Lukes Inaction

Well technically there wasn't an Academy according to Pablo Hidalgo, so you may be right about the Church of the Force possibly

I don't think it was Luke's fault Ben fell, per se, but I do think Luke, Leia and Han kind of did push him that way inadvertently. If we think about it Luke, Han and Leia all felt responsible and to me the biggest revelation is when Ben says"Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish like his father." Now what that exactly means I'm not sure, but Ben feels weak and foolish. He doesn't blame Luke, nor Leia in this instance just that Ben was like Han and blames him. As Kylo he's stronger he believes.

As for Snoke he's been pulling Ben away since before he was born. Maybe Luke's attention was more on other things. I'd like to know more about their relationship.

Rey isn't going to turn. Be tested? Sure. It would be a shame to build up a character such as Rey who has been pushed as kind of role model to girls to just do a 360 in teh second movie and she turns ot the dark side. Wouldn't even make sense. It wouldn't do much for Luke either in that regard.

 

I think it is going to turn out that Luke’s refusal to initially train Rey is because of his fear of failing again. I think we will see (Han even referenced it in TFA) that Luke was training new Jedi and that Ben/Kylo destroyed it.

As far as Pablo’s quote about there not being an Academy, he was talking about the term. Nowhere in Canon is there a Jedi Academy. Ben destroyed Luke’s Jedi Temple. Just like the place where all the younglings and padawans on Coruscant was called the Jedi Temple. In Canon, the places Jedi go to seek knowledge and training is a temple, not an academy.

 

Han tells Rey and Finn “He was training a new generation of Jedi”

 

I don't believe it is said anywhere that Kylo killed anyone, & to me, Han's statement is less of a physical destruction & more of "he is the reason it fell apart."

 

Luke's hesitance and fear is the mirror opposite of his feelings in Empire. Then, he was too eager, too confident and too sure of his righteous cause.

I like this progression, it's what happens when you get old, you reflect upon your mistakes and you try to draw wisdom from them.

The Jedi, in many ways, have much to atone for and Luke himself was probably too bold and arrogant in his alleged attempt to restore the Jedi.

He's broken, it happens to old men, even our heroes and it sets the stage for a beautifully redemptive path, as is Luke's general arc, it's just this way instead of needing to show caution and care, he needs to remind himself the light in him is good and to accept that and help deliver Ben back from the brink.

This is good writing. I love what they did with Han's story in TFA. They broke him too remember? He was broke, doing dangerous work with wretches and couldn't even get his beloved Falcon back. It's good writing to do this to our favorite characters.

Luke was never a "super action" hero, his greatest strength and his power always came from his passive actions, by simply letting the Force guide him to the path.

War does not make one great. And how can one ensure the war ends, if the light and the dark must always rise to create conflict? I truly believe this is at the core of Luke's struggle.

Anyway I'm stoked, Luke is my favorite character, my favorite hero and I believe a truly unique American male hero in that he wins by refusing to fight and having faith in his own family. It's a beautiful story and to turn him into an aggressive super hero is the wrong move. He may need to kick ass by the end of the film, but Luke's hesitancy in TLJ makes for a very strong narrative arc for him.

 

Whether Kylo killed them or not, (the TFA Visual Dictionary implies that he did) Han’s quote tells us that Luke was training other Jedi besides just Ben.

 

Kylo has communed with the ghost of Vader, and he showed Kylo the power of the dark side. If Luke observed this, he will believe that not only did he fail to train Kylo, but that he has failed to redeem Vader. I'd think about quitting also.

 

I honestly don't understand why people don't latch onto this more. In the force awakens:

Kylo: Forgive me. I feel it again... The pull to the light... Supreme Leader senses it. Show me again... The power of the darkness... And I'll let nothing stand in our way... Show me... Grandfather... and I will finish... what you started.

 

I’m with @Jedi MD that Kylo Ren did kill Luke’s pupils/students (who were being trained to be Jedi), if just because of the contents of the Visual Dictionary.

From page 26:

“Kylo Ren betrayed the other Jedi students studying with Master Luke Skywalker, and is responsible for their destruction. He has well earned the nickname “Jedi Killer”, whispered in the First Order ranks, as it was his deadly lightsaber that prevented the return of the Jedi Order.”

 

Do we know he only "mentored" Ben and didn't teach him?

Do we know Luke refuses to train Rey? It seems like he is relucent and doesn't do it instantly, but if we cut a trailer correctly you could make it look like Yoda refused to train Luke.

 

Acording to "Legends of Luke Skywalker" newly released Canon book, which I recommend to buy since its is ,shortly ,a masterpiece, Luke was very active in search for knowledge over the years.

Book gives tons of clues.

Something truly terrible happened for him to be seemingy inactive now.

 

My guess is that this has something to do with his potential dependence on the Force spirits of Obi-Wan, Yoda and his father for direction with the Order.

As we know from the visual dictionary, it was around the time of the destruction of Luke’s attempt at rebuilding the Order that the Cosmic Force became dormant, and reawakened during Rey’s and Finn’s journey in TFA, supposedly six years later.

From the final arc of The Clone Wars, we know that the Force spirits exist between the realms of the Cosmic Force and the Living Force. However, with the Cosmic Force dormant, there aren’t two active realms for the Force spirits to exist between, and so they might have taken on a different form or plane of existence which meant that they could not commune with Luke.

It’s a possible reason for Luke to go to a planet such as Ahch-To, supposedly home to the first Jedi Temple: it could be strong and pure in the Force similar to how Dagobah - and to a lesser extent, Mortis - was, and so might make communing with the Force spirits much easier.

It’s possible that Luke depended on the Force spirits for direction with rebuilding the Jedi Order, and deemed the task impossible when they disappeared.

Notice too how Kylo Ren kills Lor San Tekka - someone he had a past relationship with as Ben - in haste and without regret, yet has a much, much harder time despatching of his father. Yes, I know, it’s his father, but what we know about Ben Solo suggests that LST could have been in a father/uncle-type position (given the time frame for when he left with Luke). I think this might be because of conflict in interest that the presence of Anakin’s Force spirit furthered, as Kylo Ren is much more decisive earlier in the film, but seems to begin straying from his path around the time that he asks Vader’s ashen mask to show him the power of the Dark Side.