Official Luke Skywalker Episode VIII Discussion Thread

I'm looking forward to a memorable encounter.

 

I have no doubt it will be a cool fight scene but unless some of the KoR survive it looks like we'll be back to the safe territory of the OT emulation: Darth Vader (Kylo Ren), Emperor Palpatine (Snoke), Luke Skywalker (Rey) and Yoda (Luke).

 

The main thing I want to know about Luke is what he was doing during the slaughter of his Academy. If the Knights of Ren and Ben Solo do show up at Luke's Academy, are we to honestly believe that they overtook all of his Padawan, AND the strongest Force user around?

That is the main question I would love to have answered, because since I heard it posed a few weeks ago, I haven't been able to get it out of my head, and it makes me feel like there's something more to that bit of the story that we just sort of get told by Han Solo.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 13, 2016, Original Post Date: Sep 13, 2016 ---

The thing is, I don't actually see Kylo Ren in Vader's place.

If anything, I actually see Ben Solo sitting firmly in the role that Luke took up, except on the opposite side of the Force. He charges into a fight with Luke, against whom he is clearly overmatched. However, he feels he must do it, to prove his worth to himself, and Leader Snoke, who probably knows that Ren is in over his head and now has his sights set firmly on Rey, this new force user who apparently is giving Kylo trouble.

I don't see that as being likely, but I do like the interesting role reversal of Luke, like his father before him, being the big, powerful Force-user that another Skywalker must now go against. Perhaps Rey even steps in and prevents him from outright killing him for killing his students, as is not the Jedi way? Again, just spit-balling here.

 

Off course some of the KOR are bound to survive, Kylo manning army of one wouldn't be sit well going into episode 9.

 

Am I right in thinking that Han Solo never names the student who ended Lukes academy by name?
Hans doesn't say 'A young Jedi Called Kylo Ren ruined it all' right?
Could it be that Kylo didn't do it by hand, but let the Knights or Ren do it. and instead lead Luke off on some goose chase while the massacre happened? Luke would trust Ben Solo. So that would be an easy thing to exploit.

Then again, I kinda feel that there's more to this padawan murder than we've been told.
Perhaps Luke sent them after Snoke and got them all killed. That would explain his mental state. Perhaps Kylo was the only survivor and joined snoke then. Would also explain his hatred of Luke.

I'm sure that will be a big part of ep8. Why luke failed, and why he retreated. Because its out of character, he was always headstrong and self sacrificing....I mean that was the whole plot of Empire Strikes Back. The empire played on Luke's in ability to let his friends die. He wen't to fight Vader despite the obvious outcome. I feel Luke should have confronted Snoke or Kylo before now. Dunno why he went into hiding but the explanation is very important to his character arc.

 

I have a pet theory on the events at Luke's academy that is a bit out there.

As has been said before, if Kylo and his Knights did show up with intentions to kill Luke and his students, there's actually a pretty good chance they would fail and all get killed.

Except, something tells me that Luke would falter in the face of killing his sister's son, who he was tasked with looking after. His students, however, wouldn't think twice about it, especially since I imagine the Knights of Ren did probably pick off at least a few of them.

Luke would beg them to let him go, but they're not having it. As they close in on Ben, Luke does what he must to protect family and cuts down his own students.

He then relays to Han the story, and, as was stated above, Han tells Finn and Rey in some very unspecific terms. Han either knows exactly what happened or was told his son turned to the dark side and led to the destruction of his academy, which isn't completely untrue... from a certain point of view...

If it seems out of character for Luke, the only other times Luke has done something particularly hasty, rash, and dark, is when friends/family have been threatened. Luke runs off to Cloud City to face Darth Vader feeling that Han and Leia are in danger. Luke went into a frenzy when his father threatened to turn his sister to the Dark side. Those are two pivotal moments in Luke's journey and I can see another one circling around his role as both an uncle/guardian and Jedi Master. We are fully aware how difficult it is to balance family and the Force.

 

Maybe it was a set up to make Luke look bad. Snoke and the KoR swoop in and save Benny boy making it look as if Uncle Luke didn't care

 

It's very likely Luke just wasn't there. In Rey's vision we see a devastated Luke kneeling at R2, it's dry. The image where the students are killed it is raining, so my conclusion is that Luke was not there and when he came back he found all students dead.

Here's another reason I think that Luke wasn't there during the attack. From leaks of VIII we know that the KoR are going to join Kylo to confront Luke and Rey on Ahch-to, we also have the rumor that Luke is going to slice-n-dice the KoR. Secondly, in Rey's vision from TFA we see the KoR in the rain with the dead bodies lying around. So if Luke was there during the academy attack he would definitely have killed some of the KoR but they all live, so yeah, Luke definitely wasn't around to help, or hindered to help... (at least that's what we can conclude from the information we have now)

 

Luke will continue his search for his wife who was taken from him by Snoke...

 

Did he start ? He thought she was a swimming or married a Mon Kal ?

 

A few things about Luke and the dead Padawans. If I remember correctly from all the old MSW info, Luke wasn't there. Where he was at the time was never mentioned or speculated on.

The scene in the "Forceback" of Luke an R2 was supposed to be after Luke discovers the attack on his students

The scene of the KOR in the rain was not supposed to be the killing of Luke's students.

MSW is reporting that we are going to get more from the "Forceback" scene in VIII so hopefully some of this will be cleared up for us.

 

Nah Mara Jade is eu property, Snoke is not interesting in a kidnapping plot.

 

Yeah, I totally agree with this. I thought this as well as the best reason for the map. Why make a map to yourself in advance? The only reason that I could come up with is to buy time. Why buy time? To cool off. So it would make sense that after the destruction of the school, Luke knew that he could be dangerous and tempted. So he constructed a 2 part map, that would be solved, but would take time to solve. Then he flies to the non-tech, uninhabited planet, destroys his only means of leaving, and waits. If the non-tech planet just happens to be where an old Jedi temple is, even better.

 

I think one thing that is being overlooked is that Luke clearly hasn't been using the Force for some time.
Snoke and Ren detect an awakening (Rey) because it is the first occurrence of someone using the cosmic force for some time.
This then tells us that Luke has avoided using the Force or simply been unable to (lost his power).
My guess is that he went searching for Ahch-To and this mysterious Force tree to try and regain his power.
But he failed.
And yet he had to remain in hiding as his knowledge is key to the survival of the Jedi.

 

I'd love to. I have 0 interest in seeing Mark Hamill do loop the loops and twirly whirlies and show God-like Force abilities.
But perhaps he isn't completely depleted. But something has happened to him.
Perhaps Rey helps him get it back somehow?

I think this could be Snoke's power though. He takes the Force from others to sustain himself.