Lit SOS: Save Our Skywalker, Luke Skywalker (v3)

I dislike the whole notion that Luke should be a HULK SMASH character, didn't like that use in DN at all, plus if he can just stomp anyone then he's being a git by just letting them cause havoc and Luke Skywalker is not a git!

 

I think if anything Luke should be handled like Superman(when written well) and Captain America

Jedi Ben, when did Luke act like a Hulk in DN ?

 

That's the sense I had throughout the trilogy, Luke holding back, being paralysed, being restrained while the Killiks cause chaos then at the end... WHAM. Why not just do that at the start?

 

That goes more into the issues of the plot, Raynar being alive, the colony being an unknown, etc. I take it like this though, any big Force feat that Luke can do, will take most to all of his concentration, time to do it, and could leave him vulnerable. So let's say he Force waves a few cruisers away, okay that probably wasn't the best option when his resources could be used elsewhere and he just left himself open for an attack. Anywho he turn out to be far more powerful than Raynar who had a Force potential boost of trillions

 

Denning!Luke has fallen a long way from his Dark Nest days. For the record, it annoys me just as profoundly when Luke is threatened by a no-name Sith as it does when Luke defeats legions of them with the blink of an eye.

 

then I'm sure FotJ left you with mixed feelings as it did the rest of us Out of curiosity, when has Luke defeated "legions of them in a blink of an eye ?" and also what's your preference ? a balance of both extremes ?

 

Fate of the Jedi was downright terrible, from start to finish. Though I did enjoy and continue to 'ship Bestara.

Luke took on a Sith strike team and Abeloth simultaneously and, according to Ben, was "winning." That's ridiculous; Abeloth is an ancient eldritch Force manifestation who should clean Luke's clock from start to finish.

Yup. Aristotle once claimed that virtue is the mean between extremes and here I would agree. I've made my stance obnoxiously clear that Luke should be top tier but in no way infallible. Thrawn is a superior tactician; Luke should stand no chance against him in a naval battle. Sidious is a superior strategist; as in Dark Empire, Luke can't hope to win a chess match with Sidious. Leia is a superior politician; her political skills and expertise should surpass Luke's; so on and so forth.

I'm generally content with Luke as portrayed in The Unifying Force. He kicks ass and takes names and awes Jacen and Jaina, but is mortally injured taking on the Big Bad. (Though that was kinda dumb, since Shimrra has no Force powers to speak of.) All I need to know is that the Big Bad can either beat him up or outwit him.

 

FOTJ was good for awhile... up to Abyss anyway. Much like LOTF it slid down as it went.

 

SableHart more or less I agree, although I always had an issue with Abeloth when it was discovered to have dozens of Luke's Force strength. Really ?!?! That means she should be unstoppable then...like no chance. I feel they should stop one upping Sidious and the Galactic Civil War

 

why are you shouting??

 

weird font glitch....I tried to fix it but to no avail

 

Any opinions on Luke in Crucible?

 

Me too!!!

Yes.

But when are we allowed to discuss that? And who's read it on this thread?

 

See the spoiler policy for when and how we can discuss Crucible here.

In the mean time, it's interesting that we tend to spiral back to a handful of strong, well-executed portrayals of Luke:

Tyers with Balance Point
Zahn with TTT - less so HoT and no, put down the CoO grenade Kataja! That means you too COW!
Luceno with TUF
Stover with Mindor
Highly contested but always crops up - DE.

Plus there's a smattering of comics, some more successful than others!

 

U forgot SotE and SQ as well although I would say HoT was a solid duology for Luke saved for a few things

 

I liked Luke in SQ. He wasn't written as a pushover, at least.

 

Revanfan1, it was a nice sidestory for us Luke and Mara fans, also Luke got to demonstrate his Force ability a lot more than the previous Zahn books

 

Yeah, in a lot of Zahn's books, Luke was underpowered or inhibited (the latter of which was a problem with many books anyways), but SQ was great.

 

yeah, it work in a way as we got to see Luke utilize his other resources, such as using his mechanical skills to hot wire his hand. But I prefer a balance of him using his Force skills, as well as his other abilities.

 

That's specifically because Zahn hates the path the EU took with the Force after his original trilogy. He despises the idea of Luke as an invincible badass, or any Force User really. This is why the Hand of Thrawn Duology is him basically saying "Take That!" to the other novels of the Bantam Era that showcased major Force Feats, as well as attempting to fix it by giving the explanation that using the Force in such heavy ways blinded one to the subtler aspects of it. Personally, I didn't have a problem with this. Didn't necessarily believe it wholeheartedly, but it was a nice view of things. The point where he crossed a line was where he outright said Luke had been tainted by the Dark Side for decades, and had also been drawing on it when he chose to use it as a solution to a problem.

 

Huh, well I saw a bit of retconning in the HOT Duology, definitely. I don't really agree with his assessment of the Force, because Luke should be a hard-hitter, but I guess it's because if you know Luke's gonna curb-stomp the guy it doesn't make for good drama. But it definitely is interesting to think about. And I agree. No way had Luke been tainted for decades. That's wrong, wrong, sooooo wrong.

 

although it was nice to hear from Luke himself in HoT that he could rip/crush a pirate fleet with the power of the Force

any who the Zahn stance while an ok idea in general, shouldn't have been applied to Luke since anytime he used the Force in a big way was for saving lives and he didn't do big feats on a constant basis. The way NJO interprets Luke's stance is Force exhaustion

 

Which book was that? And where did that power go when he needed to deal with those Lost Tribe ships at the end of Backlash?

 

i have not gotten very far into crucible, maybe 40% through it, and all the characters feel static. No real personality based on previous works. I am hoping that is not considered a spoiler

 

it was in Specter of the Past, book one of HoT. Though to be fair Luke said he was capable of doing so, doesn't mean he should. Like I can see him crushing the weapon emplacements like he did in DN or the engines, but for him to rip apart a ship apart would be un-jedi like unless there was no other alternative. Apartently FotJ forgot about his power level.

I think it's ok JM, just don't be specific.