Even though it’s been seven years since Rian Johnson’s film The Last Jedi came out, Star Wars fans are still angry about its portrayal of Luke Skywalker. The director seemingly has no regrets–in an interview, he reaffirmed that Luke’s confrontation with Kylo Ren (really just a delaying tactic) was meant to be “this heroic act that’s going to resonate throughout the universe” and how he felt “that’s the moment to give [Luke] his final bow.” Just one problem: whether you love or hate the film, there is nothing about Luke’s actions that indicates his “heroic act” will “resonate throughout the universe.”
Taking It Literally
It’s possible that I’m interpreting Rian Johnson a bit too literally here–for better or for worse, The Last Jedi director often speaks about his film in grandiose and metaphorical terms.
As for me, I’m rather literal-minded, so I decided to put this idea about Luke’s actions resonating through the galaxy to the test. As you will see, pretty much nothing about the final film backs up what its director has said about the actions of everyone’s favorite Jedi Master.
Not Much Of A Crowd
The main reason I think Rian Johnson is wrong about this emotional climax to The Last Jedi is that very few people on either side actually see Luke’s fake lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren.
At most, the only First Order characters who could witness this are the tiny handful of troopers crammed into each of the walkers. Similarly, only about a dozen or so Resistance characters witness the fight–worth noting is that Poe Dameron has to use macrobinoculars just to make out what is going on.
Math Time
Time for some nerdy math, so bear with me–there are about nine walkers firing on Luke, and while we don’t get a good look at the inside of those walkers, we only ever see three people in the “head” of the original AT-ATs.
That means that, counting Kylo Ren’s shuttle crew (which seems to only be three people), seemingly only about 30 bad guys and maybe 13 good guys witness the duel.
As Poe helpfully proves, most without their own macrobinoculars might not even be able to make out that it was Luke Skywalker out there, especially since he hadn’t been seen by most of the galaxy for a long, long time.
RSVPs Were Not Positive
As the math proves, Rian Johnson is wrong about this particular moment in The Last Jedi resonating with the galaxy because only about 43 people even saw it and only one could tell what the heck he was looking at.
Plus, a big part of that film’s bummer ending is that nobody answered the call for help that Leia sent out. So, it’s not like the whole galaxy showed up to help out and see what was happening–that particular climax was saved for The Rise of Skywalker, where hardly anybody who showed up except maybe Lando Calrissian knew what Luke Skywalker had even done in the previous film.
Johnson Was Imagining Things
Like Luke himself, I’m choosing to die on a weird hill here, but I can’t shake the feeling that Rian Johnson was mostly trying to convince himself that Luke’s sacrifice in The Last Jedi “resonat[ed] through the universe.”
At most, it resonated with a few dozen people, most of whom were younger evil people who neither knew who Luke Skywalker was nor cared about what he did. The director was determined to give this iconic character “his final bow,” but in a twist that truly subverted oexpectations, hardly anybody was around to see his performance.
