Liebe Leute, ich hab vor kurzem mir eine Theorie ausgedacht, die den Hintergrund von den neuen Filmen für mich wesentlich interessanter macht. Natürlich kann man die Filme nicht als solche ändern, aber wenn man manche Annahmen ändert, werden die Filme dadurch ungleich viel spannender. Entschuldigt, dass der Beitrag auf Englisch ist. Ich hoffe, ihr findet trotdem daran Gefallen.
I was pretty bored by the sequels, mainly for their lack of communicating the political magnitude of the events that happen. I think pretty much everything that we have seen so far lacks suspense, because there are no controversial ideas that make these movies somehow shocking. There are no character developments that happened before the movie that would be presented as a big revelation on the screen, although the trailer to TLJ suggested that Luke knows something that makes it necessary for the Jedi to end. What he apparently meant, as said in the movie, was not satisfying for me.
So I thought of something that might make these movies more intriguing the way that they are now.
In Return of the Jedi, we see a Luke that is already pretty dark, force choking the poor Gamorreans right at the beginning. Who is Luke Skywalker? Some random village kid, playing with his model toys when he was 18 years or older, shooting innocent creatures with his T-16. Just another douche from the countryside. Then, out of nowhere, he turns a war hero, destroying the Deathstar, he is very close with the uberhot princess that represents ancient royalty and leads a military insurgency. Even greater: He learns that he is the offspring of the second-most important man in the galaxy, who one-handedly ended the Clone Wars and helped create the Empire, which he dominated as the very dark posterboy. Quite a legacy.
Young men like Luke might find it difficult to compensate being the superstar all over sudden. We see the ending scene of Empire and guess what happens after that hug? Well, a long and boring space journey. And even a long time ago, sex isn't reserved for a married couple, the young superstars Luke and Leia give each other some love. And just a few moments before she finds Han, her true love, again, Leia gets pregnant from Luke. He quickly learns that the mother of his future child is actually his sister. Not really appropriate for the two biggest heroes of the galaxy. Luke and Leia keep it secret and tell Han that he's the father, what the big man obviously believes. Luke only asks Leia to name the boy after the isolated man in the desert that never had any unchaste thoughts - Ben. And only Solo, so that Han really feels the connection to his "son".
Years pass, and Ben Solo is growing strong in the Force. Luke is building his legacy as the reviver of the Jedi-Order, the greatest Jedi of all times and the light that outshines both the Emperor and Vaders darkness. He keeps an old fanatic around himself, one who truly believes in the old Jedi code, including the law of chastity - Lor San Tekka, who himself possesses an extraordinary power previously known only to Palpatine: to cloak the vision of a Force user. He obscures Ben Solo while Luke is giving him only a very basic training, fearing that with growing strength he could realize who his real father is.
Meanwhile, the galaxy doesn't care about Luke at all. After the downfall of the Empire, the liberated people desire something totally new. They despise the old monarchs, especially Naboo, who's Senators aide gave the chancellor, a senator from the same system, emergency powers that led to his Empire. They despise the Jedi that dragged the galaxy into the Clone Wars against Jedi-turned-evil Dooku, only to be destroyed by one of them who would turn into the galaxy's most fearsome oppressor. A new republic and true democracy is formed in the Hosnia system, and it casts away the idols of the rebellion to emancipate its citizens as the true rulers of their own fate. Leia, along with her old military allies Ackbar and Holdo, are becoming insignificant. Especially Luke, a boy from nothing who had all favors on his side to turn into the outstanding idol in history, witnesses the disappearance of his legacy into meaninglessness. So, believing that the Jedi virtues are needed to guide the simple folk he plans to regain his importance as the guiding moral entity of the galaxy. All that is needed is an enemy that he and his sister can destroy yet again, to show their guardianship over the republic.
The remnants of the Empire, without leaders but some incompetent, delusional fanatics the likes of Hux, all over sudden are taken over by a master of the Force, who came out of nowhere and placed himself at the top, Snoke. Notice something about the name? Pretty similar to Luke. In his desire to remind the galaxy of its true saviours, Luke uses his immense Force to make a dead body walk and talk as Supreme Leader. However, the republic couldn’t care less. The military potential of the remnants is insignificant and any act of aggression from their side would lead to their annihilation by the republic forces, thus not changing status quo.
Meanwhile, Ben Solo’s vision is hardly being held back by Lor San Tekka. In order to save not just his legacy, but also the faith Luke hopes to restore into the values of the Jedi, he decides to make the ultimate sacrifice: Lor San Tekka, Luke’s most humble servant, connects Ben to Snoke and slowly seduces him to the Dark Side to cloud his mind from the realization of who he really is. When Han comes to visit his son, he can barely recognize the confused child and gets more and more uncomfortable with his family. A paranoid wife in constant worry about the imperial remnants, channeled by Luke, a son that is apparently talking to invisible friends and of course the less and less present Luke himself, who had felt something in his sister and gave Han a final push outside the door. Han disappears for some years.
What Han did not notice while Luke did, Leia became pregnant with a second child, Rey, fathered by Han Solo. Rey shows right after birth some strong of bond to her half-brother Ben. Luke senses that they might realize that in fact they are from different fathers, especially because he assumes that without his blood, Rey would be significantly weaker then Ben. He can see only one solution for all his problems: killing Ben. Luke had prepared the sacrifice of his son for a long time and therefore estranged him from Han Solo, so his alleged turn to the Dark Side would serve as an excuse for the slaughter. But Ben is strong enough to resist Luke’s attempted murder. While fighting off the guards Luke had placed around him, he escapes. Luke is in despair, but he does not give up hope on restoring his legacy over his son’s dead body. He leaves to his island exile, where in meditation he controls Snoke. As his last act and in face of the apparent new threat by Ben, Luke convinces Leia to allow him to hide Rey. He hands her to Lor San Tekka, who can obstruct her bond to Ben and her Force sensitivity. Unable to blind both Ben and Rey, Lor San Tekka takes Rey to the most remote planet, Jakku. At his desert exile, Tekka meets Ben, who still trusts him because it was Tekka who connected Ben with Snoke. He gives Ben a final gift: a map to Supreme Leader Snoke. Ben goes and submits himself under Snoke’s training.
With the dead body of the Supreme Leader, Luke has created the First Order, even naming it clearly as the antagonist of the Order that should rise from the hands of the last Jedi. In order to create their mutual legacy as the savior brother and sister, Luke needs Leia to lead the fight, while he himself is absent through his constant meditation to animate Snoke and to create a sense of need for a return of the Jedi. However, still, the republic remains peaceful and Luke does not dare to command the creation of a clone army for the FO that could eventually overrun the republic and outmatch Leia’s forces. Instead, he thinks of a surgical strike against the pacifist government, a spectacular attack that will create a real sense of danger, a reminder of the terror of the Empire and of the weapon that he himself and his sisters forces destroyed twice. A third Deathstar that binds all the resources of the FO to its construction, thus limiting their potential to create a strike force that could obliterate Leia’s minimal Resistance. Even its destruction is as simple as it is a reminder of Luke’s glorious first deed as a war hero.
Snoke trains Kylo in the worst possible way, making him incapable of even constructing a proper lightsaber or making a stand against any foe. His destruction as the sacrifice to keep Luke’s and Leia’s secret and reawaken the Jedi Order is long planned. Ben’s obsession with Darth Vader and him wearing a similar mask is planned as a second reminder of imperial terror that the galaxy would witness to be overcome once againby the Skywalkers. But Leia’s sadness about her sons downfall does not leave Luke unaffected. He realizes that he has to give her a child back. So he arranges the Millenium Falcon to come to Jakku, knowing that eventually this would connect Rey with her unknowing father, Han. And he turns to an old ally, Maz Kanata, and hands her the lightsaber he once lost on Bespin, knowing that her friendship to Han would eventually lead Rey to the saber and thus helping her to become the Jedi that Luke could train after the eradication of his sin called Ben. Now that Leia is prepared to strike the resistance, the First Order is about to destroy the republic, Ben has reemerged as Kylo Ren, the man to be killed and Rey has what she needs to eventually rise up as a Jedi, Luke plans his return. He tells Lor San Tekka to reach out to Leia and hand the map to her. At the same time, he tells Kylo that Lor San Tekka is a traitor and actually never served the Dark Side, but was only under Snoke’s influence. While both factions would lead the other to Luke, he could reemerge as the glorious fighter against the First Order right over the ashes of the republic that Starkiller Base would destroy, before Luke would destroy it.
However, when Lor San Tekka is killed by Kylo, Rey awakes. And her potential to realize who Kylo Ren really is, frightens Luke more then anything. When she finally finds him, after the loss of her father Han by the hand’s of Kylo who still thinks he is his son, Luke is unwilling to train her, but sacrifices himself instead to isolate Ben from looking into Luke’s mind and realize that he is his true father and to leave Rey with no option but to shut herself from Ben by her own will. When Luke dissolves into the Force, he is confident that he has become the legend that will keep the Jedi alive, overcoming his own sin of incest by destroying all possibilities that the ugly truth would ever come to light. Except, maybe, in Episode IX. Or maybe Kylo already learned about all this, when he touched hands with Rey?
