I despise The Last Jedi, but I've come to appreciate how singularly destructive it truly was. Rian Johnson ripped down the foundations of the franchise in a way that didn't seem possible given the money and stakes involved. It's a perverse miracle that a filmmaker with that much disdain for the IP somehow ended up at the wheel. I don't think even Kathleen's most ardent feminist disciple could have done what Rian did. And now that I don't give two shits about Star Wars, I almost appreciate the man for opening my eyes.

To be clear: Rian could have delivered a bog standard sequel predictably following the threads established in TFA, and a lot of people would have been happier with that outcome. The soul of the franchise would still be dead at the hands of The Devil Mouse, but the corpse would've shambled on for another decade or so. Instead, TLJ straight murdered Star Wars in front of everybody. Maybe it was better that way.