[SlamSlayer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeLikeJinx

^ Okay, I only saw TLJ once, but this is how I see it. IMO no one but Rian Johnson would have turned Luke into the person he was in TLJ... not JJ, not Lucas, not Gareth Edwards and not Ron Howard. IMO Rian Johnson tried way too hard to make a different type of SW film from the one people were expecting. Luke who never lost hope in the good in Vader and was willing to die believing in that goodness suddenly gets scared about his nephew's power? So he creeps up on him in the middle of the night like some pedo uncle... that was such a badly shot scene IMO. Luke became so cynical that he would let the locals die instead of trying to do something just because he didn't want to give them false hope or something. Luke became so afraid that he would kill his own nephew in fear of the future? What in the OT foreshadows Luke becoming like that? IMO OT Luke would always believe in the goodness of people and fight for what is right no matter the odds and would never abandon his friends in need.

But again... I only saw TLJ once... and may be remembering OT Luke with rose colored glasses.

Dont take this offensively, but being that you only saw TLJ once I think you're completely misremembering that whole scene and by extension misunderstanding it.

But before we even get into that lets really think about Luke's character. Luke spent all of ROTJ talking about how he wont kill or even fight his father. When he's brought before the Emperor he refuses to fight him too. He only draws his saber and fights after Palpatine threatens his friends and tells Luke how doomed they all are. This completely enrages Luke and he forgets everything he's been preaching about not fighting and lashes out at the Emperor. The fight begins.

After he calms down a bit he stays on the defensive, eventually straight up hiding from them. Then Vader threatens his sister and Luke is enraged again. After preaching about not fighting or killing his dad for the entire film he maims Vader by taking off his hand and almost kills him before he regains control of his anger.

So Luke has anger issues and darkness inside of him that triggered by threats to his family and friends. He his this instinctive drive to protect his friends that often gets the better of him and taps into his darkness.

Fast forward to TLJ.

Luke tells Rey about this darkness he senses in Ben. Luke's worried for and about him. Luke tells Rey he went to Ben's hut that night to CHECK on him. Not to kill him, or threaten him or do anything to him. This is consistent in both Luke's first story and the full truth he tells Rey in the second story.

Hey peers into Ben's mind and, in his words, sees the death and destruction of everything and everyone hes ever loved. Because of this Luke has an instinctive reaction to to it (his words again) and draws his lightsaber to protect his friends and family by possibly ending this all right now and then . . . Nothing.

Luke has grown as a character. This is character development. He's in far more control of himself and his darkness than he was 30 years ago. He doesn't lash out at Ben in anger or maim him or almost kill him like he did with the Emperor and Vader.

Of course Ben wakes up and from his point of view, as we see in his vision, Luke walked in trying to kill him. He's not necessarily wrong from his point of view. Snoke already twisted his mind and he wakes up to his Uncle standing over him with his weapon out. Thats all Ben saw, that's all he knows.

When Luke wakes up and goes outside he sees his temple on fire and the dead bodies of all his students, minus the ones Kylo took, in front of him littered across the ground. Theres a LOT of dead bodies. Luke is overcome with the shame and guilt of not being in even more control of his darkness leading to Ben becoming Kylo and all of his students who trusted him to guide them and keep them safe dead in front of him.

Ita a very human Luke. It's such a great story. We get to watch Luke climb out of this dark place and become, once again, the hero we know him to be. He literally inspires the galaxy with hope (and shown by broom boy) with his sacrifice at the end.