The arc of Luke Skywalker

I do believe the part about the door was in the Visual Dictionary or maybe the children's books. But as in the photograph, it isn't in the best shape. He was honest when he said he had no plans to leave.



I must have missed somethings too. I missed where they said he didn't read any of the old texts. I was was under the impression that was part of his 30 year journey was learning the ways of the force. The main, big one he missed was failure was the greatest teacher. I saw it was Luke was tempted to (Edit: Avoid) the same mistakes of the past wasn't made but he didn't Just because he is a Master now doesn't mean he isn't impervious to temptation an mistakes. His missed lesson. Just my take on things though.

 

For you to look past
a pile of old books, hmm?


The sacred Jedi texts.


Oh. Read them, have you?


-Well, I...
-Page-turners


they were not.


Yes, yes, yes.


Wisdom they held,


but that library contained
nothing that the girl Rey


does not already possess.

 

First, it's not possible from a dude who saw good in Vader and second even if he was mistaken, he would have try to fix this because this is how Luke Skywalker was. He wasn't a quitter.

He wouldn't wash his hand in exile.

 

Correct

LUKE Then I am a Jedi? YODA (shakes his head) Ohhh. Not yet. One thing remains: Vader. You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi will you be. And confront him you will.

This process of becoming a Jedi is much more simple nowadays. Couple afternoons and swipe some ancient books.

 

I get what your saying.

But remember, Luke almost destroyed Vader when Vader spoke about his sister. A momentary lapse in judgement at seeing the evil in Ben is not comparable to cutting Vader's robotic hand off. Leaving him wheezing on the ground with no defense. Even when he knew there was good in Vader. he was one step away from destroying him.

Luke was completely ashamed of his actions. Went into hiding because of his failure.

 

Sorry I'm off topic.
If Luke's X-Wing was in the bottom of the ocean on Ahch-To, how did R2-D2 initially get off Ahch-To?

 

My guess is Luke flew to Ahch-To alone, without R2.

 

Thanks. Posted it on another thread. There @techsteveo also suggested Luke used a different astromech droid.
Plus I forgot R2 could fly.

 

Excellent analysis! Thank you for this post. Exactly what I thought while watching the movie, and the perfect story arc for Luke. Luke becomes the only true Jedi master, the only Jedi to transcend violence and aggression, something not even Master Yoda achieved. Afterwards he finds a sort of Nirvana and becomes one with the Force. It’s beautiful. It’s exactly what Yoda says the Force is all about in Empire. Luminous beings are we. In the end, Johnson knew exactly what he was doing, and had something poignant to say about the Force and life in general.

 

So he spent 30 years thinking of dying or what? lmao people. Pls don't keep using 30 years as an excuse.
I don't think he ever thinking of dying in 30 years if he rebuilt a Jedi order school. A school that is pretty much finished from flash back.

Beside, if you look at the map in TFA. It doesn't show a straight line, or a dot. It show multiple dots connected. It's look like Luke was searching for something.

If i want to die i wouldn't spent time making a map or jump multiple times. Heck even one habitable planet in the next system is as good.

 

No, he spent five years thinking about dying. Previously he collected Jedi artifacts, trained new students and looked for Ahch-To. Also, as it was pointed out multiple times, the map lead to Ahch-To, the location of the first Jedi temple, not Luke Skywalker per se.

 

So why Ahch-To? why not any planet?
Why 5 years? Why not die right after his school is burned to ground (which is the main reason why he want do die)?
Why spent time visiting ALL THE PLANETS at all?
What make Ahch-To so important that he need to die there? Is Ahch-Three not good enough?
And yes, i didn't say that's map belong to Luke. I said WHY DID HE SPENT ALL THAT YEARS HOPING FROM PLANET TO PLANET IF HE WANT TO DIE?
It's logic. People who want to die don't go visit multiple resorts to find the best one to die, much less one with ancient temple on it.

 

Because in Luke's mind this is the most desolate place in the whole galaxy. He said so in the film. Also, if we're speaking of logic, then it should be logical to you that the map must have been done before he fled, which means that these points were made before he went into exile. He couldn't have brought any passengers with him on his one-way journey (except maybe for a droid, but he didn't pick one either,) as X-wings have space for only one passenger. Also, I get that he was sad after the incident with Ben, but it doesn't mean that he needed to be immediately suicidal. Some people just remain grumpy.

Lastly, Ahch-To was uncharted, which meant that there were no established hyperspace lanes to it. Maybe the points signified locations to and from which short hyperspace jumps should be taken in order to safely arrive at the final destination? Maybe they were just there so that the viewers had a better grasp of the route to the planet? All in all, the purpose of these points has never been explicitly stated.

 

Thank you, I couldn't have written it better myself.

 

With Lor San Tekka said in TFA opening: With out the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force. He knew why Luke is missing, he knew what Luke is seeking. Seeking to die seem rather stupid.

Lor San Tekka also witnessed Ben's Fall, so he must been there with Luke.

In the end, Luke seeking to die while: Giving a friend half the map, giving R2 other half and "probably told him" to active it when the res in the most dire.

Can't seem to see anyone who want to die don't doing this at all. Not at all.

 

This to me is the weakest link in the movies' plot, and arguably a plot hole: If Luke was the last Jedi, was convinced that "The Jedi needed to end" and that he had "come to that island to die", then why didn't he commit suicide? With him dead, and perhaps the original jedi books burned as well, there would be no chance for new Jedi padawans to be trained. That suicide act and book burrning would fulfill all his wishes at once and would be entirely logical within the movie's plot. But he didn't do it. Why?

I know there are threads mentioning that Luke could/perhaps be contemplating the idea of committing suicide, when he was wearing the Jedi ceremonial robes right at the time when Rey appeared to him. Wow, talking about timing, if that was the case. The thing is, what took him so long to come to terms, if he was really going to commit suicide?

This was the part I found to be illogical, above all.

My guess is that JJ had other plans for Luke, if he even had ones to begin with. And, Rian wanted to explore the idea of the dark/grey non-perfect hero of Luke Skywalker so badly, to fit the movie's central theme "heroes are not always who you would expect" and that "everybody is allowed to be imperfect and make mistakes". But Rian perhaps got embroiled into the details and maybe forgot to explain what Luke's motives on that island were to begin with? I'm sure many agree that's an important thing to know. After all, that was a major question left unanswered in TFA.

If he was really convinced of what he says in the movie, then suicide/sacrifice in behalf of everybody he loved would be the logical conclusion to Luke's story arc.

We also see in the Force Tree scene that Luke tried to enter the tree on flames, but got pushed back by the flames. What was he trying to do going in there? Was he trying to save the books, to commit suicide or both and something (The Force, Yoda?) pushed him outside? And if he was going to commit suicide, what took him so long?

I guess, and I'm going on a limb here, is that Luke was in conflict for all of the time he was on the island on what the right thing to do would be? Should he burn the tree, books and himself (like he seems to be going after after Rey left), or was the problem just he, himself, or the Skywalkers? After all, everything seemed quite fine until Obi-Wan decided to train the first Skywalker. And so, he should preserve the tree and books and just kill himself?

Sigh. Why does this had to be more complicated than it needed to be. Why not just put one or two lines where Luke would say he was in conflict on the right thing to do, or explain why he went to that island in the first place, what he was trying to achieve by going there?

At some point, Luke said something like this to Rey: "Why did you think I came to the most unfindable place in the galaxy? For no reason at all?". Ok, so why did you Luke? If it was not to commit suicide, because you could have done that anywhere, why did you go there in the first place? And if it was to "end it all", aka the tree and book burning, then what took him so long?

I feel Luke's story arc is the single biggest issue people have with the movie. Heck, even Rian admited it was the part that was more difficult to him, and Hamill was not on board, then and now. So why not explain it better? I hope there's an extended cut or something.

 

This is honestly a stalemate discussion. Both sides can argue for and against.

I think the better question is would you have preferred RJ's arc for Luke or an arc that more resembled how we knew Luke from the OTs?

 

I think that there is no realistic way you could have a Luke, aged 30 years, be the same Luke you knew from the OT. I'm not the same person I was when I was 17 back in 1987. If you knew me then, and we haven't seen each other since, you'd not be seeing the same person. My beliefs are different, I'm different. So I don't know how anyone can realistically think the Luke in the ST should be the same person he was when we last saw him.

BTW, I'm not trying to argue whether or not TLJ is a good film, or if the story is good (or bad). I just don't understand how anyone could expect the Luke we see now to be the same guy we saw back in 1983.