Star Wars Episode 8 – Coming to Terms, pt. I

Some days have passed since my last post in this category, time for a new one. Today on the agenda:

2. Snoke mocks Kylo
3. Finn wakes up
4. Rey, Chewie and R2 arrive at Ahch-To / […]

As much as I dislike TLJ in general, as much is the part where Snoke mocks Kylo for not being a new vader, but only a child in a mask, ingenious! That’s exactly in line with what I thought at the end of TFA: He might have done dark things, but is he really a powerful darksider? I answered that question for myself with „no“ and so did Snoke, apparently. So, yeah, absolutely nothing wrong here, however…

The part where Finn wakes is utmost and total bullshit! Don’t get me wrong, I’m in line with Finn waking up, because leaving him unconscious for the whole movie would not have felt right for me. But how he woke up? OH! MY! GOD! I remember myself sitting in that double feature, it’s already a while after midnight and then this scene comes on, where Finn can be seen lying on a plank bed or something. And even then I thought „I have a bad feeling about this“. And then Finn wakes up and… bumps his head. And if that would not have been enough slapstick, he falls from the bed directly afterwards. And if that would not have been enough, you can see him walking around the hangar base disorientedly  leaking whatever liquid from tubes all on his body. Then Poe finds him and takes care of him, blah blah blah. I mean, seriously, what was that supposed to be? I could have lived with that head-bump and I could also have lived with him falling from the bed, even if I think that was already over the top, but that leaking? That’s simply not Star Wars, as I know it. But it gets worse…

Now the movie picks up, where TFA has left: Rey, standing on Ahch-To, handing Luke his lightsaber. Luke takes it, weighs it in his hands and then… throws it nonchalantly over his shoulder, looking as he couldn’t care less. And that’s where I started to feel the pull to the dark side… Seriously? That’s not Luke Skywalker – a feeling that will get worse throughout the movie. Let me go into details: At that point in the movie, the specific circumstances of Ben’s turn to the dark side are unknown to the spectators, so everything known is that Luke trained Ben, but Ben got turned to the dark side by Snoke and became Kylo Ren, whereupon Luke retracted to Ahch-To. So, in spite of what Luke’s evil twin is doing to Luke’s lightsaber… to Anakin’s lightsaber – Luke’s father, the man who was redeemed by Luke – Luke Skywalker would have reacted differently. The most optimistic among us would have expected to get a Luke who is ready for action, taking the lightsaber and asking where the Falcon is, intending to leave immediately. From my point of view, that would have not been Luke Skywalker either, but it would have been a lot better than simply throwing the lightsaber away. Personally, I can accept that Luke retracted to Ahch-To after losing Ben to the dark side, feeling guilt and probably shame. The Luke Skywalker I know from Episodes IV, V and IV would have reacted something like this:

Luke takes the lightsaber out of Rey’s hands and weighs it in his own, tears dwelling in his eyes. He drops to his knees, overwhelmed by the guilt he feels about having lost Ben, his sister’s and best friend’s son, to the dark side. When he speaks, he is barely hearable: „I’m sorry, I can not help you. I would fail you, just like I failed Leia and Han.“ While he speaks, he looks out into the distance. Rey, unsure how to behave, turns around and tries to see what Luke looks at. When she looks back at Luke, he’s gone, only the lightsaber lying where he was. She picks the lightsaber up and returns to the Falcon, to talk with Chewie and R2 about what to do next.

You see, how that’s exact the same thing as in the movie: Rey hands Luke the lightsaber, he turns it down, he goes away and Rey picks up the lightsaber again. But it has nothing of this cheap humor in it and is, at least from my point of view, a lot more in line with Luke’s character how we get to know him before. Of course, we can not expect the Luke from the old expanded universe, that’s not where TFA lead to, but picking up where TFA left, this would be much more in line with everything in my opinion.

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