Ever since the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi last December, there has been an unfortunate rise on social media of people I refer to as U.P.Hs (ultra passionate haters). You know the ones I mean: those who take it upon themselves to comment on every single Star Wars social media post, whining about how The Last Jedi ruined not only the whole saga, but often said people’s lives and, most prominently said: ruined the character of Luke Skywalker.
First let’s start with the nonsense of “it ruined the whole franchise.” One movie does not destroy everything people enjoy about the rest of a franchise. You can dislike a movie in one franchise, but that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the other entries in the franchise.
Take the Halloween series for example: I can’t stand Halloween: Resurrection to the point that I’ve never truly seen it in its entirety (I stopped watching after Laurie Strode was killed off — luckily she’s coming back next month for the new film). But, did Resurrection destroy my love of other films in the Halloween franchise? Absolutely not.
In addition, when the prequels were released, many fans complained about their inferiority to the original trilogy. Nevertheless, did those fans claim Star Wars was ruined? Unfortunately, yes some did, even going so far to say The Phantom Menace “ruined their childhood” despite the fact that their childhoods had long since passed. But the majority of fans, while disappointed in the prequels, still enjoyed the prequel trilogy and I would argue most (myself included) still enjoy them for what they are, and can choose to ignore the parts we don’t like — Jar Jar being the most obvious — while enjoying what the story of the prequels brings to the series.
As for Luke Skywalker’s character being ruined, it was not. In fact, his flaws and failures (two normal human characteristics, I might add) showed a deeper side to Luke than what the U.P.Hs want him to look like. In their mind, Luke has to be consummate good guy, who saved the galaxy and helped rebuild the Jedi Order, no problem.
In reality, what Rian Johnson did was show a flawed human being blaming himself for his failures, as most people often do. There are two major reasons Luke’s character in The Last Jedi worked.
Humans are complex beings with constant changes to their worldview
While it may be easy to assume Luke Skywalker would be the same person he was in the original trilogy, it’s wrong to make that assumption.
Think about it: 30 years have passed since Return of the Jedi when The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi take place. A whole myriad of things have happened since then: the end of the Empire, the building of the New Republic, readjusting to life without a galactic civil war, etc. It makes since that Luke’s worldview, like most other humans, would have changed over time.
Use yourself as an example. Are you 100 percent the same person you were a year ago? Two years ago? Five years ago? Ten years ago? No, you are not. People change over time and their worldview changes over time as they learn more about life. So why do people expect Luke Skywalker to be the exact same person he was 30 years before he is found on Ahch-To?
His rush to eliminate the threat Ben Solo posed passed in an instant
One simply has to listen to the dialogue spoken by Luke when he finally reveals to Rey what happened the night Ben Solo became Kylo Ren.
He says that he was prepared to defeat the threat before it came true: “In the briefest moment, pure instinct, I thought I could stop it.”
But then: “It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame and the consequence. And the last thing I saw was the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him.”
While Luke could sense the potential for a repeat in history (his father turning to the Dark Side, destroying the Jedi Order, helping start the tyrannical Empire) and for a brief moment considered killing his nephew in order to stop it, he stopped himself. He was driven purely by instinct, a natural human condition. But when he came to his senses, he realized how horrible his decision would have been and recognized his failure in not trying to understand his nephew. It is that which caused him to go into Exile and give up passing on his knowledge.
In the end, Luke was portrayed as a human being in The Last Jedi. I think people weren’t prepared for that, which caused them to lash out in anger and claim Luke Skywalker and the franchise is “ruined.” But that is far from true. The Last Jedi took some big risks, especially in humanizing one of the great heroes of the franchise.
The film showed Luke as a flawed human, whose failures caused him a great deal of pain and remorse. But, as Master Yoda told Luke in the film: “The greatest teacher, failure is.”
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