Star Wars: The most frustrating parts of the sequel trilogy
By Nik Edlund
Luke Almost Murdering Ben
The Last Jedi is easily the most hated film in the sequel trilogy. I never really understood why, as it is a very tight film from start to finish that does a great job of continuing the story where J.J. Abrams left it at the end of The Force Awakens.
Many had an issue with Luke Skywalker and his decision to live his life in isolation and distance himself from the Force and the Jedi. That was actually something I thought was a realistic situation for Luke to be in. As we get older, many times life beats us up. It’s easy to feel defeated when life continues to crap on you, and perspectives can change. Luke’s Jedi Academy failed, he lost his nephew to the Dark Side, and was clearly fed up with the constant cycle of failure that is associated with the Jedi. Instead of continuing this cycle of misery, he opted to end the Jedi by living the rest of his life alone having Jedi die when he does.
It took a potential new student in Rey to make Luke see the error of his ways and return to being the hero he always was. That was a fine and well-done story arc for Luke, the problem I had was in the flashback scenes.
Luke senses Ben is slipping away to the Dark Side. When he sees just how far Ben has fallen, he takes out his lightsaber and ponders murdering Ben in his sleep. This is a decision that is completely against not just Luke’s beliefs but the entire belief of the Jedi.
Luke was one of the only people who saw the glimmer of light that was still in Darth Vader. Surely Ben still had some light in him, and that is what the Luke Skywalker we knew and loved from the original trilogy would’ve hung onto, and tried to nourish.Instead, we get a Luke who is going to murder his own nephew? That act would’ve sent him down the path of the Dark Side, and is clearly against everything Yoda and Obi-Wan taught him.
For the most part, Rian Johnson did a masterful job with The Last Jedi, but this is a concept that should’ve been cut in early drafts of the script and never made it to the big screen as it goes 100% against the character of Luke Skywalker.