I’m with this but we also have take into account that 60 something won’t have the same hope and mentality of a 25 year old.
I’ve heard this argument 98836 times in the past week and I’m tired. Destroying a character’s core values isn’t okay just because he’s old now, and all old people aren’t pessimistic assholes, enough already.
And I’ve heard this argument 98837 times in the past week and I’m tired. Having a character make mistakes and be terrified of those mistakes that it traumatized him is not destroying a character’s core values. Having core values doesn’t mean you can’t stray from them even for a moment, it doesn’t mean that you can’t fall from grace and have failure and then climb back up. To claim that one must always keep to their core values and never stray is to expect a character to behave as a movie character and a caricature and not an actual realistic person.
So tell me, how was Luke Skywalker’s character and core values destroyed? Are you telling me that Luke was never tempted by anger and impulse and the dark side? The same Luke who angrily fought Vader when he thought Leia was in danger? The same Luke who nearly killed Vader in anger because his friends might die and was only pulled back from the brink when he cut off Vader’s hand and realized what he was becoming?
Just because he saved the world once doesn’t mean it’s happily ever after forever, the story doesn’t end there, life doesn’t end there, it continued on and as long as life exists, there will always be struggles and ups and downs, including more evils to face and more darkness to tempt him – to think that life somehow ends just because the movie ended is not dismiss the fact that just because we in life make one triumph then we no longer have struggles anymore or even make the same mistakes and quite frankly that’s not even close to the truth.
Luke Skywalker in his wide eyed idealism thought he saved the world and all would be well, except that isn’t how life works and when he went to confront his nephew about the darkness he saw rising and looked into the 23 year old’s mind, he saw death and destruction as clearly as when he was on the Emperor’s bridge watching the rebellion die and in that moment, in his own hubris, he thought he could end it – but like it was all those years ago, it was a fleeting thought and it shamed him – it shamed him that what he had thought he conquered before wasn’t over. Then Ben reacted and everything was destroyed and in that destruction, Luke saw that being a legend, being Luke Skywalker, he had doomed the galaxy to death and destruction.
It was easy to keep hope for Vader, why? Because Luke wasn’t the one who created Vader, there was hope for him to reach, there was no baggage – but that’s not the same with Ben – Luke was the one who allowed the darkness to grow right under his nose, whose mistake had doomed them all, how can he fix something he broke? He didn’t want to return because being Luke Skywalker was the reason this all happened in the first place, that his hubris, the Jedi’s hubris, had caused damage once again.
But that’s not the end is it? As Luke learns one more time from Yoda, it wasn’t just suppose to be just strength that he can pass on, but also failure, that failure is the greatest teacher, and in learning that, in learning that failure doesn’t mark the end, that just because you fail once doesn’t mean you can’t rise above it, he finds the hope and the strength to do what is right instead of what is easy.
What core values are destroyed when Luke Skywalker brings hope to a new generation? What pessimism did he impart when children across the galaxy hears his legends and pass on the hope?
You people keep holding onto the mistake and refuse to let it go, refuse to rise beyond the failure, just like Luke once wouldn’t – and you refuse to see that nothing is destroyed, nothing is demonized, and nothing is pessimistic.
This movie literally ends with downtrodden slave children whispering the tales of Luke’s last stand and a little force sensitive boy looking to the stars inspired to a better future. THAT IS THE LEGACY OF LUKE SKYWALKER. Is that not hope enough for you all?
