By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Star Wars fans had a lot of hatred for the Sequel Trilogy for many reasons, but none as bitter as the portrayal of Luke Skywalker. It was hard to watch this hero of the Rebellion as an exhausted monk, and it was especially hard to witness the revelation that Kylo Ren’s descent into evil had no effect. Really beginning until Luke is tempted to kill his nephew. It seemed remarkably out of character, but Yoda himself actually predicted the worst part of the Star Wars sequels when he warned Luke that “once you begin down the dark path, it will forever dominate your destiny “.
Luke, Yoda and the Dark Path
Before his meeting with Yoda (and well before the production of the Star Wars sequels), Luke Skywalker’s Jedi training consisted of a long weekend with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Fortunately, Kenobi’s little Jedi Master gave Luke a more thorough education, including warning him that taking a single step toward the dark side could forever taint his destiny. However, we see Luke take several steps down the dark path, and most fans don’t realize that his murderous thoughts towards Kylo Ren are a result of these earlier mistakes.
It can be argued that Luke’s first step on the dark path was his failure in the cave of Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Backwhen he took weapons inside (literally choosing violence despite Yoda’s warnings) and confronted a ghost Darth Vader who turned out to be Luke (a clear warning that he was in danger of becoming his father). Luke also abandoned his training to go help Han, Leia, and Chewbacca despite Yoda’s warning that doing so would “destroy everything they fought and suffered for.”
And in Return of the JediEmperor Palpatine successfully tricks Luke into trying to kill him after claiming that “hate swells within you now”. When Vader blocks the killing blow, Luke channels his rage against his father, with the script explicitly noting that he “realizes he is using the dark side.”
Luke doesn’t listen
So what does this history lesson have to do with Yoda’s words and the most controversial element of the Star Wars sequels? In short, the Jedi Master warned Luke believed that following the dark path would lead to a dark destiny, but that wasn’t enough to stop him from doing so. Years later (as we find out in The Last Jedi), in a moment of weakness, Luke is tempted to kill young Ben Solo because he believes that “Snoke had already transformed his heart” and Ben would “bring destruction, pain, death and the end of everything I thought . love because of what it will become.
Rey has to tell Luke, “You let him down thinking his choice was made” and, echoing Luke’s own thoughts about Vader in Return of the Jediinsisting that “there is always conflict within him.” Indeed, there was good in Kylo Ren, and his redemption ultimately helped Rey defeat Emperor Palpatine. The Rise of Skywalker. Famed Jedi Master Luke Skywalker was obviously wrong in his assessment of Ben Solo, and the simplest explanation is that Yoda was right: his destiny in the Star Wars sequels was always “dominated” by the previous mistakes of the original trilogy .
Although Yoda’s dark prophecy may explain Luke’s controversial options, this explanation is unlikely to sway Star Wars fans who hated the Sequel Trilogy. Even if a character change is motivated, seeing a passionate hero turn into a nihilistic burnout is never fun. Collectively, we can just hope that Disney does better in the future and that their first steps down the dark path of the Sequel Trilogy won’t dominate this franchise’s destiny forever.