Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 13 Audacious Moments That Have Divided Fans

12. Luke's Treatment Of The Lightsaber

Luke Skywalker Rey
Lucasfilm

Our reunion with Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker would seem to be the moment that The Last Jedi loses a lot of its audience.

Picking up directly from the final shot of The Force Awakens, with Rey locating the legendary Jedi at the ancient temple on Ahch-To, and offering him his long-lost lightsaber. At last, we see how this moment reaches its conclusion: with Luke taking the weapon, holding it for a moment - then dismissively tossing it over his shoulder into the ocean, and walking angrily away.

This somewhat flippant response to the previous film's portentous conclusion seems to have left many fans feeling that Rian Johnson does not respect the material he has been given; a feeling that is further aggravated by Luke's subsequent behaviour.

He's not the noble, enlightened Jedi we might have been hoping for; he's a grumpy old man, whose treatment of Rey essentially amounts to yelling "get off my lawn." Nor does he show any pride in his earlier achievements, condemning both his own actions and those of the Jedi before him, and - most damningly for some - dismissing his signature weapon as a "laser sword."

While it's understandable some fans are unhappy about this new take on Luke (as Mark Hamill himself has admitted to feeling on first reading Johnson's script), we might consider that this is man who deliberately retreated to an isolated corner of the universe and kept his location secret for many years; clearly Master Skywalker isn't much of a people person anymore.

On top of which, Luke's disdain for his past deeds and the ways of the Jedi serve a higher thematic function: the problem of elevating individuals to saint-like status, the importance of recognising the truth behind the legend, and the need to leave the past behind.

Contributor
Contributor

Ben Bussey hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.