It’s time for the Jedi to end…or is it?
Aside from his stern warning to Rey (“this is not going to go the way you think”), Luke Skywalker’s warped view of the Jedi Order was undoubtedly one of the big talking points coming out of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Perhaps more than anything else, it highlighted Luke’s inner conflict, given Mark Hamill’s jaded Jedi still blames himself for the corruption of Kylo Ren – in fact, the Star Wars mainstay almost thwarted that journey to the dark side in the worst way imaginable.
Had Luke Skywalker killed his nephew, it would’ve upended the Star Wars franchise as we know it, and though The Last Jedi steered Hamill’s hermit in a decidedly different direction, thank the heavens, his familial relationship with the erstwhile Ben Solo is ostensibly beyond repair.
And as for his view on the Jedi Order, writer-director Rian Johnson believes Luke’s thought process was blinded by emotion.
When Rey shows up, the first and foremost thing is she needs a mentor. In looking at this grand plan from ten miles up in the air, Luke is missing the thing right in front of his nose. Here’s somebody who needs you, who needs your help. If you think you are throwing away the past, you are fooling yourself.
Those comments were initially included in The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi – ditto for Johnson’s thoughts on Kylo Ren’s Vader-esque mask – where the filmmaker also addressed Luke’s refusal to train Rey.
The only way to go forward is to embrace the past, figure out what is good and what is not good about it. But it’s never going to not be a part of who we all are. And that includes Rey, who grew up hearing the legends about the Jedi. So the notion of, ‘Nope, toss this all away and find something new,’ is not really a valid choice, I think.
Without question, Luke’s wake-up call arrives in the form of Yoda, who offers some much-needed perspective just as Star Wars: The Last Jedi begins to reach its Crait-set climax.
