The Last Jedi Plot Hole That Fans Say Broke Star Wars Forever
Just like the truths that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that Star-Lord named his ship after actress Alyssa Milano, and that Kylo Ren's ultra-high-waisted pants will probably never catch on as the next hot fashion trend, it's an undeniable fact that not everyone loved Star Wars: The Last Jedi. When it launched in theaters in December of 2017, The Last Jedi seriously divided audiences, with disparaging viewers protesting and petitioning for Lucasfilm to remake the movie, raising hell on social media, and even taking things to the extreme by harassing some of the film's stars and letting them know just how much they despised Episode VIII.
Now, as we're nearing the one-year anniversary of the Rian Johnson-directed flick, an old complaint about The Last Jedi has resurfaced. But it's not just any old gripe — it's one that regards a plot hole that YouTuber Thor Skywalker claims "broke Star Wars forever."
The scene in question is the one in which Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) does something no character has ever even attempted to do in the history of Star Wars: she kicks General Leia Organa's (the late Carrie Fisher) ship, the MC85 Star Cruiser named the Raddus, into lightspeed and proceeds to drive it directly into Supreme Leader Snoke's (Andy Serkis) ship, the Mega-class Star Dreadnought called the Supremacy that served as the First Order's mobile headquarters.
Holdo's move was bold, but it allowed the Rebel Alliance members aboard the Raddus a narrow window of time to escape via orbital loadlifters (the "lifeboats" attached to the Raddus) before the First Order could track the Raddus through hyperspace.
Before this moment in The Last Jedi, fans had never seen a Star Wars character carry out a kamikaze attack. Once they did, well, it got the gears in their brains turning. Some franchise loyals, like Thor Skywalker, feel that the scene rips a huge hole in the Star Wars universe and pulverizes its standing logic to space dust.
Thor Skywalker argues that if Holdo could damage the Supremacy by jumping to lightspeed and crashing into it, the Rebels could have done the exact same thing to the Death Star in A New Hope. He further claims that the so-described "Holdo Maneuver" renders the Alliance's attack on the Death Star somewhat ineffective, since they could have easily created "a massive battle station" that could implement the same tactic Holdo used, one that also has "the ability to send or launch massive objects into hyperspace at planets or whatever else it might want to destroy."
"Why doesn't Holdo just put some droids on some transport ships and have them jumping into hyperspace at the First Order fleet? She apparently knew such an action would work so it doesn't make sense why she waited so long to employ it," he stated. "You can then go back to any battle in Star Wars history and wonder why the Holdo Maneuver wasn't used."
Thor Skywalker concluded, "There is a very good reason why The Last Jedi is the most scrutinized and seems to be the most hated. It seems to be the most reckless in terms of what it lets into the canon. It pulled apart, or broke, the rest of Star Wars by introducing things that makes us question everything that comes before it."
We can certainly see where Thor Skywalker is coming from in his arguments, as it's hard not to find validity in the idea that the Rebels could have done in A New Hope what Holdo did in The Last Jedi. However, the Rebels didn't have to do that. They already had a plan in place that wasn't reliant on countless Rebels dying in a suicide-bombing — and avoiding needless deaths is always going to be win in our book. (As it should be in everyone's.)
While this moment does signify a logical error in the Star Wars universe, to call it a franchise-breaking plot hole seems hyperbolic. To some fans, not even just the ones who hated everything Johnson did with The Last Jedi and claimed that the film "ruined" Star Wars for them, the "Holdo Maneuver" truly has put an irreversible dent in the series. To others, maybe those who enjoyed The Last Jedi or ones who are simply willing and able to look past plot holes, this might not be all that big of a deal.
Conflicting opinions about whether or not The Last Jedi broke Star Wars aside, writer-director J.J. Abrams must keep the franchise afloat with Episode IX, set for release on December 20, 2019. For the sake of his sanity and for the satisfaction of fans everywhere, we hope the choices Abrams made in Episode IX are less schismatic than this one here.