Entertainment

Now Someone Made A 'Last Jedi' Edit Without Men — And It Reveals Something Integral To The Film

by Taylor Ferber

An anonymous, brave soul on the internet recut Star Wars: The Last Jedi without men. But the mystery editor didn't make the "De-Meninized Fanedit" for no good reason. On Jan. 14, men's rights activists anonymously uploaded a "De-Feminized" version of The Last Jedi on the internet, editing out all parts of the two-and-a-half-hour film that aren't centered around men. In their words, it's Last Jedi "minus Girlz Powah and other silly stuff." (Yeah, people actually took time out of their day for this.) But what started as a rebuttal to the ridiculous, female-less fan edit actually ended in some big takeaways.

The man-less version in its entirety isn't uploaded, because as the editor puts it, "Disney's lawyers would find a way to sue for custody of [their] future children." Touché. But they give enough details for people to envision the full picture, and those details lead to some important lessons. For one, there's the run time. The edit without women is 46 minutes long, while the version without men is only 36 minutes. What does this actually mean?

As the editor puts it, it means women get shiz done and they do it with efficiency. The anonymous user says this is "a testament to how women get things done faster." It also goes without jibber jabber between the male roles and "does substantially cut down on characters whining about not getting their way," according to the editor. Boom.

Another important takeaway is what the film is actually like without men verses without women. According to the fan editor, the "De-Feminized" version is "long and nearly incomprehensible," while theirs actually makes for a decent story. Between major players like Rey (Daisy Ridley), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern), this Star Wars installment really couldn't exist without females at all, proving how crucial they are to the film.

"Women are so vital to The Last Jedi that you could probably remove all the men and still have a functioning, dare I say exciting story," the editor wrote. Meanwhile, the creators of the version without females even admitted that theirs didn't really make sense. "It has issues. But it had to be done," they said, admitting it's "far from perfect."

On dorkly.com, the editor explains how challenging it was to remove the women and all of the small details it required to do so. One edit included taking out General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) as the co-leader of the First Order and making it the one woman on the ship instead (until, of course, Captain Phasma shows up in the end). Another meant cutting out Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) entirely, which ended up being fine because Rey trained herself on the island anyway.

But why on earth was a female-less version made in the first place? Here's part of the mind-numbing explanation from the people who created it:

"It can now at least be viewed without feeling nauseaus [sic] about most of the terrible big and small decisions they made in this film. Also, at least the intro sequence is now very watchable and actually much cooler without all of Leia’s nitpicking... [it's] much more satisfying to watch."

They further explained what they cut, including "most shots showing female fighters/pilots and female officers commanding people around/having ideas" and "NO HALDO! [sic] She simply doesn't exist." Leia also can't "demote" Poe, according to them, because he's a "respected" man of the Resistance.

Thankfully, the cast didn't even entertain this madness, as insulting as it is. This was director Rian Johnson's input:

And Mark Hamill added this:

And let's not forget actor John Boyega's two cents:

Yup, that all seems about right and the latest cut highlighting the crucial female characters in Star Wars proves just that. Star Wars without them not only wouldn't make sense, but it wouldn't exist at all.