'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Director Responds to Men's Rights Activist Making Cut That Edits Out All of the Women

Thanks to characters like Leia Organa, Padme Amidala and Jyn Erso, the Star Wars films have always featured dynamic female characters that are smart, resourceful and brave, a tradition that continues with The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. One viewer disagrees with the necessity of female characters and decided to not only pirate The Last Jedi, but also removed every scene featuring a woman and uploaded it to an illegal downloading service. Writer/director Rian Johnson shared his eloquent response to someone with this much time on their hands and such fragile masculinity.

Johnson, who regularly engages with fans on Twitter, even when he's subjected to foul language and threats to his well being, couldn't contain his laughter at the absurdity of the concept.

With Rey being such a strong character in The Force Awakens, some viewers took issue with her strong piloting abilities and quick embrace of both the Force and lightsaber combat. These viewers, however, seemingly forgot how quickly Luke Skywalker accomplished similar feats and ignored the possibility that maybe Rey is more powerful with the Force than he was, explaining her powerful abilities.

The edit of the film, which was uploaded by "the chauvinist cut," is merely 47 minutes long and is described as follows:

• "No whiny/reluctant/murderous psycho Luke.
• NO HALDO! [sic] She simply doesn't exist. Her whole subplot doesn't exist. The Kamikaze is carried out by Poe. ( = Poe dies.)
• Leia never scolds, questions nor demotes Poe.
• Lea dies. Kylo kills her.
• Kylo is more badass and much less conflicted and volatile.
• Kylo takes on more of Snoke's guards, Rey struggles with a single one.
• No bomber heroism by china girl in the beginning.
• No Canto Bight.
• No superpowered Rey.
• Luke is not a semi-force-ghost and is smashed by the first laser cannon shot. (sorry, I just had to!)
• Phasma is finished after the first blow by Finn. (Women are naturally weaker than men, she isn't force-sensitive, and we know nothing about any exo-skeleton in her suit)
• Asian chick speaks less, doesn't bully Finn, Finn doesn't try to escape, she is never formally introduced. She is just there and occasionally smiles at Finn or screams 'Finn!'. She has no sister. Serves her right for all the heinous stuff she did.
• Lots of little cuts reducing the number of female facial shots. Too many to count. (Pun intended.)
• Quite a few scenes rearranged so that the flow of the shortened movie is still somewhat coherent."

The above description not only proves the extreme examples of misogyny surrounding the film, but also the racism that has permeated the Star Wars fandom.

This isn't to say that all critics of the film are misogynists or racists, rather that there is an interesting correlation between the audiences that are spouting the most passionate dismissals of the movie and comments that center around Rey being a powerful character as well as Luke's fate.

The actual cut of the film, which is closer to two-and-a-half hours, is in theaters now.

[H/T Twitter, rianjohnson]