Star Wars: The Last Jedi By Rian Johnson

To what extent should the past control our actions? How do we move forward after a tragedy? In the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi, director Rian Johnson explores these questions through the characters Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker, and Rey, whose tragic pasts influence their current choices. Their changing relationships with their pasts showcase Johnson’s theme of using the past as an opportunity to learn and grow. Luke is the most blatant of the three, as the guilt over his past failings has driven the once legendary Jedi hero to a bitter, old man on a remote planet. Rey tries to convince him to help the Resistance fight the tyrannical First Order and train her in the ways of the Force, but Luke refuses. He reveals he trained his nephew Kylo Ren

Luke believes, “I failed because I was Luke Skywalker. Jedi Master. A legend” (Johnson, et al.). In self-punishment, Luke cut himself off from the Force and ran away. This mirrors the description Tzvetan Todorov gives in his essay “The Abuses of Memory,” where he describes how memories, “as long as they were repressed,.remained active (they prevented the subject from truly living)” (Todorov 11). Although Luke has not repressed his memories, his guilt has terrible consequences. He is unrecognizable to the noble hero who always fought for justice. Unwilling to allow himself to grow from his mistakes, he abandons the galaxy and refuses to return when the people most need a legend to inspire them to fight against tyranny. Luke’s betrayal is one of many memories tormenting Kylo, now second-in-command in the First Order. He desires the dark side’s promises of power, however, and struggles to purge himself of compassion. In The Force Awakens, this film’s predecessor, Kylo killed his father, Han Solo, to prove his strength (Abrams). However, he is left emotionally distraught, which he attempts to hide from his master, Supreme Leader

Kylo’s past also motivates him through his devotion to finishing what his grandfather, the powerful Sith lord Darth Vader, started. Snoke, however, scolds, “You're no Vader. You're just a child in a mask" (Johnson). Luke’s betrayal, Han’s death, and the inability to equal Vader all build immense hatred within Kylo, which he uses to feed his growing darkness. In her book Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, Martha Minow notes that after an atrocity, some victims seek justice through vengeance — defined as punishment (not inherently violence) to wrongdoers. However, she notes how “vengeance.can set in motion a downward spiral of violence, or an unquenchable desire that traps people in cycles of revenge” (Minow 10). Kylo’s hatred strengthens his power and desire to dominate. He leads armies rampaging the galaxy, condemning the people of the galaxy to a life of war and suffering. Caught between Luke and Kylo is Rey, a scavenger similarly obsessed with her past thrust into a galaxy-wide war. She admits to Luke, “I need someone to show me my place in all this”