Yoda (Frank Oz) in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Image Courtesy of Disney/Lucasfilm, StarWars.com Databank.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi has ended up becoming one of the most divisive Star Wars movies of all time. In fact, one could almost argue that The Last Jedi has divided fans in the same way that The Phantom Menace united them.
Say what you want about Jar Jar, but he’s a very good icebreaker at parties. But Star Wars: The Last Jedi has started something even Jar Jar couldn’t.
His existence might have spawned a website called jarjarmustdie.com to prevent his inclusion in future films, but he’s still widely accepted as a canonical character. CBR reports that The Last Jedi, however, has made some fans so angry that they have even started an online petition to have it removed from canon completely. Can we please introduce these people to fanfiction instead?
Starting a petition to remove a film you have problems with from canon is ridiculous, especially if you’re in the Star Wars fandom. Ever since 1999, we’ve had to live with things that should never have been written down, let alone acted out on screen by actors who deserve better, some of whom are actual Oscar-winners.
So why have they chosen now to start kicking off about what is canon? The Last Jedi, for all its supposed crimes, has absolutely nothing on what George Lucas came up with in the early 2000s. We’ll take Ahch-To’s fish nuns over Watto any day of the week.
Is it just that online petitions have made it easier for fans to show their displeasure? Or is it that some Star Wars fans are now so entitled they can’t handle seeing a film that doesn’t live up to their sky-high expectations?
Who knows? Perhaps we’re being too harsh. But if The Last Jedi, a genuinely good film that gave us what we needed if not what we wanted, is in danger of being removed from canon, we’ve got a few more things we’d like to go with it.
Namely, the prequels.