The Weirdly Sinister Subtext of The Rise of Skywalker (& The Beautiful Genius of The Last Jedi)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a very bad film, but that’s the least of its problems. Underneath the surface is a weirdly sinister subtext that promotes incest, racism, and destroying what we hate, not saving what we love. In contrast, The Last Jedi was a brilliant film, brave enough to break free from tradition and forge its own path, representing the way forward for humanity.

Context

All the media we consume has an impact on society. It creates and reaffirms social values, mostly by not drawing explicit attention to them, but by simply presenting them in a way that makes the viewer accept them unquestionably. In a way, all media is a form of propaganda, intentional or not. Added together over press, films, TV, books, video games and social media, these values shape the core values of our society and the way we view the world.

Allusion

There’s a scene in The Rise of Skywalker where Rey tries to touch a little droid that has come into their possession, but it reels back and says “no thanks.” Rey remarks “It looks like someone treated him badly. It’s okay, you’re with us now.” This is writer/director JJ Abrams’ way of taking a little potshot at Rian Johnson by alluding to the previous film in the trilogy The Last Jedi (written & directed by Johnson), a film so vastly superior to this, it’s not even in the same league.

 

JJ Abrams, who also directed the first film of the new trilogy, The Force Awakens, returns here on the offensive after Rian Johnson absolutely nailed The Last Jedi. The Force Awakens was quite a good film. It was charming and enjoyable enough, and although it played it very safe, it could have been a lot worse.

 

Enter The Last Jedi.

 

The Last Jedi used allusion and metaphor to point out what was wrong with The Force Awakens, Star Wars itself, and even the current state of humanity. It also showed us how to fix it: by breaking free of conservative constraints, embracing the joy of creation and making something great that stands on its own as a work of art. To use humour in moments of conflict. To take a risk and go for something great.

Lets have a look at some of these metaphors.

 

The Burning of the Jedi Library

 

In The Last Jedi, Yoda conjures lightning and burns down the building containing the Sacred Jedi Texts. He even jokingly alludes to the many Star Wars novels out there (“Page turners they were not”). This signifies breaking from tradition and forging a new path, and demonstrating that it’s not about material objects, it’s about us. To not get caught up in expectations in what a Star Wars film should be, but to bravely venture into the unknown and create something beautiful. To not only look backward, but to also forge a new path forward. In times like these (climate change, increasingly fascist values in governments in the West, mass shootings, terrorism, inequality of the world, racism), it’s a message that we need more than ever. And it does it in a way that supports the film as something to be cherished and loved. It doesn’t cram it down your throat. When I feel a film is trying to manipulate me to think in a certain way, or it sacrifices artistic merit or aesthetics to deliver a message, I can no longer respect it. The film becomes an afterthought of the political message, rather than the experience of watching it.

We cling onto our old values and become defensive when they are threatened. The prejudices and wasteful ways we were taught as children are no longer serving us. We’re burning through too many resources and the earth is heating up. Change is needed.

 

“It’s time to let old things die” - Kylo Ren, The Last Jedi

 

Humour

 

The Last Jedi used humour and parody in tense moments that somehow worked without breaking the illusion, a brave decision that can be seen as a metaphor for how to behave as humans. So many modern films have an overly serious tone, with generic copy-paste humour, while taking no creative risks of any sort. It was daring for The Last Jedi to throw humour in such serious moments, stick the landing, and still make the scene work. This is also a great defence against depression. If you can have a laugh, you’re on the right track.

 

Some examples:

The clothes iron being cheekily shown as a landing spaceship, which itself is a callback to an actual Star Wars parody from 1978.

 

“Take that ridiculous thing off”, Snoke says to Kylo Ren, referring to his mask, and poking fun at all the ridiculous masks in the series.

 

The scene where communicating through a force vision, Rey seeing Kylo shirtless, asks “do you have something, a cowl or something you can put on?” Not only does this momentarily break the tension of the scene, it offers a humanistic exchange between two mortal enemies.

 

Luke tricking Rey after telling her to “reach out” to the force and tickling her hand with a piece of grass.

 

It used parody for a purpose. It elevated Star Wars to new heights by taking risks. It used humour in unconventional places. It created space by letting scenes breath and not filling up every second with constant dialogue and action, something a lot of newer films have no concept of.

 

Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love

 

When Rose stops Finn from sacrificing himself to destroy a giant weapon that he thinks will save everyone, he asks her “Why would you stop me?” She replies “I saved you, Dummy! That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate. Saving what we love." So many of the problems in our world arise from hate, and thinking about how we can harm others. It all stems from fear. We’re scared that we’re not good enough so we attack others because we don’t want to be on the bottom. A message like this turns all that on its head. If we could only think more in this way, why would we have any need for guns or war, or tearing people down for being of a certain race?

 

The Subtext of The Rise of Skywalker

 

The Rise of Skywalker tries to copy elements from The Last Jedi, like some of the allusion and metaphor (like the underhanded attack on Johnson mentioned earlier), but none of it works. The humour falls completely flat; the allusion and metaphor only attacks The Last Jedi, but for no purpose other than to try and belittle it. The difference being that The Last Jedi’s subtext had a purpose, and it helped create the best Star Wars film, possibly ever.

Now onto the weird stuff.

 

Incest

 

There’s a very weird incestuous theme to this film. Rey and Kylo have always felt like they might be siblings - there’s a theme of sibling rivalry - it never felt romantic between them. Even Abrams acknowledged this:

 

"There's as much of a brother and sister thing with Rey and Kylo Ren as there is romantic. So it's not literally a sexually, romantic kind of thing. It's more like they're just bound together in this crazy, spiritual way. Again, felt romantic to me. It's like John Williams, if you listen to the - when he first wrote the Luke theme, it was a romantic theme for Luke and Leia. That was kind of what he was thinking because he didn't know where it was going.” - JJ Abrams

 

At the climax of the film, after a boring and predictable battle between Rey and Emperor Palpatine, Rey and Kylo share a kiss. You can see in their body language that it feels weird and unnatural. It looks like a brother and sister making out. I have no problem with incest being a theme in a film, but here, it’s not explained, it’s treated as something natural that shouldn’t be acknowledged. I very much doubt Abrams consciously put these themes into his movie, but it’s our subconscious that is most revealing.

 

In the closing scene, Rey has travelled to Luke Skywalker’s childhood village on Tatooine, and an old woman asks Rey "Who are you?” After replying her name is Rey, the old woman asks “Rey who?” to which she replies “Rey Skywalker”, with Luke and Leia in spirit form watching over her, standing very much like a husband and wife, as if they are her parents, and they’re siblings! Again, it’s not explicitly stated, but it’s visually implied. Furthermore, Kylo Ren is Han and Leia’s son, which just adds more to the incestuous web of characters. And while it stays true to the incestuous kiss in The Empire Strikes Back, I’m inclined to believe that that was not on purpose, since there are no other obvious incestuous themes in the original films.

 

Racism

 

Finn & Jannah

 

Then there’s the chemistry between Finn and Jannah, who are both black. Coincidence? What happened to the relationship between him and Rose Tico? And why, after the initial scene where the main gang meets Jannah, does she never again feature in a scene with anyone but Finn, talks to no one else, with the only exception being at the very end, when she talks to Lando Calrissian, who is also black! Again, taken on it’s own it isn’t that weird, but put together with everything else, it is strangely racist.

In the second-last scene, Jannah approaches Lando, and asks him where he’s from. He says “gold system, what about you kid?” She replies “Oh, I don’t know." Lando replies "Well, let’s find out." And it zooms in her face as if she’s realising something. What is going on here? Is it insinuating that she might be his relative, because they’re both black? How many black people are there in this universe? Or is it the subconscious of the creators showing that races shouldn’t mix with one another?

 

Rose Tico

 

Why was the character of Rose Tico all but removed from the film? She was brilliant in The Last Jedi, and it felt wrong that she wasn’t a main character in this one. She’s not even a character, she’s a background NPC who operates tech. There’s only one scene where Rose and Finn even acknowledge each other, and Finn condescendingly touches her on the shoulder and continues on, as if to say I’m too important for you now, little one. Is this just a coincidence, that the actress who played Rose was the victim of a racist hatred campaign, simply because she’s Asian? What year are we living in? Who on earth would care about something as inconsequential as this? In another brief scene later on with Finn and Rose, they don’t even acknowledge each other. This is left completely unexplained. The only conclusion I can come to here is that the creators of The Rise of Skywalker are racist cowards.

Taken on their own, these things aren’t that weird, but added together, a sinister subtext emerges. Incest is good, breed within your own race, and don’t involve the Asian girl. Don’t take any risks, destroy what is greater than you by belittling it, and pander to lesser, hateful individuals. For an entity as huge as Star Wars, a film like this definitely has an impact on the world. All the media we consume shapes us as a society, intentional or not. This kind of subliminal messaging encourages segregation and inbreeding. And I feel that it’s my job to out it for what it really is.

 

Surface Problems

 

The film has many other surface problems: as a whole it adds up to nothing; it feels like random scenes stitched together with no feeling or meaning; the dialogue is lazy and unbelievable, the jokes aren’t funny at all - it’s like Abrams was totally threatened by The Last Jedi, while simultaneously trying to copy it but failing miserably. The main characters' reaction to Leia’s death are incredibly unconvincing. It’s like someone who has no understanding of how humans (or Wookies) actually behave was writing and directing.

 

It’s a movie made by a man who despite his various workman talents, has no originality, feel of flow, or intuition. The actors are not at fault here, they were all brilliant in The Last Jedi (and even The Force Awakens).

 

In The Last Jedi, we learn that Rey’s parents are nobodies; junk traders from a nowhere planet. Instead of the traditional Star Wars theme of having a powerful family, she was born into poverty, and forged her own destiny. The Rise of Skywalker abolishes this and makes her the emperor’s granddaughter, which completely undermines the theme behind her being born from nothing. It’s pandering to the wishes of a conservative part of the fan base, too cowardly to take a risk and do something new.

 

It's a bit of a shame The Rise of Skywalker had to close out the trilogy. But life is unpredictable and imperfect, and I'm grateful we got The Force Awakens, which led to the flawed masterpiece The Last Jedi. My only hope is that The Rise of Skywalker serves as a lesson for others in what not to do, in a direction not to go.

 

"The greatest teacher failure is.” - Yoda, The Last Jedi