This post contains Spoilers for The Last Jedi
Well, here we are. The Last Jedi has finally released and we've had the chance to see it, and absorb the newest addition to a beloved franchise. Having been literally raised with Star Wars, my most vivid memory of the series was seeing Jabba the Hutt for the first time in the theater. I was terrified of the huge slug...but I was also 3 years old. So it comes as no surprise that Luke, Han and Leia would become my trio of heroes throughout my youth and yes, adulthood as well. So it is through the lense of someone who feels like he's got star wars in his blood that I went to see The Last Jedi.
When it was over, my first feeling was...anger. Did I really just see Luke Skywalker die? I was already not pleased with the direction his character went in the film, but then to kill him off? Anger. (Keep reading...because I'm not so angry anymore about it). I suppose I was absolutely guilty of coming into the movie with the expectation that we were going to see some serious Skywalker butt-kicking. Surely after triumphantly saving his father from the dark side and becoming the last Jedi Knight, we would all hope that he spent the next 30 years increasing his power and Jedi bravado. But that wasn't what we were presented with. We spend the two and half hours of Episode 8 discovering that our childhood hero has, well, given up. Anger.
In the weeks since I saw the film, I've spent time thinking about arc that became Luke's story. And in the end, I found myself agreeing that where he ended up made sense. The guy went through a lot of bad stuff in his life. From seeing his aunt and uncle burned to death, losing his best friend Biggs in the Death Star Battle, watching both of his Jedi Mentors die, getting his arm chopped off by the galaxies ultimate villain, and then shortly after learning that Vader was dad. Then finally being told that he would have to kill his father to save him (and the galaxy). Whew. That's a lot to take in. Now we add in the future where he starts to rebuild the Jedi Order, and they get wiped out by a trainee of his. A family member no less.
So sure! Who wouldn't want to go into hiding forever, drink moof milk and meditate? I think what made Luke such a strong hero is that even going through all of that, he kept bouncing back. And to see him do something that a normal person would do (saying the hell with it all), was a somber look into reality. I don't think we really want to see the humanity in our hero's. We want to see them persevere through all manners of tragedy, because we'd like to think that we have it within ourselves to do the same thing. We grew up wanting to be Jedi Knights because of Luke Skywalker, defenders of the good and innocent. Which means that in a way, we were the ones that were learning from him. I've come to think that The Last Jedi was a pretty good film, now that I've let my emotions run their course. Star Wars will never have the feeling that It did when it first blasted on the scene back in the 70's and 80's. But, does it have to? Such powerful and creative story telling is not easy to come by. And perhaps to my generation, the ones who grew up with those movies, maybe we can simply accept that things always change. The Star Wars that was is gone, but the Star Wars that is now, isn't bad. It's just different.
So let the ones that enjoy it's current state do so, and just be happy that we got to enjoy our piece of it the way we did.
Here's to ya lad!