Lit SOS: Save Our Skywalker, Luke Skywalker (v4)

Wow! It HAS been a LONG time, Dart!!!!!! How are you?????

Well, I am NOT happy about the backstory that they have given Luke in this new trilogy, that's for sure! I hate that the filmmakers had his order destroyed; all of his Jedi killed; had his nephew go dark on his watch; had Luke walk away from all of hi responsibilities; and have left him totally alone. I certainly never expected or wanted such a miserable life for Luke (or Han and Leia). I hated that I got to see Luke for less than a minute in the first film, and that he didn't speak at all. My biggest concern for the future film is that Luke will be killed off after training Rey, and that Rey, and not Luke, will restore the new Jedi order.

Great to see you back!

 

Dart!? Yay!

The biggest problem with Luke in the new stuff is not enough of him to form an accurate picture. So far his only real appearance as a Jedi post-Endor was in Shattered Empire which I loved but that's it!

 

It's hard to stay because we haven't seen much of Luke. He has less time than either Leia or Han. I've generally enjoyed his appearances in canon, but all of those, except one appearance in Shattered Empire, are between ANH and ESB. There hasn't been much added to his character from what we saw on screen. They have hinted at him spending time looking for Jedi artifacts and we've seen some of this. Luke didn't do that in the EU and I feel like it's a logical addition, which I'm excited to learn more about it. I think they have a good story arc planned for him. I'm unsure how I feel about his Jedi Order being destroyed. I am bothered by it, but I'd have to see how the ST plays out and what happens in stories involving his Jedi to fully judge how I feel about it as part of the story.

 

It's simply because the ST is ongoing, and they don't want potential stories getting contradicted since "it's all canon" now. Which is smart. I'd rather have fewer Luke stories than BAD Luke stories. And it's been stated by Marvel at least that Luke is the main character TM of Star Wars, which is why he's not getting spinoff stories like other characters are.

 

I definitely agree. It still does make it difficult to form an opinion on how I feel he's portrayed. I kind of enjoy having only a few stories with Luke. I like the opportunity for speculation. I don't want them to reveal a of the interesting stories right away and I want them to be good when they are finally written. The way the story group has been telling stories has been very effective for universe and character building. I love how planned and derailed everything appears.

 

Doing pretty well, guys - I was chatting to a friend on Facebook, reminiscing about TFN and figured I'd drop by I'm actually a freelance writer (mostly on Moviepilot) nowadays, and yes my love of Star Wars comes in very handy

CoW:
I completely understand. I think, because of the Prequels' poor reception, they felt they had to make TFA something of a 'nostalgia' buzz'. That in itself meant finding a way to restore ANH's status quo - and had a massive effect on Luke. The thing I did like, though, was how Luke dominated TFA even though he wasn't there; everybody was looking for him, Snope was terrified of his being found, his return was seen as a turning point. It made him feel like Arthur, destined to save England in its hour of greatest need lol. I'm optimistic for some comments I've heard; they've been saying the relationship between Luke and Rey is essentially the centerpiece of Episode VIII.

One thing that intrigues me, though, is that they seem to be moving away from the Skywalker Saga. Rogue One was an experiment at spinoff movies, and it's been successful - just broke a billion dollars at the box office. My reckoning is we'll see the Skywalker Saga continuing, but more intermittently, with a scattering of Rogue-One-esque films around it. I did love Rogue One - it only emphasised Luke's heroism imo, placing it in context.

Ironically enough, I wouldn't be surprised if Carrie Fisher's sad death might change the plans for the main Saga. Lucasfilm will need to work out what to do about Leia; and I can't see them having literally all three of the major figures killed off in the same trilogy!

Jedi Ben:
Fair point And good to be back! I'm intrigued by Lucasfilm's decisions re: the new timeline. They seem to be avoiding telling the main stories as much as they can. Even Bloodline set up the First Order, but didn't show it being born. I can't help feeling they've got major plans for all three, and I'm suspecting we'll get flashbacks. Only then will the novels and comics really start to fill in the gaps.

JK75:
I've got the same attitude as you; I'm gonna wait and see before I form an opinion. I do feel like Lucasfilm is playing the long game; the continuity around Tarkin, Rogue One, Rebels, and Catalyst was incredible. They've actually beaten Marvel for continuity imo. So that makes me very, very curious.

MS:
Agreed. I gotta say, I love the "it's all canon" approach.

 

It also means there's fewer chances of him getting badly characterized and "disrespected", since basically ANY time someone talks about Luke Skywalker after Yavin, they're gushing about him.

 

What I've heard about Luke in episode viii from recent rumors though(and I hope they are wrong rumors), has me very, very concerned. Unfortunately, can't discuss them on this lit board, only in the spoiler forum.

 

OK, I think everyone has now seen what you might be referring to COW.

It's also one of those things that could go either way, so I can see why you're uneasy about it, but it could go the other way too.

 

I completely ignore any related SW news and speculation when it comes to the films. I managed to avoid knowing Han's fate, or the end of Rogue One. If I had been discussing those rumors and speculations, it probably would have impacted my views of the film negatively, even though they were narrative appropriate. The more you focus on something, the more it becomes part of your reality.

 

Um, I haven't. It's really easy to avoid spoilers and rumors if you want to.

 

I have no idea what you're talking about either. Partially because I'm trying to avoid spoilers, and partially because I don't care that much (I never go into the movie forums). TFA was kind of a yawn fest for me, with its obsession to resetting things to ANH-status. Rogue One was much better at least (though I have a few minor problems with it, but those are only small things compared to everything wrong with TFA).

The recently announced Episode VIII title also has left me feeling... ambivalent. We can at least talk about that title here, right? Its in the Episode VIII thread title so don't think that's an off-limit spoiler. TFA was bad enough, but as the middle episode VIII will be even darker. We can argue about whether the Jedi in the title will mean plural or singular, but I just won't ever be happy about Luke still be the last Jedi after several decades. 20 years ago the Thrawn trilogy rephrased it perfectly as "not last of the old, but first of the new", following up on RotJ's tale of redemption and new beginnings... but fast-forward and things seem even more depressing now.

Sorry for that little rant, its all been covered before (and will be said again in the future too probably), but after today's news I was reminded of the story setting again.

 

I admit, I was wondering - are we allowed to discuss the title in this thread..? Or does that count as a spoiler..? Regardless, my opinion is they've saved the tale of the Jedi for flashback scenes in the movies.

 

I thought it was the ep 8 title, which has now gone public, but sounds like there might be other stuff of I don't know of.

In any case, I can see why COW would be uneasy over the ep 8 title.

 

Ah, sorry, I assumed COW was discussing rumors again and that's what you were responding to.

 

On another note, what were people's reactions to Heir of the Jedi / Weapon of the Jedi? I thought both were great books, loved the focus and the character-work. I have to admit, the minute Luke got a crush in HotJ I knew how it would end

 

Btw I freely admit, MS, that these days I know far too many rumors; my job is usually to write about them, evaluate their credibility, and spell out their implications

 

I don't envy that task!

 

Hated Heir, loved Weapon.

 

The new title is one thing that concerns me, but the awful rumors I heard concern me far more.

I would think that we can probably discuss the title of episode viii, because that news was in my hometown newspaper this morning, so I would sat that it's general knowledge and not a "spoiler", right?

Nobody, welcome back! As you can probably guess, I didn't like TFA either, mostly because it made the lives of Luke, Leia, and Han so awful; made the OT films pretty irrelevant; and just retold the same story that we got in the previous films. I found it mind-boggling that when they had a completely empty canvas and could have told an infinite number of different kinds of stories, that they pretty much went with the story that we already got in the prior trilogies, and that was done far better by Lucas with, for the most part, better characters. ( in my opinion)

 

Would you believe I still haven't read these, though they are on my kindle? I really don't know exactly why. I started to read HotJ, and just didn't get into it after ready a short part of it. I have read lots of other things, but for some reason, I just haven't been reading SW books. Maybe part of it is the fact that all of the previous books in the old EU were made noncanon after being told for so long that everything was supposed to be canon has kind of soured me to the SW lit? It also doesn't help that pretty much everything involving Luke has taken place prior to RotJ, so the stories aren't really taking Luke into the future. I was also so disappointed in TFA in general and Luke's lack of a role in it and backstory in particular, that I just haven't been motivated to read the new EU. And, if what I fear happens in episode VIII, I may end up giving up on Star Wars completely.

 

Gotta say I'm very worried about Luke based on episode 8 title and logo


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I do completely understand, actually. It took me about a year to get interest back in the new Star Wars books, because losing the EU was a bit of a body-blow. I mean, bad enough they killed Anakin Solo, now they erased him from canon?!?

Those two books are pretty good. HotJ isn't the best - it kind of loses its way partway through, and one event that should be climatic just... isn't lol. But WotJ is really fun and well worth reading Have you picked up any of the Star Wars comics? Jason Aaron's run is pretty much focusing in on Luke

I'm fairly optimistic for the next Star Wars film (which will go untitled for now in this comment in case I'm not supposed to give the title ). I can't see them killing Luke when they've just lost Han and, sadly, Leia as well.

 

I'm suspecting it'll be more about *how* he became the last Jedi, with Rey training and learning - but also with Kylo Ren learning and training at the same time. So I'm expecting a lot of backstory, which I think is why there's a lot of gaps in the continuity right now.

Let's face it, there's some pretty big gaps! https://moviepilot.com/p/star-wars-episode-8-the-last-jedi-flashbacks-scenes/4194865

 

Re: Weapon - Huge amount of fun, really great.

Re: Heir - Mostly good save for a terrible finale decision.