[mundo]

Клёвейший пост разбор про Люка. Про сложность его персонажа и про дуальность: Люк-легенда и Люк-человек. Особенно радует, что этот пост написал человек на тумбе, который для меня является основным и любимым по Люку. И я рада, что tatooineknights увидела историю Люка такой, какой её увидела я.

Luke Skywalker; The Legend, The Myth, The Man (The Last Jedi spoilers included):

“Who are you?”

This is one of the first questions that Luke Skywalker asks, standing in front of this strange and mysterious woman begging him to heed the call of action. He’s cloaked in darkness, standing at the edge of the shadowy confines of the tree and the lush light of the world outside. He asks this to learn more of the woman, curious of who she was and where she came from, but even more curious of how she found the great hero of the Rebel Alliance and wondering what she thought of him and why she sought him out. He was a legend, a myth – he knew that – and he knew she knew that.

A long time had passed since he was the young boy standing underneath the binary sunset, staring out into the stars and wondering what existed out there. Surely there was more for him than just being the farmer’s nephew - there were so many grand stories, of legends, of myths, of individuals that fought for the cause of good and faced off against the cause of evil.

Luke Skywalker, just like any of us, is an ordinary man with positive traits and negative flaws. He is kind and empathetic, embracing pacifism when he can, and a champion for all that is good. He is quick to protect and defend his friends, as seen by his willingness to save Leia on the Death Star and his multi-faceted plan to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. He is also willing to become a hero when it is necessary, such as when he mans an X-Wing for the first time to take down the Death Star and joins the Alliance. Luke is also an individual that wants to see the good in everyone. These are all traits that we embrace and idolize in Luke – traits that we might see in ourselves or ones that we wished we could have. After all, Skywalker is the very symbol of hope and peace in cinematic history. However, along with those traits, the flaws exist too; Luke has two major flaws that he struggles with throughout his life.

The first is his impulsiveness, which can be both a trait and weakness. Trying to rescue Leia off the Death Star even though he and Han had next to nothing to plan for, rushing off to an obvious trap in an attempt to save his friends, jumping to his death to avoid joining with Vader, turning himself in to Vader knowing it was a long shot at redeeming him. But there is other stuff too - attempting to strike down the (seemingly) defenseless and unarmed Emperor in hatred, inches away from murdering his father after he had been wounded, and yes, considering killing Ben for one second.

The second, and perhaps the most critical, is his difficulty in letting go. He has all these pre-conceived thoughts on the Force, of the Jedi, of his abilities, of his potential throughout The Empire Strikes Back. Yoda tells him he is wrong – he must unlearn. He must look past the physical world that he has formed in all his years as a farmer and as a soldier, see the teeming life that grows in the ordinarily simple trees and rocks and water, and he has great difficulty in doing that in this film. He is greatly confident in himself and his skills – not arrogance but perhaps a dash of hubris. The X-Wing is too big because that is how it appears to him in his mind; he needs his lightsaber and blaster to feel protected when entering the cave because he is dependent and reliant on them; he seeks out Vader not just to help save his friends, but because of a small flame of revenge for what happened to his father and Obi-Wan. He loses his hand due to this. But this flaw also works to his advantage in Return of the Jedi, where his refusal to let go of his father leads to Vader’s eventual redemption.

Unlike us, however, Luke was a Jedi Knight and son to one of the greatest Force users the entire universe had seen. This is both a heavy burden and a wonderful gift. It gave Luke the chance to do things far past the man he was, giving him the ability to help others and save the galaxy from tyranny. It also brought him great hardship.

If there is one constant in Luke’s life, despite all the development and growth he has achieved, he still struggles with these two flaws. Just in the time frame from Empire to Jedi, we see the reckless boy grow into a confident and cautious man. He’s calculated and in control of his emotions, guiding them to where he needs to be instead of letting them guide him down a path he cannot control. He has a great air of resolution as he peels off his cloak, revealing a sharp and stylish black outfit, the boyish grin replaced by the smile of a hardened individual and the twinkle in the eye of a mystical figure. This is the first time we see Luke in command of The Force and see him truly demonstrate his powers.

But underneath the resolve he had fostered, the wise Jedi still had cracks underneath the surface. After all, no matter how much we develop and changed, our most basic characterizations still exist, no? We might try to hide them, perhaps under our sleeve or buried deep in our heart, but they still exist. In this same movie, we see Luke give in to the Dark Side twice; both due to a mixture of rage and because of a nurturing loyalty he feels for his friends and family. We see him attempt to strike the Emperor down in hatred, we see him breathing down at his beaten father, rage swimming in his eyes.

That impulsiveness still existed despite the carefully crafted persona Luke had molded. Because despite the growth and change he had underwent, he is still the same man prone to the same mistakes. The difference here – and this is what we see from the end of Return of the Jedi onward – is that Luke becomes aware of this part of himself and rejects it. He has the lightsaber right up to Vader’s neck and pauses, his eyes glazing as he stares down at the man before him, seeing himself in defeated man. This is something he cannot do – perhaps Vader does deserve it, after all the pain and misery he has caused, but it isn’t Luke’s to decide. Despite it all, he loves his father. He wavers, holding the lightsaber, taking a few seconds to recollect himself before turning it off. He throws his lightsaber away and decides to stand firm in his resolve.

Now, nearly twenty years have passed, and Luke has grown stronger and more confident. He takes on a new batch of apprentices and prepares to rebuild the Jedi Order. Saving his father from the darkness and protecting his friends and sister from evil has made him feel safe, secure. He is accomplished and proud of his actions and wants to share that gift with the rest of the universe. There is only one problem – he senses something, dark and chaotic, sprouting from one of his apprentices. A threat to not just his order but his friends, his family, and to the galaxy at large.

This, he finds inside the head of his nephew.

What to do? All of a sudden those cracks begin to reform, reckless thoughts dancing and taunting him in the back of his head, as that happens to us all. He has a moment of weakness and activates his lightsaber and considers ending this threat – a threat that risked the lives of his disciples, his friends, Han, and Leia. But a second passes and he instantly realizes he was wrong. Just like the moment with his father in Return of the Jedi, he realizes that this is not something he can do.

The distrust in Ben Solo, soon to become Kylo Ren, had already been planted by Snoke. He was a ticking time bomb but Luke’s one second of weakness is what was needed for Ben to act. Luke becomes unconscious as he tries to subdue his nephew, trying to get him to understand what happened. But there is no time to explain – Luke’s world is shattered the minute he wakes up. His temple in flames, his apprentices murdered, and Kylo Ren created in its wake. He feels deep shame for Kylo’s creation, finding himself responsible for losing his nephew. He closes himself off. He hides.

But this doesn’t sound like the legend we build in our heads? Luke Skywalker was a hero, one of hope and light. Indeed, it was because of his hope for his nephew that he refused to act. Luke’s sorrow is not one of cowardice – it is because he still struggles to let go. What happened, in his head, is his greatest failure. His deep connection and sense of loyalty to his family causes him great heartbreak and sorrow.

There is the legend, Luke Skywalker, and then there is the man. They are two similar people but they are not quite the same. One is a perfect beacon of heroism and the other is more flawed, aware of the myths and swirling Force that surrounds his very name. Both are people desperately needed and both serve different functions. Due to Luke’s blame, he feels like he is unable to become the legend again, and unable to teach the woman at his steps. How can he become a teacher when he made a mistake that cost him his nephew?

Yoda reminds Luke, and us, that failure is what makes the greatest teacher. What he sees as his greatest mistakes are the best learning tool for both his students, and himself. He has tied himself down to a legacy that consumed and trapped him, chained, in many ways similar to his father, to his past. His former master uses this opportunity to free Luke from that by destroying the sacred tree, freeing him from that past. For the wisdom that he gave to Rey, both his teachings and his knowledge of the Jedi’s failure, will inspire a new age of Jedi Knights.

Let go.

He lets go of his fears, refills the cracks that formed in the past six years, and finds peace with himself. His legacy is all but assured, his confidence at an all-time high. Luke becomes a bastion of Force energy as he molds his image onto a planet lightyears away, showing us the greatest showcase of Force skills, becoming the legend once more as he faces his nephew. But just as Luke acted before in the past, he is unable to truly hurt his nephew. His love for his family is as strong as it ever was – and instead chooses to apologize to Kylo and himself, freeing himself and finally letting go. This allows his sister to escape and his Jedi Order to survive – the Skywalker’s live on and his legacy, the Jedi Knight Rey, will live on.

He collapses under heavy strain. This was the most clear and poignant moment in Luke’s life; just as he forgave his father all those years ago, Luke finally forgave himself. A second sun appears in the horizon, a binary sunset forming in the distance, reminding Luke of how it all began. How he started as this passionate young boy, desperately searching for adventure and a family and a legacy, and found himself completely at peace and fulfilled. He had went on the greatest adventures anyone could imagine, he found family that cared and needed him, and created a legacy that would live on for generations.

Luke Skywalker’s story is a human one, full of wonderful and tragic moments, that reminds us that our traits and flaws are always there and can both save the people we love and accidentally send people to darkness. It is a story about forgiving those who have hurt us - including ourselves - and finding peace with that. It is also a story about the expectations that we put on ourselves, on our fathers, on our nephews, on our legends, and on our hearts.

And so Luke does let go – he becomes one with The Force, his physical body collapsing into the great robe that spun around him and fading into the light, becoming the great legend the galaxy needed. He does not die in this moment, but rather, he becomes a being more powerful than anyone could possibly imagine. He achieves total balance and ascends into the mystical energy above. Luke Skywalker, the man, has completely finished his journey and became Luke Skywalker, the legend, the myth, that the galaxy, and us, so desperately needs.

(x)