Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has defended the blockbuster film in a social media debate with fans.
The filmmaker has not shied away from responding to criticism over the latest movie in the Star Wars franchise and hit back at scrutiny over a scene involving Luke Skywalker using his Jedi power to trick Kylo Ren.
Mark Hamill’s Skywalker fools Kylo into thinking he is present for a big fight but is actually projecting himself there from another planet.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) January 19, 2018
Johnson offered evidence of where he had got the idea from as he posted a photo of the Star Wars The Jedi Path book and highlighted a section which states a Jedi can create a doppelganger that allows them to “create short lived duplicate of him or herself or an external object that is visually indistinguishable from the real item”.
It continues: “Those who have perfected this ability can create phantoms of any person of their choosing or trick an enemy into seeing more objects such as droids than are actually present.”
I never really understood the complaint – can you articulate it for me? Is it just that Leia shouldn’t be able to use the force?
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) January 19, 2018
Fans then began to criticise another scene involving Carrie Fisher’s General Leia, questioning how she had managed to demonstrate her use of the Force by flying back onto her space ship after the resistance vessel was targeted by the First Order.
User @HackswithHaggs hit out at the scene, writing: “The visual of her flying Mary Poppins-style & banging on window to be let back in hit me as more absurd than emotional. I just didn’t connect w/it.”
Thanks for your response. I thought about that, but then I also thought about the what kind of physical torment that being in the cold vacuum of space would do when you're trying to channel the force? How could she focus to do that much with little to no training?
— Aaron (@achisling) January 19, 2018
Another user, @achisling, questioned how Leia was able to use the force due to a lack of training.
He wrote: “How could she focus to do that much with little to no training?,” to which Johnson replied: “Cause she’s a badass muthafucka”.
The director added the back-and-forths were like being “back in the playground debating with friends about SW”.