We’re now five years on from The Last Jedi, and many Star Wars fans still can’t get over what Rian Johnson did to Luke Skywalker. The optimistic original trilogy hero had aged into a bitter and regretful old man, hiding away from the galaxy in shame after his failure with (and attempted murder of) Ben Solo.
We could argue whether this was a good move for the character until the cows come home, but leaving all that aside, one sequel trilogy fan is here to point out that any The Last Jedi haters should also despise the prequel trilogy for how they depicted Yoda:
We’ve always felt Luke’s decision to go into isolation made perfect sense given that both his teachers, Obi-Wan and Yoda, did the exact same thing when the chips were down. After all, Luke’s miserable life glugging down weird milk on a ruined planet neatly mirrors Yoda spending decades hiding out in a swamp. The counterpoint is that just because Yoda did it, that doesn’t mean Luke has to:
It’s also noted that for all of Yoda’s light-side philosophy, he’s ultimately a warrior and (as shown in The Clone Wars) feels perfectly at home in combat and commanding troops:
But, clearly, by the time of the original trilogy Yoda was a changed man after his defeat at Darth Sidious’ hands:
It’s also worth underlining that Yoda gradually lost his way in the prequels over many years, whereas Luke essentially had one very bad night:
Maybe we can get some further expansion on Yoda’s thinking during the prequels in a future season of Tales of the Jedi:
At least anyone still upset that Luke Skywalker’s story ends this way can take solace in that he went out like a champ with his Force Projection trick on Crait, and that The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett have since provided a younger and more optimistic take on the character in line with his original trilogy-era personality.
With a Rise of Skywalker sequel now coming, it’s just about plausible that Luke will return again in Force Ghost form, though at this point we wouldn’t bet on it. Fingers crossed he reappears in Ahsoka or The Mandalorian‘s third season early next year.