Registered: Jan 2020
Location: Chiss Defense Fleet
Can Luke's character be salvaged?
I'm a fan of canon Luke, but considering that we already know how his story concludes thanks to the abomination that is TLJ, do you think his story is even salvageable at this point?
To each their own. I have no issue with Luke's story, or his portrayal in The Last Jedi. And the way he went out is arguably the most Jedi thing we've ever seen any Jedi do in canon. Halted an entire army in its tracks, inspired hope across the galaxy, and saved the last remaining members of the Resistance, all without ever doing any harm to any of his adversaries. It was basically the purest example of Jedi pacifist ideals expressed in almost any Star Wars storytelling medium.
And just because we know how a character's story ends doesn't mean we can't enjoy the current stories being told with them. People loved Obi-Wan in the Prequels and The Clone Wars, despite having already seen A New Hope and knowing he would get cut down by Vader. A lot of time, storytelling is about the journey, not the conclusion.
Luke is being fantastically written in Charles Soule's current Star Wars comic run, and has plenty of other great canon stories as well. The Mandalorian, Rise of Kylo Ren #2, Battlefront 2, Shattered Empire, and Weapon of a Jedi, just to name a few. Just because he doesn't always have the biggest part to play in those stories doesn't mean he's being poorly written.
This is especially apparent considering every time he seems to pop up in a story about other characters, his appearance goes down as being a fan favorite moment from that story. Look at how incredibly hyped people were by his very, very brief appearance at the end of Mandalorian Season 2. Look at how many people point to Luke's mission in Battlefront 2 as the best moment in that whole game.
If you think Luke's ending ruins all of that other storytelling, and you can't get over a movie that came out four years ago, maybe just admit to yourself that you're not a big fan of Luke and move on to other characters?
I didn't have a problem with how Luke was killed-off in TLJ, per se. I had a problem with his initial hopelessness and disdain for the Jedi Order -- that aspect of his characterization was handled poorly, imo.
That being said, nothing short of a major retcon would be able to undo Luke's portrayal in TLJ... But it could conceivably happen if they go the cloning route, I suppose.
For example, we know that in canon, Palpatine 'bottled' Luke's hand after Vader sliced it off in ESB: https://ibb.co/PMWFgMW
We also know that Mount Tantiss is a canon cloning facility(per the Bad Batch finale.) Moreover, we know that Thrawn is still alive as of The Mandalorian S02.
This is only relevant because in Legends, Luuke Skywalker was a clone that appeared during the original Thrawn trilogy, who was grown on Mount Tantiss from cells extracted from the hand he lost during ESB.
So the groundwork has effectively been laid out for a Luke clone to potentially appear in canon... Although I can't imagine the uproar it would cause if it were revealed that the Luke we saw in TLJ/RoS was just a clone, and the 'real' Luke was still roaming the galaxy...
I heard a rumor that Mara Jade is going to be introduced into canon soon, and that Kylo will end up killing her. This would better explain Luke’s mindset in TLJ, as well as his moment of weakness when he considered killing Ben.
Yeah I think everyone would cheer that move. Look how some fans want to desperately believe the ST is a different timeline where Ezra didnt save Ahsoka.
But its too far fetched to expect them to essentially retcon the sequels.
The problem isn't his death, at least not in a vacuum; the problem is his uninspired backstory. His life's work was the New Jedi Order, it failed unceremoniously (and for the silliest of reasons), and then he gave up. There's no story potential there. I guess you can write stories about the creation of the NJO, but why would anyone want to read that? It rose, it fell, it didn't accomplish anything, it didn't leave a trace. Its only function in the story was to be the thing Luke is depressed about. Remove its existence wholesale, and nothing about the ST's setting changes, so why bother setting it up?
Luke showing up and kicking ass is enough to excite a lot of fans, sure. That's just cashing in on nostalgia though, nothing of value is being added to his character. If anything, the overcompensation has made his personality more stale than before.
Yup, I'm not a fan, and I've moved on. It's a shame, though.
__________________
Last edited by NewGuy01 on Dec 12th, 2021 at 11:37 PM
Registered: Jan 2020
Location: Chiss Defense Fleet
Kinda what I'm getting at.
It's hard for me to completely get behind canon Luke as a character, because we already know where he ends up. So regardless of all the good things he does now, we still know where his story inevitably goes. We still know that he becomes this broken, emo variant of guy he used to be..because Rian is a complete f*ckwit.
Dont get me wrong I'd be perfectly happy with a retcon of some kind. I think most of us would be. But assuming Disney was even willing to retcon bits from the ST, how would they go about changing Luke for the better in a believable way?
Also the fact that Luke, however briefly, considered murdering his own nephew while he slept... cuz inner darkness, lol.
Rewind to the OT, and Luke didn't believe that anyone was beyond redemption... Even someone with Vader's track record. Seeing the good in others, even when no one else could see it, was always one of Luke's most important defining qualities as a character. He was the quintessential embodiment of hope.
And what made it worse was they DID redeem him by the end of the trilogy. So we factually know he was redeemable, which just makes Lukes actions as told in TLJ seem even more scummy. Not Jedi like and not OT Luke like. Not At All.
If we're talking retcons, then they could always make the sequence where Luke was supposedly going to attack Ben just be an illusion that Sidious placed into his mind to help sway him to the dark side.
We know Sidious is more powerful then Luke and Kylo in canon. So retcon things to where Sidious injected those thoughts into BOTH of their minds, so they basically would have only saw and felt what Sidious WANTED them to see and feel. That would at least alter things to where Luke's thoughts of killing Ben weren't actually his own.
That kind of minor retcon could actually help salvage Luke's characterization across the board IMO.
Dec 12th, 2021 12:30 AM
