'The Last Jedi' vs. 'Black Panther': Why Diversity Isn't Why People Hate 'The Last Jedi'

It’s been six months since the release of The Last Jedi, and it continues to be the most REVILED movie in the Star Wars Franchise. With a lower audience score than Attack of The Clones on Rotten Tomatoes, it has even caused people to demand for it to be rewritten. People believe that cause for such hatred is because white male fanboys don’t like the diverse direction the franchise has taken. While I can agree on some cases like the recent racist attacks on actress Kelly Marie Tran, I don’t believe this revulsion to diversity is completely to blame as to why people hate this movie.

I can say I am one of the people who cheers on diversity in media, but I hated The Last Jedi so much that I cringe knowing that this was the last movie we will ever see the Great Carrie Fisher as Leia. I hated the movie because the plot was so inconsistent and terrible, it ruins the magic The Force Awakens brought two years prior. And I am not the only one who feels this way. But I feel like word of mouth isn’t going to sway the argument…so I give you clear evidence with a movie that came out a mere two months later called Black Panther.

Black Panther was a history maker. Not only was it the first superhero movie to feature a predominantly black cast, broke more movie records than god knows what, but it remains a consistent favorite among the fandom. So why is Black Panther more beloved by audiences than its somewhat as diverse counterpart The Last Jedi? Well there were some plot points that worked in Black Panther that didn’t work in The Last Jedi.

1) Keeping the Character Arcs Consistent

One of the things that absolutely pissed me—and many other fans, especially the fans who joined Star Wars upon the reboot—off was the absolute assassination of some of the characters we loved. Many talk about Luke, but I am going to talk about Finn. One of the things I love about Finn is his character arc in The Force Awakens. He literally went from someone who wanted to run as far the fuck away from the battle to willing to fight Kylo Ren to save Rey, a woman he only knew for one day. In The Last Jedi, we see him once again as the person who wanted to run away, completely forgetting that just one week ago he was willing to fight and save his friends. It completely renders Finn’s hero journey in The Force Awakens useless.

Black Panther, however, managed to succeed in keeping T’challa’s arc from Civil War in tact. In Civil War, we see T’challa go from someone who was willing to destroy Bucky Barnes out of revenge to his father, to showing mercy and kindness to not only Bucky Barnes, but to the real murderer of T’challa’s father, T’chaka. It shows that T’challa is the type of man to forgive even the worst of people who wronged him. This important trait continues to show not only once, but twice in the movie. First we see it with M’Baku at the beginning of the movie. T’challa could have used the advantage to kill M’Baku, but realizing the Jabari tribe needed their leader, T’challa begged for M’Baku to yield in their battle, which M’Baku eventually did (Later, a grateful M’Baku would save T’challa’s life and become an ally). Second we see this at the end of the movie. T’challa was willing to forgive and help a wounded and dying Erik Killmonger, even bringing him out to see the Wakandan Sunset. This was all after the latter almost killed him and took over his kingdom. The fact that the writers of Black Panther were able to keep this important trait made fans fall further in love with T’challa.

2) Having a Dynamic Villain That Has a Reason to Be Redeemed

Don’t get me wrong: I love my garbage son Kylo Ren more than the next woman, but he has done nothing thus far to deserve a redemption. He stabbed his father, Han Solo (who I think is still alive, but that’s a blog for another day), he mind raped Rey, he almost killed Finn, he murdered a bunch of kids, and he basically destroyed everything his parents fought for. Rian Johnson made a rather poor effort to get us sympathy for Kylo. Not only did Kylo continue to be evil, when he had every opportunity to turn to good when he killed Snoke, but he continued to cause war and destruction towards the end of the movie. So basically, this “there's still good in you" arc just proved nothing other than….Kylo is still evil, making him—unfortunately—a poorly written villain.

Erik Killmonger, on the other hand, I was surprisingly rooting to be redeemed. He did not have the best life. He watched the injustices the people of his skin color were put through. He found his father, whom he loved dearly, MURDERED in his apartment. All of which caused nothing but hate in his heart. As I learned more about Erik, I couldn’t help but feel absolutely sorry for him. It was why the idea of, “Well there is a possibility this evil man could be a good guy after all” worked so much better in this movie than it did in The Last Jedi. Erik became a villain because he faced so much trauma and therefore had hate in his heart. Kylo is just angry now for the sake of being angry.

3) A Believable Romantic Arc

From the very beginning, we see the love and chemistry between Nakia and T’challa. Despite the fact it was implied they broke up previously, it was clear they cared for each other. T’challa was rendered speechless when he saw her, and Nakia was willing to be at his side after the death of T’challa’s father. Furthermore, throughout the movie, we see T’challa and Nakia working together, having important discussions….T’challa even respects what his old flame has to say. Never once does Nakia lose her agency like Rey does, and in fact, unlike most love interests, is able to develop her own storyline. It shows not only health in the relationship, but shows that a woman can be a love interest but have a good story to go with it. It was why between The Last Jedi and Black Panther, the main romance was more believable in Black Panther.

4) Intersectional Feminism vs. White Feminism

It is important we have feminist movies; however, when the feminist character, especially a white one, degrades a character of color, then a diverse movie has no meaning. This is the case with The Last Jedi. A big example of white feminism hindering a character of color is the case between Poe Dameon and Amilyn Holdo. When Amilyn came to power briefly while Leia was unconscious, Poe, a respectable Captain played by Latino actor Oscar Isaac, she literally villainized and degraded Poe every time he asked a question about her plan….which was a bad one in the first place. It made Poe go from the big hero from The Force Awakens to a man who looked like some disrespectful chauvinistic male with a stereotype harmful for latino men. It not only takes away Poe’s power, but it defeats the purpose of a diverse movie by having a white woman literally bully a man of color and then get away with it and even let them take the fall for their shitty actions.

Is the Black Panther a true intersectional movie? Unfortunately no; HOWEVER, with the many harmful stereotypes black women had to face in media over the years, it’s better than most movies out there when it comes to the feminist idea. Black Panther is literally one of the first action movies that gives a fair amount of development between the multitude of female characters by not only showing their strengths, but their weaknesses too. Nakia is a very caring and very brave woman, but at times, her empathy could cause her to break. Shuri is very smart and funny, but after losing her father, she is afraid to lose her brother too. Okoye is fierce, loyal, and could probably rip your head off, but there are times where she is sad, and she is scared, and not all women are made of vibranium. While this is happening, not one of the black male leads (and yes, black men don’t have it easy in media too) are degraded to the lead female’s expense (though Shuri does make a few jokes at T’challa’s expense but what sibling doesn’t?). Thus, this movie does more to prove the main aim of intersectional feminism than The Last Jedi, which is supposedly a SJW mess failed to do.

And finally, the last point:

5) The Director Effectively Keeping His/Her Own Spin to the Movie While Keeping to the Source Material

Rian Johnson made it clear from the beginning that he did not stick to the source material. He wrote his own script, took his own spin, and Kathleen Kennedy did not give any restriction to him. What resulted as movie that did not make any sense, ugly flying bird creatures, hand touching which Rian Johnson thinks is sex, projecting themselves across space just…a miss. Okay, while I do admit I am one of the few people who did love the quote unquote Leia Poppins Scene, it seemed like he was trying to make a movie like Pacific Rim but threw in already made characters to make this a weird AU fusion. Had Rian stuck to the source material, kept Luke the way he was, had a big lightsaber battle, had less emphasis on the Porgs, this movie would have made sense. Instead, I got almost three hours of a really bad fan fiction of "My Immortal" proportions played before my very eyes. And the fact I loved Solo more because it stuck to what I loved about Star Wars is really telling.

Ryan Coogler did take his own spin. He took traditions from various cultures to form the culture of Wakanda. M’Baku became T’Challa’s ally rather than his lifelong nemisis, Hell, he even added a deeper connection between T’challa and Killmonger by making them cousins. Despite this, he kept the spirit and excitement to Black Panther, and brought it to the screen. Because Ryan added his own creativity while keeping true to the source material, it pleased not only the fans of Marvel, but even made fans, including myself, included in reading the source material. In the end, it’s not about how many special effects, the aesthetics, it’s about keeping the spirit that made the fans enjoy the characters in the first place.

In conclusion, the fact between these two diverse movies: only one was beloved by fans, while the other people want to rip from the narrative like that bad season of their favorite tv show, shows that this fear of diversity isn’t always to blame here. You need a good story in order to make it work, which is why Black Panther was beloved by longtime fans of Marvel while The Last Jedi is so controversial.

Now, if you are one of those people before reading this article who had this idea that people don’t want diversity is to blame as to why The Last Jedi is hated: if I convinced you, awesome, now you can be a bit more sympathetic. If not…well, at least I tried.