Luke Skywalker is the Most Jedi Ever
And it has nothing to do with the Force
I was never a big Luke Skywalker fan.
Even though the Original Trilogy (OT) belonged to him, in that it’s his hero’s journey we’re following, Luke was always kind of a dope. He was whiny and naive and frankly, not nearly as cool as Han Solo. Even as a kid, I put more stock in Han’s trusty blaster.
I grew up on the OT, when the Force was still something mystical and you could count the number of Force users on one hand. I was intrigued by the history of the Jedi, and the mysterious Clone Wars that lead to their downfall, but as an entrant into that world, Luke never really moved the needle for me.
Luke was the third most interesting Jedi. Out of three.
Among the good guys, there was a clear hierarchy: Yoda was the wizened master clinging to the Jedi teachings, a lonely pacifist largely out of touch with the galaxy at large; Obi-Wan the dry hermit who, after nearly two decades hiding on the fringe among criminals and outcasts, thinks nothing of half-truths and omissions (and who is also incorporeal for most of the OT); Luke, orphaned twice over, burgeoning in power but too impulsive for his own good, bragging about bulls-eyeing womp rats.
Of the Jedi, Yoda was clearly supreme. There was a sense that he was the last of the true masters, and his passing in Return of the Jedi felt like the end of an era. Luke wasn’t even a full Jedi until he faced Vader and emerged from the trial with his emotions in check… and he immediately proceeded to eat Force lightning. There was no scenario in which Luke bests the Emperor in a fight. He’s just not strong enough at that point.
Luke defeats the Emperor because he believed some faint shred of Anakin survived under all that black armor and scarred flesh — and he was right.
In the long years post-OT (aka, the Dark Times), it was hard to imagine a scenario in which Luke ever approached Yoda’s level of Force mastery. It seemed unthinkable. Luke didn’t have the patience, or a lifespan marked by centuries.
This was of course prior to the prophecy introduced in the Prequel Trilogy (PT), which neatly retconned the Skywalkers into a quasi-dynastic line apart from the rest of the Jedi order, and by extension, seemingly above it. A midichlorian count higher than Yoda’s (our handy barometer for Jediness established previously), marked Anakin as potentially the most powerful being in the galaxy.
Alas, in order to harness such potential, Anakin first needed to master himself, and he was even worse at it than Luke.
The PT introduced many new colorful flavors of Jedi and Sith, which had the added side-effect of shunting Luke even further down any Jedi Power Rankings. Hero of the Rebellion or no, he couldn’t possibly compare with the fiercely powerful Mace Windu or brazenly confident Obi-Wan. Indeed, the PT did more for Obi-Wan’s stock than anyone outside of Sideous.
Which brings us to the Sequel Trilogy (ST).
A lot of fans took issue with The Last Jedi’s (TLJ) depiction of Luke. Only, that’s being too nice.
They hated it.
They wanted to see him “walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order”. They wanted some combination of the lightsaber-swinging hero they remembered from the OT married with Yoda-type wisdom and power, the long years post-RotJ acting like a kind of Force marination. Maturity and wisdom and, yes, power. A true Jedi Master.
Instead we got a depressed shut-in.
It’s a complete 180 from what many expected. Fans did bring expectations to TLJ — enormous, unsustainable expectations for what Luke should be. Thirty-four years of wondering and dreaming will do that.
This is not about TLJ though, so we will put all that baggage back in the closet, aside from briefly clarifying my own bias: I was surprised by the Luke we find in TLJ, but had never invested much thought on his fate (again, Han guy here). Suffice it to say, I was satisfied by his TLJ arc.
Amid all the angst over the treatment of notable lightsabers and disgust over the unsanitary consumption of milk, a lot of people lost sight of something amazing. Even before Luke‘s final heroic hour, we were unknowingly witnessing a level of Force mastery heretofore never seen.
Luke completely closed himself off from the Force.
I didn’t even know that was possible. It’s even more impressive when you consider that his body is naturally predisposed to channel the Force.
Qui-Gon Jinn: Midi-chlorians are a microcopic lifeform that reside within all living cells and communicates with the Force.
Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. They continually speak to you, telling you the will of the Force. When you learn to quiet your mind, you will hear them speaking to you.
Luke’s grief and regret was so deep, he walled himself off, physically and spiritually, severing his connection to the Force.
A connection done at the cellular level.
And this was only an appetizer. Once the walls come back down, Luke projects himself across the stars, delays the First Order, saves the Resistance. The Jedi are always going on about how the Force should be used only for knowledge and defense, never for attack… but they whip out their lightsabers at every turn! Not even Yoda could resist crossing blades when his game of catch with Dooku went into extra innings.
Luke’s astral projection is the first and only time we see a non-aggressive response to a threat. And in that, he transcended the Jedi order and became something else.
There is a lot of speculation about which Skywalker is referred to in the Episode IX title Rise of Skywalker. Most people fall into one of two camps: it signals Kylo’s redemption as Ben Solo (Skywalker by blood), or it indicates a new line of Force users, ones that epitomize the Skywalker brand of Force practitioners. The other options being strictly relational: Leia (possible but seems a weird place to focus at this point) or Rey (please JJ no …).
I personally believe the title marks a departure from the Jedi way and the embracing of something new.
Luke has never been the prototypical Jedi: calm, resolute, peaceful. He is instead impatient and impulsive, and tends to rush into action before considering the cost. His self-imposed exile was just another in a long run of emotional decisions. He, like his father, has never fully mastered himself.
As counterpoint, consider Yoda, who presided over the Jedi at their apex and was unable to stop their fall, one conducted right under his nose. Might not he have more reason to grieve than Luke, given all that was lost? Or Obi-Wan, who lost his apprentice and best friend to the Dark Side? It’s not hard to imagine Luke in Obi-Wan’s shoes, brooding alone in the desert. Whatever guilt or shame Yoda and Obi-Wan feel about their failures, they put their faith in the Force, and looked toward the future with hope.
Luke, when confronted with his ultimate failure, can only look backwards.
But while he has always been a man ruled by his emotions, in some ways forever that desert boy looking for power converters, it is his emotions that are both his great weakness and his one great strength.
Luke did not topple the Empire with fancy swordplay or showy powers. He did it because he felt compassion for his father, and was willing to lay down his life rather than fight him. Likewise in TLJ, fueled by love and regret in equal portions, Luke sacrifices himself so that the Resistance might live on. Emotion saves the day, and perhaps the galaxy, in both cases.
However, the Jedi castigate emotion; the very first line of the Jedi Code: There is no emotion, there is peace.
The Jedi are so afraid of the Dark Side that they purposefully shut themselves off from what makes them Human in the first place (or Rodian, etc). It was a lesson even the great Yoda needed to learn. Yoda, who perhaps failed more spectacularly than anyone else.
Yoda : Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.
Emotion is not the enemy. That is the final lesson of this Skywalker saga, and it is what Luke, the greatest Jedi of all, will pass on.
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