Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Last Jedi .

A lot about Star Wars: The Terminal Jedi was kept under wraps, but one new grapheme who remained heavily shrouded in mystery was Benicio del Toro's DJ. We knew he was a hacker who was involved in Finn and Rose's mission on Canto Bight, simply that'southward nigh it. Early reviews compared the character to Lando considering of his heel plough, merely that'south a disservice to both Lando and DJ. It turns out that with DJ, writer-director Rian Johnson introduced one of the about effective villains in the Star Wars saga.

DJ isn't the about fearsome or most powerful bad guy in Star Wars history, simply he's one of the virtually effective because of how familiar he is. Normally, Star Wars goes for murderers and tyrants, people who are clearly on "The Dark Side." Even someone as tormented equally Kylo Ren is notwithstanding a murderer who has no qualms wiping out scores of people if it suits his ends. His emotions and motives may be complicated, but his deportment are adequately straightforward.

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Epitome via Lucasfilm

Compare that to DJ, whose duplicity is articulate—he sells out Finn and Rose when it becomes user-friendly—but whose amorality is fascinating. DJ is basically every person who doesn't vote because "Both sides are equally bad." His cynicism masquerades every bit wisdom, like when he points out to Finn that the transport they've stolen belongs to an arms dealer who supports both the Offset Society and the Resistance. For DJ, the lack of moral clarity in the globe ways he's immune to exercise whatever he wants, holding anybody else to unreachable standards and using their ain shortcomings as an alibi to enrich himself.

Virtually of united states will never encounter somebody like Kylo Ren or Darth Vader. We know people who are conflicted near their deportment, feel guilt and remorse, and wrestle with the possibility of modify, but if nosotros're lucky, we don't know mass murderers who serve as hatchet-men for evil regimes. Withal, I bet that most people know somebody similar DJ. It'south that person who is smug, arrogant, and cocky-serving, but lacks the backbone of their convictions to even acknowledge the repercussions of their ain actions. It's the person who says, "It's all relative," without acknowledging they just made an absolutist statement.

This makes DJ'south evil so much more than insidious, prevalent, and recognizable. He's not some cackling supervillain like Snoke or a tyrant similar Hux. DJ falls into a category that's far more familiar—the person who volition do what is easy rather than what'southward right, and so defend those actions by arguing for a moral relativism that since everyone is terrible, the best matter to practise is just look out for your own interests.

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Image via Lucasfilm, Empire

Every bit for the comparison betwixt DJ and Lando, it'south deeply flawed. Yes, both betray our heroes, but the context is completely different. Lando, who was in charge of Bespin, had to look out for the welfare of the entire city. He's basically given an incommunicable choice: betray his friends or risk the lives of all the innocent citizens. Additionally, once information technology goes wrong and Vader reneges on the deal, Lando tries to observe a style to aid Leia and Chewie. He has a moral compass, and at worst, you lot can argue he fabricated some poor choices.

But DJ doesn't have a moral compass. He uses the moral ambiguity of the surrounding world to facilitate his own deportment, so it's a culmination of beingness amoral, lazy, and arrogant. Even subsequently he's betrayed Rose and Finn and knows that his liberty and wealth come at the expense of their lives and the lives of the rebels, when asked past Finn if he thinks he'due south right, DJ just shrugs and says, "Maybe." He's even non-committal to his own actions.

I don't know if DJ volition return in Episode IX , simply I similar the idea of him simply vanishing off into the galaxy rather than trying to bring him down on the side of the Resistance or the Offset Gild. At that place volition e'er be people like DJ who detect a reason to support their ain greed and cowardice. A far more powerful message is that just because other people lack a moral compass, that doesn't mean we have to lose our own.

For more than onStar Wars: The Last Jedi, peruse our recent stories in the links beneath:

  • 'Rogue Ane' Has a Major 'The Terminal Jedi' Easter Egg
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  • 'Star Wars: The Terminal Jedi': Rian Johnson on [SPOILER]'s Cameo
  • 7 Spoilery Questions Nosotros Have Afterward 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'
  • 'Star Wars: The Final Jedi' and the Problem with Fan Theories
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Image via Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz
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