One thing I love about The Last Jedi was how much the symbolic imagery told its own story. The writing/direction/set design were all so carefully curated and layered. Especially how they handled Rey’s coming-of-age and her journey of self discovery/exploring her own sexuality.

I mean, this shot alone would make Georgia O’Keefe proud. And the island itself is teeming with symbolically female elements—eggs, nests, water, only female inhabitants...

“I was cleaning my blaster and if went off” is that what the kids are calling it?Especially when she could have easily told Luke what really happened and asked how to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. But no. He’s her secret.

Yes even the green milk scene is to show Rey’s initial discomfort with her sexuality. There’s a reason the Tala Siren’s “breasts” look the way they do...they could have easily made them look more like a cow udder... but no. We get two pairs of boobs. Being milked.

And I’m just going leave this here:

Nothing to see here, just another womb, complete with an almost fetus-looking symbol with its head pointing towards the yonic opening.

And Rey being immediately drawn to the dark, (remind me which character is the stand-in for the darkside ) getting *soaked* with water coming out of the definitely-not-suggestive hole for....uh reasons, and being immediately shamed for it right after by Luke

Symbolism is how you get away with Kylo wiping Rey’s “rain” off of his mouth—not his forehead or cheek or shoulder mind you—his mouth. In a Disney movie. For kids.

I mean...immediately after seeing Kylo shirtless and getting all kinds of flustered by it—no one blames you Rey—she literally falls headfirst into a yonic cave (complete with real subtle hairy seaweed) and again gets soaking *wet*

Getting caught with a boy in your room is basically a pubescent rite of passage. The subtext of him eagerly taking off his glove, the raging storm (hormones) outside, her initiating the contact (consent), and her getting pissed off after the interruption, just screams teenager

And of course, following up with the slut shaming “you opened yourself [legs] to the dark side for a pair of pretty eyes”. I know the line was cut but sadly, shame is another very relatable experience for girls coming into their own sexuality

And who can’t relate to thinking they know better than their parent/guardian and rushing off to their bad boy bf who will definitely change his ways for you girl How anyone can say Rey didn’t fail in this movie is...about as dumb as still thinking she and Kylo are related

What’s that? Yoda burning down the phallic force tree? Nothing more significant to that imagery I’m sure.

She has literally ‘let her hair down’ to go see him. And put on new clothes. And arrives in a very glass coffin-looking escape pod, nothing symbolically fairytale about that...

*stares directly at the camera*

The ying yang here isn’t even subtle, but it’s beautifully symbolic to the SW lore and speaks to the ying yang symbol from the Jedi temple earlier

All of the sexual symbolism in the throne room is enough to warrant its own thread, so let’s just show a picture of Kylo’s lightsaber with definitely-not-a-vein running down the side, and leave it at that...

And bravo to Lucasfilm for having Rey turn him down after that idiot yelled at her and called her nothing, and gave her an impossible non-choice, even though he also offered her the galaxy and stuff...

...And for showing that people don’t make one good choice and automatically change. It takes time. And he’s going to need to do a hellava lot more then kill Snoke to atone for the crap he’s done and try to be worthy to even breathe the same air as Rey, let alone *be with her*

But the symbolism of this scene, true equals, is beautiful and powerful too. And the Skywalker saber may as well be Kylo’s heart—just totally belongs to Rey after that moment in TFA, and now just completely ripped in half after TLJ

Ahhhh Crait. Not just visually stunning, but so symbolically significant. The red minerals as an obvious stand-in for the bloodshed of war

And Luke walking out of yet another yonic opening—symbolizing the rebirth of the legend of Luke Skywalker. Triumphant and—quite literally in that moment—untouchable.

He and Kylo standing over the completely ravaged, gaping “wound” between them to symbolize what happened. And as Luke apologizes and let’s Kylo takeout his frustrations and get it out of his system, the salt—symbolic of healing—rains down and covers that wound. It’s just

Anyway, the fact that a certain crowd were so *triggered* by the Last Jedi, a film rife with blatant sexual female imagery, will never not be funny

This is a much more eloquent and in-depth look at a lot of these same themes, written by @lindseyromain especially how it’s all ties back to Campbell, George Lucas’s lodestar for SW
https://medium.com/@lindseyj.romain/in-star-wars-the-last-jedi-female-desire-is-a-force-to-be-reckoned-with-e2b8341d3150

It may be years later but.......*ahem*

VINDICATION!!!!! https://twitter.com/rianjohnson/status/1323656040135548928