On Luke and "Character Assassination"

I think that it's safe to say that the "divisiveness" that is the most important has to do with Luke's storyline. It has to do with two things: Luke's apparent attempt to "assassinate" Ben, and Johnson's apparent attempt to assassinate Luke's character.There are a few observations I want to share on that front:1) Luke in Ben’s Jedi HutIt is simply wrong to say that Luke's moment with sleeping Ben Solo is out of character. It is absolutely within character. Yoda tells Obi-Wan to kill Anakin. Obi-Wan tells Luke to kill Anakin. Obi-Wan agrees to do it. Luke refuses. It sounds harsh, but Yoda is right in both cases. If you have magic abilities to foresee a threat and you sense millions of deaths issuing from one man's turn to the dark, you end the threat. You should think about killing Young Hitler if someone foresees his future. That responsibility comes before your personal feelings. Or, at least, it's good leadership to think that way.When Luke sees Ben's future, he reacts instinctively to this wisdom. He is a leader. He should end the threat before it becomes real.Then the better part of him--the Luke we know--stops himself. That is Luke. It's not out of character to be tempted. It is out of character if he tried to go through with it. He did not. The logic of those who criticize this scene suggests that Luke really tried to kill Ben. Rather, he did exactly what he has done in the past: saw great evil and refused to allow it to lead him on a path to murder, despite what others might counsel.He did exactly what he did in ROTJ: gave into instinct and then overcame instinct. That makes it IN character.What happened afterwards was a result of a kind of Shakespearean tragic miscommunication/misunderstanding.2) Luke in ExileLuke does NOT do what Yoda and Obi-Wan did after his pupil turns to the dark. They went into hiding, biding their time until they could train a super weapon that they could use against Palpatine and Vader. They intended to train a new Skywalker to kill an old Skywalker that they failed at training. When you think about it, their plan doesn’t make that much sense. I know we aren’t allowed to speak ill of the OT, but if they had one job (to train the “Last Hope” of the Galaxy), why did they wait so long? In fact, why did they wait until events forced their hand? What would they have done if Leia didn’t happen upon Tatooine? If not for luck/The Force, Leia (1/2 of their last hope) would have died (were there plans to train her?).Luke’s exile makes more sense than theirs. He doesn’t want to wait to train the person who will eventually kill Ben Solo/Snoke. He realizes that he is part of a cycle: the Jedi find special people, train them to use magic powers as great weapons, and place them in positions where if they ever get tempted to use their amazing powers for ill (and succumb to that temptation), as many people die from this evil as end up being saved by Jedi goodness. He comes to believe that it is time to end this cycle. He believes that it's improper for an organized group to seek out people to train in the Force, as if the Force is theirs to wield. The Force, he believes, will find a way to work its way without the Jedi.You can disagree with his logic, but to say that he is giving up and leaving his friends/family behind out of cowardice isn’t accurate. He doesn’t quit because he failed once and gave up; he quits because he sees that he’s part of a cycle of failure that is inevitable.In this movie, both Ben and Luke arrive to the same philosophical outlook: the only way to create something new is by leaving the past behind. Ben wants to create a new a self; Luke wants to create a new way for the Force to be wielded, outside of the jurisdiction of an official organized religion telling people how to wield it. Both are wrong about how to create something new. Luke learns this; Ben does not.3) Luke the RedeemerLuke’s last act is to give the galaxy hope, but it doubles as something else. Luke does not leave his conversation with Yoda and decide he has to go to Rey and train her. Rather, he decides he needs to tell Ben that he failed him, and he needs to give him a chance. He isn’t just saving the resistance from annihilation; he’s saving Ben from killing his mother, from going another step beyond "too far." He saves Ben from killing his uncle by force-teleporting.Of course, he knows that he can no longer truly save Ben—as he tells Leia—but he does not believe he is beyond redemption. It is left to Rey, who believes in his redemption. Luke, however, does what he can to show he believes in that possibility and that he believes that something new can come about, despite his misgivings of the cycle.This isn’t a departure of the Luke we know and love—it is a restatement of it. Luke represented the young. He represented those who are on the precipice of adulthood and showed us all how to grow up with dignity and heroism. That was the OT Luke. In this series, Luke now represents the old, and I’m sorry to say to all of you, but you will get to your old age with regrets and with sadness. You may not be overcome by it, but it will be there. Luke now represents them. He speaks for another age, and he shows that the same hope is still possible at a new stage in your life. He translates that same character arc to a new stage of life, but it’s hard-earned, it's not easy--just as it was hard-earned in his youth.This is meaningful character work.It is not character assassination. via /r/StarWars http://ift.tt/2CbuGdD