Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened to mega-box office grosses in its first week, a nice escape for movie-goers who leave their politics and personal BS at the cinema door.
But some people just can’t let it go.
Vanity Fair has published a laughable editorial stating that since a female character is portrayed as “usually right” and male characters are “usually wrong,” The Last Jedi is actually a film about “man-splaining in the workplace” and therefore anti-President Trump.
Excerpts from the deluded liberal wasteland:
This message—women being largely right, and men being mostly wrong—extends to most but not all aspects of The Last Jedi. Rose Tico was certainly right to insist that Finn stay and fight, and right again to save him when attempts to needlessly sacrifice himself. Rey and Leia were right that Luke should join the resistance. But Luke still has some things to teach his young student.
When they fight on the rainy cliffs of Ahch-To over her desperate hope that she can save Ben Solo, Luke is correct in telling Rey that “this is not going to go the way you think.” And in the end, no matter how Poe and Finn may have stumbled—or Holdo, Leia, Rose, and Rey may have triumphed—it’s still Luke Skywalker who gets the film’s big damn hero moment.
But by in large, The Last Jedi’s examination of gender politics does fit into this trilogy’s message that the true heirs to the power in this universe are not white men like Hux and Kylo but women and people of color.
Though The Last Jedi began filming in early 2016—in other words, long before a referendum on Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton informed every aspect of American storytelling—it’s impossible to ignore the parallels on screen here.
The film’s progressive ideology is already ticking off some calcified corners of the fandom—the kind of fans who dismissed Ridley’s heroic Rey as a too-powerful “Mary Sue” after the last film.
But just because some Star Wars lovers are out of reach for the message this movie delivers, there is still hope for a new generation. Just like that kid at the end of The Last Jedi, holding his broom aloft and wearing the resistance jewelry left behind by Rose, an entire generation of young Star Wars watchers will remember the brave, smart, capable women of The Last Jedi—and the consequences of doubting their leadership.
The consequences of doubting their leadership.
Like a ridiculous “Death Star Collusion” investigation that lasts years and proves nothing, we suppose.
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