Star Wars: Why Ending The Jedi Is a Bad Idea

Russ Burlingame

04/14/2017 01:51 pm EDT

The world recently learned that Star Wars: Episode VIII will be titled The Last Jedi. It's an ominous subtitle - one that has kept fans guessing as to the dark events which may occur in the film.

(Photo: Lucasfilm)

While speculation rages over questions like "Who Is The Last Jedi?" ComicBook.com initially took things a step further: "We want Star Wars: The Last Jedi to have real stakes and consequences - and that means the actual eradication of the Jedi Order as we know it," our own Kofi Outlaw wrote at the time.

There's certainly an argument to be made for why it's a good idea -- actually, a couple. We outlined the storytelling reasons why the end of the Jedi Order would serve the long-term needs of the franchise, while Luke Skywalker appears to be more concerned about the practical side of things -- e.g., that Jedi seem to get people killed whenever they're around.

So why are we here today to suggest pumping the brakes on this whole "Last Jedi" idea?

Well...!

BUILT-IN MYTHOLOGY

In our previous story, we discussed the idea that eradicating the Jedi Order would allow creative teams on future Star Wars movies essentially a fresh start to build a universe and a mythology moving forward that wasn't weighed down by the baggage of a half-dozen previous movies, some of which weren't beloved by fans.

That's a fair argument, but the flipside of that is that in Star Wars films at this point the universe, its mythology and its rules are all so well-defined that there's no need to start from the ground-up.

Writers who want to completely reinvent a might do better to do something else: that's why James Gunn has said he would rather not do a Star Wars movie in spite of the massive success he had bringing Marvel to space in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Meanwhile, the Star Wars universe gives future writers the same leg up as the Marvel or DC Universe gives most writers: they can tell their stories using the kind of storytelling shorthand already established by the previous installments.

And that's not to say "take the intellectually lazy path and keep the Jedi so you don't have to create anything new." Far from it.

Think, for instance, of DC Comics writer Geoff Johns, who took the tenets of the Green Lantern mythology and built something gigantic and amazing out of it, expanding the existing mythology while coming up with plenty of original stuff for itself. In keeping the old stuff intact rather than just rebooting it, many of Johns's contributions felt to readers like they had always been there -- or at least like they should have or could have been.

MORE GREEN LANTERN STUFF

Speaking of Green Lantern, there was at one point a similar argument to be made to what we think Luke is saying in The Last Jedi.

(Photo: DC Entertainment)

Essentially, it seems as though Luke's position is that after Darth Vader, and then Kylo Ren, it's clear that this power is too dangerous and that they shouldn't be encouraging people to develop it.

By the mid-90s, the Green Lantern Corps had seen Sinestro go bad as an authoritarian dictator using a Green Lantern ring to keep his people down, while Hal Jordan had gone insane and become the supervillain Parallax, literally destroying the universe (it got better).

Certainly, there had to be those who believed the Green Lanterns were generally more of a hassle than they were worth. So why not get rid of them entirely?

First of all, that power is still out there. Whether or not people are being trained, whether or not there's an organization, that doesn't mean the power itself is going to go untapped. Eliminating the Jedi simply means more people using Force powers without guidance -- or with the guidance of the Sith.

Oh, yeah, those guys. You think just saying "okay, no more Jedi" is going to somehow make the Sith stop what they're doing? How did that work out for Obi-Wan after Anakin turned to the Dark Side?!

EMOTIONAL RESCUE

And what's Luke's motivation?

Again, this assumes that we're reading it correctly when we think Luke wants to shut down the Jedi business on account of all the mistakes of the past and casualties caused by his family, but that seems like a pretty reasonable read on the situation given the limited information we have available.

That said, making a cosmic-level, universe-altering decision based on your own personal guilt and sadness seems like...maybe not a great idea?

Basing the decision to shut down the Jedi on the idea that there have been failures in the past seems like a decision made based on guilt and fear.

And in the Star Wars universe, we know what fear leads to...and it's nothing good.

STORYTELLING

From a storytelling perspective, it's also potentially problematic to get rid of the Jedi because the whole idea of the war between the Jedi and the Sith is one of the things that makes Star Wars unique in a crowded field of big-budget sci-fi/fantasy blockbusters.

Yes, reinventing that wheel from time to time will keep things fresh, but going too far from what worked for you in the first place is fraught with the danger of alienating the core audience who have been with you for years.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is one of the most anticipated movies of 2017 worldwide, but how do our readers feel about it? Rate it on our Anticipation Rankings below and let your voice be heard!

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, from writer/director Rian Johnson, is in post-production now for a December 15, 2017 release. The film follows-up and continues the story of the next generation of the saga as Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren find their place in the galaxy and follow the legacy of Luke Skywalker, Leia, and Han Solo. Daisy Ridley returns to star as Rey, with other returning stars John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Peter Mayhew, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Lupita Nyong'o Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa. Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern join the cast in as-yet-unrevealed roles.

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