Jake Skywalker

Jake Skywalker

Something came up where I had to make a small detour from my five part series on The Last Jedi. As much as I wanted to finish that series with commentary on the pivotal theme on the film, a recent Interview with Mark Hamill has a lot of fans in a new uproar. At the same time, youtube went beserk with a new flurry of videos feeding on negativity. I had to step in even though my blog is in its infancy, because I needed to tell you all a little about Jake Skywalker. Consider this a preface for the final section of the series on the “controversy” surrounding Episode 8. 

Acknowledgement: It has not been any secret, at least not to us Star Wars fans glued to the internet for any morsel of information on the upcoming films, that Mark Hamill has repeatedly said how he disagreed with Rian Johnson’s vision of Luke Skywalker. I mentioned as much earlier in my blog series. Recently, Mr. Hamill gave more interviews after the release of the film. In one of these interviews he opened up a little about the fan response to his character.  The topic of discussion was on how Mark thought a Jedi would remain optimistic. To paraphrase, Mark figured maybe Luke would be down in the dumps for about six months and then dust himself off. In regards to the now infamous line, “It’s time for the Jedi to end,” Hamill remarks:

“Luke would never say that. I’m talking about the (version in) the George Lucas Star Wars. This is the next generation of Star Wars. I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he’s Jake Skywalker, he’s not my Luke Skywalker.”

Fans who are still disturbed by the Luke Skywalker they saw on screen in Episode 8 latched onto this and said, “See! See? Even Mark Hammill himself thinks the character is not what good ole’ George had in mind. Now where did we put that petition to strike the film from canon?”

While I understand how good it feels to feel validated, I don’t see Mark saying anything he hasn’t already said before. When we think about it, “I fundamentally disagreed with the character,” was probably a much stronger way to put things. Focusing on the comments of the man who portrays Luke Skywalker on screen does nothing to get to the heart of the matter. The elephant in the room needs to be acknowledged, and Mark Hammill has yet to say anything about the critical point in the story of Luke Skywalker—the moment he ignites his lightsaber against a sleeping Ben Solo. I am sure he will at some point, and I think his thoughts might be similar. It is the event Mark thinks would take Luke at most a year or two to get over.

It is interesting to note, that for all we know, it has only been somewhere between two to five years since Ben finally left and became Kylo Ren. I digress. I really can’t wait to unleash all my talent as a scribe in dissecting the moment our fabled hero had his lowest moment.  

When I saw the film for the first time, and Kylo Ren recounted his side of the story, I was livid. I thought he was either lying, or somebody had screwed up big time. Some people stayed so angry they never listened to Luke’s side of the story when Rey forced Luke to recount the entire event. For many others, “a certain point of view” does not matter. The Luke Skywalker who threw down his lightsaber and refused to kill his father would never raise a laser sword in anger against his nephew. Not even for an instant.

As much as I wish those of you making this argument were correct, I have to say you are mistaken. This realization comes if you examine Mark Hamill’s “Not my Luke Skywalker” comment for what he is really saying. We must be willing to let go of our past nostalgia to understand who Luke Skywalker has become in The Last Jedi. Ironically, this is one of the central motifs of the entire film.

Mark Hamill is a Joker: I’m not mincing words or taking Mark Hamill out of context. I’ve met the man. I placed the photo on this blog as certification of that magical moment. As a result, I feel qualified to tell you all a little bit about how the actor and one of our most famous folk heroes differ. Mark has a sly, dry wit about him. He likes to find the humor in everything. When my family and I get our turn to take our photo, I focus on my kids, because I am afraid I might squeal and embarrass myself. He sits on the stupid little stool they gave him with perfect posture.

He is a happy man, full of life and energy. I hesitate to shake his hand because I am afraid he might be one of those celebrities who are squeamish about all the germs they are sure to receive from hundreds of handshakes. My girlfriend, Jennifer, shakes his hand right away. My instinct is to hand him my lightsaber. He has probably posed with several throughout the last hour, but I don’t have to ask him if he would mind. He just reaches out for it and poses. Only then does his posture change. Before he becomes Luke Skywalker for a moment, he turns to my kids.

“Wow, you all look great!” he says. “The whole family got dressed up.”

Later on we get to have a short chat with him in the autograph line. We talk about the fact that he chose to keep his beard, and how his wife wanted him to keep it even though he had some trouble getting used to it. When he gives a talk to a crowd of fans later on, he dispenses with the question line, and encourages fans to shout out questions. This makes the entire experience feel like a fireside chat, and Mark tells us two or three times it is his favorite part of talking to fans. He says something akin to how he would prefer us all be able to fit in his living room if he could.

As much as I wanted to conclude my series, I needed to share this experience for a reason. When Mark Hamill speaks, he doesn’t complain. He doesn’t like to get negative, and is one of the most positive people I have ever met. This is why this version of Luke was difficult for him to understand and play. More than that, when Mark says he disagreed with the character, we as fans need to understand he has zero negative context. This is all in good fun to him, so he thinks it is very meta to make fun of himself and his own characters. In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert Mark recounted how he tweeted about Star Wars product placement being used on various vegetables. He marveled at how some fans took him seriously that he made fun of R2D2 being on a package of cauliflower.  “Don’t take me seriously,” Mark said. “I’m just another crank on twitter.”

In fact, the whole interview is fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVz-FHHH9sI

My point is this: Mark Hammill has always considered himself one of us. He is a fanboy at heart. He loves comics, monster movies, and high fantasy. People know this about him, so when he  says, “Not my Luke Skywalker,” people  go, “He’s fighting for us! Telling it like it is. Down with Rian Johnson. Down with Disney!”

Consider an alternative, based on what I told you about meeting him. Consider that if he is one of us, that he is trying to tell us how to view this movie by explaining how he wrapped his head around Luke Skywalker toward the end of his life, when we all know Luke best from thirty years prior. Maybe we should not jump to conclusions, like Ben Solo did about his uncle standing over him with a lit lightsaber. Maybe once we escaped the immediate danger of not recognizing the Luke Skywalker in the Last Jedi, we don’t kill our fellow fans and burn down the internet with hate. Or maybe we don’t jump to conclusions like Luke did when he saw Kylo and Rey touching hands. Maybe Mark Hamill can teach us something Luke Skywalker never could—how to be a non-fickle and civil fan.