WHY WE NEED LUKE SKYWALKER
There is a story, that was told a long time ago, from a galaxy far far away, about a young boy,
a farmer actually, that lost everything, was knocked down, and doubted himself, but found the
courage to stand up to his enemies, to his father even, and rose beyond his doubts, his fears,
and even his inabilities. And with the help of his friends, this young boy toppled an empire.
He inspired boys and girls, men and women alike to do what was right, no matter how hard it was.
For decades, Luke Skywalker was the embodiment of hope, of good, and of bravery.
That is until these three came out of nowhere, stabbed in the back, marooned him on a windy a—
island, and undid all of his work…. oh yeah and handed all the credit to the new kid in town.
This is not going to go the way you think!
They did warn us.
When the Last Jedi came out in 2017, fans were on the edge their seats,
waiting to see the resolution to this literal cliff hanger. Their hero had
returned to the big screen after decades, and fans were excited to see what he had done,
and how he had evolved from a young warrior to hopefully a sage master.
AND BAM!
He threw away his light saber
Let’s pause right here and talk about the rise of subverting expectations and how Game of Thrones
has changed story telling. You see when Ned Stark’s head was unexpectedly parted from the rest
of him, the shock waves were intense. Things did not go the way we thought they were going to go.
Seeing the immense popularity of the show, it’s as if writers everywhere
have learned just the one particular lesson for the reason for its success,
and now try to replicate it wherever and whenever possible.
You see, we are in the time of so much media competing for our ever shortening
attention spans. And writers are swapping out good story telling for large blasts,
giant secret fleets, nostalgia, and, of course, subverting expectations.
Because a surprised audience is a happy audience.
But surprise does not equal good. And more importantly,
surprise does not equal good story telling.
When Rian Johnson shared the reason behind the complete destruction of everything that was
Luke Skywalker, Rian said that he wanted to create something that was surprising.
Well he did that!
Let’s look at what’s happened to Luke as a result. Because he’s somehow gone from this to this.
Gone from someone who risked everything, even his training to help his friends,
who faced up to one of the worst villains of all time, barely prepared,
so underprepared in fact that he lost his hand, and almost fell off the face of the planet.
Despite the intense loss, despite finding out the worst guy ever was his dad,
in the next movie, we see him take on even more responsibility,
to protect his friends, his sisters, and face his father.
But somehow, this man went from being the ultimate hero to someone convinced of his own irrelevance.
So much so in fact that he needed to go extinct. He thinks that it’s arrogant to
assume that only the Jedi can solve the problems plaguing the world. And
it’s time for the Jedi to end so the world can be at peace again.
And just like Luke Skywalker was passing up any sense of responsibility. He cut himself
off from the force, which is basically the modern equivalent of turning off your phone,
locking yourself in your room and listening to linkin park.
And it does feel like he’s regressed,
like instead of getting wiser his world view has become narrow and stale and immature.
Don’t get me wrong,
heroes do get toppled. That’s what we see happen to Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight.
“You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain”
And maybe this is what Rian johnson was trying to show us. that any idealistic hero can fall,
can forget their way, can suffer enough defeats that they are forever changed and broken.
While that might be realistic or in someways even surprising to see happen to Luke Skywalker,
my question to you is it is necessary? Is it worth it to destroy one of the greatest
heroes of all time, undo his legacy, and let him fade into nothingness as a complete failure?
I think this is the representation of what the new generations think of the old. That these older
people with all this power, created problems like racism, and sexism, and climate change,
and now they’re unable or more likely unwilling to solve them, except for the women, I guess.
Luke Skywalker has gotten the full treatment
of political and social commentary that seeps into and corrupts every story these days.
Hence, Rey is here to show him the light, to show him how to be a young hopeful Jedi again. And she
inspires him into his final showdown, that ends up protecting the rebellion
and killing Luke. But not before he gets a couple below the belt shots in at his nephew.
Geez seriously who is this guy.
What a sad end to one of the greatest heroes.
And we haven’t even talked about how in the next movie,
Anakin’s and his victory over the dark side was completely undone.
That Palpatine was resurrected, so Rey could have her moment in the sun.
So not only is Luke a failure, he was never a hero in the first place.
My entire issue with this is that in order for women to stand up,
men need to be torn down, that a power vacuum needs to created in order for a woman to step up.
So fans of luke Skywalker, had their hero wrenched away from them, his life story
unfavorably re-written and then the fans are labelled as sexist and bigoted for hating it.
Was there a better way to do this? To introduce Rey, and build her up as the
next generation of Jedi, and still keep Luke true to his character. YES absolutely YES!
Instead of making Luke’s entire life a failure, what if Luke is working towards the next evolution
of the Jedi. Having seen Kylo fall to the dark side, he realizes that the Jedi need to evolve
beyond the battle between good and evil, but he’s stuck. And meeting Rey is what
sparks the final evolution. That while he trains Rey, he once again experiences the
existence of a young warrior, unfettered by the world, and is just potential and hope.
Something he hasn’t felt for a long time since he’s been weighed down by experience and loss.
This could have been the perfect meeting of pure potential and distilled wisdom, and the two
could have moved the story forward, into its next iteration, but instead, they burned it all down.
You know even though I didn’t like the Last Jeid,
I liked that Rain Johnson was trying to drive home the point that greatness can
exist even if you come from nothing, that it’s not your lineage that gives you your potential.
But hand in hand with this is his motto of “Let the past die”
as he makes Kylo remind us, “kill it if you have to.”
And that is exactly what Rian does.
The problem with this thinking is that a lot of who we are is actually created and
made possible by the past. Our abilities, our wisdom is built on the foundations of
centuries, and generations of the people that have come before us.
And maybe this is very obvious to say, but the world we know today
would not exist if millions/billions of people didn’t fight the wars that needed to be fought,
and laid down the foundations for the buildings that needed to go up,
and create this infrastructure where we can wake up everyday and go to work,
or call our friends, or start our businesses, or just do whatever we want.
My point is that we are right now, and always will be benefiting from the work done by generations of
people that came before us, and our work with benefit the people that come after.
So you might ask, why do people want to burn the past? Why do we need to kill it?
Well, I think it’s fair to say that lately general criticism of every f—ing thing, has become
the national pastime. From cancel culture, to political correctness, many people are making it
their profession to either be disgusted, offended, critical or simply just done with the past!
But burning everything down, bringing down statues, burning flags, destroying old heroes,
is like throwing out the baby with the bath water. And it does not take in to
consideration all the good things that the past has created and made possible for us.
Now you might reasonably ask,
Baggage Claim, what the f—k does this all have to do with Luke Skywalker.
Well, to me it feels like Rain Johnson burned Luke down. He took his legacy, and made it a
lie. He did this so that Rey could stand up on her own, not with the help from the past,
like Luke did being guided by Yoda, and Obi Wan Kenobi, but all alone, representing the
dawn of a new age of jedi, untethered from the sins of the past. And that’s fine for Rey.
But Luke Skywalker’s story is important.
Luke and his father’s stories have a lot of parallels. Both of them grew up
on a dessert planet, and hoped to be more than their humble lives could offer them.
Both of them lost their family, Anakin his mother, Luke his uncle and aunt that raised him.
Anakin struggled to accept the injustice, and chose revenge,
while Luke looked beyond his grief, and sought to get the means to fight for justice.
When he finally stepped up to face his father, and the emperor, he was armed with a weapon,
with everything that obi wan and yoda had taught him, but most importantly the knowledge of what
happened to his father. Of what is at the end of the road, if you choose anger and revenge.
Luke’s understanding of the past, of his father’s struggles,
helped him fight the dark side, but not only that, to transcend beyond his own struggles,
and inspire goodness, in a man thought to be lost forever.
This is why Luke is such an important hero. And so many people can relate to him
and his story, and see similarities in their own struggles with their families.
And watch as Luke despite everything, decides to face his father not with anger,
but with forgiveness and a helping hand.
I think the saddest part about what happened to Luke, is Mark Hamill having to participate
in his destruction. While Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford moved onto other projects after
the original series, Mark has always stayed true to the Star Wars fandom,
coming out to events. and spending as much time with fans as possible.
Mark understood that he represented something bigger, something much
more important than even himself. He represented hope to fans everywhere.
And that’s because heroes speak to us, more than psychology books ever
could. When we’re in difficult times, it’s remembering what our favorite heroes did that
inspires us to endure and survive, and find our own path out of the darkness.
I think Mark Hamill did as much as he could to preserve Luke’s legacy,
and his story, and his character, and in the end he still lost. And watching the behind
the scenes you can see him utterly broken by Rain Johnson’s decisions to kill the past.
There is a yoda quote, you know which one I’m talking about.
“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you”
And this is exactly what Luke proves. That we can rise up beyond our limitations, of our difficult
circumstances, the limitations of our families and our past, and become the ultimate ideal!
And this is why we all need Luke Skywalker!