Star Wars: Episode VIII (The Last Jedi) - SPOILERS POSSIBLE*

Looked like flying to me and to everybody else but you, based on the wave of complaints I saw sweep across my Facebook feed in the two weeks after the film was released...

A Google search of "Leia" and "Mary Poppins" reveals a whopping 703,000 results as of tonight. So I'd say it's the movie's problem.

 

I don't care what you saw on your facebook feed or what you googled, it doesn't make you any less silly for not being able to tell the difference between flying though air and floating in space so yeah it's your problem that you saw a woman in a dress floating and thought, "Marry Poppins" "flying".

If I pulled myself thought the water with a rope would you say I was swimming though the water or would you say I was pulling myself thought the water.

 

Dude, there are literally almost a million complaints online - and even in this thread - about the ridiculous-looking Mary Poppins flying sequence in The Last Jedi.

There's even art!

 

Something becoming a meme isn't proof of anything all it means is that you aren't the only one and that it was a funny image that ticked someone's imagination enough to draw it. Next you'll be telling me that she really was wielding a lightsaber umbrella in the movie.

Let me try this one more time.

Leia pulls herself, I repeat PULLS HERSELF thought space towards the ship using the force.
It's a bit like when Luke Pulls the lightsaber towards himself in the cave but the other way around. She is floating in zero gravity, she doesn't need to fly because she is floating. It's a bit like pulling yourself though water. It's a bit like not flying.
It's such a simple concept to understand and it's driving me crazy that this stupid assed point is brought up over and over again ever since night hours after seeing the movie when I saw someone say that and I thought, "Are you f***ing crazy?! She isn't flying!" and posted to that affect.
The director has explained it, there are youtube videos explaining it but no, a silly little meme right? That's proof!

 

Whatever. If the director feels the need to explain what happened on screen, it means that he did a poor job. We are not talking about Inception or 2001: A Space Odyssey!

 

You make it sound like he issued a press release like "Listen up dumbasses!" it was a question he was asked in an interview.

Another surprise in this film is seeing Leia use her latent Force powers after decades of being the Skywalker twin who doesn’t wield the Force. Why was that an important parting gift to give both Leia and Carrie Fisher?
That was something Kathy [Kennedy] was always asking: Why has this never manifested in Leia? She obviously made a choice, because in “Return of the Jedi” Luke tells her, “You have that power too.” I liked the idea that it’s not Luke concentrating, reaching for the lightsaber; it’s an instinctual survival thing, like when you hear stories of a parent whose toddler is caught under a car and they get superhuman strength, or a drowning person clawing their way to the surface. It’s basically just her not being done with the fight yet.

I wanted it to happen [for Carrie] and I knew it was going to be a stretch. It’s a big moment, and I’m sure it will land different ways for different people, but for me it felt like a really emotionally satisfying thing to see.

 

I didn't need it explained to me. The quote posted by @CraigBic is the first time I've read this explanation. I wasn't even aware that Rian Johnson had been asked about it. I never read any explanation of this scene, and I knew exactly what was happening. Some people didn't like the scene and didn't like the film as a whole. Fine. I get it. But as Johnson rightly pointed out in the quote above, it will land different ways for different people, indicating that he took a nuanced approach to the scene. He didn't feel the need to spell it out. Good for him, and good for us fans who appreciate a bit of subtlety in our films.

 

Subtle is definitely not a word that i would use to describe TLJ. On the contrary, it felt very heavy handed at times, with far too many eye rolling scenes for my taste. Anyway, i don't want to spoil the party...

 

Maybe the Leia in space scene is simply a little teaser for the Disney's "Mary Poppins retuns", scheduled for release this year...

 

I don't know about flying versus floating, but every time I see that wide shot of Leia in space before she comes to, I think the shape of her gown resembles angel wings for just a brief moment. Many snickered, a few found it beautiful, but I'm just reminded that she's no longer with us.

 

I think the use of Leia's force powers [that could have been used/perfected in the intervening years] may have been central to E IX?

 

Yes. The concept was, she would have been central to IX the way Han and Luke were central to VII and VIII, respectively.

 

That's not even in the movie.

Your argument: Thousands of people on the internet agree with me!

I don't disagree with you--I think it looks like flying and I think it was poorly executed. I have ZERO issues with her using the Force like that, but the camera angle and editing there leave much to be desired.

 

I like someone's suggestion I read. Instead of floating through space, have the explosion trap her in some rubble, and then she moves it with the force, before weakly passing out. That would have come off much better than the space scene that has been a problem for thousands upon thousands of fans.

 

Unless the intent was to convey something more ethereal.

 

I actually thought what she did was cool in concept. It was how it was executed was flawed and it looked odd. However it's not a deal breaker. It was clear that they were establishing her power in the Force for Episode IX.

To hear some of the Troll community's complaints you'd think the concept of a Leia being 3 decades older and powerful with the Force as some sacrilidge and vandilization of the Star Wars mythology. The reason given is because previous movies didn't show her with that level of Force ability, so because of that Rian Johnson should die in a fire and this movie decannonized and wiped from memory. Then in the next sentence many of those same people grouce that Luke wasn't Force pushing entire legions of Storm troopers and crashing Star Destroyers into each other with mere gestures and being a literal demigod, even though we've never seen Luke or any Jedi reach that level of power in any previous movie.

Hypocritical much?

 

I don't think it's as much of a problem for most people. Just a " huh...That was weird" . It's a big deal in the internet fandom culture, but let's be honest, this movie was always gonna be slaughtered by a sizable vocal group that drives that segment of the fanbase, because of the Narrative in place since 2014, Which is " Diznee is gonna ruin Star Wars! They took away our old EU! Waaaaah!"

If it wasn't the Leia thing, they'd be seizing on something else and turning it into a meme of ridicule to " prove" that Star Wars was " ruined".

Unfortunately, the film made things a bit too easy for these trolls.

 

I'm going to go way out on a limb and suggest that Leia possibly did die in that scene, thus the shape of angel's wings I keep spotting in her gown in that wide shot in space. (How I wish for a screengrab!) At the very least, she was unconscious. But I'd love to think it was the will of the Force that revived her and not some instinctive impulse of her own. Bear with me here. We know from Qui-Gon Jinn that the Force has a will of its own. In these last two movies, the Force itself seems to be very much alive and nearly a central character as it practically downloaded itself Matrix-style into a clearly gifted "vessel" like Rey, eludes Kylo as he seemingly can't master it at times, and is felt by non-Jedi like Maz and that stable boy on Canto Bight.

For what purpose did the Force revive Leia? To strengthen the bond with her, because later she acts as a homing beacon for Luke. Again, bear with me!

On Ahch-to, Luke is living as a hermit, having cut himself off from the Force entirely as he waits to die. Rey comes along and, as much as he tries to resist, Luke is called back to the Force. One of his first acts is to reach out to Leia, who is now "active" with the Force; he locks onto her, and that connection revives her from her coma state. The Force put Leia "on the map," so to speak, enabling her to be found. From that point on, it's as though Luke and Leia remain linked, like that tracking wristwatch that Finn and later Poe share with Rey. That link makes it possible for Luke to "astral project" himself to wherever Leia is, that bunker on Crait. (There's nothing in the movie to suggest this, but wouldn't it be really interesting if Luke and Leia shared visions of Crait through their Force connection, and that's what inspired Leia and Holdo's transport escape plan?)

It could be the will of the Force setting all that up. Why? Because, even though it was nearly snuffed out by the Empire and later by the First Order, the Force wants to flourish. Through Rey and the stolen Jedi texts, it now has a chance to do just that.

(People will debate the merits of this movie forever, but I can tell you that it's fueled my imagination like no other Star Wars film in recent years. It leaves so much room for interpretation, drawing you in to explore possibilities only hinted at in the plot!)

 

Mary Poppins flies standing upright. Leia moves toward the ship leaning forward more horizontally. I think if she had been wearing something more pantsuity it wouldn’t have brought Mary to mind so much.

But I don’t know how you could stage the scene much differently (other than not writing it, which Rian Johnson might be wishing he hadn’t). She’s floating in space, and she has to move forward through space purposefully, without looking like she’s just drifting or tumbling. It is going to look like flying.

 

But let's be careful of lumping all of us that were not impressed with the film with the obsessives. I had many issues with it, that I have detailed in this thread. There are a LOT of people that were not impressed with this film, for the reasons stated. Not just those that claim there childhoods were ruined. We can all agree it is a divisive film.

 

It's not my intention to lump everyone in the same group. The people I'm talking about are the type of people in the YouTube ranting compilations I posted a couple days ago. The grown adults literally acting like profane children, many of whom hated TFA also and if you dig deeper, most had already decided Before the film even was out that it was going to suck.

If you felt like I was lumping you or anyone else here into that group, I most definitely appolgize. I actually largely agree that the Leia thing was a little wonkily executed. As I've said before, I like this film, think it's ok, but it could be better and there are some flaws, but it isn't the franchise/ childhood/ life destroyer the loud troll community characterize it as.

 

By the way, this audience reaction audio recording is more or less what I heard when I saw the movie my first time. Diggin' the non-hate vabe!

 

Didn't have a problem with that. Had a problem with her flying like Mary Poppins or Superman. Again, if she'd kinda semi-controlled fallen back to the cruiser, nobody would have had a problem with it.

The hyperspace ram was also ridiculous, as presented. Like I said, they should have had someone aboard the transport ask, "What is Holdo doing?" And Poe say, "She's spinning up the hyperdrive. She's going to try to ram them. That's crazy, that never works unless you get the timing..."

**BAM!** First Order ships get wrecked.

Cut to Leia, looking strained.

"Yes Poe, unless you get the timing just right...like when you took out every gun on that dreadnought."

Poe looks on in amazement.

 

Well, I didn't need the Holdo Maneuver explained through dialogue. I knew exactly what she intended to do before she did it. I haven't seen it in a long time, but one of the things that irked me about the climax of Batman Begins was the old man at the water control station or wherever he was, constantly reiterating The Stakes to the audience: "If that subway car with that bomb reaches this station, the whole place is going to EXPLODE!" I think he did that a couple of times. And as if that wasn't enough, when Batman thwarts Scarecrow and saves the day, that old man pretty much wipes his forehead and goes, "Whew!"

Moments like that, I think, underestimate the intelligence of the audience.

 

You’ve summed up my feelings towards the entire movie.