival. It serves little purpose other than to provide some characterization, but remember that after Echo Base, these two friends won’t speak again until Jabba’s Palace, halfway into the next movie, so the opportunity to develop this interpersonal relationship is welcome.

6. The Battle of Derra IV

Before the proper plot of Empire Strikes Back gets underway, the radio series first depicts a space battle at Derra IV, wherein an entire Rebel convoy and its escort squadron is wiped out by and Imperial ambush. Now the Rebels have taken heavy losses in the movies, at Yavin, Hoth and Endor, but they still managed to either get the job done or at least escape relatively intact. Here, there’s none of that. It’s a total defeat for the Rebels and sets the tone for the darkest entry in the trilogy. An effective scene I would’ve loved to see onscreen (seriously, how hard would it have been to create 2 minutes of new space battle footage for the Blu-Ray?)

5. Perry King as Han Solo

Now put that gun down for a moment and hear me out.

There is no doubt that Harrison Ford has been, and always shall be, Han Solo. But the voice actor for the character, Perry King, brings a different take to the character. He talks much more like the scoundrel Han Solo is supposed to be: a sleazy faux-“smooth-talk” voice akin to that of a used-car salesman. I won’t try to assert that it’s better than Harrison Ford’s performance, rather that it’s simply a… differing interpretation that’s worth listening to. Definitely sounds like a guy who would shoot first.

4. Say No to “NOOOOOOOO!”

The changes Lucas has made to the six movies over the years have been met with largely negative feedback. Greedo shooting first, giant dinosaurs in Mos Eisley, different music in Jabba’s palace, replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen, the list goes on. Though that last might be explained by the fact that Disney doesn’t own the film rights to the X-Men. (At least that’s what I gather from a quick Google search.)

The 2011 Blu-Ray releases take Vader’s big NO from Revenge of the Sith, one of the most mocked moments in that movie, and dub it over his turning against the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. It was at this point that fans became convinced Lucas was just trying to mess with them.

Because it is a radio drama, the NPR version has to include some kind of dialogue at this moment, or the listener won’t know that the Emperor has been picked up and tossed down a shaft.  Their version, however, is much more interesting than Lucas’s revision:

Palpatine: Put me down!
Vader: I will put you down. Down the reactor shaft! Down to your death!
Palpatine: I am your master!
Vader: Darth Vader’s master, BUT NOT ANAKIN SKYWALKER’S!

Hammy? Yes. But, dang, it’s still epic. Brock Peters chews the scenery so hard as Vader (in a radio show, no less!) that he could probably have destroyed the Death Star himself if he’d kept it up.

Despite the fact that both characters are voiced by different actors, Lucas should’ve dubbed this exchange into the Blu-Ray. Because when your dialog is clunky, sometimes the best solution is to just roll with it and ham it up.

3. The Trials of Princess Leia

Remember how the destruction of Alderaan hung over Leia like a dark cloud for the rest of the trilogy? No? That’s because she brings it up exactly once after the fact in the whole series (actually, she didn’t bring it up, a Rebel general did). Having your whole world, your whole life up to this point, literally burned to ashes is going to change a person. Especially after enduring torture at the hands of Space Nazis. Yet Leia seems altogether unaffected by any of this in the films.

Brian Daley’s writing and Ann Sachs’s portrayal of the character in the radio drama work wonders to fix this, with a rather uncomfortable sequence depicting Leia’s interrogation by Vader, including a bit where he uses mind control drugs to attempt to trick her into thinking he is her father (remember this was broadcast before Return of the Jedi showed us that Darth Vader actually is her father). And her anguished cries at Alderaan’s destruction work far better than in the movie, which is more concerned with Obi-Wan’s trauma at the event than Leia’s!

2. The Case for Rebellion

The penultimate episode of the A New Hope adaptation, titled “The Case for Rebellion”, features a lengthy argument in which Luke tries to convince Han not to abandon the Rebellion, while Han tries to convince Luke to do the opposite. It’s an interesting look into the characters’ opposing personalities, and gives Han’s surprise rescue of Luke at the climax of the Death Star assualt more of an impact.

Prior to this the episode also features a scene where Solo demands payment from a Rebel general for delivering the princess. When the general protests that they don’t have any currency, Han demands to be paid from their stockpiles of precious metals, in other words, he’s gouging vital resources from the Alliance’s supplies. Again, this scene gives more payoff to Han’s character development, and Perry King’s portrayal really helps make Han unlikeable in this episode. Which is, of course, the entire point.

1. Operation Skyhook

It may be surprising to discover, on listening to the adaptation of A New Hope, that the opening scene of Star Wars, where Leia’s consular ship is pursued by Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer, does not happen until the middle of the third episode of the radio series. The entire first episode is devoted to the “lost Biggs scenes”, while the second and half of the third are focused on how Leia came into possession of the Death Star plans. These scenes add a lot because not only do we get to see Leia acting as a solo protagonist, we actually get to “see” Alderaan.

The theft of the Death Star plans has long fascinated the Star Wars fandom, but this was the first depiction. Undoubtedly at least part of this will be overridden by the upcoming Rogue One film, but I hold out hope that this depiction will in some way be homaged in the new movie.

You can find NPR’s complete Star Wars trilogy on Amazon, currently a bargain at $60 for the set.  Luke LoPresto blogs at Mirum Planetarum.