An important answer to Star Wars: The Last Jedi is found in Rogue One

Star Wars: The Last Jedi presented the Resistance with an interesting problem that doesn’t feel earned until you remember just one little line in Rogue One.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened in theaters this weekend, and if you aren’t one of the people who contributed to its massive opening weekend, then there are SPOILERS ahead.

As per usual, the rebels found themselves battling against the better armed and more prepared big bad in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. That’s always happening in the background no matter what our hero is doing. That’s how we got: The Battle of Naboo, the Battle of Geonosis, the Battle of Yavin, the Battle of Hoth, the Battle of Endor and so on and so forth.

However, The Last Jedi took away a major ingredient in any space battle by introducing the First Order’s ability to track the Resistance fleet through hyperspace.

So instead of watching our favorite pilots set up the coordinates and jump through space to fall back, the First Order made escape completely futile and set up The Last Jedi‘s C-plot for Finn and Rose. For some, the First Order’s new trick felt like a cheap move and removed one of the fundamental building blocks of the original trilogy. Where would Han Solo be if he couldn’t escape at lightspeed? (Though, that being said, Boba Fett tracked him to Cloud City anyway — and even got the Empire there first, sooo…)

But the First Order apparently planned for “hyperspace tracking” a long time ago … back in 2016, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. About one minute in, she says the keywords:

So Rogue One, which took place before the events of A New Hope, established that there were plans for hyperspace tracking. And Rian Johnson took these two words and really ran with them, which seems appropriate for all the stuff he chose to focus on versus all the stuff he absolutely refused to expand on.

But it’s still a neat connection. Perhaps even more than my discovery that, during a recent viewing of A New Hope, the Death Star literally looks like Stardust when it explodes. It’s not just a cutesy nickname.

Though the use of hyperspace tracking feels like an unearned stunt — like if suddenly lightsabers weren’t hot — it’s worth pointing out that we’ve arrived at the last film in the trilogy anyway. As of Episode IX, the Resistance won’t be doing a lot of escaping. To end the film, they’re going to have to face the First Order head on no matter what. (In terms of the movie trilogy, because the battle goes on, just like the Battle of Jakku took place after Return of the Jedi.)

This tie-in goes hand in hand with Gareth Edwards’ cameo as a soldier in the trenches of Crait, too. Moreover, it shows just how important Jyn Erso and the rest of the crew’s sacrifice was. How Rogue One is not just a Star Wars story, but an essential part of the saga which gives an unprecedented weight to Luke and Leia’s accomplishments later.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now playing in theaters.

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