Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Pop Feminist

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
The Failure Frontier: IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS of “The Last Jedi”

The Failure Frontier: IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS of “The Last Jedi”

Last updated on: March 22, 2018 at 11:58 am by Emily C. A. Snyder

The Failure Frontier: IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS of “The Last Jedi” 2018-03-22T11:58:31-04:00 Emily C. A. Snyder

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m working on an article for you all about just why you may have hated Vice Admiral Holdo (I mean, besides her wardrobe), but in the meantime I invite you to read my in-depth analysis of the narrative of failure in the Star Wars franchise – compleate with gifs!

We don’t like to talk about failure much in our modern day myths. Going in to see Wonder Woman or the latest Avengers flick, or just about any sci-fi franchise, we enter knowing that the good guys are going to win, and the bad guys are going to lose. We enter knowing that our screen will be divided up, unambiguously, between “good” and “bad” – the light and dark side of the force, Heaven and Hell, Indiana Jones and face-melting Nazis, Browncoats and the Alliance – hell, even Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

We like our myths like we like our brandy: neat.

…Looking at success/failure in the other storylines, some complain that because Luke Skywalker has aged and become the whiny mentor instead of the kick-ass hero, he has failed. (They apparently don’t remember the whiny kid from Tattooine in A New Hope.) And, indeed, Luke has failed: failed who he could have been, failed Kylo Ren by doubting there was goodness in him, failed Rey by refusing to be her Yoda…just as he failed Yoda by running away from his training in The Empire Strikes Back all those years ago.

Yet, like the heroes of old, Luke can always learn, always change, always grow. He can be humble enough to listen to Yoda, even when he fails at destroying the Jedi tree. He can fail to survive, in order to allow his sister to live. He can “fail” being the ur-hero, and allow a new generation to take their places in life.

Read the full article here.

Image courtesy of Disney Films 2017.

Want to tell the Pop Feminist what to review next? Become my patron on Patreon!

Previous Post

March 20, 2018

A Rebellious Romance: A Defense of Girly Narratives

Next Post

March 24, 2018 Star Wars Iconography (Pt. 1): Why Rey is Okay

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #MeToo Art Catholic Artists Catholicism Culture Dating Definitions Fairy Tales Irish Jewish Literature Love & Marriage Meditation Movies Musicals Poetry Pop Feminist Psychology Shakespeare Social Media Story structure Theatre TV Uncategorized Verse Drama Well-Meaning Patriarchy

Select a Month December 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the king that the angel of the Lord struck because he did not give God glory, but received the worship of the people, and who was eaten by worms?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Haddam Herod Saul Hezekiah

Support this
Column