*This article contains minor spoilers*

Criticism for "The Last Jedi," the newest entry into the main Star Wars story, is a bit sporadic. Some fans didn't like the direction that was taken for Luke's character, others felt that Disney's brand of humor was misplaced and a few people were disappointed with Snoke's death as the mystery behind him just dissipated. Personally, none of these aspects of the film bothered me. Luke's progression seemed natural and paralleled Yoda's character from "The Empire Strikes Back;" aside from Poe taunting General Hux in the opening scene, the humor didn't really stick out to me; and Snoke was simply a placeholder for Kylo Ren to take over as supreme leader. One main critique that we can all agree on, however, is the atrocity of the Canto Bight subplot that could've easily spared us about thirty minutes of the film's 2 hr. 33 minute run-time (the longest out of all of the Star Wars movies). The purpose of this article isn't to point out every flaw with the side quest. Rather, it is to provide a hypothetical solution that could have made it somewhat redeeming.

Writer and director Rian Johnson, who I felt did a superb job of directing some beautiful fight sequences (the Kylo Ren-Rey team-up against the royal guards and the salt scene with Luke facing off against Kylo Ren), really wrote himself into a hole when it came to incorporating Finn, and the new character Rose, into the story line of disabling The New Order's tracking device. One of my favorite YouTubers, Cr1tical, made a good point in his "Moist Meter" review of the film. The whole side quest could've been avoided if Vice Admiral Holdo just revealed her true plan to Poe. While I agree that this would have been a logical move, the conflict between Poe and Holdo was essential to Poe's growth as a character, which leads to him making the right decision later on and helping the Resistance escape the First Order on Crait.

This is where the unavoidable problem lies. Finn and Rose are tasked with finding this hacker to help disable the tracking device on the planet Canto Bight, which is ran by the elite and wealthy, and ultimately recruit a completely different guy as the code breaker, who ends up revealing the Resistance's plans to the First Order. Considering that Poe's plan of disabling this tracking device was really just an exercise in learning to be rational and hear others out, finding the hacker was just a distraction for the viewers that led nowhere but an eventual Poe v. Captain Phasma fight that was a waste of an interesting villain. Seriously, part of me wanted Phasma to win.

Now you may be wondering, what could have redeemed this disaster of a subplot? The answer lies in the scene where Finn is about to sacrifice himself to take out the First Order's cannon. Rose saving him from the suicide run was a major cop-out and the kiss was awkward and unwarranted. What would have been satisfying, however, would've been if Rose sacrificed herself to take out the cannon.

Think back to the opening scene of the film, where Rose's sister sacrificed herself by releasing the bombs on the imperial ship. Her sister was a huge part of Rose's life, as we are shown the other half of the moon necklace throughout the film. By sacrificing herself, she would have progressed from being "just a mechanic" to being a hero like her sister. If the movie played out like this, and Rose's character was developed a little better on Canto Bight, I would've forgiven the pointlessness of the side quest and saw it as a means to develop a character arc. Rose was not interesting enough to stick around, but I could've respected her as a brave heroine, like Jyn Erso from "Rogue One." Even Finn sacrificing himself would've been better than what we got. My fear going into Episode IX is that we're going to get a weird love triangle between Rose, Finn, and Rey (although I'm shipping Rey and Poe for some reason).

What do you guys think? If Rose sacrificed herself for the Resistance, would you have been a little more forgiving of the Canto Bight subplot? Let me know in the comments.