This Isn't The Jedi You're Looking For

Episode VIII may clear up some questions about Luke Skywalker, but as it stands, he's my least favorite part of The Force Awakens.

I get the circumstances the story is setting up: he lost his students, probably his wife and maybe had to abandon his daughter, so he goes off and hides alone in his bedroom like an angst-ridden teenager until things are so bad he has to come out of hiding. I call bullshit.

I called bullshit between The Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises when Batman took off eight years because he was sad. This falls under the same circumstances. This isn't so much a Luke-specific thing as it is what I expect from my heroes. I expect them to keep going, not fucking hide like a bitch. When the road gets tough and all that.

Now there are also theories that he's off finding a hidden Jedi temple in order to get the answers there he needs to then come back and turn the tide against the Dark Side. I can get behind that. But there's no positivity surrounding Luke. No, "don't worry, Luke's got a plan." Its all, "he's vanished," and gruff "yeah, I knew him."

There's something to be said for the beaten down hero overcoming the odds to rejoin the fight, but that's only true when the fighter never gives up. You never saw Hulk Hogan leave the ring for eight years and THEN come back and raise his hand in the air, did you? Luke's responsible for this mess. He should have been an active participant cleaning it up this whole time.

So here's hoping Episode VIII takes my A-#1 hero, who I've looked up to more than any other hero for every one of my years on this Earth, and corrects the slanderous allusions cast by The Force Awakens.

Luke Skywalker is the greatest Jedi. Period. He should fucking act like it.

-Gint