If you hated "The Last Jedi," you may not realize what "Star Wars" is all about.

Okay, let's get this out of the way first...this blog is chock-full of revealing spoilers about the latest episode in the Star Wars saga, Episode Eight: The Last Jedi, so if you haven't seen the movie and don't want a bunch of stuff revealed, please go away now and come back after you've seen it.

Don't say you weren't warned...

Okay, everyone good?

First of all, let's dispense with whether you loved the movie or hated it...we can have that argument another time, okay? What I want to talk about is what I think is at the root of the negative reaction to The Last Jedi and how we can better understand why Rian Johnson made the movie he did.

It's because he realizes what Star Wars is really all about in the same way that George Lucas did in his original vision. It's about the Skywalkers.

Specifically, Anakin Skywalker.

Even more specifically, Darth Vader.

Now, we didn't realize this in A New Hope" We thought it was about the Rebellion, and Luke and Leia, and Han Solo, rogue hero, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Jedi. Wrong. It was about Darth Vader, who wasn't even the prime antagonist of the movie...that goes to Grand Moff Tarkin. A New Hope introduces us to Darth Vader through his twin children.

We realized the fullness of the character of Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. One of the reasons ESB is so good is because it's a showcase for Vader, and he basically wins throughout the whole movie. The best scene in the entire film is unarguably this one:

The entire point of Return of the Jedi is Luke's conviction that somewhere inside Darth Vader, a small bit of Anakin Skywalker still lives, and he is willing to not only sacrifice himself but the entire Rebel Alliance to turn his father back into the light. Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker is the central character of the original trilogy.

However misbegotten George Lucas's prequel episodes might have been (and they were terrible movies for a variety of reasons), one fact is clear and indisputable: Episodes 1-3 are about how a young boy named Anakin Skywalker became a renegade Jedi Knight who turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith.

One of the reasons the prequels are mostly hated by those who saw the original trilogy is because it didn't live up to our expectations of what this story would be like. In a way, we made the same mistake with 1-3 that so many fans are making with The Last Jedi, and we let our expectations overwhelm the experience.

This doesn't mean that the prequels are good movies—they're not, and they fail on almost every level of filmmaking quality—but one thing I've seen as a college professor who teaches students young enough to be my own kids: those who love Star Wars saw the prequels when they were kids, and they really liked them...a lot.

So what does this have to do with The Last Jedi?

The third trilogy is about the same character that the first six episodes were about: Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. The only difference is that this time around, the focus is on Anakin's one and only grandson: Ben Solo/Kylo Ren.

Darth Kylo

Yep...the third triology is all about Kylo Ren. It's the inability to see this truth that has ignited all the fanboy butthurt about all their unrealized expectations about Rey's parents, Snoke's identity, Finn's romantic interest, Poe's sexuality, Han's death, Luke's self-imposed exile, and Leia's force powers. These are all interesting facts that serve as a mechanism to tell the story being told: it's all about Kylo Ren.

Rian Johnson gets it, and he made the movie that had to be made to drive this story forward. J.J. Abrams suffered unfair criticism for making The Force Awakens too much like A New Hope. This was intentional: he introduced new characters and brought back old, beloved characters in a way that setup the rise of our true central character.

We thought A New Hope was about Luke, Leia, and Han. It was really about Darth Vader. In the same way, we thought The Force Awakens was about Rey, Finn, and Poe. Wrong again...it's all about Kylo Ren. It was no accident that an actor of the skill and stature of Adam Driver was cast in this role; the filmmakers knew he would have to carry three movies, and it wouldn't be behind a mask the whole time.

The Last Jedi?

This is the root cause of the anger at what happens (and doesn't happen) in The Last Jedi. We thought it was about Rey, but it turns out that although she has incredibly strong Force powers, she's not a Skywalker or a Kenobi (maybe...). Who tells her who she really is? Kylo Ren. Who invites her to join him in creating an entirely new galactic order? Kylo Ren.

We thought the First Order was about Supreme Leader Snoke, who is clearly as much a master of the Dark Side of the Force as was Emperor Palpatine. However, he never realized how powerful Kylo Ren was. Snoke thought he was manipulating Kylo, while the whole time, Kylo was plotting his coup and his own rise to power as Supreme Leader. Kylo Ren is orders of magnitude more powerful, more clever, more cunning, and more adept than Snoke ever was. Who was Snoke? Who cares? The Supreme Leader is dead; long live the Supreme Leader.

Grumpy Old Jedi

We thought The Last Jedi was about Luke Skywalker, but it was really about how his inability to confront his nephew, Ben Solo, about how to properly deal with the seductive nature of the Dark Side led to the destruction of all his dreams of rebuilding the Jedi Order. I submit that Luke chose to die/disappear at the end to become a Force Ghost because he knows that as a human being, he could never defeat Kylo Ren face-to-face.

What Rian Johnson has done is give us a perfect set-up for the final film in this trilogy, and it's just as perfect that J.J. Abrams will be the director to bookend the first and third films around Johnson's bold work. The question for the third film is, "What's going to happen to Kylo Ren?" How will he rule the New Order? Will he be an evil dictator? (Signs point to yes...) But what if he was telling the truth to Rey about killing the past and starting something new?

And what if Rey's vision about Kylo turning back to the light was true and not a Snoke-induced hoax? What if the key to bringing balance to the Force and peace to the galaxy is Kylo and Rey together as co-leaders, just as he invited her to be? And if that doesn't fire your imagination enough, what if what the galaxy really needs is the end of the Skywalker family?

Because of Carrie Fisher's unfortunate death, we know Leia will not be in Episode Nine. Although I'm convinced Luke will appear as a Force Ghost, he's not reopening the Jedi Academy at any time in the future. What this leaves is Rey, The Last Jedi, confronting the grandson of Darth Vader in a once-and-for-all, winner-take-all Force battle the likes of which we've never seen.

When we realize that Kylo Ren is the central character of this third trilogy because he is the heir to Darth Vader, I think we will see that the movie Rian Johnson created is a work of sheer genius. Take Kylo at his word: "Let go of the past. Kill it if you have to." They did, and it was magnificent.