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The Worst Character in The Last Jedi
I’m going to start this post with a spoiler alert. The Last Jedi came out a little over three months ago and most, if not all, people in America have seen it, but I’m still giving this warning.
I liked The Last Jedi. Yes, I thought it could have (and maybe should have) been a lot better, but when it’s all said and done, I liked the finished product.
I’ve seen it twice, and the attitude I have about it now is very different from the one I had after the first time I saw it. Before the premiere, I was expecting it to be more like The Force Awakens than the more comedic tone it ended up being. And while I had other problems with the movie than what I am about to discuss, this is one of the two biggest problems I had:
I hated the character of Rose.
I’m all for new characters when they’re cool or interesting or put the characters we already know in interesting new circumstances (unfortunately, there weren’t any of those in this movie). But Rose Tico just made things worse for me.
The first time we see her, she does one of the most predictable and cliché things that a character can do, which is just act as a plot device to get Finn in a new position. I wasn’t a fan of that story beat, but I was willing to give it a pass because I didn’t know what was going to happen next.
She then is a major part of the most boring and pretty useless part of the movie: Canto Bight, the casino planet. There is nothing specific that she does during this sequence, but it’s the thing that holds the story back from being really good overall.
What I think is truly unforgivable about her character is what she does on Crait. What is left of the Resistance is in a sort of base in the mountains. The First Order has a line of fighters ready to attack the base, including a cannon that will take down the front of the base. Finn then begins to fly his pod straight into the cannon to take it out and save everyone left in the base. But Rose selfishly flies her pod into his because she’s fallen in love with him throughout the movie… or something like that.
Rose explains her reasoning as, “We're going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love!” This line is a good sentiment in general, but it’s totally out of place in this situation. What she fails to realize is that Finn would have been saving what he loves by destroying the cannon. The Resistance would have had a much better chance to come up with some way of defeating the First Order, or at least escaping, with their front wall still up.
I know, you’re going to say, “But Luke showed up! He bought time until Rey could come save them!” Well, yes and no. No one on Crait had any idea that Luke was about to show up. In Finn’s mind, he was giving them just a little extra time to get out of the mountains somehow. But Rose completely jeopardized that. Had Luke not shown up, the walkers would have taken out whoever was left in the base, including Finn and Rose.
I didn’t want Finn to die. But when I saw him flying into the beam, I was genuinely getting emotional and thinking that he was going to sacrifice himself. I was thinking that it was a legitimately great and meaningful character arc for him to do so. Putting the ones you love before yourself in such an extreme way is the definition of being a hero for me. And that’s why I said it was selfish for Rose to do what she did. She put everyone’s lives at risk for what would have been a kiss and then death had Luke not shown up. Who’s the dummy now?
(Disclaimer: I know this all seemed very harsh. But I just have very strong feelings about how this specific character acts in such a crucial situation. I really did like this movie a lot and I’m looking forward to Episode 9 and watching this one many more times.)