CT Hammil's desire to be turned to the Dark Side

Would you have done it? Would you have turned Luke and continued on with the story through the 80s-2000s and build upon the Star Wars story arc

 

honestly I think it would have been more fun than what we got. But I would rather him not turn.

 

Considering Anakin turns, it might have been repetitive. Much better the grandson turns.

 

I can totally see why Hamill, as an actor, would want his character to fall to the dark side. It would certainly give him the opportunity to delve into the character and explore his range as an actor.

But I definitely would not have liked it as a direction for the character.

 

It would have ruined the entire message of the OT and Star Wars in general for me.

It changes the message from: 'compassion and love wins over hatred and evil' to 'become evil to defeat evil'

Selflesness becomes nihilism

Contraint becomes surrendering to temptation

Mercy becomes weakness


So yeah, what they did with Luke in TLJ might have been just as bad, as he lost many of his Heroic virtues that makes Luke the hero he is to most of us, at least they made it clear that this wasn't Dark Side mode Luke Skywalker. Just a hollow empty shell of a great man but not evil..

 

The Luke we see in The Last Jedi is an extension of the Luke we're left with at the end of Return of the Jedi, a character who teeters on the edge of the dark side to defeat Vader and the Emperor. He is tempted by the Emperor, and he gives in, allowing his rage and his insecurity at the prospect of losing Leia to the dark side to propel him forward. Yes, he pulls himself back at the last moment, just as he did when he pulled his saber on Ben Solo in his flashback scene in The Last Jedi. He teetered on the edge of the dark side when he sensed darkness in Ben but was able to pull himself back. It's something that has always been there, and it makes for a far more interesting character arc than the squeaky clean image that The Last Jedi detractors imagine for him.

 

TLJ's broken suicidal Luke is as extreme as "squeaky clean" Luke, if not more so.

As for Mark wanting Luke to turn, I don't know if he wanted that or just assumed it from things like the black outfit and black glove, and the talk about the other hope... It's interesting in a "what if" way, but no, I wouldn't change it. It's what the whole film is about, "Return of the Jedi".

 

I think it would have been a huge mistake. But I can understand where Mark was coming from at that point in time - Luke had a slow-burn arc compared to Han and was the symbol of hope and optimism in cinema. He knew the movies were dying down and he'd have to find roles after them and likely knew the struggle he'd have being typecast. Playing a villain could change that perception (and later did with the introduction of his Joker). But Mark has a history of wanting some.. really bad things for his character lol. There was an article shortly after Return of the Jedi came out where Mark was talking about all the suggestions that he brought up to George Lucas and this one stuck out to me: "In a book about Akira Kurosawa I found a photograph of a character with shaved widow’s peaks, a top know with a bone in it, and a little eagle claw earring. I decided that was Luke’s new look. You should have seen George’s eyes when I brought that photo in just before filming [of Return of the Jedi] stared. His face remained the same but his eyes turned into little kaleidoscopes of fear."

 

ROTJ originally was called ROTJ and this didn't change until after filming was well and long ago done. This seems to mean that Lucas still hadn't solidified his perception of what a Jedi is supposed to be and what it represents in the chronology of Star Wars as it evolved to today. Revenge is a sith construct but Lucas originally named this movie Revenge of the Jedi and this could explain to use of dark colours for Luke's costume in the film.

 

It was originally titled Return. Lawrence Kasdan told him that Return wasn’t a strong enough title. Lucas changed it to Revenge before eventually going back to his first choice, as Revenge of the Jedi was a contradiction.

 

Lucas changed it to Revenge. That's my point. Yes, he did change it back to Return after a short while, but the fact he seemed to consider Revenge an appropriate title at all sort of confirms that Lucas hadn't entirely figured out his concept of the Jedi at this point.

 

I think he could have gotten closer to it, even if he didn't go full Dark.
I never felt there was a risk he would turn Evil, even as a kid. Vader and the The Emperor were not offering him anything very tempting.
If they had made Episode 7 (1990), then it would have been a fun subplot to play with.

I think that Rey is given a stronger tug towards the Dark. A little more incentive. The difference being that the writers know right from the outset that this is an angle to play with.

 

An unpopular opinion, but I prefer what we actually got.