As The First Order ravages planet after planet, the Resistance finds itself powerless to stop its rampage. The Rebel Alliance’ immediate successor is the only thing standing between ‘The First Order’ and total subjugation of the Galaxy.
The heroes are dead. Luke and Han have transcended to a higher plane of existence. With Carrie Fisher’s sad demise, her character won’t be getting much of any screen time in Episode VIII. The Resistance looks for leadership.
And there aren’t many numbers of candidates that fit the bill. Only a handful could lead the rebel faction to victory against the First Order. Anyone can lead. But only a chosen few can turn a losing battle into a winning stride.
The woman most capable and experienced to lead the Resistance after Leia Organa was Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo. But she died while trying to save her fellow comrades from First Order bombardment by using her own ship as a light speed battering ram to rip the enemy’s in two.
Her remains are now scattered throughout space along with her ship. Safe to say she can no longer perform her duties as the leader of the Resistance.
So that leaves us with three candidates – Finn, Rey and Poe Dameron. Let’s face it – Finn is a coward of the highest order.
The minute he senses danger, he tries to jump ship. Apart from a few acts of exceptional bravery, most of the time his demons always take a hold of him when under threat. A coward like that cannot and must not be trusted with the reins of the Resistance.
Poe Dameron is an experienced Star Fighter pilot of the Rebels and one of the most well-known figures in the Rebel army. His cockiness sometimes gets the better of him.
His attitude problem and refusal to conform to a higher authority were the only things that led to the death of almost half of the Resistance army. He is learning but he is still not ready. He is getting there, but just not fast enough. He is an excellent fighter pilot but he is no leader.
So that leaves us with Rey. After a quest to find out the location of the legendary Rebel hero Luke Skywalker, Rey ends up on the planet Ahch-To and asks Luke to train her. Luke told her that the days of Jedi order is passed and that it is beyond anyone saving.
Moreover, there were flaws in the institution itself which he tried to fix through reforms but to his utter dismay, he could not save the galaxy from First Order’s oppression. He said that he has given up on fighting evil or restoring balance through Jedi means as it led him to nowhere. This has been explained beautifully in Ken Liu’s novel “The Legend of Luke Skywalker”. Here’re some of the excerpts:
“There are more ways to serve good than by fighting and confronting evil. You also serve the good by standing guard and maintaining pools of tranquility and peace; you also rebuke evil by showing that there is another way than death and violence. We are all connected through the Force, and there’s a time and place to rest, as well as a time and place to act.”
But finally, Luke agreed to teach Rey the ways of the Jedi in the form of three lessons, each of them has to be perfected by a young Padawan or an Apprentice in order to become a Jedi.
The First Lesson involves teaching Rey that The Force is not the property of the Jedi. It belongs to all of us. The second lesson taught Rey that the Jedi Order may have been created with good intentions in mind, but it ended up doing more harm than good to the galaxy.
And The Third lesson? Rey never got a chance to attend that class. But don’t blame Luke or Rey for this. It was the cutting room’s fault. They edited that part out of the movie.
And now a newly released deleted sequence from The Last Jedi finally reveals the third lesson.
New footage from The Star Wars Show reveals us the third lesson via a brief segment on the upcoming The Last Jedi novelization. The book, apart from including a scene of Han Solo’s funeral, also gives us massive clues about Rey’s third and final lesson.
The scene shows a bunch of ships sailing towards the Caretaker village. As Rey asks Luke about the ship, Luke explains they are a bunch of raiders that regularly raid and ransack the village.
Rey rushes to help them but only finds the Caretakers with Chewie and R2-D2, partying around a bonfire. This is Luke’s third lesson to Rey – The Galaxy does not need a Jedi. It just needs someone who can step up to the challenge, a Proactive hero.
Watch the footage here:
With Luke’s portrayal already creating massive polarization among the fans, this scene would have garnered huge backlash. Luke was already unlikable throughout most of the movie. If this scene had aired, the fans would have torn the movie screens apart.
Rian Johnson must be applauded for his bold take on the Star Wars franchise. But this scene was too bold and too dark for anyone’s taste. And that is why Rey’s conversation with Kylo leading the former to believe that the latter can be redeemed became Rey’s unofficial third lesson in the movie.
The movie has been released and is running successfully with impressive box-office collections. Here’s the official synopsis that was released by the studio:
“Luke Skywalker’s peaceful and solitary existence gets upended when he encounters Rey, a young woman who shows strong signs of the Force. Her desire to learn the ways of the Jedi forces Luke to make a decision that changes their lives forever. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren and General Hux lead the First Order in an all-out assault against Leia and the Resistance for supremacy of the galaxy”.
But there is still another installment left in the trilogy. The Star Wars Episode 9 will be directed by J.J. Abrams (of Force Awakens) and screenplay written by Chris Terrio. Abrams is claiming that it will be unlike anything that the fans have seen ever. He wishes to bring new elements and tie in all the three trilogies in the most epic way possible. Here’s what he said about the project:
“Well, it’s certainly something that I’m aware of now working on Episode IX, coming back into this world after having done Episode VII. I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids, loving what these movies were. And at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven’t gone, and that’s sort of our responsibility. It’s a strange thing, Michael’s worked on things like Planet of the Apes and Star Trek and Star Wars, and these are the things of dreams. Yet we can’t just revel in that; we have to go elsewhere.”
The movie will hit theaters on May 24, 2019, and is touted to be the most expensive Star Wars movie ever made. For everything Star Wars, we will keep you posted. Adios!
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