If what’s happening with recent Star Wars discussion can be called “The Skywalker Schism” – as posited by author Bill Bridges – I’m about to go full on Heresy here.
I think the Canto Bight sequences in TLJ are necessary because they not only fed into Finn’s journey from focused survivalist to declaring himself “rebel scum” but also shows us exactly why the New Republic failed. Let me talk about Finn, first.
Remember Finn from TFA was a focused survivalist. Once Poe apparently died, his mission was to get out of dodge and away from the oncoming storm of the First Order and it’s system killer. Only Rey gave him pause. By the end of TFA, his survival sphere expanded to Rey and Poe, but not to the Resistance as a whole. As far as he was concerned, the resistance was a futile effort. Even with Starkiller base gone, there was no way the Resistance would escape.
When he tried to jump ship, it was to make sure Rey didn’t fly back into a bloodbath. He told Poe and Rose to get out while they could. He accepted the mission with Rose because it provided a path for him to keep Rey safe. He was never in for the rebellion.
Then, Canto Bight. Canto Bight provided a vision of a world outside the First Order and the Resistance. To a soldier who’d never seen the outside of a Star Destroyer unless on deployment, this must have been heaven. But it’s heaven built on slavery, and torture (they shocked the farthiers!) and an Ayn Rand level of mercenary thinking. Everyone in Canto Bight used money to insulate themselves from the wars around them, and the suffering of others. They sat from the balconies and watched races, ignoring who tended to those farthiers.
DJ (Benicio Del Torro’s character) is a perfect example. He is not Han Solo 2.0. He’s a mercenary pure and simple, and sells out everyone for more money to buy a nice safe place while the wars go down. He takes advantage of folks with ‘true beliefs’ just as the First Order takes advantage of his skills.
But, during that trip, seeing Canto Bight through Rose’s eyes, seeing kids like he him – pressed into servitude – and the sacrifices others were willing to make, changed Finn. When he confronted Phasma, he proudly declared himself Rebel Scum (TM). And he went back to Crait, despite the desperate situation, when they could have gone most anywhere else. Now in, he’d sacrifice himself to keep the Resistance alive. That’s not the Finn we saw trying to get away from a fight. He confronted the First Order head on.
The second thing Canto Bight taught us is how the New Republic failed. From the Prequels (and especially the Clone Wars TV series) we saw how corrupt the Republic and the Jedi order became. The latter was so focused on maintaining their dogma, they violated the spirit upon which it was based. The former let slavery, private armies, bribery and other crimes go unchecked. They relied on the Jedi as peacekeepers and locals when Jedi couldn’t be there. There was no Republic agency fighting corruption and slavery, as far as I could see. When the Republic became the Empire, they just leaned into the corruption: Don’t rock the boat, and we’ll ensure you and yours don’t get touched.
When the New Republic came around, did they go after the collaborators? Apparently not. The same folks who were bankrolling the First Order were also supplying arms and services to the New Republic. My current screen crush, Cara Dune, noted the NR went from taking down Imperial warlords to making political concessions. Anyone expecting the folks who provided the Empire with Super Star Destroyers and profited handsomely to take a perp walk when the New Republic came in to power was surprised.
Unfortunately, it sent a very specific messages to the Canto Bight privileged: It doesn’t matter who’s in authority, because as long as you have money, you can buy safety. You control the guns and butter? You can dictate your terms. Seinar Fleet Systems produced ships for the Republic, then the Empire, then the New Republic and the First Order. All it needed to do was change it’s name to Seinar-Jaemus Fleet Systems.
So, the slavery continues. The war continues. And the people who profit from it continue to order small kids around, forcing them to clean up after their horses. In the shadows, though, the kids tell stories. Stories of someone who stood up and kept hope alive under impossible odds.
My only hope is after TRoS, the first thing they do is send Rose and Finn back to Canto Bight. With shock troopers, arrest warrants, and social teams to care for the slave families. Oh, and the kid? Someone get him a light saber.
End of Heresy.
Biomechanoid Blues 