Star Wars: The Last Jediunderstands Star Wars better than most Star Wars projectsnot namedAndor. Of course,it’s not a perfect movie, as it messes with the canon and puts too many storylines on its plate to fully satisfy all of them. But to me, it strikes at the core themes and truths of what Star Wars is meant to be with a clarity and purpose that still takes me aback all these years later. For many a Star Wars fan, this wasn’t the case, as there’s a dedicated loud minority on the Internet devoted to brainwashing you into thinking it’s the worst film ever made.
One of the many punching bags for this loud minority is “Broom Boy,“the unnamed character in the closing shot who usesthe Forceto lift a broom, and these people profess that he’s a final rotten cherry on top of a sour sundae. I’ve long been confused as to this assertion, but I thinkthe reason some fans hate this inclusion speaks to the fundamental divide between Star Wars fans.
Broom Boy Represents the Future
For a quick bit of context: Broom Boy is one of a group of enslaved children who are sitting around regaling themselves with the story of how Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) single-handedly stopped the First Order attack on Crait. When the story is over, Broom Boy separates himself from the group to go do his sweeping chores, and the closing shot of the film showshim casually using the Force to lift a broom and gaze into the starry night sky.
To me, this is a perfect encapsulation of why Star Wars has had so much cultural power for decades, as it’s a succinct visual metaphor for how the franchise is supposed to inspire young generations. These young kids are being raised onthe grand myth of Luke Skywalker as the galaxy’s greatest hero(you know, the very thing naysayers accuseTheLast Jediof stripping away from Luke), and finding a sense of meaning and purpose in his journey. Being in the lowest possible social position as slaves to the wealthy,these kids don’t have much recourse in life besides finding the hope to keep going in stories being passed on through them. To paraphrase one ofThe Last Jedi’s key lines, Broom Boy is meant to represent the kids of today who will be the spark that will burn down whatever current regime they happen to be living under.
Broom Boy Challenges How We See the Force
But for many other fans, his very existence is an atrocity. Granted, in the view of these fans, his appearance is the grand parting shot of a film that’s (allegedly) slandered Luke Skywalker’s boring status as a perfect hero, misunderstood how the Force is supposed to work, squandered the potential of whateverJ.J. Abramsthought he was setting up inThe Force Awakens, and destroyed the idea that the Jedi were ever special heroes in the first place. In fairness,Rian Johnsonintentionally sought to dismantle many of the preconceived notions of what we think Star Wars “should” be, and wanted to blur the lines between the previously established strict moral binary through his various character arcs. It’s not that these fans are entirely wrong to accuse Johnson of messing with things; it’s that they view the film through too strict a lens of interpretation, holding it up too closely tothe “rules” of Star Wars.
‘Andor’ Makes ‘Star Wars Rebels’ Required Viewing
“Search your feelings, you know it to be true.”
Broom Boy infuriates them because he stands in contrast to one of the most precious ideas that Star Wars fans love: that being a user of the Force is a special status that only a chosen few can attain.The idea that a small child would have such firm control of the Force is essentially a violation of how the fans have come to know the Forceas a powerful entity that requires dedicated training and control. Luke Skywalker himself needed extensive training across three films to fully grasp the Force, but this kid can use it like it’s nothing?The prequelsshowed us that children can use the Force, but they usually need to go through a full academic experience to do so. In fairness, all Broom Boy did was grab a broom and sweep with it, and it’s not like he was doing backflips or throwing people around with ease. All jokes aside,the insistent devotion that some fans have to how the Force should work speaks to a larger difference in philosophy that goes beyond Star Wars itself.
‘The Last Jedi’ Uses the Force as a Catalyst for Change
One of the reasons that people love Star Wars is because of how detailed its galaxy is, how every little corner of it isbrimming with charactersand its own societies with their own logic. The downside to this is thatsome fans get so drenched in the lore and the explicit worldbuilding that they lose the forest for the trees and hold the lore to be a sacred textthat must be obeyed above all else. The Force is a vaguely defined concept because it isn’t supposed to bea strict power system, but a spiritual metaphor for the power that we all hold inside of us to fight for a better tomorrow and to build community with each other in rebellion against fascism.
It echoes the sharp divide in real-life religious practitionersbetween those whose beliefs are attached to the specific wording of their respective core texts versus those who believe more in the overall spirit of the religion, but are open to progressive interpretation. Rian Johnson pissed off these fans becausehe dared to suggest that the Force shouldn’t be treated as a shiny toy that only the most privileged people get, but as a resource that can be passed on and entrusted to all who are capable of being the change in the world. To paraphraseRatatouille, not just anyone can be a master Force user, but anyone can use the Force for good.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
