'The Last Jedi' director offers perfect response to critics of the movie's ending

And he didn't even have to type a single word.
 By 
Marcus Gilmer
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Consider yourself warned if you haven't seen The Last Jedi yet: there are spoilers within.

Cranky Star Wars fans, Rian Johnson has had enough of your guff.

The director of The Last Jedi took to Twitter on Friday to clap back at fans who are furious at the trick Luke Skywalker pulls on Kylo Ren in the movie's climactic fight scene on the planet Crait.

During that battle, Kylo confronts what turns out to be a Force projection of Luke. The real deal is actually back on Ahch-To. A younger-looking Luke (with his old-school blue lightsaber -- a major clue!) puts Kylo through the emotional ringer before blowing his mind by peacing out into thin air.

That moment didn't sit well with some fans -- shocking, we know. A common complaint: that that there was no foreshadowing. We should have been told Force projection was a thing the Jedi could do. Even though Kylo and Rey had basically been doing it to each other throughout the movie. But never mind that! Rian Johnson killed Star Wars!

Johnson responded to the critics with what may be one of the great Twitter threads of all time. Without typing a word, he pointed out that the power Luke used was clearly flagged in a 2011 book called The Jedi Path. (via Twitter Moments).

The haters didn't give up that easily, however. Some others pointed out to Johnson that The Jedi Path was one of the books wiped out of canon after Disney purchased Lucasfilm and thus shouldn't be admissible as evidence, or something.

Never mind that Lucasfilm made it clear at the time they'd reuse parts of the old book canon whenever it made sense for the story: "Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe," the company wrote.

Johnson also reminded his critics of the Force connection between Luke and Leia at the end of The Empire Strikes Back -- the point being another (less controversial) aspect of the Force was revealed with zero foreshadowing.

Johnson didn't have to reach back this far -- but as supportive fans pointed out, there's even a similar kind of resolution at the end of the original Star Wars.

At the end of the day, however, there's not much you can say to The Last Jedi haters. If you can't accept Force Hologram Luke but are totally cool with Force ghosts, Force lightning and physically impossible laser swords, evidence and logic may not bring you around.

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Marcus Gilmer

Marcus Gilmer is Mashable's Assistant Real-Times News Editor on the West Coast, reporting on breaking news from his location in San Francisco. An Alabama native, Marcus earned his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in Communications from the University of New Orleans. Marcus has previously worked for Chicagoist, The A.V. Club, the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

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