Talking About 'Star Wars': My reply to 'Why was Luke Skywalker made to look so weak and cowardly in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and is it possible to bring him back?'

© 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

Why was Luke Skywalker made to look so weak and cowardly in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and is it possible to bring him back?

Luke Skywalker was neither weak nor cowardly in Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Only those viewers who either don’t understand human nature or invested much of their devotion to the “lore” of the Star Wars Expanded Universe like to think that the Luke they see in The Last Jedi is a coward or weak.

As a matter of fact, the old EU (now wisely called Legends) Luke Skywalker was never portrayed in a way that was either believable or consistent. Only a few writers, including Hugo Award-winning Timothy Zahn, ever wrote stories or plot lines that showed Luke as a realistic character with human flaws or weaknesses. In those stories and specifically Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, EU Luke was so faithful to Original Trilogy Luke that I could hear actor Mark Hamill’s voice in my head whenever I read his dialogue. (I could also say that for Steve Perry’s treatment of the character in Shadows of the Empire)

Unfortunately, other writers who wrote EU Star Wars novels often missed the mark (pun intended) when they depicted Luke as what an Internet acquaintance so wittily (and quite aptly) describes as a “Super Sayain God-Like Infallible Warrior.” This trend began with Tom Veitch’s Dark Empire Trilogy (a Dark Horse Comics series which I liked a lot upon first reading it but liked less and less over time).

© 1994 Dark Horse Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd.(LFL)

In that story, Luke Skywalker, the galaxy’s only Jedi Master, was depicted as someone who somehow gets the notion that in order to defeat the Dark Side of the Force (and a resurrected Emperor), one must dabble with the Dark Side in order to understand it and then use it against its most formidable wielder, Sheev Palpatine.

Of course, Luke fails and has to be rescued by his twin sister, Leia Organa, and his friends, with a timely assist by Artoo Detoo. Nevertheless, this was one of the first times in which Luke was shown as “Super Sayain God-Like Almost Infallible Warrior,” a trope that only got more play as the old EU progressed.

This, I think. is one of the reasons why some vocal and apparently angry fans do not like how J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson have depicted Luke Skywalker, the galaxy’s last Jedi.

Their Luke would have never run away from his responsibilities as a Jedi Master.

Their Luke had the same awesome powers that the equally badass Darth Vader had, only he use them for good.

Their Luke would have wiped the floor with Supreme Leader Snoke and General Hux without breaking a sweat.

Their Luke could topple AT-ATs with his thoughts and defeat a bunch of Force-wielding uber-villains - all before breakfast.

I much prefer this Luke  in comparison to “Super Sayain God-Like Infallible Warrior.” Images from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

In other words, in much of the old EU literature, Luke Skywalker was not simply a farm boy from Tatooine who, over time, matured into a hero of the Rebellion and Jedi Knight, but also the closest thing to a demi-god.

Having read many of the Legends books (I stopped buying them on a regular basis sometime before The New Jedi Order series, although I briefly considered getting those books when they were the “new” thing in Star Wars books), I can understand why many EU fans love Super Sayain God-Like Infallible Warrior. Since Luke, in a way, was the audience’s avatar in the Original Trilogy and many fans identified with his Hero’s Journey, it stands to reason that they liked seeing their avatar as a seemingly flawless, extremely powerful (indeed, overpowered) Jedi Grand Master who was a combination of Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi (before he got old), Qui-Gon Jinn, and even Superman. (You’ll believe a man can defeat Abeloth!)

Sequel Trilogy Luke? As Obi-Wan Kenobi might have said, “This is not the Super Sayain God-Like Infallible Warrior you’re looking for.”

The point I am trying to make here is that the Luke from the movies (which is the true canon of Star Wars, despite protests to the contrary) is a more realistic portrayal of a flesh-and-blood protagonist than the Luke from Legends.

Luke Skywalker, as seen in The Last Jedi (and hinted at in The Force Awakens), is the Star Wars equivalent of a war veteran who has been through hell and back, suffered many losses (both in his capacity as a Rebel Alliance military officer and in his personal life), helped defeat an evil and oppressive regime, only to see that that victory wax and wane as the First Order “rose from the ashes of the Empire.”

It’s not logical to expect that the victory of the Light side over the Dark would be a permanent condition. It wasn’t in the old EU, either; the remnants of the old Empire fought on against the New Republic for years in that iteration of Star Wars. Yet the same fans who want Luke to be Super Duper Unbeatable Luke Skywalker complain that the Sequel Trilogy undermines the happy ending of Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

It is also ridiculous to expect that the same Luke Skywalker who many fans make fun of for being a whiny teenager in A New Hope (often using the line “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up new power converters!” mockingly) would grow up to be a “perfect” Jedi who can do no wrong.

• Their Luke, apparently, did not lose his mother shortly after he was born
• Their Luke did not grow up in a harsh and remote desert planet, almost friendless and frustrated because he couldn’t leave the moisture farm and go to the Academy
• Their Luke did not grow up hearing half-truths about his absent (and presumed dead) father, only to find out the being he hated the most in the galaxy - Darth Vader - was his father
• Their Luke did not suffer losses during the Galactic Civil War, beginning with his foster parents, then his first Jedi mentor (who turned out to have distorted the truth about Pere Skywalker in order to recruit him on his own last Jedi quest), then his comrades in arms at Yavin, Hoth, and elsewhere)
• Their Luke was unfazed after losing his right hand to Darth Vader in a duel, after which the Dark Lord tells him, “No, I am your father”
• Their Luke was doubly unfazed after witnessing the return of Anakin Skywalker and his father’s sacrifice when “Darth Vader” sheds his Sith Lord persona and kills his Master, Emperor Palpatine, to save his son
• Their Luke would never have lost his nephew, Ben Solo, to the temptations of the Dark Side or the sly manipulation of Supreme Leader Snoke

This version of Luke Skywalker, which is based on the worst elements of Legends, is what a lot of fans wanted.

But Super Sayain God-Like Infallible Warrior Luke Skywalker, from a screenwriter’s perspective, is a Gary Stu, the personification of the fan fiction they have adopted as headcanon. That’s why many fans who love the EU (even to the point that they say that for them, that’s the real saga) like to claim that Sequel Trilogy Luke is “weak and cowardly.”

So, no. In The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker is not weak and cowardly.

Rather, he is a man who has seen much, suffered a great deal, and had many of his youthful illusions turn to ashes and dust. He is not Luke Skywalker, the Legends’ Jedi demigod, but rather a very human Jedi Master.

And yet, even after disappointing Rey, his last apprentice, for not living up to his reputation in the in-universe galaxy far, far away, Luke still pulls off the greatest on-screen feat a Jedi has ever achieved.

Weak? No.

Cowardly? No.

As for bringing him back as a flesh-and-blood mortal? Nope. They didn’t do that with Anakin, Obi-Wan, or Yoda, did they?

Luke Skywalker will be back in The Rise of Skywalker, but as a Jedi Spirit.