The Horrible Star Wars Movie We All Need To Make Peace With

I didn’t love Star Wars: The Last Jedi when it came out almost seven years ago. If I’m being honest, I still don’t really like it. What I hate even more than The Last Jedi, though, is people talking about how much they hate The Last Jedi. It’s hard for me to say this, but guys—and the fans I’m addressing are mostly guys—it’s time to get over Episode VIII.

The Arguing Makes No Difference

Every time someone makes any sort of positive social media post about the movie, the trolls come out in full force. “Worst movie ever!” they declare like a legion of Comic Book Guy clones. Other gems include referring to Rian Johnson as “Ruin Johnson,” and furiously typing “NOT MY LUKE!” in all caps.

And I get it, I really do. I used to be right there with them—well, except for the “Ruin Johnson” bit. That insult is about as clever as calling Obama “Obummer.”

But something happened in years since The Last Jedi first divided the Star Wars fandom: I realized that nobody cared how I felt about the movie. Disney wasn’t going to retcon it no matter how many Change.org petitions were created, and the fans that did like the movie—and there are a lot—weren’t going to suddenly find fault in the film just because someone online was whining about it.

All I was doing was spreading negativity, and for what? The thrill of arguing online with people I don’t know? Hard pass.

Denial Isn’t Just A River On Endor

Recently, I saw a tweet—or is it xeet now? I have no idea—mentioning that Disney was re-releasing all of the numbered Star Wars films into theaters this May. The first comment on the post was, “I Don’t Know what you’re talking about; there are only six Star Wars movies.” Really?

Now we’re just going to straight-up pretend The Last Jedi and the other Star Wars sequels don’t exist? And fans wonder why our fandom has a reputation for toxicity. You don’t have to like everything Disney has released since buying Star Wars, but it exists, and no amount of online hissy fits will change that.

Disney Didn’t Invent Bad Star Wars Decisions

People like to act like Disney ruined Star Wars when George Lucas is the one who approved the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. George is also the one who added Vader’s doofy “Nooooooooooo!” from the end of Revenge of the Sith to the latest official version of Return of the Jedi. But please, do go on about how Kathleen Kennedy is the devil.

The thing with The Last Jedi and everything else Disney-Star Wars is that just because you didn’t like it doesn’t mean that nobody did. There has to be a reason why nobody ever reacts to The Last Jedi with, “Meh, it was okay.” The movie is either a fan’s favorite Star Wars movie or their most hated with very little wiggle room either way.

The Prequels

I’m old enough to remember when the prequels came out, and everyone was claiming there were only three Star Wars movies. I’ve been a prequel apologist from the very beginning, but even if I didn’t love the movies, I could see that kids did. Children walked out of The Phantom Menace feeling the way I did the first time I watched Return of the Jedi on VHS.

Now those kids are grown, and what happened? The entire geek community reevaluated the prequels because, suddenly, a whole generation was singing their praises. Guys, as much as I hate to admit it, there were kids who felt that same way about The Last Jedi.

You Love Star Wars, Just Admit It

Look, I know you liked something from the last ten years of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Andor, Rebels, etc. You pretend that it’s all “woke” garbage, but then you slap down 70 big ones for Jedi Survivor on your PS5. Can’t we just admit that Star Wars has always had it’s good and bad and move past it?

Because honestly, pretending The Last Jedi doesn’t exist just because you don’t like it or that Luke was really “Jake” Skywalker is childish, immature, and frankly lame. The sooner people like us learn to accept that not everything from our favorite franchise is for us, the sooner we can relax and focus on the stuff we do like.

Just so we’re clear, this is about Star Wars specifically. It’s perfectly acceptable to keep on pretending that Rocky V doesn’t exist.