The Rise of Skywalker Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker (IX)

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Wasnt a huge fan of TROS but the brief Luke moments I found better than anything we got in TLJ.

 

[David H.]

Last Jedi, I thought, left the door opened for Luke’s involvement in this movie to be really unique and esoteric but then RoS is just like “nah, he just gives Rey the McGuffin and lets the audience know that J.J. has seen the YouTube hot takes. K, bye!”

 

[henzINNIT]

Last Jedi, I thought, left the door opened for Luke’s involvement in this movie to be really unique and esoteric but then RoS is just like “nah, he just gives Rey the McGuffin and lets the audience know that J.J. has seen the YouTube hot takes. K, bye!”

Yeah same. I was surprised there was so little time for Luke, but ultimately I found his sequence in TROS to be my least favourite in the whole film, so maybe that was for the best.

 

[Iceman]

The ending of TFA promised so much for Luke but I'm very disappointed with what came after.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

The ending of TFA promised so much for Luke but I'm very disappointed with what came after.

Agreed. They made him some bitter recluse who didn't want to help even his sister or ex-brother-in-law out in their time of need. That went against almost everything he stood for in the OT.

 

[Prison Mike]

Wasn’t that all set up in TFA though?

 

[Herolee10]

Honestly, it still depresses me to this day that the great Luke Skywalker, that most of us grew up idolizing, ended up as nothing more than a recluse failure by the end of the so called "Skywalker Saga".

He failed to restore the Jedi order and never owned up to his mistakes. The fact that this new trilogy pretty much makes his accomplishments in the originals meaningless in order to validate Rey's credibility is also terrible.

 

[The Caped Knight]

It's very insulting, which why I'm glad I see own the Expanded Universe books and Comics, that's the real Luke Skywalker post ROTJ! I don't give a flying rip if its official canno or not. That's a lot better than these disappointing films that treat their legacy characters with such disrespect .

 

[Boom]

I dunno. I think I'm more aligned with Rian Johnson on this. I thought his take on Luke in TLJ was genuinely interesting and emotionally poignant. His appearance in RoTS (albeit brief) left me cold. It was just a whole lot of nothing.

 

[The Guard]

His appearance in RISE is a cameo. What’s the point in even comparing them, especially in terms of quality and depth of character?

 

[David H.]

His appearance in RISE is a cameo. What’s the point in even comparing them, especially in terms of quality and depth of character?

The point is just that, that Luke only gets a contrived cameo in the RoS.

Rey goes to Ahch-To for some reason, burns the ship she was on, Luke shows up and lifts another out of the water, and Rey leaves.

That’s Luke’s role in this movie.

 

[Brother Jack]

Wasn’t that all set up in TFA though?

Yes, vaguely. Han says Luke blamed himself for his student (Kylo) turning against him, and then walked away from everything. Johnson had to come up with a reason why Luke was so distraught that he never resurfaced for years, not even as the First Order rose and Kylo eventually killed Han, and he didn't have many options.

 

[Iceman]

Yes, vaguely. Han says Luke blamed himself for his student (Kylo) turning against him, and then walked away from everything. Johnson had to come up with a reason why Luke was so distraught that he never resurfaced for years, not even as the First Order rose and Kylo eventually killed Han, and he didn't have many options.

I can understand Luke blaming himself, but this isn't the guy who hides in a cave when his friends are dying and innocents are getting killed/enslaved. The end of TFA had me so excited and TLJ killed off my overall Star Wars excitement. I don't think it's going to be the same again. Luke Skywalker is one of the all time great fictional heroes and is a selfless, brave character who would do what is necessary and what someone like me might not be able to in times of crisis. That is the reason why I've always loved him. He doesn't need a push like Han, he is the first in line to step up. If Luke Skywalker had guilt issues he would actively try to atone for them, not hide away in times of need.

 

[The Guard]

The point is just that, that Luke only gets a contrived cameo in the RoS.

Rey goes to Ahch-To for some reason, burns the ship she was on, Luke shows up and lifts another out of the water, and Rey leaves.

That’s Luke’s role in this movie.

His role is to give her a pep talk and get her back on her feet, which is the role of all Force Ghosts. Seeing as how he was dead, what other role did people expect him to have?

 

[David H.]

Seeing as how he was dead, what other role did people expect him to have?

That’s kind of what I meant when I said TLJ felt like it was setting up something unique regarding Luke’s involvement in this movie. Something, I guess, much more actively involved in the story and more Kylo Ren centric, delving further into the notion that he was being seduced by the light side of the force.

I think any way you cut it, having Luke only show up to reaffirm something that was already well underway (Rey wants to fight the bad guy) is a squandering of potential. In my mind, a more glaring example than anything in the previous two films.

 

[The Caped Knight]

Luke Skywalker was treated a lot better in the Expanded Universe aka Legends. That's that the real version post-Return of The Jedi.

 

[ironman_rick]

It would have been awesome if Luke had "Yoda like lightsabre" battles in these sequels before being force-ghosted.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

I dunno. I think I'm more aligned with Rian Johnson on this. I thought his take on Luke in TLJ was genuinely interesting and emotionally poignant. His appearance in RoTS (albeit brief) left me cold. It was just a whole lot of nothing.

TLJ didn't leave them much room to do things, and even doing nothing is way better than making the character the complete opposite to his core traits, and trying to excuse that by showing that he devastatingly failed an extremely mild version of what he already conquered in the OT (he was willing to lay down his own life for the chance that there was still good in one of the most evil men the galaxy had ever seen, but as soon as his nephew shows signs of darkness he thinks about cold blooded murder).

TLJ's set up of Luke is something I with full honesty rank among the most incompetent character writing I've ever seen.

 

[Karelia]

I was disappointed how small his role was in ROS. Literally one scene is all we get? Would have been great if they had a bit more of a conversation. But the movie was lightspeed skipping to plot points. I enjoyed the film, but it definitely had some problems. I do feel JJ did his best, maybe we will get a director cut of this film. I feel there's quite a few scenes cut out.

 

[moviedoors]

That’s kind of what I meant when I said TLJ felt like it was setting up something unique regarding Luke’s involvement in this movie. Something, I guess, much more actively involved in the story and more Kylo Ren centric, delving further into the notion that he was being seduced by the light side of the force.

I think any way you cut it, having Luke only show up to reaffirm something that was already well underway (Rey wants to fight the bad guy) is a squandering of potential. In my mind, a more glaring example than anything in the previous two films.

How much more interesting would it have been to see the Force Ghost visit the villain this time instead?

This was the safest, most fan-service-y way to use Luke. Hamill's performance isn't particularly good either. There's a hamminess about it that has so far been lacking in the sequel movies. And the wig sucks.

 

[henzINNIT]

His appearance in RISE is a cameo. What’s the point in even comparing them, especially in terms of quality and depth of character?

Well that is the whole point in a nutshell really. JJ had two turns on bat and thought of nothing to do with Luke. Rian Johnson gets all the flack but he actually gave Luke a prominent role, a character arc and an interesting role in the climax.

 

[Adhesive Boy]

Well that is the whole point in a nutshell really. JJ had two turns on bat and thought of nothing to do with Luke. Rian Johnson gets all the flack but he actually gave Luke a prominent role, a character arc and an interesting role in the climax.

JJ had an idea, Rian just didn't want to follow it. Instead Rian gave us a character that wasn't Luke Skywalker at all, and did his best to tarnish the legacy of the beloved character by making him be a candidate for the worst of the Jedi.

His role in the climax wasn't interesting at all. He did a glorified "hey, look over here while my friends escape" and then he just died for no reason. Not even remotely close to redemption for having ran away as soon as a new dark lord rose, and left everyone he cared about in danger. The exact opposite of what Luke is supposed to be.

Admiral Ackbar got a better deal than I first thought. At least he didn't get humiliated and his legacy destroyed before he was unceremoniously killed with no one caring.

 

[Prison Mike]

What was JJ’s idea? Not sure how you can portray him as this optimistic hero that everyone wanted him to be while he was in hiding during the events of TFA? He had to be a broken man, IMO, for him to to not save the day during the first movie.

 

[Fincher]

I read that Abrams got started on writing The Last Jedi but Rian threw it out, so I guess you'd have to locate the rejected manuscript to know what he had in mind. However, they could have made it be that Luke sensed Snoke's power and believed he wasn't strong enough to face him, but there was some light side power he'd learned about, and he isolated himself to focus on training to be able to do it, but it wasn't working and he became obsessed. It could still be presented as a mistake on his part without it being about him giving up.

Granted, the handling of Luke isn't the reason I disliked The Last Jedi, although it didn't do my overall opinion of Luke as a character any favors.

 

[BatLobster]

What was JJ’s idea? Not sure how you can portray him as this optimistic hero that everyone wanted him to be while he was in hiding during the events of TFA? He had to be a broken man, IMO, for him to to not save the day during the first movie.

Bingo. Rian just sat down and asked honestly, if Luke was still the hero we knew and part of this fight why is he in self-imposed exile and why did he not step in to rescue Han in the previous film? And the answer he landed on made perfect sense, even if it wasn't the Luke we all wanted to see. In the end, I think humanizing Luke while giving him a big payoff to that arc is something many filmmakers would've gravitated towards given the setup. You could've gone the route where he was in too deep searching for the source of Snoke's power (or indeed, searching for Exogal), and that could've definitely been a cool direction. But I think after one film of Macguffin hunting, telling a more honest emotional story with some real dramatic weight was an understandable decision, especially for a middle chapter. Plus Luke's disillusionment with the Jedi gives more weight to their failures in the prequels, which is a nice touch for the overall saga. After failing to restart the Jedi Order and failing his nephew and his sister, it's easy to see why the man would be disillusioned and thinking he needs to break this cycle.

Hamill's performance feels so much more real in TLJ compared to TROS, which is ironic considering he finally gets to play the encouraging, optimistic mentor he wanted to in TROS, albeit briefly.

That said, on subsequent viewings, I can't help but smile when he lifts the X-Wing. It's a really beautiful moment and a nice multi-layered payoff. Him telling Rey some things are more powerful than blood was really touching too. Just the fact that Luke and Leia treat the descendant of the man who ruined their family with love and choose to believe in her because they see her heart, and ultimately become her adoptive family is an extraordinary addition to the Skywalker story. Love is the Skywalkers' greatest strength in the end.