Psychology of a Hero: LUKE SKYWALKER

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Why should we question our values and mentors? Is failure the greatest lesson?
Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are diving into their childhood hero, Luke Skywalker. He is the epitome of the hero’s journey, and they take a look at Luke’s heroic and humbling character arc. They discuss Luke’s growth from naive kid to Jedi to jaded cynic, and where he lands at the end of his story. Jonathan explains why Luke’s mentality in The Last Jedi is so true to the original character and the human experience. Luke endures failure, learns hard lessons about his mentors and belief system, and he comes out the other side all the better for it. Alan praises Rian Johnson’s storytelling on The Last Jedi and rants about why he got Luke so right. And they both get nerdy about the lessons and failures of the Jedi. Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th Be With You!
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Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: Trevor Horton, tzhediting.com
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis
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[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Head to squarespace.com/cinematherapy to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code cinematherapy!

[@OrAngeAnArchy]

Following on Failure is the learning experience. Could you do a review on the Disney Animation Meet the Robinsons. Also also, would love for you guys to do cinema therapy and psychology of a Hero/Villain of Eveangelion and Gurren Lagen Series. Mainly Gurrenlagen as the story follows the main protagonist from pre-teen all the way to middle-age...such a good story arc.

[@barisbal7782]

you should do a couple therapy about ghosted. or R.E.D and R.E.D 2

[@audreychayenne4780]

Can you guys do the Hogwarts Legacy game where you influence the characters and then discuss your influence and the characters development. Also development realism compared to the movies.

[@Cutiepie-mf4ht]

Do a video about Yoda from Star Wars

[@Blentifulbollipops86537]

GUYS! Okay- Hear me out- We REALLY need a cinema therapy for specifically 2003's Peter Pan. It's so good and has so much to unpack

[@matthewlightwood5412]

I just think it's funny that in Empire, R2 and Yoda are both FULLY AWARE of who the other is. These are both DECORATED WAR HEROES of the Clone Wars, squabbling like children over a flashlight. And I love that for them.

[@theemmjay5130]

I'd never thought about that, but you're right, that is funny.

[@alexanderzack3720]

did r2 ever meet yoda though? i don´t think they actually met

[@matthewlightwood5412]

@@alexanderzack3720 The Empire Strikes Back

[@alexanderzack3720]

@@matthewlightwood5412yes they fight over a flashlight there... but before that. the comment said it´s funny that two veterans from the clone wars bicker over a flashlight. i just pointed out that yoda and r2 had never met each other before that swamp

[@commandoepsilon4664]

Realistically, even if they had met and I don't know that they really ever interacted much, there is no way Yoda could know that R2 is THAT R2. R2 is a droid that was mass produced there are likely thousands of other astromech droids that look exactly like him. As for R2, he may just not give a F.

[@thewinterprince1731]

This is the first time I've seen someone knowledgeable in Star Wars actually defend Cynical Luke in a way that actually makes sense.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thanks!

[@jakobwienandt4050]

same

[@TheShanicpower]

Pop Culture Detective, Jenny Nicholson, Cosmonaut Variety Hour, the list goes on

[@jeffbenton6183]

@@TheShanicpower Pop Culture Detective's video wasn't very convincing if I remember correctly

[@gemmahunt2968]

I love cynical Luke, i think it makes tons of Sense for his Character and his history.

[@darkecofreak23]

When Vader says “sister,” I get chills every time. The absolute glee in that realization he has, like “ohhh, shit, some new crack I can exploit to get under your armor. Watch me dive right in.”

[@jenniferhiemstra5228]

I mean, yes but also...like it doesn't seem to hit him that this is also his DAUGHTER 🤣

[@darkecofreak23]

@@jenniferhiemstra5228 Who can say, right? I mean, he’s not out of his head. He knows what it means if his son has a sibling, so I’m still thinking if he knows about Leia, he’s thinking about how can I exploit that relationship?

[@shinkamui]

@@jenniferhiemstra5228 oh no, he certainly knows. Hence why its all the more chilling that he just choses to ignore that

[@YouMakeMyMotorRun]

@@shinkamui he's been brainwashed for a couple decades at that point, to ignore everything that doesn't tie him directly to Palpatine. When you see him being groomed into the Emperor's chain, you can tell how every time someone tries to reach out to him, Palpatine finds a way to make it seem like reaching out hurts him. So he basically has been conditioned to acknowledge the world outside that relationship, but shield himself from it.

[@noveldefender9815]

I always took that line as not Vader realizing it's his daughter but a proper replacement of his son so now at this point he doesn't have any reluctance in killing Luke.

[@Vernal_the_Oryx]

Alan and Johnathan, Just lost my dad to cancer and my role in the family has been the "Rock", meaning I am not to cry infront of Family, his work colleagues, friends, etc. Watching your videos and this in particular has shown me that for all our bickering and disagreements, he was a mentor that helped me grow beyond his shortcomings and his "failures" enough to be that rock when everyone needs it. So even of you don't end up seeing this, or maybe you will, I want to say thank you for what you do and for helping me see that through this tough time.

[@paramitch]

I am so sorry for your loss. Please take care of yourself -- and also, please don't be so tough on yourself. I say this from experience (I've lost two parents) -- you can be the rock by simply being there. You don't need to shut down your emotions to be a support for your family. You can be strong and caring and yet also open up and give your family permission to show how they are feeling, a safe space for their grief. There is nothing wrong with crying with those you love, with showing your emotions. There is strength in vulnerability. Please take care out there, and sending all possible sympathies. You will get through it.

[@Hydelsius]

My condolences to you and your family❤

[@ZKETCH42591]

I know all too with this, I lost my dad a good couple years back due to suicide..he let some woman he was with (not my mom they divorced when i was 13), take control. Taking control by making his kids do things they didnt wanna do, boss everyone around, show favoritism to only her kids, isolating him from friends and family, pushing his kids away to where i left. And all through this he had to be strong, be the rock, be the most adult ever because thats what he's always done, never show his feelings or hide them. And because he couldnt see a way out, get help or anything, he did the deed.. And im sitting here crying, reading your comment, watching this video, reminding myself just like you im going to strive to do better and be more vulnerable even while still being the rock and tether for my family and friends. Take what i saw from him, do the opposite and strive to do better, not let people control me, or tell me no, cry when i need to.

[@Vernal_the_Oryx]

Thank you everyone for your condolences and well wishes, I am forever grateful to this channel and the viewers like yourselves that show true kindness even when we're all perfect strangers, I will pass your words along to my mother as well because she now more than ever needs this kind of compassion.

[@MossyMozart]

@@ZKETCH42591 - I am so sorry for all the pain your father suffered from. Try not to go down the road he did with that internal suffering. It sounds like you are already working on it! Virtual hugs and chocolates.

[@Piketom1]

The greatest teacher, failure is. This is such a good motto. You can only fail if you are trying. Making mistakes using them to learn and grow as a person is extremely important.

[@jamestolbert1856]

He always fails but he always gets back up

[@shaggyd00kale58]

One of my favorite things about Luke were his last words to his father "I can't leave you, I got to save you." "Father, I won't leave you." That really struck deep after your Borderline diagnosis for Annikin. The last words and action Annikin heard and witnessed in his physical life were the words and guesture he always needed to heal. To not be abandoned.

[@shikishinobi]

One day you’ll have to do Obi Wan, as his arc is an interesting one. The fall of Qui-Gon had a big impact on how he trained Anakin, how he deals with his survivors guilt and becomes optimistic up to his death, because he knew it was coming. Luke has a similar arc without getting to the bubbly optimism Obi Wan had in New Hope. Death shapes their perspective, optimism is a difficult thing to hold onto, and surrender is a powerful weapon to those who cannot understand.

[@PrometheanConsulting]

In my view, Obi Wan is the "Chosen One", not Anakin. Time and time again, he is underestimated and overcomes adversity. And he's fallible. That's heroic. And it's his failure with Anakin that leads to bringing balance to the force. Prophecies can be fulfilled in lots of ways; not necessarily the ones interpreted for us by "experts".

[@Etx-z9.]

The ending of Return of the Jedi left such an impact on me. I went in fully expecting Luke to kill Vader and save the day, but instead I got Luke INSISTING there was still good in Anakin, refusing to fight his father, and then throwing down his weapon. Luke didn't fight to the death; he refused to give up hope on someone, and so his heart saved the galaxy. It's a masterpiece, and so profound. "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." One of my favorite lines in cinema besides "You bow to no one" from Lord of the Rings. 🤧

[@garmadonthesensei59]

Dawg you straight up copy and pasted this from another video. How do I know that? This is MY comment, you got some explaining to do fam 😂

[@its_dey_mate]

@@garmadonthesensei59 Damn dude lmao

[@Prof_Tickles92]

He’s also human at the end of the day. Jedi have a choice: to fight the darkness or feed it. Luke had an instinctive reaction to the darkness in that hut, but unlike Vader, he showed more restraint and came to his senses when he realized what destroying the darkness would entail. He also realized in that moment that he’d failed Ben as a master.

[@TheSixthDoctor]

I fully believed Luke would have learned a lot from that encounter, which is precisely why I cannot see him in the character depicted in TLJ. That's also got a lot to do with the film itself never allowing a dramatic scene to just be dramatic. There will always be slapstick or a mistimed attempt at humour. TLJ Luke comes off as... histrionic. He makes multiple attempts at burning down the tree containing the library in full ornate, as if to provoke a reaction from his former masters. A cry for attention, reminding me of Captain Hook in the movie of the same name, theatrically threatening suicide in the presence of Mr. Smee, simply waiting for him to fall into his arm and stop him. TLJ Luke keeps blaming the Jedi order and Kylo Ren for his own mistake - The reason he gives for the Jedi needing to end is because they allowed the rise of Darth Vader right under their noses (something he knew for a fact since the ending of ESB and it didn't deter him one jot). He acts passive-aggressively in front of Kylo, appearing in the form that would anger him the most, he even manifests a lightsaber even though all he does is evade. He uses double-speak: "Are you here to say you forgive me? To save my soul?" "No." Kylo then gets into position and ignites his saber, with Luke responding in kind. He shouldn't have done that - we learn that Luke over anyone else blames himself for his failure, but here he says "No" only because it is the technically correct answer to the question. HE wants to be forgiven BY Kylo, but his actions read to Kylo as him denying him redemption and just escalating the conflict. To Kylo, all of this spells humiliation, humiliation by the person he woke up to standing over his bed in the middle of the night with a readied weapon. TLJ Luke doesn't seem to be interested in solving misunderstanding over creating further ones. Therefore, his "apology" after Kylo has his first go at him - "I failed you, Ben, I'm sorry." - comes off as insincere. "I'm sorry" is such an insufficient expression for what the initial misunderstanding caused. "Please forgive me" would have been somewhat appropriate, but because he says it with his lightsaber ignited, again, all Ben gets out of it is insincerety. Doesn't really get better with his next, snarky, response: "Amazing, everything you just said was wrong" - You don't want to call a person's intelligence into question when you're working to put differences aside between you. And vanishing with a cocky "See ya around, kid" (I know it has been said he's supposed to channel Han here, and while I can see it, it is just another straw that ultimately broke the camel's back) doesn't actually help the situation, either. There is concept art of Luke appearing, unarmed and the way we last saw him, on Crait. I believe Luke trying to talk it out with Ben in that form would have been the better option. It allows us to see the old Luke again and it still gets the point across that Jedi are peace loving and peace keeping... and it would have stalled Kylo all the same.

[@drrocketman7794]

"Help, father, please!" Anakin turns on Darth Sidious and kills him. "I've gotta get you out of here, I've got to save you!" "You already have!"

[@EdgedancerRuth]

This video really shows how awesome a mentor Kanan Jarrus is to Ezra. He let's him grow and make mistakes. And he admits that he isn't perfect and still needs to grow to!

[@madelinegarber7860]

Totally agreed. It’s why he and Ezra are one of my ffavorite master apprentice pairs. I’d love a Kanan psychology of a hero.

[@vegitoblue2187]

Another important point in this context. Kanan wanted to hand Ezra over to Luminara since he never even became a knight while Ezra wanted only him to be his mentor. It took time for Kanan to have faith in himself and overcome his own past to be able to be a good mentor to Ezra.

[@Rembreiker_lychec9257]

When I watch RTOJ, and it gets to Luke's triumphant declaration "...I am a Jedi, like my father before me..." I can see under Vader's mask in my mind. I see him shedding a tear. The love of Shimei, the love of Qui Gon, The love of Obi Wahn, most of all the love of Padme, finding him again, all embodied in the courageous love of his son. For the first time, he is a proud father, in awe that Luke could stand up to The Emperor. He loves again. In that moment he realizes he can be Anakin again. He owes it to all those who have ever loved him.

[@YouMakeMyMotorRun]

True... and it's all even more powerful when Anakin's story is expanded upon later. In the original movies, he was such an imposing figure, kind of a monster, until at the end we see the cracks but don't fully understand how this absolute beast is at the mercy of a cackling, wrinkly fool who talks in such a cartoonishly evil way. It's through the prequels, the comics and all the other material (even the parts that aren't canon anymore), that Anakin was groomed into Vader for a very long time, kind of like a perfect storm... and was so brainwashed, beaten and tortured that when you get to the original trilogy again, you feel a different type of fear. You fear the big, dark monster, but most of all you fear FOR him. For how intense his pain is and how life has tortured him and kept him away from any semblance of love. For all his hits and failures, George Lucas truly kickstarted a hell of a memorable mythos.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@digitaldevil696]

I believe, this is also the reason why Sidious haven't seen it coming. He was prepared for his apprentice attempting to backstab him out of hate and desire for power, not out of love for another, it's simply not the way of the Sith to do so

[@auvidence]

Damn, this guy is a bot. I remember reading this exact comment on kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKfPiIapj9x_pJI, posted by James Davenport. Funny, since I think another bot copied another person's comment somewhere else in this comment section.

[@BrainBubbled]

I'm sad you guys didn't talk about the incredible acting of Mark Hamil in The Last Jedi. No matter what his thought on what the character should have been, he gave it 110% and boy was it poignant.

[@naurrr]

he was excellent. hit every mark.

[@mr.stuffdoer8483]

Which I think is funny comparing it to his OT acting.

[@antonakesson]

@@mr.stuffdoer8483 Yeah. That is something i especially noticed in A New Hope. There are scenes where the acting is not that great XD

[@anatoleleconte9698]

I have an immense respect for Mark Hamill, because, as he said, he did not like the way is character was treated, but his performance was magistral, and one of the reasons that sold this version of Luke to me.

[@mr.stuffdoer8483]

@@antonakesson seriously, any time someone talks about the OT as being good movies, I kinda question them, as a lot of the acting isn’t that good. George Lucas has a lot of strengths, directing actors isn’t one of them.

[@idunno966]

Luke leaving to save his friends isn't because he's arrogant or overconfident or even believes that he can succeed, it's because his friends are in danger and if he doesn't at least *try* to help them he won't be able to forgive himself for leaving them to face it alone especially since it's because of him that they are in trouble in the first place

[@tommorgan9073]

It's because he's arrogant and overconfident. It was a trap laid by Darth Vader and he lost his hand and was almost captured.

[@intense79nick]

I also saw it as Luke carving out his own path. Essentially rejecting the path of the jedi to embrace his love for his friends in a moment of dire need. He sticks to his word and returns, as to not be dismissive of what Yoda intended to teach but he's grown into his own version of a Jedi by that point that even Yoda accepts Luke is as ready as he can be. I also don't agree with this idea that Luke up until he's training on Dagobah that he's overly confident "bench pressing" his way through everything. He wasn't perfect at the training sphere, he needed coached to not use the targeting system on the trench run, and when it came to lifting the x-wing he doubted it from the start. He's never really been a "step back I got this" kind of guy but that's the painting I'm getting from jono talking about early/young Luke.

[@villainouspeacock2144]

I agree, i always saw it as Luke leaving to save his friends, not because of arrogance but because he is worried about them.

[@blondafro4112]

it only shows Luke not trusting his friends to get shit done alone

[@RegPentagon]

I'd say it's a little bit of both aspects. It's just like a teenager growing up to be a different person from his/her parents.

[@rooster2268]

May the 4th be with you

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

May the 4th be with you!

[@rosemadder5547]

Tis my birthday... it's always with me 😆and I'm getting old!

[@North862]

Tis the 2nd

[@rosemadder5547]

@@North862 yeah I'm commenting about May the 4th lol obviously 🤣 may the 4th is my bday... Devils lettuce strikes again? 😆

[@LoganR0423]

Definitely should have waited until the 4th to drop video.

[@SariaSpeaks]

I feel like the best way to accept everything here in a positive light, is to see Luke as a person, rather than a character. It takes out the underlying perfectionism and expectation, and opens us up to see and understand imperfection, regression, and failure. Then who we end up as on the other side of it. For better or worse.

[@MossyMozart]

@SariaSpeaks - Great observation.

[@yourewrong9028]

@Elizabeth Bennett my problem with this point of view is that like… it’s been 30 years? People change in that time. They change a LOT. Are you the same person as you were thirty years ago? I mean, a fair number of the people reading this probably didn’t even exist 30 years ago, so hell, are you the same person you were 20 years ago? I’m willing to bet that you’re completely unrecognizable compared to the 2003 version of you. I generally just have a big problem with saying for certain that a character like Luke wouldn’t behave a certain way when the last time we saw anything of them was literally almost half a lifetime ago. Show me a person whose personality goes through no fundamental changes between the ages of 23 and 53, and I’ll show you a person who likely had a pretty uneventful life.

[@jordanfelt5978]

​@@yourewrong9028 yeah this take of yours kind of sucks because it's true that people do change. But you would assume that somebody like Luke who is technically the hero of the story would become better. So Luke having aged 20-30 years would have been a lot wiser meaning he wouldn't be the person who would immediately assume that he should just murder his nephew instead of trying to Help him. So basically what you're suggesting is that Luke in that time had digressed significantly, despite the fact that we know that he was a real hero from the original trilogy? Yeah....That's realllly sensible..

[@yourewrong9028]

@@jordanfelt5978 gGive me one good reason why being a hero necessarily implies that you must develop more heroically over time. There isn’t one. It makes zero sense. Heroes don’t become more heroic over time, they are just people. This mentality is not only very weird, it’s also the main thing that the movie is meant to critique.

[@jordanfelt5978]

@@yourewrong9028 I'm not meaning "more heroic". I'm meaning becoming a better version of yourself. If you have somebody who is naturally geared towards being morally good and they accomplish great things due to how morally upright they are. Like Luke for example in the original trilogy, well they are likely going to naturally keep working on themselves to become even more morally sound than they already are. And in the obverse, if you have a character who is very morally corrupt they usually tend to become more corrupt as time goes on. It actually makes plenty of sense. If you're a decent person who has a pretty good moral compass you're not suddenly going to decide 'hey I'm going to try being a shity person and consider murdering people'. Now THAT doesn't make sense.

[@smaug2981]

I always felt that Luke's greatest flaw was his fear. Fear drove him to attack Vader mercilessly, consider killing his nephew, isolating himself from the galaxy, and to initially destroy the jedi texts. Also I like how when he said "like my father before me" he tilted his head towards Anakin as if to say "You not only failed to turn me, but you failed to extinguish the light in Anakin."

[@Tink2k]

I always think of the cave on Dagobah. Fear was his problem in the cave. I don't think that just goes away. And he may not have the fear for his own life, but he fears for others. And wasn't that Anakin's flaw as well?

[@denisevincent4050]

Fear isn't monumental, it's just part of our threat assessment system. Our brains instinctively decide if something is a threat, and if that threat could kill us, or if that threat is something that we can handle. Fear isn't a problem, once you appreciate its protective value. Maybe you'll even be lucky enough to learn Viktor Frankl's suggestion (without needing to learn it in a death camp): “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Courage isn't being fearless (sez the old lady whose fear processing was taken out by a tiny aneurysm) it's doing what needs to be done, even though you're afraid.

[@madelinegarber7860]

I love that. And I agree.

[@K1ng1995]

I personally think Luke's biggest flaw is that whenever he's confronted by the fact that his actions would lead to a worse evil. He repeatedly does the same thing he stops fighting, whether is throwing his lightsaber in front of the Emporer or falling to his doom in cloud city.

[@PlayerOne.StartGame]

Truly remarkable that, despite sharing the screen with two of the greatest villains in film history, LUKE SKYWALKER still emerges as an iconic, unforgettable hero and a household name. Luke is a great hero because he embodies compassion. Most male heroes embody violence. Star Wars is not about killing the bad guy but ultimately about why overcoming yourself is more important.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@Eyeupthebison]

​@@andrewogilvie9051 nah get the cultist out of here

[@abbyg.6654]

Hey, guys! I’m a therapist, and I love watching your channel and Mended Light. I occasionally recommend videos to my clients if they’re looking for supplemental content. Love your work! ❤️

[@michaelbarlow3544]

"We are what they grow beyond . . ." This is a great line, and a great scene, even for all the things I didn't like, I love this part.

[@warmgreytenpercent]

exactly! this moment carries a lot of the movie for me

[@isabelmcgaugh711]

That’s a truly beautiful sentiment for mentors, but especially ones who’ve struggled with their personal failures.

[@Velociraptour]

The shame and slight tremble when he says "Leia trusted me with her son." always gets me teary eyed.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@electroninja7419]

@@andrewogilvie9051 where are you going with this?

[@pt2k645]

Mark Hamill deserved an Oscar for his performance in TLJ. I’m convinced that the petulant vitriol surrounding the movie is what denied him of it.

[@Hawkenwhacker]

@@electroninja7419 Probably an indirect way of telling people to follow Jesus and join a religion. :P

[@electroninja7419]

@@Hawkenwhacker Yeah. I am essentially telling them to provide a connection to this comment and video to their statements. Which I know they won't. Preach all you want (please don't) but make sure there is a connection

[@digitaldevil696]

I just wanted to add something about the shows between OT and sequels: it feels to me that in The Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett Luke has already re-evaluated some of the Jedi teachings, or at least he's getting there. When he comes to murder the Dark Troopers to death, he comes there to protect Grogu, not to proactively hunt Gideon. And in the Book of Boba Fett he does to Grogu what I've never seen other Jedi do: he actually gives him a choice. He doesn't just say "let go of your attachments", he acts more like "okay, I understand where you coming from, you can choose your own path and future, what do you really want in life?", and not only lets him go back to Din Djarin no strings attached, but sends R2 to escort him

[@hartfartpoptart]

It was kind of hypocritical of him asking Grogu to let go of attachments when it was his attachment to his father that helped save him.

[@Claire-tk4do]

Yeah I like that development of Luke (where he questions and modifies his original positions about the Jedi without just giving up completely) much better!

[@Jesup1204]

That’s a very good point.

[@Raguleader]

Yeah, he's somewhere between the old teachings of "Abandon all attachments because you are a Jedi" and "Don't be overly attached to the ways of the old Jedi." Here he is "A Jedi should abandon old attachments... but if you can't do that, then your best path may lie elsewhere, and I will help you start on it."

[@blackcrern]

He asked him the real question. "Who are you? And what do you want?" - uncle Iroh, ALTA

[@jordanfelt5978]

"If you won't turn to the Dark Side...then perhaps.. she will" Damn dude. It Doesn't matter how many times I've seen this movie or even just this particular scene. That part of the scene sends shivers down my spine every. Damn. time. It's SO GOOD!

[@blackc1479]

I've always thought Vader must've had a moment during the onslaught where he thought for a split second "that worked a little TOO well....oh crap" 😂

[@jordanfelt5978]

@@blackc1479 hahaha, honestly you might expect that though. But these movies aren't written for moments like that unfortunately, but I do agree with you! 😅

[@BatAmerica]

Something that makes Luke unique as a protagonist is his vulnerability. When his most iconic moment, "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." requires him to sacrifice his physical strength, it demonstrates how he embodies a strong will and conviction.

[@TheRibottoStudios]

and he does the same in the last jedi. The moment he steps up to battle Kylo Ren, the twist of him being just a Force Projection was ICONIC and SAD all at once. He gave up his very physical form to instill one more lesson to the living "I will not be the Last Jedi." what that basically means, is as long as there hope, evil won't win. And for Luke Skywalker to give up his life on that hope, is just iconic. Love him.

[@noveldefender9815]

@@TheRibottoStudios Would have been epic for me if Luke demonstrated his true force powers similar to anime. Something like Ben nearly falls to the ground thinking "Uncle's spiritual pressure is this strong?!" Lol. Then Luke stops and refuses to fight because of his love and willingness to see the good would have made critical fans love that moment.

[@noveldefender9815]

When I turn off my brain and just watch the movie as it is, a sequel to Force Awakens I enjoy it. As a Legends fan however that is reading through the 20+ years of adventure with Luke and friends the movie simply can't compare to that version of Luke.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@noveldefender9815]

@@andrewogilvie9051 It's through Jesus Christ in Romans 6:23.

[@joeluby]

As a formerly optimistic, committed man in his 40s, who has been through career failures, and both divorce AND cancer… Yeah, life beats the hope out of you. I truly hope to find my optimism again someday! Keep up the good work, guys!

[@798jeremy]

There is no need for optimism or pessimism. Life just needs realism in order to face it. And realism must be used to fight yourself through life. Getting ideas, values and objectives to accomplish, but only balanced realism can help you keep strong, steady and confident. There's no shame to say "I will try". It's just a humble way to say "I will do my best", while knowing "I might be failing", because life is always full of failures...if you can't understand this, then you're already failing anyway!

[@foxcom3183]

Yeah...I never had a problem with "Cynical Luke" and I haven't heard many people criticize the idea that he could become older and more jaded with the old Jedi Order. I do think there is just a tiny bit of a divergence from "Heroic Luke" to "Kill-my-nephew-in-his-sleep Luke" that doesn't seem much like a natural progression of his character. I get the idea that fear motivated Luke to ignite the lightsaber and that he stopped himself from attacking, but the idea that his first instinct upon learning that Ben was falling to the dark side was to chop his kid nephew's defenseless head off is ridiculous to me and frankly an insult to anything the character had ever stood for. Even the most fleeting consideration of killing his SISTER'S SON should be abominable to him, even if he hadn't been raising him as a student and known him as a nephew for (presumably) many years. This is even crazier when you consider his attitude towards Vader, who he never even knew personally and was already far along in his commitment to the dark side. It's also not as if there was a significant and terrible event that occurred in this timeline that would have traumatized Luke to such a degree he couldn't risk it happening again, even if that meant killing a kid he'd known since birth. Maybe if another student of his had gone rogue and ended up killing someone Luke really cared about or something, we could see how Luke could go to any lengths to avoid something similar reoccurring. But there's nothing like that. From what I know about the timeline, everything goes perfectly and peacefully for Luke and his little school and he doesn't even lose any friends or family after ROTJ, until he gets ready to execute his student who then defends himself by destroying the school. I also don't see a straight line connection between the end of the Return of the Jedi fight and this particular scene with Ben. Even when he was attacking Vader in ROTJ he still didn't go for the killing blow. He halted his attack as soon as he'd won the battle, before the Emperor ever started laughing at him. His motivation may have been anger and fear but it seems clear that his intent was never murder, even when in a seemingly blind rage. All that being said, different perspectives on a story are totally fine and I certainly don't begrudge anyone who genuinely enjoyed the sequels, but saying that anyone who shares this same very common perspective with me is "bad at stories" I think is a little close minded and strangely antagonistic. Mark Hamill, who arguably knows the character better than anyone, has also expressed his discontentment with how Luke was treated as a character in the sequel trilogy. Anyway, I just wanted to explain my own perspective since both you guys seemed genuinely confused as to where this criticism of the Last Jedi comes from. I tried to word this carefully not to be too biased or judgmental because I do love this channel and this is just a story, no matter how passionate people get about it, so the last thing I want is to be abrasive. Hopefully this is helpful and not in any way offensive to anyone!

[@annaberlinger9295]

I agree with you for sure! I do like their idea that (although they don't phrase it this way) that it is believable that Luke would struggle with a hero's complex (control issue) after ROTJ. Even though his pride took a hit by the emperor, he still did actually succeed with Vader. This makes it believable to me that he would develop over time a tendency to want to control the healing of others and think that the free poor choices of others somehow reflect back on him as being his fault. What I didn't see before that I LOVE (and then I'll get to your valid point) is the beauty in that scene between him and Leia in the prequels, which beautifully and cinematically mirrors their conversation on Endor. On Endor, Luke started the journey that led him to surrender his desire to fight, choosing instead to save. In the prequel scene with Leia, he is still affirming his belief that people can be saved, BUT he additionally learns to surrender his will to control healing. He still says Ben can be healed (and correcting Leia when she thinks he is implying otherwise) but he surrenders his unhealthy attachment to that outcome - that HE has to be the one to do it. With Vader, he was able to succeed, but in this instance, it has to come from somewhere else...the boy's father which is beyond beautiful. Your point is valid though. The scene where he draws the lightsaber on his own sister's defenseless boy seems VERY out of character for him. The only way it would work for me is if WE SAW what he was seeing in Ben’s mind instead of just a voice over. Force visions can be really powerful, as we’ve seen in other movies. Drawing the lightsaber as a subconscious knee-jerk reaction to a terrifying vision he saw would make sense - an action he regretted the moment he was back in his own mind and aware of his surroundings - but not something Luke would do consciously in a rational frame of mind. But that's not how the scene plays out. It looks more like a very aware and calculated/conflicted move on his part, which is not in character at all. GOOD POINT.

[@foxcom3183]

@@annaberlinger9295 Agreed! That was by far my favorite part of the movie since the rest of it I disliked, but Luke letting go of the idea that he had to be the one to save someone, especially if he was responsible for their fall in the first place, is a great bit of character development. Of course, it is a bit undercut by the fact that the character that moment develops is somewhat assassinated by the scene we’ve been talking about, since it demonstrates the opposite of an unhealthy obsession with saving someone by showing him considering condemning them to death. But if it hadn’t been for that, Luke’s scene with Leia would have been a perfect moment. I also would have liked your idea that the Force visions triggered some sort of hallucination from Luke, believing that the horrors he was seeing were happening right in front of him and so he drew his lightsaber. Not to kill the sleeping Ben, but to fight the shadowy figure of Kylo Ren appearing to stand before him with his red saber out or something, since it would also have worked as a callback to the hallucination fight with Vader back on Degobah in Empire Strikes Back. It’s too bad you weren’t on the writing team for this movie, it would have been a lot better!

[@nizarhadeli9104]

The idea of killing his nephew is “abominable” to Luke. He says as much. Specifically afterwards he says “there was consequences and shame”. That’s the whole point. He failed himself and he knew he did. That’s what pushed him to cut himself off from the force. Also, he didn’t just see bens pull to the dark. The scene clearly implies he’s having visions of the future. Han Solo dying, the four planets being blown up (which is more death than the original trilogy with alderaan). And given the track record of visions in Star Wars, it inevitably ends up being true (although a self fulfilling prophecy like anakin). It’s like the baby hitler talking point. He sees a clear vision of the future and the death and destruction that Kylo will 100% bring, and for a fleeting moment thinks he can extinguish it at the source. But in doing so creates the future he wants to avoid. Anakin has a similar story with his visions and trying to save padme, which also inevitably leads to her death. Even in ROTJ, he has a fleeting moment of killing vader, but ultimately decides not to. But in the case of TLJ, it was too late. I understand seeing this story line as abrasive and out of character, but I personally think it’s narratively layered and morally grey in a believable and human way. I think seeing Luke as just being optimistic is a rather elementary way of looking at him, more akin to Superman when Luke was never really like that. I have my problems with the sequels but I believe this was not one of them.

[@AllTradesGeorge]

Another consideration is that Luke may have realized that he couldn't prevent Ben turning to the Dark Side...but thought that, perhaps, if Ben were killed before he could fully surrender, not only could the death and destruction of his visions be prevented, but Ben's...well, soul, although Star Wars never uses the term...would be spared from the full corruption of the Dark Side, that Ben wouldn't need to be redeemed because he never would have truly fallen. And as Luke is about to carry that out, he realizes that he has made himself judge, jury, and executioner, and is, himself, falling into the hubris and arrogance that led to the Jedi Order falling. Before he gets a chance to withdraw in peace, however, Ben wakes up. Ben sees his uncle, who is supposed to be this paragon of virtue, wisdom, and temperance, standing over him with an active lightsaber, apparently ready to kill him in his sleep, and that shatters what's left of Ben's reluctance to yield to the Dark Side... So, on top of Luke realizing that he had fallen victim to the great weakness of the Jedi, he also gets hit with the realization that his failing accomplished the exact opposite of what he'd originally intended and potentially pushed Ben beyond hope of redemption. That's enough to shatter almost anyone's sense of optimism or hope and give them reason to start saying, "Why should I even try? At the time when it mattered most, all I did was make it even worse." I've never bought the argument that this contradicts Luke's character. I think it completes Luke's character, makes him more relatable. I have a lot of issues with the sequel trilogy, but Luke isn't one of them.

[@crisis-cor]

Agreed. I can't agree with Cinema Therapy at all with this video. They really missed the mark with this one.

[@daniellemusella1594]

1] The thing about Obi-Wan's teaching abilities is that he was only about 21 years old in "The Phantom Menace", and he was suddenly given responsibility of the guardianship and training of a boy, who wasn't young enough to be his son. While that's the same age group as Luke and Leia in the original trilogy, he lived in a completely different galaxy than they did. He wasn't part of a wartime generation, which meant he missed the crucial experiences and lessons that shaped the Skywalker twins. If Qui-Gon had survived that battle, I firmly believe that time would've allowed Obi-Wan to become a much better, more mature teacher to another padawan down the line. Instead, he became Anakin's big brother, his buddy, and that's not what the dude needed. Someone, who is only a hairs-inch away from still being a kid, themselves, is not going to be able to be a good mentor to another kid. Time did pass, but those two were, basically, growing up together. 2] As I watched "The Last Jedi", I immediately saw parallels between that movie's Luke, and war veterans that return with PTSD. A lot of people that enlist in the military do so, as soon as they graduate high-school. They go into the situation, to use a famous phrase, "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed". But when they come home, their families and friends see how they've changed. They often become cynical and jaded by what they encountered on the battlefield. It's a reality that I feel is at the root of why certain people hated the perceived change to Luke. It touched a nerve that they don't want to admit is there. 3] Faith is a running theme throughout the sequel trilogy, and, as you guys pointed out, the seeds for this were planted in the original one. When Yoda told Luke that not believing was why he failed, that was all about faith. If you don't have a healthy amount of faith in yourself, then you'll never accomplish anything huge in a positive way. The Jedi in the prequel trilogy went in both extreme directions. They had too much faith in themselves, hubristic pride as opposed to healthy self-belief, but most of them didn't have a whole lot of faith in other people, including those in their own ranks like Anakin and Ahsoka. This is what led to their downfall. In "The Last Jedi", when Luke looked into the sleeping Ben's mind and saw the darkness to come, I feel like 90% of that could've been avoided, if Luke had waited for Ben to wake up. They could've had a deep, lengthy discussion about what he'd seen, and Ben would've been better able to fight against the poison that was being distantly poured into his ears. That "moment of pure instinct" came from a lack of faith, which Rey calls Luke out for, during their confrontation in the rain: "You thought his choice was made." (5/2/2023)

[@Moonlight.Howlings.666]

I gotta admit what called my attention most was the observation that Luke, in spite of being the hero, needed to be saved at the ending of each movie. That's really a great insight, while it helps him to resist hubris, it also shows how important it is that he's not alone. Luke has an underrated quality that is simplicity. Many consider it to be a writing flaw, but simplicity is present in a lot of heroes and this is what saves them from falling (like Frodo resisted the Ring for so long because of his hobbit simplicty and when he fell because the ring was just that unbearable, he was helped by his pity and Sam who's an even simpler character).

[@Prof_Tickles92]

@Dustin W That’s why I like Rey. She’s prone to fits of rage, impulsive, petty(at times), and she skates by until the third movie where she gets humbled and learns to not be so impatient.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@createdforthemoment6740]

One of my favourite moments from the writer Terry Pratchett is in his book "A hat full of Sky". A force has taken over the young hero causing her to act out all her darkest thoughts, part of which was robbing a senile old man of the little money he has left and losing it all. Once she's defeated the force she has to confront the old man that the one last thing that he thinks about is gone (You feel the deep deep pain of having to do that). When she goes to show him the money is gone, you find her friends have replaced the money and made him rich. She's mad, annoyed these friends helped her, saying she doesnt deserve it. She say's it's unfair. And the mother figure in the story goes It's an unfair world, Child. Be glad you have friends.”

[@PetWessman]

All the insight, film making expertise, and wisdom aside, you gotta love and respect how HARD Jono goes with the end quotes EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

[@BelgorathTheSorcerer]

I always felt like the Jedi would have been much better off learning to embrace their own inner darkness in a constructive way, than just supressing it. Like Bruce Banner learning to aim the Hulk, and eventually coming to be in harmony with him. The greatest irony of the whole Jedi Order was they always restrained their power by fear of what could be done, rather than tempering their power with the wisdom of when and how much of it to use.

[@jks90768]

I thought that’s where they were going in The Last Jedi. With the balance of light and dark through Kylo and Rey. There’s that featurette that seems to explain the balance on the extras of the last Jedi. Sadly, I was mistaken.

[@BillyKatze]

gotta be honest, i was one of the people that were like: "This is not Luke!", but your take on his behavior actually made a lot os sense. thanks for showing me your point of view.

[@LyteFyre06]

I’m glad you guys touched on the sequels and addressed Luke. I’ve personally been on an anti-sequels binge recently, so watching this makes me(and likely others) feel better about Luke’s journey in the sequels. I’ve noticed how people say “Luke wouldn’t do that,” or “He’s already done this in the originals.” But, like you said him, he’s aged. Not everyone is the same person they were when the were in their 20s, especially after a failure that you worked so hard to prevent or let happen. Could he’ve done more? Probably. Will this be a satisfying conclusion? Probably not. But the sequels aren’t perfect and if you pitch Luke like this, then you can somewhat forgive the writers. May the Fourth be with you. -Some guy on the internet

[@Chaunwilkerson]

I really don't agree with the "He's aged" argument, because people don't just change, things/events change people. Story wise, we needed to see the catalyst that changed him so dramatically.

[@1stCainite]

@@Chaunwilkerson Why? The sequels are not Luke's story. To dedicate the time it would have taken to show us why he changed would require a another movie. Or, you know, a big chunk of a tv series.

[@reklem2]

@@Chaunwilkerson We did see the catalyst. Bens slow turn to the dark side, which ended with Lukes fear getting the better of him and igniting the lightsaber which in turn led to everything he built getting destroyed.

[@Chaunwilkerson]

​@@reklem2 Yeah, I do think that is what they were going for, I just don't think it was executed well enough. Not to mention the second drastic change of character when he decide to draw his weapon on a sleeping Kylo in a panic, this is clearly not the same Luke from Return of the Jedi.

[@Chaunwilkerson]

@@1stCainite I don't get your point, The Last Jedi already dedicated a chunk of screentime to this, they just did it poorly. The bigger problem is how much time it would take set up the state of the galaxy after the Empire fell, very important context for the sequel's, despite the sequel's disagreeing.

[@michellematheus1570]

You know...that conversation about how Luke and Obi-wan recognized that they couldn't save the people that have turned to the dark side really had me thinking...it's such a statement about life. I think in our darkest moments when we see terrible events or even people we know just doing horrible things, it seems very hopeless. I think what that also says is that sometimes, we have to accept that pushing people towards things we want to see or happen may not happen/end with our involvement. Sometimes we might not be the savior of a situation and that's not failure - it's recognizing that we have limitations. And I think the thing is not to lose hope or shut down necessarily, but to realize that maybe it's us that's the blocker and that things can change for the better with/for another person. Kinda tying back to Yoda, we hope those that come after us can be better than we were for that person or for the situation. Just a lot of good lessons.

[@TheRibottoStudios]

Ahsoka realized it too when you think about it. When she understood who her master was, she outright says "I'll avenge his (Anakin) death." She had no problem taking on Vader. Until she saw his face. Then it turned into her being willing to take them both out in Twilight of the Apprentice. "I'm not leaving you, not this time" it wasn't her trying to stay and turn her master. It was her coming to terms with who and what he was, and willing to do what it took to get rid of Vader. Even if it meant taking herself out too; when she plunges her sabers into the ground, she didn't expect Ezra to pull her into the World Between Worlds, and Vader was ready to decapitate her. I think it makes sense then, why she was so afraid to train Grogu in Mandalorian, because she saw what attachment did to Anakin, while failing to see what it was her own attachment to Rex that saved her life during Order 66. Even Ahsoka Tano, who left the order, fell into the same trap as the Council, thinking attachment was bad, because she saw what ONE person with abandonment issues could do when they lost people they loved.

[@crazypeopleonsunday7864]

This reminds me of an analogy that my dad and Bible study friends use, often in regards to spreading the Faith, but also just in general. Helping people (come to God, otherwise improve, etc.) is like planting a seed. We can put the idea(s) in someone's head, and we can do our best to nature the idea-seed, but ultimately it's up to God to incite that seed to actually grow.

[@rooster2268]

I would argue that Luke in ROTJ was actually acting as a Jedi is supposed to, fully committing to the action but being able to rein in the darkness, acting in defense of others without committing to full murder. I think they're setting up the future Star Wars products to show this was the norm before the dogma of the last Jedi Order took over and stepped the Jedi of their compassion and conviction to do good as they tied themselves to the Republic and politics.

[@Theeight8b]

​@BK Beatty There a good analise of Jedi code and Sith by @The.KZbinr.with.no.Name. And he got a fair point that Jedi should remove themself of any humanity, to be the best Jedi they can be.

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

@BK Beatty Acceptance always works better for mental and psychological stability than repression. The Jedi Order was flawed at its core. If you can’t control your urges by learning they exist and mastering them, the moment they appear you’ll be filled with guilt and shame and have no idea what to do to stop it.

[@TheRibottoStudios]

@BK Beatty okay but honey love and compassion literally always save the day in the end so the jedi are always wrong

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

@@TheRibottoStudios Also, Obi Wan and Yoda literally tell Luke to give up on his father. That’s their advice as Jedi. Luke has to literally ignore them to succeed.

[@TheRibottoStudios]

@UltimateKyuubiFox JUST LIKE HOW YODA TOLD ANAKIN TO "GET OVER" HIS VISION. And how Master Luminara just told him "hey fck it if our Padawans die right let's go!" When Ahsoka and Barriss were stuck in rubble. They sucked 😆

[@smashley5687]

Finding your optimism again but having it be real is one of the greatest treasures in this life. I feel like this last year I had it beat out of me more than ever in my life and I almost lost it. But I’m through the worst part of finding it again and have begun building it. “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

[@PentePatrolStarWars]

This is probably the best character study of Luke Skywalker! Brilliantly done!!

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thanks so much!

[@andrewogilvie9051]

@@CinemaTherapyShow As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@humblesparrow]

David Prowse doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves (outside intimate circles) for how much he was able to convey physically. The voiceover meshes so perfectly with his performance that we sometimes forget that the physical acting came first.

[@jsmaster4779]

Prowse definitely deserves the respect for getting the physical appearance for Vader perfectly. Kinda sucked that Lucas didn’t exactly tell him about it, though with how good things came out, I assume all is well. I dunno.

[@DigDug513]

I met David Prowse about 30 years ago. He told the audience that after multiple failed attempts to use wires to pick up Palpatine in the climax of ROTJ, Prowse said let me pick him up. Prowse was a professional bodybuilder and did it in one take. RIP David Prowse. You did a perfect job 👏

[@shiptj01]

I remember being shocked as a kid to see Luke almost die in "The Empire Strikes Back". I guess that I was so used to the main characters being almost invincible. Not to mention that Luke had already done a lot of cool things before his first confrontation with Vader.

[@tiffanypersaud3518]

This was such a treat, thank you. The sequels are full of flaws but it has some of the best thematic writing of the whole franchise, especially with Luke. Legends win and they fail, in real life too. But nobody talks about their failures unless it precedes another win. I thought Luke's sequel trilogy was very metaphoric for war vets who accomplish a lot but return broken and stay that way for a long time. They can become bitter and cynical no matter their accolades. Luke thought he had nothing else to look forward to until a chance at redemption came along. He was always a character with a lot of love and I appreciate male protagonists like that. Everyone loves him as a badass, and yes, but I love him too when he's humble.

[@i.shuuya3231]

Bro why tf I'm tearing up. The dialogues in The Last Jedi hit me so hard. It's the cinematography, and those little silent moments complemented with a beautiful score that kill me. How can anyone watch the reunion between Luke and Leia and not feel anything? The words of wisdom from Yoda? Luke confronting Ben? Come on. This movie (and other made by Rian Johnson) prove that the reason #1 a movie is hated it's because people don't understand it because of the lack of media literacy. Just look all the terrible discourse surrounding Glass Onion. It's literally a mirror to TLJ's reception. Beautiful movie and terrific video! Well done you guys.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thanks so much!!

[@isaakfrmla]

I just love that “I am a Jedi, like my father before me” gets me every time

[@Matau228]

Luke was never a character who should have "gone out with a bang." I do wish there had been a lot of different choices made in the sequels, but Luke standing by himself in front of Kylo Ren, stopping the whole of the First Order without any aggression on his part, then peacefully transcending is the perfect way for him to pass on.

[@ashrimpcalledhank]

My favorite personal quote that I tell young people think I judge and look down on them when they make poor choices, Before I was old, I was stupid.

[@bryndougo]

Comment section is gonna be wild on this one.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Yep... 😂

[@Ballpython50001]

What comment section ? KZbin pretty much just killed it. (Meaning that you will no longer see discussions in it but just quick no effort comments like "wow" and "love the vid"). Or did the new changes to youtube not get rolled out to everyone ?

[@joshuamahoney1890]

Probably the best analysis of Luke Skywalker from the Sequel Trilogy I've seen. I'm not a huge fan of the overall sequel trilogy but this helped shed new light on how I view TLJ.

[@TheShanicpower]

I really recommend Jenny Nicholson’s videos on them if you want an alternate perspective from the negativity!

[@joshuamahoney1890]

@@TheShanicpower Thanks, I'll check it out!

[@noveldefender9815]

Wanna tag in here to see if you like the Last Jedi a little better because of Jenny Nicholson. Still prefer Legends Luke way more but I always love to have discussions with Star Wars fans who are honest and thoughtful about their points. Let us know you liked it, if your willing!

[@jimharris5320]

I won't deny that cynical old Luke was a natural progression from optimistic and naive youth. The problem is we did not take that path with him. We were told in sloppy flashbacks, we were not shown with carefully crafted scenes. Fast Telling instead of Careful Showing doesn't make for a satisfying narrative. Yes, Abrams gave crap to Johnson. Then Johnson gave crap to Abrams. No one person at Disney apparently stopped to think "Hey this is the last 3 movies of a super trilogy, maybe we should have a storyline mapped out..." instead of letting the directors be the writers and ad lib through the damn thing. There were two decades and tens of thousands of pages of great story ideas that were thrown out by Disney because they thought anything with the Star Wars name stamped on it was pure gold.

[@WestOfDunce]

I appreciate that someone's made this comment to put some missing perspective back in the conversation. A big leap in Luke's character deserved an appropriate explanation. And for anyone who followed how Luke was developed in the expanded lore, pre-Disney, they were familiar with a rich and well-crafted history of Luke's journey post-ROTJ. What we got was sloppy in comparison. And heck, George and Mark didn't like what we got.

[@Frankthegb]

Abrams didn’t give crap to Johnson. He gave him a perfectly serviceable setup. Johnson ruined everything that could have been great

[@theastralwanderer]

So that's why the whole thing felt cheap and empty to me. Thanks!

[@reaganmonkey8]

@@Frankthegb What would you have done with Luke alone on an island, isolated from everyone?

[@pivotguydc1149]

Maybe. But some of us literally took that path in real life along with him, so we didn't need any of those flashbacks to "fill" anything in. We just knew. Because we've been there.

[@scipocelah6677]

27:25 Thank you so much for saying this. We are raised with this "ideal happy life" concept, and life just doesn't work that way. I grew up expecting to get married and have kids, and while I have gotten married, my wife has a history of complicated pregnancies. We lost our first pregnancy (her third) at 15 weeks last year and it literally almost killed her. We tried again, and now she's going through an ectopic pregnancy, which in the worst case could literally kill her. And she's so defeated by this, telling herself that she feels like a failure, she says that she's already 35 and she'll never be able to have kids, and she says that I'm going to leave her for someone who can give me kids. Throughout all of this, I have realized (and told her) that having kids and starting a family isn't what makes someone successful, and having her in my life is so much more important to me than having children or the "ideal, happy life" that we were raised to want.

[@WestMichiganTransformers]

Gentle but deeply-rooted disagreement: Yes, JJ Abrams gave Rian Johnson an expert-level storytelling problem. JJ Abrams reverted the narrative status quo established at the end of Return of the Jedi, and chose to give almost no explanations. So Rian Johnson was confronted with not only telling a story, but somehow making what just came before feel sensible. That was a *huge* weight to put on his shoulders. And I say that, still really enjoying Force Awakens (especially for the brilliantly developed character arc of Finn in that first installment). And! There’s a lot of details about The Last Jedi that I really like. I was totally going along with the movie for its first half. Luke’s despondency after Kylo Ren’s collapse into darkness is a strong direction to take the character. But the narrative bubble just completely popped for me once the explanation was given that Luke was prepared (even momentarily) to murder Kylo Ren in his sleep. I understand the defense you’ve both given here: comparing it to Luke’s anger against Darth Vader in episode VI. Though I do think that Darth Vader had taken away Luke’s option for non-violence once he suggested that he’d simply move on to turning Leia to the dark side. That’s not the main point though: In The Last Jedi-for me-Luke’s murderous intent is hard to believe. I think it’s a narrative problem. We’ve seen zero back-story about Kylo Ren’s fall to the dark side. How it came to be. Except, and only, for that final moment where it all falls apart. The… show-don’t-tell rule is sorely flaunted here. Outside of the story, it feels like someone wants to conveniently put the responsibility for Kylo Ren’s actions on to Luke instead of on to Kylo Ren, himself. The movie shows us this horrible moment of moral failure on Luke’s part, but it doesn’t take the time to show us how we got there. To be fair-how could the movie have done so? There was so much worldbuilding catch-up to do after Episode VII. Most of that catching-up, then, was done by dialogue, or rather pointedly rejected altogether. Rian Johnson’s voice in the story feels pretty strong-JJ Abrams wants me to play the mystery box game, and I am *not* playing. Having acknowledged that much, Luke’s moral failure was, for me, too much to take in without proper narrative structure around. As a result, it felt hard to believe-and because it felt hard to believe, well, frankly it felt spiteful. Or at least dismissive of the character. Final point: so much of that could have been worked out by giving Luke’s arc with Kylo Ren more time to resolve yet. Luke’s death-from-exhaustion on the island felt just about as sudden as the explanation of his intended murder-and narratively, it sealed Luke’s arc as being completed. That was the final moment for me in the theater when I realized the movie just didn’t feel fulfilling to me.

[@DrDolan2000]

Couldn't have said it better myself. People can like this movie all they want, but this just isn't Luke Skywalker; this is Jake Skywalker, as Mark Hamill himself called it Not that characters can't have a regression period, it just needs to make sense. This one doesn't I chalk it up to the Finn and Rose side quest being included. You could cut that entirely and spend that time better explaining how Ben fell

[@agenc7268]

If Mark Hamill thinks they did Luke dirty, then it’s true, he would know the most about his own character

[@ElijahMCMalik]

Completely Agree. W

[@Feathertusk]

I honestly disagree that the sequel Luke was well written. It becomes clear through dialogue in Return of the Jedi that Obi-Wan and Yoda still cling onto an incorrect idea of hiding the truth. Yoda seems to realize it on his death bed and seems to see the final act of Luke confronting Vader and the directions it could go. Hence the words about not giving into hate and anger. On the other spectrum as Luke leaves he talks with Obi-Wan who unlike Yoda thinks that Luke must kill Vader and if he doesn't the emporer wins. Because of what they both said and off his greenness Luke seems to misunderstand Yoda and thinks both of his masters are telling him to destroy Vader / his father. On Endor when talking with Leia he specifically says that he sees the good in Vader and will save him, literally setting his character in a position to realize that maybe these Jedi were flawed and wrong. Yeah he thought that before when he went to save his friends, but that attempt was through intent to kill and with conflict, resulting in failure. This time he is going in with the intent of defence and generally "peace" as he is trying to save his father and not destroy him. If I remember he doesn't even mention destroying the emporer. I feel this shows a huge increase in his character growth. When we finally get to the big "fight" we see the emporer taunting and pushing using Luke's fear of losing his friends and family to compel him to fight. Literally the same reason he fought Vader before. Vader intercedes on behalf of the emporer and we get the duel, in which Vader gets Luke riled enough to tap into his emotions and channel the power of the dark side. Vader's hand gets cut. In that moment of pause Luke thinks to his previous duel his Father stopping at just cutting of Luke's own hand, but then sparing his life. He sees the machine Obi-Wan said was there. He remembers what a dying Yoda told him about his emotions and "confronting" Vader but never saying killing. In that moment Luke shows how he is different from his father and different from Obi-Wan. He sees the good and human left in his father, he sees what happened and how it felt when his emotions got the better of him. The emporer tries to taunt him, and instead of caving in or attacking the emporer he learns the lessons of Yoda he casts his saber to the side showing that he will not use violence. While on the brink of death, Vader shows Luke he was right to trust his feelings and the force, as he destroys the emporer. He even later tells Luke that Luke saved him. Mandalorian Luke seems to follow the trilogy well. Luke seems to have grasped the balance of his personal flaw of when and when not to pull out a saber and how to use it. From his own experience we see him being honest with Grogu about his feelings towards the Mandalorian. This is not a misled Luke. He let's Grogu make the choice, he even allows Grogu to leave knowing that Grogu will gain strength in the force regardless, even if Grogu would ultimately weild the dark side, Luke let's him go. Based on that and his lessons learned the sequel Luke doesn't seem to fit. Yeah being a hermit and dicouraged because your temple and padawans were destroyed could make sense. Also the desire to take Ben in and train him to be a Jedi, despite the Jedi not wanting to have such heavy attachments. What doesn't fit is the looming over Ben with a lightsaber to destroy him. It resets his learning and conflict as if he hadn't spents years of his life learning that lesson with his own father. Sure we can all make mistakes and make them multiple times, but when we have such a pivotal and long lesson it would rarely happen in the same way. An example is a side story in the Back to the Future series. Marty has a problem with people calling him chicken (and other variations of weak) and acts on impulse often to negative results. At the end of the third movie he finally learns to self control and ignore the taunts, being confident in who he is without the need to prove anything. He might still make rash decisions under emotions, but is unlikely to forget such a hard learned lesson, and if any sequel existed it would feel like bad writing to have him act rashly to someone calling him chicken. Basically having Luke almost destroy Ben, is literally having him cut Vader's hand again. Luke literally ignored what Obi-Wan said to fight for the good in Vader. In addition Vader had killed probably millions of innocent people, and Ben was a kid being taunted by a sith, not even steeped fully into the dark side. It doesn't make sense for him to be so hung up on the future as to turn to violence. Honestly him failing to see the darkness rising in Ben and not working hard enough to sever the tie of Snoke and protect his other pupils would make much more sense as a flaw and would still leave him to be a Hermit on a planet hidden away. He doesn't need to reset his personal journey and attack Ben to make it happen. Eh whatever, maybe I'm just a rambling fool who doesn't know what I'm talking about and dislikes the sequel trilogy the more I see it. TL;DR: Luke ain't perfect but his character journey shouldn't reset over a similar struggle that is less dangerous.

[@EnigmaShadow03]

Couldn’t agree more

[@missvidabom]

100% agree. Also, I love this comment more because you used Back to the Future as a point.

[@Feathertusk]

@missvidabom it felt so relevant. Angry Video Game Nerd talks about the back to the future example, because the cartoon reset Marty's character.

[@tommorgan9073]

You don't just resist the dark side once and then mark it off as an achievement to never be encountered again. That is your fundamental misunderstanding of the force.

[@missvidabom]

@@tommorgan9073 Idk… child murder is a pretty big thing to be *tempted* to do. I think a person either can or cannot kill a child. Luke just can’t. He just can’t. It’s not just a slip, a little temptation, a little fear, a little frustration. It’s either in you to be able to do that or it is not.

[@michellecrocker2485]

When he said “I can’t be what she needs me to be “. That’s where you get that feeling from Luke that he’s traumatized by his psychotic nephew and he feels this imposter syndrome and as a result, he projects that onto Rey when she comes to him and I wish Luke would kick that guy’s can. Knock old Benny down a peg. Disrespect your uncle? My mother would have had my hide

[@lennartholeck2527]

You're doing this? You're actually doing this? Respect, you're tackling the Ultimate Hero 👍💪

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

We're doing this!

[@joecrow5484]

@@CinemaTherapyShow do wolverine or han solo!

[@neres5795]

Yes, true hero Luke Skywalker and Jake from the sequels.

[@StarWarsCentralized]

@@neres5795 did you watch the video

[@TheShanicpower]

@@neres5795Luke in the Sequels completely fills the role as the ultimate hero by the end of his arc.

[@titanguy7316]

I wish I could give this video a million likes. You guys have voiced everything I feel about this arc (and Last Jedi by extension) in a more eloquent, articulate, and passionate way than I could ever muster!

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[@BatAmerica]

After two hours of watching a broken man, seeing Luke hold himself accountable and inspire people again before the sunset brought tears to my eyes.

[@Deathlygunn]

This. I know The Last Jedi isn't for everybody and I'm not going to try and change anyone's mind on the film, but having Luke go from reclusive, cynical, and depressed to reigniting hope across the galaxy (Showcased by Poe and the Resistance troops on Crait), and becoming the stuff of legend (shown by Broom Boi and the children of Canto Bight playing out tales of Luke Skywalker) simply through his presence on Crait had me welling up. And to have Luke pass away peacefully knowing he's restored hope and a spark of light to the Galaxy, after all he'd suffered was a beautiful end to the character.

[@Prof_Tickles92]

He died as he began. A new hope for the rebellion.

[@BatAmerica]

@@Prof_Tickles92 Very true.

[@etherealtb6021]

​@@Deathlygunn I cried like a baby in the theatre. I felt like it was the perfect ending to the Luke I grew up with 1977-1983. I felt it told my story from being naive and optimistic then and getting beaten down by life. Then I came home and read everyone shatting on the movie. I was like, did we see the same movie?

[@TheShanicpower]

@@etherealtb6021Most of the people online shitting on it unfortunately do not understand it at all, considering how they tend to word their criticisms.

[@rosscalhoun3389]

I think its a really bad comparison to say Luke attempting to kill Vader in a heated life or death fight is comparable to Luke attempting to murder his child nephew in his sleep. In the former, its impressive that he would ever have the control to stop himself. In the latter it is disgusting that he even took the first step (igniting the lightsaber) in that direction. For the record, I loved so much of Luke in the sequel trilogy aside from that. His death scene was especially fantastic. But all I could think about was how sequel Luke was seconds away from being "Youngling Slayer 2.0: this time it's family killing too".

[@jeanniefromtahini5197]

This was exactly how I felt about his character. My first thoughts were that he was on the top of his game as a young man, but time wears you down. It doesn't mean you lose everything, but that youthful shine fades and we are left with trying to achieve wisdom. We don't just stop being or growing, nor failing.

[@Dr.Kenobi264]

I have been waiting for this video since the moment I found your channel. It did not disappoint. Luke is my favorite character and this is now my favorite Cinema Therapy video. You guys could only do videos on Star Wars characters and I wouldn't complain.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@zeromech1450]

I fundamentally disagree with the notion that this is the natural extension of his character. I also disagree that force awakens set up lukes change in character. Thats extremely disingenuous coming from a filmmaker. There are a dozen ways to write around that and make it make sense. The problem with what they did with luke was they took him and showed us him at the end of his life. And he isnt even the same character as the last time i saw him. Hes also radically different from his legends counterpart. And the only way to fix that now is for them to show us everything that happens inbetween. And until then lukes character in the sequels will not make sense.

[@R2C2_]

“You wanted Luke doing badass things…” yeah, and that “battle” with Kylo was the epitome of badass. Demonstrating mastery of the force like we hadn’t seen before AND giving his friends time to escape. That’s a hero moment.

[@Raguleader]

A lot of folks wanted Master Luke Skywalker, the Great Warrior. But they forgot: "Great warrior? Wars do not make one great."

[@Frankthegb]

“Force projecting” so Ben can’t kill him and then dying anyway from the exertion is not badass lmfaooo

[@blatherskitestudios2278]

i would love to see you analyzing how they handle DID in Two Face specifically in the (appropriately) two part episodes "Two-Face pt 1 and 2" from Batman: The Animated Series. part of me's like "well they explain it better than most other two face media" and the other part's like "it was the 90's how much did they actually know"

[@joemeuse9708]

I don’t know, I feel like Yoda had already taught him this lesson in V that being a legend and a hero is not the same as being a Jedi. He surrenders himself in each movie to allow characters like Vader and Han to be better people, but to nearly kill Ben out of fear seems like something Anakin or Mace Windu would do. By VI he had already learned from his father’s and the old Jedi’s mistakes. Either way, my sister and I love you guys and may the 4th be with you!

[@amypetty5013]

Keep in mind what Jono has said about taking a step back for every step forward. Learning a lesson does NOT mean that you will never falter or regress, or that you won't need to *re-learn* it later in life. And it is completely true to life that what we think we know in our early adulthood isn't going to be the same as what we come to understand two or three decades later. That's part of the entire point here.

[@MegaMilenche]

Luke didn't actually try to kill Ben. He had a single though which he immediately regretted. Ben misunderstood Luke, which is tragic, but he did catch Luke in a bad moment.

[@EnigmaShadow03]

I have a problem with the whole “it’s human nature” explanation. Luke never seemed to be someone who was characterized as a person who never learns from his mistakes and frequently regresses. His journey was pretty linear and that’s what makes it so compelling. He grew steadily throughout the OG trilogy until we see him at the point of ROTJ. Tracking that progression, he wouldn’t be a perfect character, granted, but he’d be much wiser, and logically, based off of his characterization as we’ve seen it thus far, he wouldn’t be prone to making the same mistakes with age. This sudden pivot to Luke’s regression in LJ and him seemingly forgetting the lesson he learned over the years is very odd, and I think the take of “well it’s human nature” doesn’t really hold up with this character. That concept CAN work, I just don’t think it’s applicable here imo.

[@animemangalover94]

I think ur conflating never learns from mistakes and frequently regresses. I don’t think the last Jedi handled it perfectly, but I think it does work as an instance of regression after a 40 year gap in his life that we didn’t see. He grew steadily in the OG trilogy because he was young and in a period of growth and the ending of episode 6 does nothing to suggest the Jedi were imperfect. Weird old hermits the survivors may be, but Luke still wins with their help and he doesn’t witness their failures in their past. Obviously the OG trilogy didn’t set up the sequel movies but narratively the last Jedi and parts of the force awakens try to continue the threads that are in the old trilogy, now that the original viewers have grown up and felt the failures and hopefully matured in their own lives, to give Star Wars an adult perspective. Change is a natural part of life and given a 40 year gap in terms of the movies (I know there were lots of books but Disney put all that in an alternative universe) i think it’s reasonable for characters to seem completely different from their younger selves in-universe, never mind the completely different creative teams behind everything. It doesn’t feel as smooth and believable because we don’t see what happened in-between. I think it’s 1 of the easier traps that prequels fall into is making the young version of a cool character basically the same as their older version, because that’s what ppl want to see more of, but it does also make it seem like this person hasn’t grown up in 20 years or whatever the time gap is. It still makes me a little twitchy to see the millennium falcon and other ships from the prequel years show up in new star wars, like this ship was considered junk 50 years ago, it must stick out like a sore thumb now!

[@EnigmaShadow03]

@@animemangalover94 The regression undoes crucial aspects of his character, from his experiences in the OG trilogy, hence why I said he couldn’t have learned from his mistakes, based off that assumption. People can change, sure, but nothing is ever suggested that such a dramatic change would occur or even why, which is another reason the Sequels failed as a whole imo. The EU should have never been scrapped anyway. It did a much better job sticking to Luke’s characterization. I think LJ was trying to be far too meta with it’s narrative instead of sticking to consistent and believe-able follow up to characters like Luke. But then again, as they said, he had shit to work with so his hands were kind of tied.

[@animemangalover94]

@@EnigmaShadow03 I mean I agree that LJ was handed something stupid and that the sequel trilogy as a whole fails, but I don't think the regression undoing some big lessons from the OG is unrealistic. Unsatisfying maybe, but I find the older U get the more U realise that U can still make the same mistakes U thought u'd learned better from. So I find it very realistic and again, there would be no hint of such a dramatic change in the original trilogy because that wasn't the point. lJ was definitely being meta and maybe too meta in execution but I think after the force awakens broke the seeming happy marriage of Han and Leia, major change for Luke was to be expected. I don't think it's inconsistent with his character potential, tho it does seem inconsistent with how return of the Jedi ended.

[@RaamZ07]

Hit the nail on the head. My biggest gripe is that in order to impart the meanings of TLJ’s themes, the story had to conveniently “forget” Luke’s specific character developments from the OT. The biggest of which comes from ROTJ, where Luke demonstrates his final understanding of what it means to be a Jedi…by not only ignoring the Emperors words to kill his father, but also ignoring his Jedi mentors’ advice to do the same. Essentially, Luke’s biggest lesson and accomplishment for becoming a Jedi was to ignore Jedi “dogma”, and the emperor's temptations, by focusing on doing what was simply good. In his case at that moment, it was to save his father. The entire scene was a culmination of showing what a Jedi is meant to be; not just someone who uses the force for knowledge or defense, but someone who ignores fear (eg., fear of something evil/dangerous, or fear of letting down people you hold in high regard) and does good. And TLJ had to pretend like this had no impact on Luke's future development in order to drive Luke's "failure" with Kylo Ren.

[@EnigmaShadow03]

@@RaamZ07 Exactly!

[@kayleemcdowell9679]

I love watching this channel!! Brings me joy! I always look forward to a new video!!

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thank you so much!

[@North862]

Lukes journey through Failure is very reminiscent of "Gifted Children" All through their lives they are told and taught they are normal until they realize their Gifted. Then they are propped up, given all this weight and responsibility and they over come it. They think they are unstoppable. Then comes the adult world. The Real world. And they will fail. Alot. That triggers EXACTLY what we saw Luke go through. Depression, Isolation, Low Self Esteem.

[@jsjp822]

That was kind of me as a kid. In 1st grade, I was put in the gifted group and had been in advanced classes since then I was always in advanced classes. What was different for me was that I never thought that I was unstoppable, I was just scared to not be because of all of the pressure to be smart and succeed that I felt like I was getting from everyone. I didn’t want anyone to be disappointed in me, so I acquired a severe fear of failure and I often got so stressed over things that I was physically sick. And then I hit my mental “wall” of sorts when I was in 9th grade, not when I reached adulthood. I never liked people saying that you aren’t in the REAL world until you grow up and there’s no stress or work before then because the world that you’re living in as a kid is still real, it’s just a different version. And you can still be mature and stressed and you can still fail before reaching adulthood. Life isn’t one huge success-failure-success story. It’s a bunch of tiny ones throughout your life that are molded together and start and stop in different places for different people.

[@YouMakeMyMotorRun]

Gifted kids breethe through some aspects of life, while being even encouraged to ignore others. In the end, the lack of challenge in early years makes them underprepared for the eventual stop to what their natural talent can offer... and the willful ignorance in other aspects makes them unprepared to even start to learn on that front. I was academically brilliant and hit my hurdle at 20. Never before did I have to even bother studying, and suddenly there I was, in college... struggling like a madman cause I never learnt to study. Conversely, I was raised in a town where intelligence was not considered a popular trait, so the "solution" for all the bullying I received, was to be shielded away from most people and never learning to socialize (instead of teaching those other people to socialize in a healthy way). And here I am, 30 years old, lacking basic social skills and academically failed. Every child needs to be tended to in a special way, and no matter how gifted in any aspect they can be, they'll never grow if their environment doesn't help them develop the tools needed for adult life.

[@grector805]

I feel that as a gifted kid. I'm halfway through college and I don't know how to study. I have poor time management skills. I also struggle with low self esteem.

[@andrea2kx]

As someone that was labeled as "gifted" when they were young your story resonated with me. I grew up and was told I was super talented and gifted because everything came easy to me. High school was a breeze, I'm just gonna walk right into my degree but that is where the reality check happened. Spent so long being told I was gifted and then fail in college and that has stuck with me. I fear trying again because I fear failing again. And now I don't have as much of the same support network I used to as my parents are aging. Its all on my now and that scares me even more.

[@kuroiflyerneko]

Being Twice-Exceptional is a bitch as an adult. Either you were conditioned to fear failure because "You're Gifted" or/and you failed to establish basic skill sets that create a functional adult because you didn't need them... until you did need them. No amount of masking will make up for the lack of these once that limit is reached. And it's frustrating AF because in hindsight you're sitting there going HOW DID THIS GET MISSED? Gifted Children are failed by their mentors like Luke failed Kylo. I'm trying to go back to school and finish my failed attempt at my Associates and having to appeal for financial aid because my path of academia was fubared very early on. Even over 10 years later that thing follows you like a credit report. I keep writing what I failed at and what that failure taught me, and what I failed at and failed at and failed at and holy freaking crap like it doesn't end. And I am sitting here going how is this supposed to convince anyone to give me that funding back. All it does is highlight my failure. If anyone is wondering, they actually ASK you to to explain what went wrong and how. And I managed to fail in a spectacular fashion. I keep rewriting the drafts trying to make it sound like I'm not making excuses and taking responsibility for the things in my control, but that the circumstances were outside of my control. But maybe it only seems like they're excuses because I learned from them but the reason they happened were I was ill equipped and the result ended in failures. I don't know. Is something an excuse when you didn't realize it was a portion of what created the situation in the first place but hindsight gave you the "excuse"? Maybe they are, because I fear failure, and therefore will make any excuse in the book because I was gifted, and therefore could not be allowed to fail. But I did fail and have had to live with the consequences. And they still sting after all these years.

[@rvas324]

“Life is going to beat it out of you” True story! Thank you for this reminder that it’s about grounding your optimism so you can still have it

[@jomoser83]

My personal opinion is that if the Emperor would've just kept his mouth shut then Luke would've succumbed completely to his rage and went full dark side. But because he had to basically taunt Luke, it gave him the chance to stop and think and see what the Emperor was trying to do and so Luke stopped

[@YouMakeMyMotorRun]

By that point, the masterful grooming skills that he had developed in the Anakin era were very much rusty... Emperor was losing it and he knew full well, so he was desperate to make sure Luke remained at his side as a failsafe for losing Anakin. His over-reaching made him lose them both.

[@yugmi]

But he had to taunt him, if Luke killed Vader out of rage in that moment it would have been HIS rage and his only, he would then face against the emperor, so the taunt, to make him feel like he did what the emperor wanted, what he allowed to happen so Luke would become his apprentice.

[@YouMakeMyMotorRun]

@@yugmi that's the thing... at that point, I think Palpatine was already defeated. The only question was whether or not Luke was gonna win (meaning, not being corrupted) To be honest, an alternate ending where Luke goes full-on berserker and kills them both, just to become an uneasy hero to have around a-la Homelander, would have also been badass in a way.

[@jeffmuller1489]

No, the nature of Evil is arrogance and pride. Palatine didn't think he could lose. Look how easy (after many years of grooming) it was to turn Anakin on a dime. Evil people don't know what it's like to be conscientious, they only know how to exploit it, but they can't fight directly against it.

[@YouMakeMyMotorRun]

@@jeffmuller1489 well I'm not necessarily saying he knew it, but he clearly had no backup plan. And what I mean is that in anyway it was a losing scenario for him

[@EveryFairyDies]

The music in the X-wing scene is pretty awesome, but I've always LOVED the music where Luke loses it on Darth. The deep choir and how the piece crescendos, Williams is giving us a glimpse of what a Dark Side Luke theme would potentially sound like. A combination of the Emperor's and Luke's themes, it's such a great musical reflection of what's happening in the scene.

[@paramitch]

Me too! The music in that scene -- the use of the choral aspect -- is just INCREDIBLE.

[@EveryFairyDies]

@@dustinw5080 Exactly!

[@TheShanicpower]

Best fight in the series.

[@JimyRoze]

That is not Luke Skywalker. Luke is the man who came to the 2nd most evil man in the Galaxy and said to him "there is good in you". That man was redeemed for the love of his son. The Luke who went to kill his nephew because the child had the potential for evil is not the Luke Skywalker who saved Anakin Skywalker.

[@ricktimus73]

You mean the Luke who was about to kill Vader for threatening his sister before catching himself and doing the right thing instead? That Luke? Did you even watch the video?

[@violax3735]

Love this video. The part about having this imagined version of your future and then being confronted with the reality hit so hard. I've always seen myself having multiple kids; now I struggle with fertility issues and at first it felt like my whole life shattered. We still have some options left, but I'm slowly starting to think of the future if it doesn't happen, find a way to be in that possible reality. As always, a very inspiring video. Thank you both for doing this!

[@sylvirgiomanach1491]

I'm sure it's something you've already thought about, but there's always adoption/fostering. It sounds like you have a lot of love to give and there are SO many kids out there that you could help by sharing it with them.

[@jeffmuller1489]

This, so much this. The shattered fantasy of what life would be, combined with what could have been if I'd made better choices and the shame of not knowing any better has me so broken even though objectively this is the best my life has ever been and I can't enjoy it because I can't move on.. it's like a vicious cycle in my head.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@violax3735]

@@sylvirgiomanach1491 Those are definitely options that we're considering, yes.

[@Kierangunn]

What is frequently missed in all of these videos and debates is that Luke's vision of Ben turning to the dark side was ALWAYS going to come true regardless of the lighting of the lightsaber. Ben not only attacked Luke, but proceeded to kill 12 other students and burn down the new temple, leads Stormtroopers massacring villagers, and plays a pivotal role in destroying plenty of core worlds with Starkiller Base.

[@kodirachelmaki-wy2nw]

I think it's kind of like the prophecies in Greek Mythology. People heard/saw them, freaked out, tried to prevent them, actually caused them to come about.

[@katec7386]

@Kierangunn @wy2nw “One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it” - Master Oogway Kung Fu Panda

[@Prof_Tickles92]

@@katec7386No it wouldn’t have. Force visions come true because of how the receiver reacts. Padme would’ve never died if Anakin stopped worrying and took everything in stride. As for Ben, Rey tells Luke, “You failed him by thinking his choice was already made.”

[@katec7386]

@@Prof_Tickles92 What you stated in your comment is exaclty what the quote I posted means. So I guess I'm a little confused why you started off your comment with "no it wouldn't have" when we are technically both on the same page...

[@bridgerhibbert2993]

"Always in motion, the future is." Anakin may have seen Padme die, but in that vision, she died from childbirth. However, after Anakin becomes Vader, it is revealed by the medical bot that she was in perfect health, but dying because she lost the will to live (it's implied that this happens due to her losing Anakin to the dark side). Meanwhile, though we do not see what events exactly played out in the vision Luke saw of Ben Solo, Luke did mention that Ben would destroy everything he loved. However, come "The Last Jedi", Ben is not strong enough to kill Leia, so it could be argued that the vision of Ben Solo Luke saw was merely the manifestation of the worst of Kylo's dark side rather than a set future. Personally, this would make sense considering how far Luke was willing to go with preventing that future, yet an awareness of the reality still allowed him to stop himself from going too far. Still, seeing the start of the future he may have seen (the destruction of the academy) may have been enough to convince him that he set the very future he wanted to prevent in motion, even if the reality was it wasn't. There are other examples in other media, but in the end, Force visions are so deep when you think about their duality as to whether they are true, half-true, or false.

[@isaac-0889]

Luke from episode 6 is my favorite character of all time, and honestly it hurts so much to see what he becomes in episode 8, and I still have many disagreements with his portrayal but you definitely have some good points that I never thought about. We like our heroes and our happy ever after because is a DESIRE we all have, that one day all will turn good for us never to face adversity or pain again but that's just not how entropy works but it's debatable that that's why fantasy worlds exist where we can escape where it is possible. For me it's not the fact that Luke fails but that he fails in something he has already surpassed in such a big way. Also, the fact that his failure leads to the exact same issue we see in the previous trilogy making their story kind of pointless (though that's mostly a story telling and creativity issue). Nonetheless, Luke and Yoda are a great display of dealing with failure in this movie and in classic Yoda fashion telling some of the best advice and phrases in cinema. This is probably my favorite video on your channel, and it is on a topic I usually dislike, which is the sequels. It is also important to grow up and be able to engage in things that we disagree, but that doesn't mean we are unable to listen and even learn from different perspectives from other people.

[@teddieburks3452]

Thank you for this. I genuinely love this take on Luke's character arc.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thanks for watching!

[@grilledeel6042]

I never thought of Lukes character in this light. Thanks you so much for the new perspective!

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

You're welcome!

[@tylerrodriguez7202]

Guys, I found your channel this past Thursday and I have felt a change in my behaviors, and thus a change in the reactions I get from the people in my life. Thank you for what you’re doing and I hope you realize the positive impacts you’ve had on a lot of people out here. We need more of these types of male role models in our society

[@aleahhenderson-carter61]

I’m so happy for all of their wholesome content you get to enjoy. I found them about a year ago. @cinematherapy is the best thing on the internet.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Whoa whoa whoa. Have you seen all the kitten pictures? I mean, we're great and everything, but... kitten pictures. -alan

[@allancosta6337]

Sorry for my bad english. They said that, in Return of the Jedi, Luke's first action when he learned that Leia was in danger was to draw the light saber because he was young, and you said that in The Last Jedi Luke matured, so because he matured the first action should not be to draw the lightsaber to stop Kylo Ren.

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

@@allancosta6337 In ROTJ he attacked. In TLJ he stopped himself immediately.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@superrswalkthrougn]

I feel like this video is specifically made for me you guys voiced out my exact thoughts regarding Luke. It's JJ who did his dumb mystery box action adventure shit and let RJ deal with the opening of the mystery box. Which was Luke in this case. And RJ did this Luke that shouldn't have existed in the first place soooo much justice that I'm actually fucking glad he exists this way. Everything about how his optimism went from naïve and 'can do anything' to just mature and hopeful. How his worldview is shattered and that resulted in his self imposed exile. This is not just about Luke being true to his character but how he matures and how life just plays out for even the most legendary human because after all he's just that: human.

[@noveldefender9815]

This has made me wonder. Was Rian Johnson really in control or were people telling him to follow their main plot points and all he could do was polish best he could? Even though I'm not a fan of the movie there's still the Legends Luke version whose character was everything I thought he would be and more while still having thought provoking flaws. Makes me sad that same people who complain about Disney Luke don't want to spend the time and energy to explore the version of Luke they've been asking for and has existed for 20+ years. They are simply too lazy to read books.

[@superrswalkthrougn]

@@noveldefender9815 The NJO is a mixed bag with different authors and their own takes on Luke in an evolving storyline with an ever expanding roster of new characters so I don't really use those books as a good baseline of what Luke's characterisation should be. I'm not saying there are too many different takes like the authors get the vibe of what Luke is. The best take on Luke for me has to be Timothy Zahns. The Thrawn trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn duology are the best books past rotj that actually show how Luke thinks and approaches things. The EU is a mixed bag. Starting fresh could've been a great idea if they actually planned the sequel trilogy but we got what we got.

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

The biggest problem I have with the sequel trilogy isn't that "Luke failed," it's that it dropped us right unto the deepest part of that galaxy-wide failure without any context or build-up because Disney wanted to capitalize on the "Rebellion vs. Empire" formula. In the legends novels the New Republic actually fails TWICE (the first time after being over-run the the Yuzan Vong, the second time by being corrupted from within like the Prequel-era Republic was), and Luke and his fledgling Jedi order faced some pretty dire stuff, INCLUDING his nephew (named Jacen Solo) turning to the Dark Side and needing to be stopped. But we had dozens of books building up to these lowest moments and got to see some high points for Luke and the new Jedi as well, which made the threats they faced and failures and losses they endured so much more meaningful. At least the Mandalorian and Ashoka series look like they're trying to fill in SOME of that build-up but it will never hit as hard as it could have if they'd started with Luke at his highest point in the first movie and had things rapidly fall apart around him over the course of that and the next movie.

[@davishueter]

You mean the scene where he tries to murder his nephew that he believes is going to the Darkside even though he tried to redeem his father that was already in the Darkside. No, it doesn’t seem like Luke. Maybe if that scene was built up in a different trilogy prior to that and that would’ve worked but otherwise no, it doesn’t. Defending the scene actually is hard to do because it actually separated an entire Fanbase which is proof enough that that scene did not work.

[@randomfish18]

Just in time for Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you! I love the use of shadow when Vader was taunting Luke. You could only see one of Luke's eyes clearly, the rest of his face was covered by bluish black shadow. That visually symbolizes the build up of anger and hatred inside of him. So cool! Also, I have a suggestion for the psychology of a hero and antihero: Aang (Hero) and Zuko (Antihero) from Avatar the Last Airbender, the original series. Many have already made great content on those characters, but I'd enjoy a professional therapist's and filmmaker's take on them!

[@oDTRAINo]

I don't want to be negative in the comments but there is a huge difference between angry luke attempting to kill vader who just threatened his family and has virtually no personal ties to versus homicidal luke who is about to kill his nephew, who he has a close relationship with, in his sleep because of thought crime...I don't know how you can say this nails his character at all or that this is good story telling.

[@LouShepKing]

Thank You, I feel like these two just selling themselves on and intellectualising crap writing.

[@Dwapook]

It was heavily hinted that Luke had a vision of Ben killing everyone in his school. Possibly more than that.

[@oDTRAINo]

@Dwapook Okay, the emperor convinced Luke the rebels would die and he still wouldn't fight vader, until leia was threatened to be turned.

[@jessiehogue.]

@@Dwapook Vader had actually, personally killed hundreds, both directly and indirectly caused the deaths of billions more through his command of part of the Imperial Navy, including murdering some of his own men, most of the Jedi order and countless other innocents, and Luke went out of his way to *save* him. And that's when he was LESS wise.

[@Dwapook]

@@jessiehogue. uh.. Kylo Ren’s direct actions resulted in the murder of over155 billion people in one go, and he would actually kill nearly everyone Luke cared for, and it’s heavily implied that it’s what Luke was seeing through the force which resulted in a momentary reaction… did you even watch the video you’re commenting on?

[@superkid801]

Great video. Luke is one of my favorites in Star Wars and I enjoyed your video exploring him in the original Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy, he is human, makes mistakes, but he learns from them. Love that Yoda line, failure is the greatest teacher from Last Jedi one of my favorites. I need to go back and rewatch the films

[@LittleHobbit13]

This turned out to be just the video I needed to see today. I've been dealing with a lot in the past year, from a close friend kicking me to the curb, to a major medical event, to losing one cat unexpectedly a few days before Christmas and then also losing his brother just a couple weeks ago to an incredibly aggressive cancer (and they'd been my family for over 13 years). I've been feeling a lot of that "life will beat your optimism out of you" lately, obviously none of these are things I would have put on my "happy ending" bingo card. Life's not feeling super good lately, as you might imagine, but it was helpful to hear the comment about "find your optimism again, but have it be ground and real". That feels like some solid perspective. I'm gonna run with that and see what I can make of it.

[@andrewogilvie9051]

As people, we are sinners. We have all lied, stolen, cheated, and lusted. We are all broken and deserving of punishment. A good judge wouldn’t let a killer get away with murder. No matter how much good the killer has done, or how much money he has donated to charity, he is still going to jail. We all die, and when we do, we should all go to hell because it is the righteous punishment for our sins. But God saw us without hope and showed us his love. His son died on the cross and took our punishment for us. We went speeding down the highway and now we have speeding fines that we don’t have the money to pay. But Jesus payed our fine. Legally we can be set free because our speeding fines are paid for. Jesus took our rightfully deserved punishment on the cross and rose back to life three days later defeating death. Now we don’t have to be punished by going to hell because Jesus took our punishment for us. It’s a great miracle when God takes a sinner like me and changes my desires to not want to sin. All you have to do is, “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

[@lequevictoria1390]

I'm sorry to hear about your tough year. That's so much to deal with in such a short time frame. I don't know the right words to give comfort, but I'm glad this video could help you. A few years ago, one of their films impacted me greatly; it helped me grieve and continue. Continuing was the hardest part, but now I'm in a happier, healthier place. I hope the same is true for your story. *hugs*

[@paramitch]

I'm so sorry for your losses -- cats can be such amazing companions and I've been there too. Please take care out there -- it will get better, and you will find your optimism again!

[@MRHPiano]

You guys are great: authentic, vulnerable, and heartfelt. Thank you. ❤

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thank you so much!

[@TheFlamelancer]

Wow. I never thought I'd see a Cinema Therapy episode I disagreed with, but here we are. Good work nonetheless guys.

[@charismacaster2429]

It’s okay to be wrong. Which, you are.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Let's be kind folks. It's okay to disagree. -alan

[@TheFlamelancer]

@@CinemaTherapyShow Thank you. I hope you guys understand. I love your work and I can see your points but I just can't agree with the last bits of Luke's journey. You and anyone else is free to like it, I don't mind. I'm not insecure about it.

[@raven2785]

Yeah, I agree to disagree too.

[@yellowluma101]

I hate the sequels, and everything they did with Luke. But I am willing to put that aside to enjoy your interesting insights

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

Thank you so much for this.

[@yellowluma101]

@@CinemaTherapyShow After finishing the video (very well made btw), I can really appreciate the ideas of change The Last Jedi had. Do I think it was executed well? No. I think the place Luke ends up happened so fast, and that may not be Ryan’s fault. But the Luke we see in The Last Jedi from Return of the Jedi I feel needed multiple seasons of television to get there. I did not want Luke to be a saint, some deity holy figure that beats up all the bad guys asses. But this Luke feels so regressed and like he learned nothing from his entire journey. His performance feels so different and I personally just can’t feel any trace of Luke from the originals. In the Original trilogy Luke was not a perfect person, but here I don’t see how Luke could consider killing the son of his sister and best friend. Redemption is something Luke follows so much to the point where it can be considered a flaw in its own way. If I had control of a 60 billion dollar franchise I would have made it so because of Luke’s intense focus on redemption he failed to stop Kylo from becoming a monster because he was so focused on saving him. That would feel much more respectful and real to Luke’s character, but that’s just me. Again great video, even if it personally still did not convince me to enjoy the direction of the sequels

[@OdiVonDobi22]

You guys are helpful and genuinely delightful to listen to. Thank you for being you!🙂

[@GothicSamurai85]

The problem with Luke in the sequels is that he gave up. Then he joins the fight later through force zoom call. They kill him off. He is one of the most powerful jedi's in Star Wars Mythos, he didn't deserve what disney did to him.

[@nickthepick8043]

Sorry, Gentlemen. But I gotta disagree with your takes on Luke in Last Jedi. The upside? I respect the Hell outta you guys, so screw it. You definitely provide constructive material that I can take away from it and learn the right lessons in life.

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

We appreciate that. Thanks for watching!

[@nickthepick8043]

@@CinemaTherapyShow You're most welcome! But I have to say, I am deeply sorry if my disagreeing with you guys brings you down in the slightest.

[@danimartin818]

I loved The Last Jedi and one of the reasons why was because we got a Luke who was a real three-dimensional character instead of a cartoon of a "hero". And Mark Hamill nailed it! I thought the confrontation between Ben and Luke was fantastic. What is more 'kick-ass' than defeating someone with your mind?? He won the battle and allowed for the war to continue (and eventually be won) without even physically being there! Who does that? Who can do that? Luke a real freaking hero Skywalker, that's who! I think people forget that the real definition of a hero is not someone with no fear and no doubts who defeats the 'bad guy' relatively easily. It's the guy with fear and doubt who somehow pushes through all that to do the necessary thing anyway, regardless of the consequences to himself. That is Luke in the Last Jedi.

[@CrazyKungfuGirl]

I didn't mind Luke being a broken mopey old hermit, the guy went to war give him a break. What I did mind was the filmmakers expecting me to become invested in the storyline when they refused to explain why things got so bad between Ben and his uncle that resorting to violence was their first instinct over having at least one conversation. I mean at least get Leia involved first. I really needed some more context before I could buy that scene. And no I'm not going to read supplemental novels/comics to understand what's going on in a movie that's not how movies work screw you Disney.

[@lisam5744]

Two things that really stuck with me from this video: No one is beyond saving even if I'm not the one to do it. Life will beat the optimism out of you, but you can find it again...grounded and real. Both of those statements are so, so true. And I'm learning to be at peace with both of those things. Thanks, TV dads.

[@belgerod]

Sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree. There is a big difference between Luke being tempted to take out Darth during a fight, and to nearly assassinate his nephew in his sleep. It wasn't even a passing thought either. Not like momentary road rage or such, he went to Kylo's bedroom and stood over him to contemplate murder. Why are we normalizing this? The Last Jedi just wanted to use Luke as a story tool to build drama for the new main characters. It was as much a betrayal of the fans as it was of the character.

[@mak3yasmiil3]

I needed this video so much today…I’ve never felt so lost. I’ve lost my faith in humanity and I’m trying to rebuild it.

[@Snowshowslow]

I am rooting for you 🙂

[@CinemaTherapyShow]

There is good in this world Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for. You got this. -alan

[@adrianpillai6645]

This is going to be long, but I disagree that Rian Johnson did good storytelling especially when it came to Luke's characterization. I can appreciate that Luke became jaded and disenfranchised, and decided to become a hermit. But aside from that one moment of "I was going to kill my sister's son," we did not see the cycle of failure that brought him to this point. So everyone knows that Luke's story in A New Hope is basically the Hero's Journey. And I believe Rian Johnson subverted that, but it was his start point on that circle that was the subversion. Luke didn't start at the Known World and the Call to Adventure. Rian started it in the Unknown World, at the Ordeal stage. Which is the mistake. For the rest of us, we thought we were at the Crossing the Threshold stage (because when we left Luke, he was in control of the Force, and when we see him 30 years later, he's abandoned the Force), so we were expecting Rian to reveal the Road of Trials. In essence, working chronologically backwards to fill us in (showing, not telling), the actions between now, and the moment where he decided to strike at Ben (Ordeal). Right now, it just seems like okay, he arrived here at this planet, ditched his X-wing, started drinking Blue Milk and hid out for 5 years. Why? Because he just tried to kill Ben? One moment, and he ran away. That's not satisfying, and that's the issue most fans have with Luke's characterization. We want to know why the mighty fell, not just see him fallen and try to get back up. So to me, that's not good storytelling. There's an error in not recognizing that while Rey was the main character (like Ana De Armas in Knives Out), the mystery of what happened to Luke (like what happened to Christopher Plummer in Knives Out) was the story. Yes, there's the side plot of 'who are Rey's parents?', but that's a side plot. Just like 'what is a Snoke' was a side plot. And why Adam Driver had no shirt... Sigh. That's my take.

[@jujuoof174]

I love how you are both in your fourthies and still BOOMING! Remember, getting older doesn't mean aging.

[@KingNedya]

Alan's sentiment about wanting your kids to grow to be better than you hits hard for me, but from the other side. It is my goal to not make the same mistakes my parents did; unfortunately I have since learned some things about my dad that make my job way easier (not a good thing in this case), because I've basically already succeeded on that front, leaving just my mom to work towards. But, still, the sentiment remains the same.

[@d.rayvenspencer]

My Luke-loving heart feels seen after this. I've said it many times, I'm no longer exactly who I was when Luke came into my life and 40+ years later...I don't expect him to be either. Thanks guys!✌🏽

[@vaderitup]

Yeah oh!!🙏🏾

[@neon_pixels]

Finally! To me, The Last Jedi is one of my favourite Star Wars movies, and a big part of that is that Luke's emotional journey made so much sense! And then, when I read people's reactions, I was confused. Have... Have I been watching a different Luke Skywalker than everyone else? I kind of suspect that I have, in a way. Star Wars fandom's perceptions of Luke have been shaped by decades of extended universe media that I personally did not get into, and those, I think, did paint him as more of a "super hero" than the original movies did. That's my guess at the discrepancy at least.

[@nandoman4769]

I love you guys but I just can't agree. I absolutely despise the way Luke was portrayed in the sequel trilogy. Luke is a man that would literally rather die an insanely painful death rather then submit to the dark side and kill his father. He threw his his lust for strength aside so he could save his father even after he brutally dismembered him. Luke did it all with nothing but his love and faith in his friends and family. Then in The last Jedi he has one bad dream and immediately attempts to brutally murder a child in his sleep with hardly so much as a second thought. And he never really owns up to his hand in Kylo's fall either. Instead he puts the blame on the old Jedi order and the Force. Sure he does eventually says "I've failed you" to Kylo but he says it with a tone of superiority and makes no attempt to try and bring Kylo back to the light like he tried with his father. Instead he proceeds to insult and humiliate Kylo and leaves him with a passive aggressive "see you around kid" which ultimately only serves to push Kylo deeper into the dark side. It's like if a bully apologized to one of his victims and then immediately proceeded to humiliate him in front of the class. It just does not in any way add up. It's like they replaced the Luke that we know with a different more cruel person entirely. I absolutely love you guys but this just ain't it chief.

[@MSwede]

Last Jedi came out at a time in my life where I had failed in life drastically after having a “hero’s journey” type life. And I had always seen myself in Luke, in his anger and in his heroism and loyalty, and seeing him grappling with maturity and failure helped me realize that life wasn’t over. I really loved his arc in the sequel series and I’m glad you guys put it much better than I could when I was originally defending the choices this movie made. ❤

[@sleepyhyrule6894]

“Not every loss imparts wisdom. Sometimes all that you learn in defeat is that you have been defeated”.

[@Stella-gl1se]

Luke is one of my favorite characters ever, so happy you did him! ❤

[@michaelkaduck1915]

I feel like Luke's arc is an analogy for growing up. That might be me being way too simple, but I think it matters. The older I get, the more difficult certain aspects of life become. Whether or not I'm being a good family member or friend, all the mistakes I've made...and will inevitably make again. So I never had trouble with Luke's portrayal in The Last Jedi, because for one thing-it's space fantasy, so in a real-world context we can separate the exact actions...but the messages remain the same. "The greatest teacher failure is."