Rian Johnson Finds Fake ‘Return of the Jedi’ Reading Illuminating – Perfectly Explains Why The Last Jedi is Horrible

By 
·July 12, 2018

Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson found a fake reading of Return of the Jedi illuminating and it perfectly captures why his The Last Jedi and its treatment of Luke Skywalker is horrible.

The fake reading comes courtesy of Twitter user Jonathan McIntosh who says “a handful of The Last Jedi haters in my mentions are offering up a fascinating misreading of the final showdown between Luke and Vader in RoTJ.”

He goes on to describe this “misreading.”

McIntosh did not offer any proof of anyone but himself coming up with this “misreading.” In fact, he was promptly called out for it.

It appears McIntosh might have actually made this “misreading” up. And the fact that Rian Johnson finds this “misreading” illuminating just proves that he just can’t deal with the criticism of The Last Jedi. In fact, it appears he’s trying to find any way to deflect criticism of his film now that it’s being roundly accepted as a complete failure of a film with bad characterizations of iconic characters, horrible story choices, and a complete lack of understanding about the Star Wars universe.

But let’s actually examine McIntosh’s statement about what really happened. He claims Luke tries to avoid fighting. Is that true? No, it’s a complete lie. Luke Skywalker succumbs to his emotions and attempts to strike down the Emperor with his lighstaber, but is stopped by Darth Vader. Luke even takes the fight to Darth Vader knocking him down a set of stairs. However, once he realizes that the Emperor is manipulating him, he sheathes his lightsaber.

That’s when Luke decides he won’t fight Darth Vader. He says, “I will not fight you father.” However, he is still forced to defend himself when Vader takes the fight to him. Luke then gets back on mission and attempts to convert Vader back to the Light. He even goes into hiding, refusing to fight Vader. But when Vader realizes Leia is Luke’s sister, Luke begins a vicious assault on Vader to protect his sister. He wants to protect Leia from Vader and the Emperor. It’s not until Luke has defeated Vader and has him at the edge of his lightsaber that the Emperor makes his move and tries to fully convert Luke to the Dark Side.

Luke refuses and throws his lightsaber away saying he will never turn to the Dark Side. The Emperor then begins to shock the life out of him until Vader intervenes and throws the Emperor down the shaft.

However, you have to remember that the Emperor tells Luke that his weakness is, “Your faith in your friends is yours.” It’s quite possible that in the moment he realized he was falling to the Dark Side he also realized the sacrifice he needed to endure in order to redeem his Father. He had faith that his father could be saved. In fact, he says it multiple times leading up to and even during the fight with Darth Vader. Luke believes his father won’t kill him and that he can be saved.

Not only did McIntosh apparently create a fake misreading in order to defend The Last Jedi, but he also had his own horrible misreading of what actually went down. The fact that Rian Johnson buys this bogus “misreading” shows his wild misunderstanding of Luke Skywalker and it’s why we got a Luke Skywalker who is nothing like Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi. A Luke Skywalker who would fight for his friends and especially his sister. A Luke Skywalker who would sacrifice his own life in order to prevent himself from turning to the Dark Side. Do you think the Return of the Jedi Luke Skywalker wouldn’t do the same to prevent his nephew from turning to the Dark Side? That’s why Rian Johnson’s version of Luke Skywalker is an abomination and why the film goes down as the worst Star Wars film ever made at least up until this point.

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