Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / The Last Jedi

Go To

This page contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!

    open/close all folders 

    A-F 
  • Accidental Aesop: If you are a leader, have a clear chain of command and make sure that others know what your plans are. Ensure that there is clear communication in times of crisis, or else they might mutiny against you and lead to unnecessary sacrifices, especially when it turns out that they will follow your plan to the letter so long as you avoid being secretive with them.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Has its own page.
  • Americans Hate Tingle:
    • While the Star Wars movies were never big in China, the last two movies made decent money there, about average for action-blockbusters of their budget range. This entry on the other hand was eviscerated by both audiences and critics in China (and East Asia in general), earning less in its opening weekend than the previous ones, making only $28 million compared to The Force Awakens's $52 million. Chinese exhibitors decreased the film's showtimes by 92% on the second weekend, from a 34.5% share of the total screenings to 2.6%. The reviews from their popular aggregator Douban (China's own Rotten Tomatoes) were even less kind, with the most upvoted review calling it "a insult to intelligence". It was so disliked in China that subsequent Star Wars films released there are dropping "Star Wars" from their titles.
    • The film wasn't particularly successful in South Korea either; it never reached the number 1 spot and grossed the equivalent of about $8 million - one-third of what The Force Awakens made in the country.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Rey hearing from Kylo Ren that her parents were nobodies who sold her for drinking money is played as emotionally devastating. But in the next scene we see her in, she's happily manning the Falcon's guns, and the issue of her Parental Abandonment isn't brought up for the remainder of the film, with her seeming to be perfectly fine with her new Family of Choice in the Resistance.
  • Anti-Climax Boss:
    • Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order, the man who turned Kylo Ren to the dark side and personally trained him as well as his elite bodyguards in combat, and an incredibly powerful Force user who can Mind Rape or electrocute people with a flick of his wrist. Despite all his power, he amounts to a Disc-One Final Boss and is killed in a sneak attack by Kylo Ren two thirds through the movie.
    • Captain Phasma gets into a brief fight with Finn that barely lasts thirty seconds. She's winning handily and knocks Finn down, but gets distracted for a few seconds to shoot at Rose when she tries to gun her down from behind, allowing Finn to get in a hit with his shock baton and wound her. This also knocks her onto a platform and then she unceremoniously falls to her death as Snoke's ship goes to pieces.
  • Anvilicious: The film's theme of failure and overcoming it is well-meaning but very heavy-handed in some parts. Special mention goes to the Yoda scene for more or less flat-out explaining what the theme is to Luke. This also applies to several other themes of the film, such as Rose outright telling Finn that the Resistance is going to win "not by fighting what [they] hate, but by saving what [they] love" (after Finn attempts to sacrifice himself for the people he loves just as they are blown up in the background, following an entire movie in which he goes on an extremely risky mission to save them).
  • Author's Saving Throw: See the franchise page.
  • Award Snub: Despite receiving high critical acclaim and becoming the highest grossing movie of 2017, it failed to get nominated for the major Academy Awards. The fandom's backlash and subsequent rivalry with the nominees were spoofed in this video by How It Should Have Ended.
  • Awesome Ego: Poe Dameron is one hell of a pilot, and considering that he single-handedly disables the heavy weapons of a First Order dreadnaught in the very first scene of the movie, it's hard not to argue that his incredible arrogance is highly justified.
  • Awesome Music: Considering that the score is composed by John Williams. Awesome music is inevitable.
    • Rose's lovely theme.
    • "The Fathiers" is an exciting action piece.
    • The music during the Battle of Crait is simply epic throughout, it even uses a Call-Back to the TIE Fighter attack theme from A New Hope.
    • "Canto Bight" is a very jazzy theme.note 
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Rose Tico is either a likable, well-developed heroine who sacrifices more than Finn or Rey or a bland and annoying character who serves little purpose beyond acting as a rival to Rey for Finn's affections. Finally, her speech to Finn in the movie's finale is either insightful or pretentious.
    • Holdo. Fans are heavily divided on if her decision to not tell Poe her plan (or even that there is a plan) was justifiable or stupid to the point of undermining her intended character, and if her Signature Scene-worthy Heroic Sacrifice redeemed her or not. There's also the matter that the plan she's enacting comes across as doing nothing but wait for Leia to wake up from her coma and, when said plan is enacted, it ends up costing the Resistance most of its forces.
    • Despite being popular enough with section of the fandom to be considered an Ensemble Dark Horse, DJ can either be seen as an interesting commentary on the morality of war, or an overly cartoonish character that was unnecessary to the plot, along with being a part of what many consider the weakest part of the movie.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice: One of the most talked about scenes of the movie is Kylo's Shirtless Scene. Though also for certain reasons besides the obvious.
  • Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
  • Catharsis Factor: Plenty of it.
  • Character Rerailment: Much like Darth Vader in Rogue One, Yoda gets much of his original characterization restored after going through a personality overhaul in the prequel trilogy. Whereas Yoda in those films was noted for a frequently somber, serious tone, put predicates before subjects in his dialogue on a near-constant basis and tended not to express emotion strongly (at least when not physically fighting), The Last Jedi follows the template of Empire in making Yoda a much more optimistic and expressive figure while de-emphasizing his famous speech pattern.note  (Also, he's a puppet again rather than CGI.)
  • Common Knowledge: Detractors of the film often cite the inclusion of ships running on fuel as something made up for the film and had no prior existence in canon. In reality, ships were shown being fueled as early as A New Hope, with fuel also been acknowledged in dialogue in both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The latter film even has a Deleted Scene where Anakin and Obi-Wan escape from General Grievous by jumping into the Invisible Hand's massive fuel tank.
  • Contested Sequel: Simply put, The Last Jedi is one of the most controversial films in the Star Wars franchise, if not the most. Supporters believe the film to be an Even Better Sequel to The Force Awakens, taking the strengths of that film and improving on it with a more original plot, better Character Development, and strong performances from the main cast. Detractors feel it's weighed down by pacing issues, forced humor, excessive trope subversion ("subvert expectations" as fans would call it), and poor handling of Finn and Poe's respective subplots. The direction of Luke Skywalker's character has also been extremely controversial, with some feeling Luke's actions in the film are out of character and the movie did a disservice to the original hero of Star Wars, while others believe the darker take is more interesting and fits well with the movie's theme of overcoming failure. Rian Johnson in fact cited this as an Intended Audience Reaction,note  and that the conversations (read: debates) in the fandom would have to happen for Star Wars to move forward as a franchise.
  • Crack Pairing:
    • After this movie, some people have started jokingly shipping Snoke with Darth Maul, thanks to both of them being powerful dark side Force-wielders who get unexpectedly cut in half.
    • There are some who even ship Rose with DJ despite the fact that she canonically would find him creepy and weird at best or a monstrous "lying snake traitor" at worst. This is mostly due to him kindly giving her back her medallion rather than keeping it as payment.
    • If you thought DJ and Rose was a Crack Pairing, there are apparently a few people who ship Rose and General Hux. Their sole interaction in the film is Hux mocking her before ordering her execution, though the shippers also seem to focus on a Deleted Scene where Rose defiantly bites Hux's finger.
  • Critical Backlash:
    • On the flip side of the heavy backlash the film got upon release, many feel that the film deserves nowhere near the amount of bile it receives in many internet circles, especially considering that it was a darling with critics in the first place. Part of this may have to do with the fact that unlike the prequels (whose criticism was largely based of more obvious flaws like dialogue, special effects, and acting) The Last Jedi's criticism is mostly based off more abstract flaws like the discrepancies with tone and continuity from The Force Awakens and whether certain characters would act in the way that they are shown in the movie.
    • Rose Tico has gotten quite a bit of this. Some very vocal parts of the fandom absolutely despise her, leading to a frequent meme (sometimes used in jest, sometimes not) that she is worse than Jar Jar Binks himself. Due to this intense hatred of her, many who have seen the movie after reading these comments have stated that while she does have quite a few cheesy lines, she doesn't deserve the absolute hatred she gets from these circles, and certainly comes nowhere close to Jar Jar.
  • Critical Dissonance: The film received near-unanimous praise from critics with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%, praise that continued long after the movie's release, but fan reception has been far more polarized. Many agree that the film is well-made in terms of special effects, but take contention with a number of plot points, a focus on style over substance, and the handling of certain characters, particularly Luke and Snoke. While the film's IMDb user rating is at 6.9 and the movie has received a CinemaScore of A, its Rotten Tomatoes audience has consistently hovered around the halfway mark, eventually dipping below any of the prequels' audience rating.note  The RT audience rating has been particularly controversial; some believe it to be a wave of initial backlash to the film defying expectations just like The Empire Strikes Back when first released, others have pointed to rallies and bot spamming to sabotage the movie's user score due to Fandom Rivalry or political motivations, some believe that the score is more than a knee-jerk reaction and that The Last Jedi will be forever marked as the most polarizing Star Wars films at best, more akin to the prequels than TESB, and general consensus is that all three options are true to some extent. On the flip side, some fans feel that their views are being disregarded as simply being 'trolls' or 'bots' leaving reviews, as well as derision from critics who support the direction of the movie, which only leads to further ire from the fans and an increasing disillusionment regarding professional film critics and outlets. For what it's worth, Disney's and Rian Johnson's official stances cite No Such Thing as Bad Publicity and consider the debate to be healthy for the franchise, and Rotten Tomatoes' exec Dana Benson claims that the score is at least genuine.
  • Designated Love Interest: Rose Tico can be seen as this to Finn. Their romance comes off as one-sided; Rose obviously has a crush on Finn, but his interactions towards her are mostly platonic and he's more focused on reuniting with Rey (whom some viewers thought he actually had romantic feelings for). Rose only knows Finn for a few days, tops, before she tells him she loves him and kisses him, and Finn's response to this appears to be confusion more than anything. The creators apparently realized this because the romance is completely dropped in The Rise of Skywalker (the Expanded Universe novel Star Wars: Resistance Reborn also mentions Finn and Rose decided they were Better as Friends).
  • Designated Monkey: Both Luke and Rey show very little concern about destroying structures in the Jedi Temple, despite the fact that the Lanai have devoted their lives to preserving those structures. The scenes just drip with What Measure Is a Non-Human? Not even Yoda seems to be bothered with this if he's so easily willing to burn down an ancient tree with a bolt of lightning.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: It's implied that Luke may be suffering from depression and possibly even post-traumatic stress disorder, given his lack of motivation, feelings of hopelessness and despair, irritability, and social withdrawal, which has been ongoing for several years. Given what happened and just everything he's been through in general, it wouldn't be all that surprising.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Though it wasn't really the leather pants that were the focus.◊
    • Kylo gets even more of this, despite seemingly committing himself to the dark side fully after becoming the new Supreme Leader. His backstory involving Luke having a desire to kill him and certain interpretations of his Force bond with Rey don't help matters. Also not helping matters is the fact that, as with TFA, the adult novelization for TLJ once again portraying him as a much more sympathetic figure and the junior novelization, despite giving Kylo a degree of Adaptational Villainy, outright inferring that Ben Solo would be saved if Rey was able to defeat Kylo Ren.
    • Invoked in-universe by none other than Snoke. He created the Force bond between Rey and Kylo in the first place to get her to empathize with him, knowing this would lead her to come to him in an attempt to redeem him. From there, Snoke could corrupt her or, failing that, get Kylo to kill her as an ultimate show of loyalty. Unfortunately for the Supreme Leader, both young Force-users turn out to be stronger-willed than he expected, allowing Kylo to fatally turn the tables on his master.
    • DJ gets a bit of this, as well seeing that he's likely a genuinely Grey/Neutral character who's presented as neither evil nor good, is a Lovable Rogue with a novel vocabulary and a stutter, has a grungy-but-cool sense of style and is played by Benicio del Toro.
  • Ending Fatigue: There are four climatic fights stuffed between the second and third act of the movie—Kylo Ren defeating Snoke and then he and Rey fighting his guards and then each other, Finn dueling Phasma as Snoke's ship goes pear shaped due to Holdo hyperspace-ramming the Raddus into it, the First Order's assault on the old Rebel base on Crait where the last of the Resistance are hiding, and finally rounds it out with a duel between Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker. To say the least, it goes on and on, and it's a lot to take in.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • The Praetorian Guard definitely became unexpectedly popular, specifically for the fact that they fight on equal terms, and almost manage to win against Kylo Ren and Rey, to the point where the two need to work together just to even survive the fight. This despite the fact that there is no indication that they have any connection to the Force whatsoever. Their incredibly cool weapons and fighting styles don't hurt either.
    • Rose's sister Paige, who many people are calling one of the best characters in the movie despite her death in a Heroic Sacrifice 10 minutes into the movie. And just like Tallie, she's also rather good-looking (her actress Veronica Ngo is also a model, after all).
    • The vulptices on Crait are almost universally beloved thanks to their beautiful, elegant designs and helping save the Resistance by leading them to the secret escape route.
    • DJ, who is popular even among people who didn't like the otherwise controversial Canto Bight plotline, for Benicio del Toro's excellent performance and the element of moral ambiguity that he brings to the Star Wars cast. Many people loved his personality despite, or perhaps even because of, selling the Resistance out to the First Order to save his own skin.
    • Captain Canady, commander of the Dreadnought, who gets a lot of attention for being a crusty old Imperial Navy veteran and his Surrounded by Idiots attitude compared to the usual clueless incompetence of his fresh-faced First Order officers.
    • Tallie, the A-wing pilot who participated in the Dreadnought attack but was killed when the hangar blew up, has drawn attention from people who wish redshirts didn't have to be so good-looking, or feel she was worth further use as a character similar to Wedge Antilles.
    • The Porgs became overnight sensations on the internet shortly after they were first officially unveiled.
    • BB-9E is also very popular due to being an Evil Counterpart to BB-8.
  • Epileptic Trees:
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory:
    • The film can be considered a meta commentary on the cyclical nature of Star Wars conflicts, canon and in Legends; a really powerful person showed up and fell to the dark side, so now an equally powerful person emerges on the light side. Kylo wanted to say "let's just stop this, it's not going anywhere, we can do something new", but he's refused by Rey and the franchise itself.
    • According to this article and Reylo shippers, the Back-to-Back Badasses scene between Kylo and Rey when they face off against the Praetorian Guard has the Interplay of Sex and Violence as part of its subtext... including the Meaningful Looks between Rey and Kylo, the previous Foe Romance Subtext between them, Rey and Kylo working together and getting all sweaty and breathless in the process, the potential Freudian symbolism of lightsabers, Rey at one point grabbing Kylo’s thigh and jumping onto his back to gain leverage, and the fact it takes place in a red room. And to top it off, after all is said and done, Kylo outright asks Rey to rule the galaxy with him. It certainly wouldn't be the first time Disney dropped certain subtext in one of their films.
  • Evil Is Cool:
    • Kylo Ren is back and more powerful than in The Force Awakens, dresses more neatly and perpetrates a coup that leaves him as Supreme Leader of the First Order and free to terrorize his troops with his impulsive nature, poor decisions and desire to destroy the established order, cranking up his Love to Hate factor and evoking numerous Game of Thrones villains. This is the film that established Ren as one of the saga's most complex and interesting villains, and many reviews praised him as a high point of the movie.
    • Snoke gets to show a lot more personality in this film than the previous one, throwing Rey, Hux, and Ren alike around like toys with the Force without even lifting a finger. Andy Serkis' scenery-chewing performance makes him both genuinely intimidating and delightfully vile, which is part of what makes it so genuinely shocking and satisfying when Ren murders him two-thirds of the way through.
    • Snoke's Praetorian Guard follows the same lead as FN-2199 and the Death Troopers as amazing fighters despite being merely henchmen capable of holding their own and nearly overwhelm two Force users at the same time.
    • DJ, thanks to the actor's excellent performance, stylish wardrobe, and raising some excellent points about the nature of warfare in the universe.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • "BB-H8" quickly became one for First Order droid BB-9E, playing off being BB-8's Evil Counterpart.
    • "Broom Boy" for Temiri Blagg, one of the children working at a Fathier stable at Canto Bight.
    • "Vice Admiral Effie Trinket" for Holdo, due to her wardrobe, hairstyle and dye choices during a combat situation. Likewise, "Admiral Holdo My Beer" for the rather awesome way that she died.
    • "Renperor" for Kylo Ren, after his successful usurpation of Snoke. Kylo is also known as "Sexy Emo Honeypot" and "Ben Swolo" due to his Shirtless Scene. He's also been dubbed "Darth Darcy", due to his We Can Rule Together proposal to Rey sounding similar to Mr Darcy's awful first proposal to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.
    • "Force Skype" for the ability of Rey and Kylo to see, hear, and make contact with each other through their Force dyad, due to it being similar to a video call through apps like Skype.
  • Fan-Disliked Explanation: The reveal that after sensing how strong The Dark Side was in his nephew Ben Solo he reflexively attempted to kill them which he immediately stopped and regretting it, but caused Ben to become Kylo Ren and all the ensuing tragedy, causing Luke's cynical attitude and to stay out of the conflict believing he'd fail again. Many fans, including Luke's actor Mark Hamill when he first learned of it, were dissatisfied with this explanation as clashing with Luke's Ideal Hero portrayal. Even those less critical found it flimsy given Luke had gone through similar almost killing Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi, which had far better justifications for Luke attempting such.
  • Fandom Rivalry
    • An unusual one popped up between fans of The Last Jedi and fans of Wonder Woman (2017) and Black Panther (2018). When some defenders of The Last Jedi branded the film's haters as racists or misogynists, some of the film's detractors have fired back by simultaneously praising Black Panther and Wonder Woman. Furthermore, while the two superhero movies have similar critical reception to TLJ, both have better audience reception. Furthermore, both films didn't experience the racist/misogynistic backlash that The Last Jedi did despite of having even more overt socially progressive themesnote . Black Panther in particular managed to handily outgrossed the The Last Jedi and on a smaller budget with a more obscure source material to boot. This in turn has lead some fandom wars over which film is better at both entertaining audiences and promoting a progressive narrative.
    • One between Marvel Fans and The Last Jedi fans have also propped out in regards to debates about formula and audience-pleasing with Marvel fans claiming that if The Last Jedi had been an audience-pleasing movie (Tons of action, adventure and giving audiences what they want), there wouldn't have been such a large backlash against it while The Last Jedi fans claim that Marvel movies play it too safe and have made audiences very hostile to deconstructions and genre-critiquing in blockbusters today due to they giving what audiences want out of their action blockbusters, to which Marvel fans usually respond to by bringing up Avengers: Infinity War arguing that it's a better subversive movie than The Last Jedi for keeping the characterization of the heroes consistent while pulling no punches with its darker tones and surprising The Bad Guy Wins Downer Ending which they felt was built-up more properly.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: As of December 19th 2017, there was an actual online petition to declare the movie official non-canon. A few thousand people have signed the petition, though some to mock the idea. The creator of the original petition has come out and said that it was a bad idea.. Even to this day, the movie still is a point of contention among fans, and Rian Johnson's constant statements that he intentionally wanted to cause divisive reactions (and, in a somewhat worse light, the rather blunt Twitter responses to some fans' critique of the movie) all keep adding to the fire that will probably not be extinguished for a long period to come.
  • Fanfic Fuel:
    • The stable boy at the end of the film opened many storyline possibilities for future Star Wars installments.
    • The Reveal of Rey and Kylo's Force Bond has lead to many fics exploring just how much the Bond can do and if it is possible for them to do more physically than just touch hands.
  • Fan-Preferred Cut Content:
    • The deleted scene of Luke mourning over the death of Han Solo is unanimously agreed by many (including Mark Hamill) that it should have stayed in the film, especially since it would have mitigated the complaint about how little of an impact and focus Han's death had, in spite of him being one of the most important characters in the original trilogy.
    • During the scene where Finn fights Captain Phasma, an extended sequence was shot where he publicly calls her out for betraying the First Order in The Force Awakens just to save her own hide. This leads to Phasma murdering her own men to prevent them from revealing her deception before continuing her fight with Finn. Many fans felt the scene added a lot more to Phasma's character, and made for a more satisfying final showdown between Finn and his former commander.
  • Fashion-Victim Villain: Snoke looks ridiculous in this film. Rather than the typical intimidating black hood worn by the Sith, his outfit looks more like a golden bathrobe.
  • Fight Scene Failure: Rey and Kylo's battle with the Praetorian Guards. Reportedly, Adam and Daisy hadn't nailed the blocking, leading many of the guards' actors to improvise in the final cut. As a result, it ends up being a rather awkward scene to watch once one notices these issues happening.
    • In general, numerous moments where the guards stand by and don't attack, or they seem to purposely miss attacks while Rey and Kylo do nothing to block or dodge.
    • At the very beginning of the fight, the guard in the foreground on Rey's side spins and attacks his own ally, who blocks it with his own weapon.
    • Rey blocks an attack from three of the guards and somehow kicks all three way despite only kicking one of them physically.
    • One of the guards' weapons suddenly vanishes behind Rey's back mid-shot◊ and he appears to be catching her from falling. Further, he could have easily gutted her and then (if his dagger hadn't vanished) stabbed her in the back.
    • Kylo Ren stabs his lightsaber into the ground for no discernible reason, only for a guard to run up a couple seconds later and attack the lightsaber rather than Kylo's completely undefended upper body.
    • One guard throws away his weapon before Kylo Ren runs him through.
    • Another Praetorian Guard armed with an electro-bisento wrestles Kylo into a stranglehold with his weapon. The guard briefly lets the weapon go to adjust his grip, while Kylo is still holding on to the weapon as if he is being choked when he could have pulled it away from his neck at that moment. This gives the impression that Kylo is actually choking himself.
  • Franchise Original Sin:
    • One of the major points of contention about The Last Jedi is that a heroic character - Luke Skywalker - is shown to be more morally complex than previously believed. Yet, only a year earlier, Rogue One also attempted to paint the heroic faction in a more morally gray light, and was more unanimously praised for doing so. However, Rogue One did so with a team of original characters, and told a story that was deliberately meant to fit right in to A New Hope, showing that the Grey-and-Gray Morality was only on a smaller scale and that the factions at large still fit into the series' classic mold of Black-and-White Morality. Meanwhile Luke is known for being one of the most idealistic and good-hearted heroes in the series, to the point that he was able to redeem Darth Vader by sticking to his values, which results in TLJ's transformation of Luke into a morally gray character coming across to some to be an insult to his characterization, even more so in that the movie revealed him to be partially responsible for the Resistance-First Order conflict because he considered killing his own pupil and nephew. While Luke nearly killed Vader in Episode 6 in a fit of rage - and only after much goading from the Emperor and Vader, with the final straw being the latter threatening to corrupt Leia and turn her to the dark side - he managed to stop himself and reaffirm his refusal to fall to the dark side. In TLJ, Luke's attempt at killing Ben happens in a flashback without more context to provide why he would do so other than word of mouth. One scene was meant to show Luke having a realistic reaction to a bad situation, then managing to defy making a terrible choice, while the other exists as in an already occurred moment in time where the audience is given very little to understand why it would happen.
    • The Evil Overlord existing as a Generic Doomsday Villain and dying with little character development or backstory was first done in Return of the Jedi, where Emperor Palpatine was just as one-note as Snoke—he only got fleshed out when the prequels and side-material came. Rian Johnson even acknowledged this, saying that in both cases, who Snoke and Palpatine were wasn't important to the story. However, Snoke is heavily criticized for this status, with many fans arguing that just because it worked for Palpatine doesn't mean it can be repeated again due to various factors, such as the fact that Palpatine was the baseline status quo and the Final Boss introduced before the Star Wars universe was fully established, whereas Snoke shows up out of nowhere in an established SW universe with 40 years of stories behind its back. It also doesn't help that unlike Palpatine, Snoke was built up by the cast and crew as a major figure, where in the original trilogy, Palpatine was built up in the actual story. Thus, Luke standing up to Palpatine has a strong foundation since in story Luke knows Palpatine is the Big Bad, while Rey never learns about Snoke until right before her meeting, causing there to be no personal attachment whatsoever. Also, while the Empire's existence as a galactic power is self-evident (and hinted at emerging from a previous order with the disbanding of the Senate), the nature of Snoke's First Order is never quite spelled out on screen before his death.
    • The Star Wars saga has enjoyed sliding in unexpected twists to the story, starting with Obi-Wan's death, Vader revealing himself as Lukes' father and Vader turning against the Evil Overlord. For its time these were seen as enormously shocking and a demonstration of how the franchise could wring out some surprising developments in between a more fanciful, fairy tale tone. But these types of twists have not only persisted through the franchise but also in a lot of other movies, and the prequel films were more subtle in its story development (Qui-Gons' death in TPM mirrors Obi-Wan's in ANH, but while Anakin lost a father figure he still had a brother figure to step into place). This film had to pick up a handful of story pieces left by The Force Awakens but rather than playing into the existing story the characters are written to be a Promoted Fanboy familiar with the plot twists of the original trilogy and trying to fit their story inside of it. As a result Rey starts to believe she must be from an important lineage only to painfully acknowledge and accept her parents were nobodiesnote . She then decides that it is possible to redeem Kylo Ren because Luke did so with Vader, and while Kylo does kill the Evil Overlord he doesn't have a Heel–Face Turn and becomes a Dragon Ascendant. While many people felt the ideas had merit it was it ended up treating its development as more of a Meta Twist commentary on the franchise, and repeatedly going "Nope, not this time" loses that impact.
  • Friendly Fandoms:

    H-M 
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: Although it's a tragic moment, the revelation about Rey's family selling her for drinking money also makes Rey's decision in The Force Awakens not to sell BB-8 for portions even more touching.
  • He's Just Hiding:
    • Given all the build-up and fan theories surrounding him prior to the film's release, at least a few fans doubt that this is the last we've seen of Snoke, despite his on-screen bisection at Kylo's hands. It helps that Darth Maul survived a similar bisection.
    • Likewise, many have doubts about the implied death of Captain Phasma. The character's last seen falling into a blazing inferno on a destroyed dreadnaught, but given the Never Found the Body nature of this death, many think she could return. It helps that Rian Johnson, Mark Hamill and her actress, Gwendoline Christie, have all remarked (or joked) on how the character might've survived.
    • Let's be honest, does anyone think that Luke is not going to come back as a Force Ghost in the next movie?
  • He Really Can Act:
    • Mark Hamill's performance received very high praise from critics, even those who weren't fans of his acting in the original trilogy.
    • Ditto for Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley, who especially make excellent use of facial expressions and body language.
  • Ho Yay: Fans were quite enthusiastic about Poe giving his jacket to Finn in the previous film. The Last Jedi tops that by having them share an entire outfit.
  • I Knew It!:
    • Luke mentions that when Kylo betrayed him, some of his students joined forces with him — indirectly confirming that the other Knights of Ren are indeed Luke's former students.
    • Since the last film made it clear that no character was safe, many expected Luke to die in this film, considering that he fills out Obi-Wan's archetype. While Luke does die, he ends up Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence after facing down Kylo.
    • A few fans suspected that Kylo would follow in his grandfather's footsteps and betray Snoke.
    • More than a few were skeptical when they heard Luke's intention to end the Jedi, given how much of a cornerstone they have been to the franchise. Sure enough, Luke's arc is completed when he learns that their previous failures aren't a reason to end the Jedi Order, but a chance to build a better one.
    • Some fans had hazarded that Rey isn't related to the Skywalkers, Solos or anyone of significance, and were proven right. Or so they thought.
    • Many fans had already guessed that Kylo and Rey had forged a Force Bond after the first film. Sure enough.... though it wasn't actually their doing.
    • Rey and Kylo's relationship being developed more here, to the point of Kylo asking Rey to rule the galaxy with him, in a manner not too dissimilar to Vader's offer to Padmé in Revenge of the Sith.
    • There are at least few fans who believe that Rey's "I need someone to show my place in all this" isn't actually spoken to Kylo Ren. They were right, as it's spoken to Luke Skywalker when she asks him to teach the ways of the Force. The scene where Kylo extends his hand to Rey (which happens after the fight with Snoke's Praetorian Guards) still has the similar context that the trailer suggested, however.
  • Informed Wrongness: After Holdo's true plans come to light, Leia admonishes Poe for trying to act like a hero without thinking, saying that Holdo was doing the truly heroic thing and he should have just listened to her. The issue is that Poe tried to do that, got no answer, and became convinced that the situation was desperate enough to step up and try to save the Resistance. Had Holdo told him anything, he wouldn't have done so, but instead she acts distant and secretive for no reason. Within the context of what is shown in the film, Poe did what he thought was right to try and save the Resistance, and yet is treated as wrong for standing up to what he saw as a poor leader during a desperate situation.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: For all the talk about the movie's "freshness" and subverting some expectations, such as by employing The Unreveal, some feel that the movie's relationship with The Empire Strikes Back ends up being pretty similar to that of the The Force Awakens with A New Hope, essentially a soft remake. The movie hits all of the major plot points The Empire Strikes Back did: Stern Chase, a group of the main characters going to a different planet where they find a charismatic rogue who ultimately betrays them, Jedi training (where the trainee goes to a place filled with the dark side to confront themselves), a devastating battle in which AT-ATs storm a bunker on a Hoth-like planet (albeit coated with salt rather than snow), the reveal of the protagonist's parents by the Big Bad done in a way meant to be deliberately shocking,note , a cliffhanger ending where the heroes are in a weak situation but still have hope, etc. Additionally, TESB was a major Wham Episode back in the day that employed many Ass Pulls; TLJ does the exact same thing, only by subverting a different set of expectations based on the standards set by TESB and the other movies in the saga. This hasn't gone unnoticed by critics, and some fans.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Kylo Ren's first scene on screen has him being admonished, electrocuted, and taunted by Snoke, while he can only protest that he's given everything he has to him. It's later discovered that one of the major factors driving him to the dark side was waking up to find his mentor and uncle apparently trying to murder him in his sleep. He also loses his mother, who he thinks died, and Rey, the only other person he cares about, when he makes a power grab and she rejects his offer of ruling with him. By the end of the film, he's completely alone at the head of a First Order that neither likes nor respects him, and even he seems unhappy about it. And this is all while he's still recovering from the events of The Force Awakens, which were none too kind to him either. Quite a fair amount of his pain is brought unto himself, and he remains as dangerous as ever, but it's hard not to feel for him.
  • Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: The leaders of the First Order want to conquer the galaxy to restore the oppressive Galactic Empire of old, but Admiral Holdo is more hated than any of them for... being an uncharismatic and secretive leader and rude towards Poe.
  • Les Yay: Quite a few fans detected sparks between Leia and Holdo in their single scene together, where they come close to giggling at trying to figure out who's going to say "May the Force be with you" to the other. Holdo was actually implied to be bisexual in a tie-in novel, though Laura Dern wasn't aware of this during filming.
  • Love to Hate: Just like in The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is a terrifying but endearing buffoon, but this is cranked up even further because his successful coup against Snoke and takeover of the First Order just for the sake of power shows how his short-sighted avarice can make him truly despicable.
  • Magnificent Bastard: "DJ" is an unnamed slicer who lives by the code "Live free, don't join", whereby he refuses to support either side in the war between the Resistance and the First Order. Encountering Finn and Rose when they get thrown into jail with him, DJ finds out they are seeking a hacker and offers his services, while proving his worth by breaking them out of prison. When Finn discovers DJ stole a yacht and starts doubting his morals, DJ shows him the yacht owner's corrupt identity and teaches Finn his personal philosophy. Despite demanding upfront payment in the form of Rose's gold pendant, it's revealed he merely wanted it as an electrical conductor and returns it to her afterwards. Coming very close to successfully disabling the hyperspace tracker, the trio are caught, to which DJ saves his own skin by revealing the Resistance's escape plan. DJ is paid handsomely and allowed to walk free, with his refusal to take sides paying off in the end.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Snoke's Praetorian Guard. They're the last person you'd think would make for an epic fight scene, yet their battle with Rey and Kylo is cited as one of the high-points of the film.
    • The stable boy at the end, just thanks to the simple act of pulling up a broom with the Force. Fan interpretations range from him using the broom as his own weapon to being the new Chosen One.
    • The Z-6 riot control baton already had this reputation as the weapon of the legendary Nines from the previous movie, but the weapon itself has become iconic thanks to Finn using it to easily defeat Captain Phasma.
    • In contrast to his Memetic Loser status from The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is now considered this; partially due to being much more heavily fleshed out in the film, but mainly thanks to the "Ben Swolo" meme, which portrays him as a ridiculously strong and buff character who is the strongest thing in the whole galaxy and can do practically anything.
    • Captain Canady, given the fact that he is a survivor from the days of the Empire, portrayed as the Only Sane Man of the First Order's personnel, and his general One-Scene Wonder status. In memes, he is usually paired with Hux as the Memetic Loser to his Badass.
  • Memetic Loser:
    • Kylo Ren already had this status thanks to The Force Awakens but his less-than-perfect head start as the new Supreme Leader of the First Order and his failure to best Luke (or rather, his astral projection) in a one-on-one duel and destroy the rest of the Resistance only cements his status as this even further for fans who remained unconvinced by his newfound Took a Level in Badass.
    • The StarFortress SF-17 bombers used by the Resistance in the opening battle have attracted mockery for seemingly being one of the most ineffectual designs seen in the series, being big, slow, fragile, Made of Explodium targets that get quickly picked off en masse by the First Order's TIE Fighters. The shot of a TIE Fighter's flaming wreck ripping through three bombers is a particular standout. Even though Paige Tico's bomber survives long enough to get the job done, it gets destroyed in the explosion of the Fulminatrix, earning it a reputation as a ship that's only good for one bombing run in contrast to the venerable Y-Wing (which, curiously, is nowhere to be found in the scene).
  • Memetic Molester: Supreme Leader Snoke rapidly achieved this status on tumblr within days of the film's release, with many people finding his emotional manipulation of Kylo to be akin to child-grooming and/or gaslighting. And then there's the scene where he Force-pulls Rey within inches of his face and compliments her on her "spunk." And there's the fact that in the aforementioned scene with Rey, he meets her and Kylo while apparently wearing a dressing gown. The novelization has a scene where he strokes Kylo's face while reprimanding him, only exacerbating the creepiness. The creators confirming they based his design off Hugh Hefner is the cherry on top.
  • Memetic Mutation: This film now has its own page.
  • Memetic Psychopath: BB-8's more... aggressive actions in this film have lead to jokes that it secretly loves murder. The novelization even nods to this, with Rose noting that it's picked up a worrying taste for larceny and assault.
  • Mis-blamed:
    • Many people blame Poe for the plan to infiltrate the First Order ship to disable the hyperspace tracker which results in a good chunk of the Resistance getting killed. However Poe isn't the one who came up with the plan. Finn and Rose did and Poe just gave his approval of it.
  • Misaimed Fandom:
    • Some fans take Kylo's idea of "Letting the past die" and Luke's statements that the Jedi were failures at face value, going as far as calling Rey a villain who refuses to let go of the old ways , forgetting that the first statement was said by the film's villain, and that following his talk with Yoda's spirit Luke realizes the error of his statement which is why he does what he does in the film's climax, going so far as to say that "I will not be the last Jedi", suggesting the Jedi grow stronger from their mistakes rather than stopping to exist altogether. Part of the problem can be blamed on the film spending most of its runtime calling the Jedi failures and only the last few minutes refuting it.
    • Some have also assumed Kylo Ren's words are the real message of the movie, not realizing that Kylo Ren's own desire to kill the past means that he is in more defined by his past than anybody else in the movie, and that in context he is using these words as a justification for why he murdered his father.
    • Kylo telling Rey that "[she's] nobody, [she's] nothing, but not to me" is taken as romantic by many shippers, ignoring that this is a Backhanded Compliment (calling a loved one worthless to their face is not very... loving) and that this is gaslighting — he's making her believe that no one else cares about her and that he's the only one who knows what she wants, when we and Rey know that she has people who care about her in Finn, Leia, Han, BB-8, and so on.
    • With a dose of Misaimed Hatedom. The Canto Bight sequence and DJ’s speech about how the First Order and Resistance are same has been taken at face value as a stance of the movie, leading to both praise and criticism for “Eliminating binaries between good and evil”. However, the movie clearly condemns both Canto Bight patrons and DJ as selfish scumbags willing to sit out the return of the Empire on the sidelines while profiting from both sides. Finn’s arc is explicitly about rejecting this notion.
    • In a case of critics who love the movie being misaimed, a common thing to see in reviews is that the reveal of Rey's lineage being "from nothing" combined with the stable boy in the ending using the Force to pull a broom into his hand is a "democratization of the Force" and doing away with the trope that only certain bloodlines can utilize the Force. However, this displays a lack of understanding of the franchise, which has always said the Force is open to be used by anyone, and the old Jedi Order from the Younglings to the Council were populated with powerful Force users whose bloodlines were unimportant. The twist with Rey's lineage and scene with the stable boy were designed as subversive takes on the literary trope of The Hero, not on some in-universe trope about the Force that never existed.
  • Misaimed Merchandising: Kylo Ren's mask got just as much play in the merchandise for this film as in the previous one. Cue, very early on in the film, Snoke mocking him for wearing it, and him smashing it to a mass of twisted metal and never wearing it again.
  • More Popular Replacement: A common reaction to the Porgs is that they're essentially "Ewoks done right". Sure, they're Ridiculously Cute Critters explicitly designed to appeal to kids and sell merchandise—but they only appear sparingly with no impact on the plot, their Ugly Cute design prevents them from inducing Sweetness Aversion, they're just animals (not major characters with their own subplot), and the film doesn't try too hard to make them likeable (it acknowledges that some of the characters find them annoying).

    N-S 
  • Narm: See here.
  • Narm Charm: The Ugly Cute Porgs manage to be oddly charming despite their bizarre design.
  • Never Live It Down: Has its own page shared with the rest of the franchise.
  • No Yay:
    • The subtext between Rey and Snoke is incredibly creepy. It was Snoke who linked her mind with Kylo's. When she first meets him he drags her over to him with the Force, puts his hand on her face, and compliments her "spunk" in a rather creepy way.
    • Fans have already noted that Snoke's corruption of a young Ben Solo makes him come off as a child predator, but the scene in the novelization where Snoke strokes his face makes it way worse.
    • A controversial reaction to Rey and Kylo’s interactions is to be disgusted at what is perceived as a weakly written and sexist abusive relationship... in part because he’s already done most of the stuff Snoke did to to her.
  • Older Than They Think:
    • The ability to telepathically communicate with the Force has been seen in canon since the end of Empire, albeit only across a (relatively) small distance between starships. Communication across the galaxy already showed up in a Deleted Scene of Return of the Jedi, although it was just Vader's voice reaching Luke. In terms of Astral Projection, Yoda did it in Star Wars Rebels Season 2 episode "Shroud of Darkness" about 18 months prior.
    • Leia's ability to survive and move in space back to her ship is not unheard of, considering Kanan Jarrus managed to get himself back inside a ship after being spaced by Darth Maul in "The Holocrons of Fate" episode of Season Three of Star Wars Rebels, which aired 14 months prior to the film's release.
    • Before this movie, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords had already taken a stab at doing an Internal Deconstruction of the Star Wars universe, to the point that several themes in the film echo that game, such as Luke's desire to end the Jedi mirroring Kreia's desire to destroy the Force itself. It was also similarly divisive among fans.
    • Luke's castigation of Rey for thinking the Force is just the power source for the Jedi, rather than something more mystical and concurrent with life itself, is reminiscent of a complaint raised by Timothy Zahn about other authors in Star Wars Legends while developing Hand of Thrawn. This prompted Zahn to write in those books regarding Luke's restored Jedi Order that overly flashy use of Force powers actually inhibits your higher perceptions of the Force.
    • Luke cutting himself off from The Force is similar to Kyle Katarn's cutting himself off after the events of Mysteries of the Sith.
    • Force ghosts being able to affect the living world. Way back in Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan’s ghost is clearly shown moving tree branches when he walks past them.
    • The Holdo maneuver has been criticized by some for supposedly breaking hyperspace lore. However, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Destroy Malevolence" (aired in 2008) already had a spaceship hit a planet while in hyperspace.
    • Even Kylo Ren killing Snoke so early can actually be traced back to his Legends counterpart, Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus to a degree; Lumiya, the Sith Lady who led Jacen down the path of the dark side, was killed (admittedly not by Jacen, but by Luke) well before the climax of his story.
    • The ostensible Dark Lord being usurped by his understudy partway through the storyline, who then uses another character as a scapegoat, is also similar to Chapter I of the Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion Knights of the Fallen Empire (which came out two years before this film). Albeit in that instance the Player Character was Valkorion's actual killer, after Prince Arcann gave them their weapon back, and then Arcann had them frozen in carbonite afterwards as a trophy of conquest.
    • The climax of the film famously reveals that Rey's parents were actually a pair of unremarkable "nobodies" with no connection to the Force, which was widely viewed as (for better or for worse) an attempt at boldly shaking up the mythos and subverting the audience's expectations. But the idea of a Jedi being descended from "nobodies" isn't a new idea at all: the prequels previously established that the Jedi were forbidden from having children for most of their history, meaning that the vast majority of them didn't inherit their abilities from their parents. So even before The Last Jedi, nearly all Jedi were "nobodies".
    • On at least one occasion, Mark Hamill publicly expressed misgivings about Rian Johnson's interpretation of Luke Skywalker (although he later admitted that he came around after filming wrapped), which is sometimes cited by the film's detractors as a mark against its quality. But this isn't the first time that Hamill has expressed misgivings about Luke's portrayal: he also strongly disagreed with Luke killing the wampa in The Empire Strikes Back, feeling that it was out-of-character for him to kill an animal that was just following its natural instincts.
    • This isn't the first time a Star Wars film has shown Luke tossing aside his lightsaber for dramatic effect. He does exactly the same thing in Return of the Jedi.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • Captain Canady, the commanding officer of the dreadnaught-class Fulminatrix. A dignified Old Soldier from the days of the Empire who's in command of a badass starship but Surrounded by Idiots and faces death with dignity.
    • Maz Kanata only has a brief cameo, but it's both funny and badass when she trades zingers with Finn and Poe while in the middle of combat over a "union dispute".
    • Yoda, who appears as a Force Ghost to Luke.
    • Snoke's elite bodyguards for their fight against Rey and Kylo Ren.
    • Paige Tico, Rose's Determinator sister, who gives everything including her life in order to complete Poe's plan to destroy the Dreadnought.
    • FN-926, a regular First Order stormtrooper who appears in a deleted scene played by Tom Hardy, during which he recognizes Finn from their days in training (but doesn’t know that Finn has deserted the First Order) and, seeing Finn in an imperial navy officer’s uniform, just naturally assumes that Finn had been promoted, and drops his stoic demeanor to sincerely congratulate Finn and give him a friendly, bro-like pat on the butt. All with a very heavy southern drawl. People are already referring to him as the coolest stormtrooper ever.
  • Overshadowed by Controversy: Even years after it was released, it's difficult to talk about the film without at least mentioning the sheer number of heated debates over the film, including its handling of legacy characters and whether or not it ultimately hurt the franchise.
  • Padding: One of the most common criticisms of the film is that the subplot involving Finn and Rose ultimately felt unnecessary and only served to drag out the pacing, with nothing coming of it and it even working against the other plan the Resistance had, which would have worked if it hadn't been for them going off to get the hacker. The fact that Return of the Jedi got through roughly the same plot point in a sentence ("Many Bothans died giving us this information") isn't exactly a point in its favor either.
  • The Producer Thinks of Everything: Everyone focuses on Snoke getting cut in half and all, but his posture means his left hand (resting on the arm of his throne) should have been severed at about the wrist. Sure enough, when Hux walks in and Snoke's legs finally topple to join his torso on the floor, you can see his left hand still sitting there.
  • Ron the Death Eater:
    • Some Rose haters like to portray her as being callously abusive to Finn based on the scene where she tazes him. What those people often forget (or ignore) is that she was doing her job, which had been to catch deserters—and that Finn was attempting exactly that. While Finn technically wasn't an official member of the Resistance at that point (making it debatable whether he'd qualify as a "deserter"), Rose couldn't possibly have known that.
    • Luke showed fear due to Kylo's darkness which caused a moment of weakness, but managed to stop in time. That did not prevent the fandom from truly believing that he was going to kill his nephew by cold hand. This has actually reached that point where a number of fans, particularly the Kylo In Pleather Pants crowd, have taken to presenting Luke as a violent, borderline psychotic, paragon of toxic masculinity; demonizing almost all of his actions from the original trilogy including blowing up the Death Star.
  • Salvaged Story:
    • Many were disappointed with the fact that after being built up so heavily as the Decoy Protagonist, Finn failed in his two major action scenes in the previous movie. Having him fight Phasma and giving him his own subplot seems to be an attempt to rectify this, although it's somewhat undermined by his character being relegated to the C plot and superfluous to the main story.
    • Given she is the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and is strong in the Force, many had been taken aback that Leia in the new canon did not become a Jedi. While she still is not a Jedi, after almost 40 years since her introduction, in this final performance from her, Carrie Fisher got to use the Force in the film.
    • Luke's comments about how the Republic and the Jedi were made out to be far better than they actually were by nostalgia explains why the Republic and Jedi were held to such high esteem in the Original Trilogy, despite how the Prequel Trilogy and Star Wars: The Clone Wars made it quite evident they were not worthy of that praise.
    • Kylo Ren had his fair share of detractors in the previous film; many criticized his fanboy attitude towards Darth Vader that led to him wearing a similar helmet and altering his voice, as well as his childish, hot-headed personality that ultimately made him come across as an inferior imitator of Vader. One of his very first scenes here has Snoke mocking him for exactly the same reasons, causing Kylo to smash the helmet and go without it for the rest of the filmnote , and the rest of the film establishes him as a greater, more complex villain than the loony Darth Vader clone he was in TFA, overthrowing Snoke as Supreme Leader (something Vader never did until his redemption) and revealing that Ren's ultimate plan is to destroy the existing order of light vs. dark, while still keeping his short-sighted impulsiveness and poor, overemotional judgment. His Foe Romance Subtext with Rey also won over a good many of his former detractors. Additionally, while Ren's callous murder of Han Solo was criticized by some fans for turning the Vader-esque character into a Hate Sink, TLJ gives him a moment where he hesitates and decides not to kill Leia Organa, his remaining parent, showing that he is indeed a conflicted character and not just evil for the sake of being evil.
    • A very minor one, but the First Order Snowtroopers featured rather heavily in merchandise for The Force Awakens, only to appear in the background for a few seconds. Here, they do make a more prominent appearance after the Battle of Crait.
    • A common criticism of Rey in The Force Awakens was that she came off as a boring Invincible Hero who didn't face much challenge. This film attempts to fix that by showcasing her personal flaws, inexperience, and lack of knowledge about the Force and the Jedi, and puts her in several situations where she struggles or outright fails, notably being played by Snoke the whole time and failing to turn Kylo Ren back to the light.
    • The novelization of the book contains several quick asides that explains away famous gripes with the Force Awakens and the Last Jedi. For example, Snoke's inner monologue contains a moment where he mocks Rey for thinking her pulling the lightsaber from the snow was a big deal, since that is something everyone that is in-tune with the Force does as their very first thing.
    • The comic adaptation seems to be going out of it's way to address fan criticism of the film, doing things like attempting to explain Luke's mindset better, having Holdo immediately tell Poe she has a plan and needs his support rather than antagonizing him for no reason, and showing Admiral Ackbar's final moments rather than killing him offscreen.
  • Ship Mates: Finnrose (Finn and Rose) became popular among Reylo shippers (Rey and Kylo Ren) before the movie even came out, and before Rose's name was revealed.
  • Shocking Moments: The movie is one big shock after another:
    • It seems that everyone's hearts skipped a beat when Kylo Ren was considering killing his own mother.
    • The shot of Luke buried under the rubble of the Jedi Academy, meaning both that Kylo tried to straight-up kill him, and that he failed because Luke is that much of a badass.
    • Rey igniting her lightsaber while glaring intensely at Luke.
    • Leia using the Force to survive being blasted into space.
    • Force Ghost Yoda (portrayed by an actual puppet!) appearing to Luke and summoning lightning to burn the Jedi Temple down.
    • Kylo telekinetically cutting Snoke in half with Anakin's lightsaber.
    • Admiral Holdo's Dying Moment of Awesome by ramming the Raddus into Snoke's flagship at light speed.
    • The reveal that Luke's appearance on Crait in the third act was an astral projection from the clear other side of the galaxy.
  • Signature Scene:
    • The epic battle in the throne room is fondly remembered by fans who are used to the prequel trilogy's intense lightsaber duels, as the scene consists of a very dragged out and visceral confrontation between experienced warriors with impressive visual backdrops.
    • Holdo's Heroic Sacrifice via lightspeed that slices Snoke's ship into pieces easily trumps all other scenes in the space battle department, given the perfectly applied silence and sheer magnitude of destruction rivaled only by Death Stars blowing up. There's a reason fans have taken to calling Holdo as "Holdo My Beer" due to one upping crazy feats accomplished in the franchise.
    • The infamous scene of Luke Skywalker milking a thala-siren and drinking said milk from a bottle.
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • Rey is frequently shown gripping her lightsaber by its blade.
    • During the throne room fight, one of Snoke's Praetorian Guards wields two knives. One of the knives is digitally erased at a certain point in the scene when this Guard grabs Rey. The Guard makes a drawing motion across her stomach with his empty hand, Rey reacts as if she has been cut, but the knife is nowhere to be seen, except for an outline that couldn't quite be completely erased.
    • The CGI when Leia force-pulls herself back into the ship takes a massive nosedive in quality, making her look more like a lifeless corpse rather than a person on the edge of death.
    • In another example from the throne room scene, one of the guards is decapitated by Kylo Ren. However, a couple shots later, the guard's corpse can be briefly, but clearly, seen with his head still attached to his body.
  • Spiritual Adaptation: Thematically, it's an adaptation of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, both being subversive Internal Deconstructions of the Star Wars franchise starring a woman (well, canonically starring a woman in KOTOR II's case) that, because of said case of Deconstruction, ended up extremely divisive as far as fan reaction goes. Part of the plot of both involve a member of the main cast's desire to put an end to something related to the Jedi (whether it be Kreia wanting to destroy the Force, or Luke wanting to leave the Jedi Order as a thing of the past).
  • Spoiled by the Format: A very tragic case of it, as Carrie Fisher's untimely death caused Disney to announce Leia was planned to have a large role in the ninth film which had to be completely redone. Thus, there's no way Kylo is actually going to kill her like the trailer implies. This was later confirmed in an interview with Daisy Ridley, who described the emotion of filming a scene between Rey and Leia towards the very end of the film.
  • Squick: Admiral Holdo cupping Poe's cheek while he's unconscious made many fans uncomfortable due to their age gap, her status as his superior officer, their constant antagonism, and the sheer inappropriateness of the gesture.
  • Strangled by the Red String:
    • A common complaint about the Finn and Rose arc is this, since towards the end of the Battle on Crait, Rose kisses Finn and expresses her love for him. Rose knows Finn for only at most one day, and has never interacted with him before this movie. While Rose developing feelings for Finn isn't really bad in of itself, since she clearly sees him as a hero, the fact that she falls for him that quickly feels like it was shoehorned in for no other reason than the writers needing a romantic twist. The fact the following movie did nothing with it makes it feel like it had no reason to belong in the film either.
    • A somewhat similar case occurs with Rey and Kylo, in contrast to their status as a One True Pairing elsewhere. Rey is a victim of Kylo’s crimes several times over from the previous film, as are her friends, and critics often see the story as railroading her into caring for Kylo for very little reason, and often at her expense as a character. The fact the following movie effectively canonized the literal meaning of this trope with the Dyad explanation feels like a de facto recognition the relationship was never going to make sense to some people.

    T-Z 
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Most of the criticism among fans focuses on that it toys with audiences' expectations a bit too much, a stark contrast from how The Force Awakens was criticized for being too formulaic.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: See the franchise page.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: See the franchise page.
  • Too Cool to Live: Luke. Once he pulls himself together, he proves to be far more badass than Rey or Kylo Ren, hence he couldn't stay alive.
  • Ugly Cute: The Porgs (the alien birds seen on Ahch-To) are simply bizarre in terms of design, but there's a sweetness to them.
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The fathiers have uncomfortably humanoid-looking faces, which look particularly out of place on giant alien horse-dogs.
  • Unexpected Character: Very few people expected Yoda to pop in from the Force for a chat with Luke. Voiced by Frank Oz and puppeteered as a practical effect, no less!
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic:
    • Poe is meant to be seen as irrational for mutinying against Admiral Holdo. However, she deliberately kept him Locked Out of the Loop even after he repeatedly asked her to clarify the situation, giving him every reason to think that his actions were averting disaster or that Holdo was dooming them to die. This is further undermined by the actors' performances, as Holdo seems rather repellent and Poe comes off as the Only Sane Man who, while impulsive, is well-meaning and concerned for the lives of his men. The fact Poe actually ends up agreeing with Holdo and Leia's plans when he learns it didn't help either, since it means Poe would have been all for it had Holdo just been more upfront with him. Additionally, Star Wars fans have a long history of cheering for the Lovable Rogue who rebels against authority, meaning that in the original two trilogies he would have been presented as the hero.
    • While it may overlap with Draco in Leather Pants, there are some who view Kylo Ren this way because they think his idea of letting the past and all old things die, including the franchise's traditional Black-and-White Morality, and start a new order in the galaxy that can prevent the same problems from constantly happening is the correct one, and that Rey refusing to join him is holding back progress that needs to happen. Basically, he's seen as the Doomed Moral Victor of the story.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Vice Admiral Holdo was clearly meant to be seen as a heroic character who audiences were supposed to root for putting Poe in his place and teaching him to be more careful as a leader. However, many felt the film made her out to be unlikable because she wasn't very open about her plan. The reveal of her plan, and that Leia supported it, doesn't help much since it reveals that Poe would have gone along with it had she only trusted him, and her Heroic Sacrifice feels somewhat hollow as she only had to make it because she failed to either win Poe's trust or to keep him in line. Indeed, a lot of the detractors of the movie say that the mutiny subplot comes out of the left field, especially considering the animosity between Holdo and Poe.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
    • Yoda's brief appearance uses an actual puppet instead of a CG model, and it looks and moves identical to the puppets of the original trilogy.note  This truly stands out in a movie loaded with CG spaceships.
    • The aftermath of Holdo ramming Snoke's flagship at lightspeed. The impact doesn't just destroy the flagship, it cuts through the First Order fleet in a brilliant blue blaze, and every other source of illumination in the surrounding space (stars, planets, etc.) cannot be seen as the First Order fleet is destroyed.
    • The thala-siren that Luke milks was completely achieved with puppetry, and it looks so good that it not only seems like a real creature, but one achieved through CGI.
    • While in the first film, Snoke's hologram looked really fake, "physical", "onscreen" Snoke is convincing, like Maz Kanata before him.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
    • Several media outlets (Vanity Fair, Den of Geeks, Buzzfeed, Yahoo and the Los Angeles Times) have interpreted the conflict between Poe Dameron and Admiral Holdo as a pro-feminist story that condemns male chauvinism and "toxic masculinity". Rian Johnson's Flip-Flop of God regarding the topic adds to this sentiment.
    • The Canto Bight scenes can be seen as political commentary on capitalism (particularly the global arms trade), slavery, and animal abuse. It had a mixed reception, though to a minor extent since not much was done with that subplot.
    • Many viewers of different political affiliations believe that, at times, The Last Jedi comes across as very Anvilicious in its political messages. Some have accused this quality of playing a part in the film's polarized reaction, both in terms of viewer agreement/disagreement and people wanting to see Star Wars as a fun, escapist action flick rather than a heavy-handed critique on society — the latter was also a major criticism of the prequels. Even worse, the political divide made it very difficult to tell which criticisms of the film were politically motivated and which were not, and made it more difficult for some people to pinpoint the film's genuine strengths and flaws.
  • The Woobie:
    • Rey, fresh from losing her would-be father figure Han Solo, goes to find Luke Skywalker and learn the ways of the Force, only to be denied by the grizzled Jedi who did not live up to her expectation of a legendary hero. She somehow bonds with Kylo Ren, the murderer who killed his own father, yet ironically, the only person who understands her feelings. He reveals that Luke attempted to kill him, causing Rey to lose all respect for Luke and run away to try to redeem Ben Solo on her own. It turns out that Snoke was manipulating her all along and with him dead, Kylo disappoints her by refusing to redeem himself and tries to eliminate everything she loves. Kylo also forces her to admit that she's been living a Changeling Fantasy; there's no grand destiny for her, she's not a descendant of some great lineage, she's just a nobody whose parents sold her for some drinking money and died afterwards. By the end of the film, it's amazing she hasn't become even more of a Broken Bird or turned to the dark side after everything she's been through.
    • Poe loses several of his comrades in the process of destroying the Dreadnaught, and upon returning to base he gets smacked, berated and demoted by his surrogate mother figure (who almost dies). Then he meets Admiral Holdo, who disrespects him constantly and refuses to explain her seemingly harmful actions, despite holding the lives of his fellow soldiers in her hands. Once Poe decides he’s had enough and stages a mutiny his plans are foiled by Leia shooting him. Moreover, this all happens mere days after being captured and tortured by the First Order, and suffering a near-death experience while escaping from them. He takes most of it in stride.
    • Rose loses her sister in war, gets sent on a dangerous mission (despite being a noncombatant) where she's arrested, betrayed, and handed over to the First Order. She also has the honor of seeing Finn, her hero, try to run away again and near the end she injures herself saving him.
    • Leia. The New Republic she spent decades building is in ruins and she's leading the Resistance in a losing war against the First Order. Every casualty under her command weighs heavily on her, while those who survive can't cooperate (Poe and Holdo) or inadvertently makes things worse (Finn and Rose). She recently lost her husband to their son - who she's given up on after he contemplates killing her - and doesn’t have the time to grieve for him properly. Her allies in the Outer Rim never arrive and when her brother Luke returns, he’s not even there physically, and he dies while buying the Resistance time to escape from the planet. Despite all this, she soldiers on.
    • Luke himself. Just try to listen to him getting choked up as he tells how he failed all of his students and not feel terrible for him.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?:
    • Snoke's golden robe looks really weird on someone who's supposed to be as intimidating as The Emperor. Some even derogatorily call it a bathrobe. The official Black Series action figure only made this worse — and, having been released long before the movie, cemented the impression before the character could even appear on-screen. The idea was for him to be wearing an impractical and luxurious outtfit out of arrogance, but most thought it looked too silly.
    • Holdo's hair and dress go a long way towards undermining the image of her supposedly being a competent and professional military officer, particularly when compared to Leia's prim haircut and her rough-and-tough military-style coat. In contrast, Holdo's outfit looks both impratical and sloppy, and has been compared by many as making her look like a giraffe. Especially since so much had been made in the supplemental materials about the Republic government being run by pretentious politicians and the Resistance is depicted as dirt poor. This may have been the point, given Holdo's character arc over the course of the film. The Art of the Last Jedi reveals that Holdo was going to wear a military uniform in early sketches of the character. Plus, the hair makes her look like a reject from Jem and the Holograms.
    • During Kylo Ren's shirtless scene, roughly 1/3 of his chest is blocked by high-waisted pants. Apart from not suiting his overall appearance... the fangirls were not pleased.

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top