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.  

Five Points of Controversy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi That are Actually Beautiful - Part IV (Spoilers)

4. Not my Luke Skywalker

Acknowledgement: “Not my Luke Skywalker” is a hashtag gaining momentum. I doubt it will ever rival the somewhat entitled sounding “not my president,” but clearly those who use the hashtag feel just as passionate. Maybe even more.

I laughed when Luke tossed the lightsaber over his shoulder. Rian Johnson trolled me and I guess I just like that sort of humor. Andy Kaufman would have been proud. I will admit, The Last Jedi had me worried about Luke, and I thought, “Oh no . . . Mark Hamill was right.”

I think if you found this blog you probably know about Mark Hamill talking in several interviews about how he fundamentally disagreed with what Rian Johnson had in mind for his most iconic character. Just in case you didn’t, here is one of several hundred Youtube videos on the subject. Of course, this isn’t the best way to promote a movie, but I think Mark was honest when he made sure to start talking about how he had come around to Johnson’s vision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djJ6GAplhFU

 We all could kind of predict Luke would not want to train Rey at first, and then he would grow and give in. However, we all assumed Luke had gone looking for the first Jedi temple because he wanted to correct his mistakes somehow. Come to learn he intends to just live out his days as a hermit until he dies. We all wanted Luke to be inspired by something, pick up his saber and go help Rey. We all wanted bad ass moments with him taking down the Knights of Ren, or maybe crushing First Order Walkers. We did get a blaze of glory moment, but despite the incredible final act, I can understand how it would feel underwhelming. Even Yoda didn’t fade into the force until Return of the Jedi. For years we have been reading stories, which are now legends, on how Luke managed to find himself a wife, have a son, and take down several more threats to the galaxy. We didn’t necessarily expect to see all of those things, but we wanted a hint of them. We were hoping for two more movies with Luke as a mentor for the next generation. We still might see him around in the next film, just not the way we hoped. However, when the story is examined in a big picture context, the poetry of Luke’s arc in this film is gorgeous.

How Luke was written: Considering the flashback sequences, Luke hasn’t been gone for twenty years. It seems like maybe two or three at the most. His failure with Ben Solo is relatively recent on the time scale. It leaves plenty of room for some of the badass stories we were hoping for to still be back into canon. What we have to come to terms with as fans is this: The Last Jedi is the story of the final days of Luke Skywalker. It is the story of how he placed his hopes in a young girl and decided to let his legend give hope to the galaxy. It is the story of how he came to terms with becoming more powerful than we could ever imagine, by moving from this life into the next. Han Solo was a mentor for Rey, but he doesn’t have the power to be her spiritual guide.

Luke does.

Since this trilogy as a whole is about the new generation, it is a fitting place to be. If I am Rian Johnson, I have to imagine how Luke would react to feeling responsible for losing Ben to the dark side. I also need to include things like how Luke probably found out about the old Jedi order and how his father fell. I will have to trust my audience to understand what my worst fear might be as a Jedi Master losing his student to the dark side without explaining them. The circumstances surrounding the fall of Ben Solo will be the final section in this series, so I am only going to state the obvious here. Considering the context of the moment of doubt Luke had that caused him to even consider the unthinkable, the person Luke becomes makes total sense.

 He is a man racked with guilt. Even touching a lightsaber again must disgust him even more than it disgusts us to see him milking weird space walruses. As a writer this broken man is who I build my story around. I can’t just have Rey show up and suddenly he changes his mind. I can’t have him return to heroics for his buddy Han Solo. So what really brings Luke back to us?

The Point of View of Master Skywalker: The real moment of triumph in this film is a quiet one. It’s when Luke opens himself up to the force again. This happens after R2D2 takes his “cheap shot” and shows Luke is original call to action. Something about his training with Rey prompts him to reach out to Leia. Her pain and suffering might have caused him to want to go to his sister, but as Luke rushes to find Rey he walks in on her and Kylo Ren physically touching through the force. All his fears come rushing back, and he does not respond well.

He tells Rey to leave, but she is determined that Kylo Ren could come back to the light. Luke tries to tell her not to go to him, but she won’t listen. However, Luke is open to the force now, and a certain green Muppet can at last make contact. Yoda is more than a cameo. He is the turning point in the film. Up to this point, both Luke and Kylo Ren are trying to burn down their past in different ways. Luke is trying to hide from his greatest mistake, and Kylo Ren is trying to literally destroy his past to gain power.

However, Yoda offers the balance. It is fine to destroy your past, as long as you learn from it.

“Failure is the greatest of teachers,” he says.  

The crux of the movie becomes that Luke needs to break free of his existential quandary. He needs to burn down the past of his failures, but he also needs to realize that he has learned from them, so that he does not have to be in constant fear of them happening again. This is the balance for Luke. To continue to pass on what he has learned to a new generation to include the lessons of his failures. Yoda bonks Luke over the head with his ghost walking stick—and it hurts. Then he destroys the tree. These two acts give us a new perspective on what Force Ghosts can achieve, so we should be perhaps a little excited that Luke no doubt becomes one.

 As for the texts, we learn at the end of the film that Rey has already taken them. Yoda knows this, so it is symbolic of the Force placing its trust in Rey to be the balance of the future. But Luke has also placed his faith in Rey. He knows his final act will create a legend, but he also knows he will not survive the effort it will take to project himself across the galaxy. He is both inspiring hope to the galaxy and placing hope in his last student. I find this notion beautiful.

I want to point out that we couldn’t get these motifs done correctly if Luke is physically at the final battle. Luke cold have destroyed the squadron of walkers, but he would still have to lose. Some people would have perhaps like to have seen him go out in this blaze of glory, or even sacrifice himself to Kylo Ren the same way Obi Wan did to Vader. This all sounds good in theory, but I think in execution we would have not been as pleased with the result. People would argue, “If Luke was so powerful why he couldn’t have just crushed Kylo Ren and ended the threat right here?”

We would never have bought Kylo Ren besting Luke in a duel. Could you imagine the outrage compared to the sort of small squabble we have over Luke’s death now?  Moreover, from the point of view of the character of Luke Skywalker, sacrificing himself might be significant for Rey, because he would be able to talk to her as a force ghost. Yet the rest of the Galaxy would see Luke Skywalker be defeated. Nor would he have been able to keep the First Order from advancing. Even if he could destroy several walkers it would not have bought enough time in my mind. Hope might have been in danger of being extinguished. 

Instead, Luke chose to goad Kylo Ren into a fight he could not possibly win, even with all his might. I became the kid at the end of the movie, creating my own legends of Luke Skywalker in between the films while still in awe of the way he showed us why he is one badass Jedi Master.

Five Points of Controversy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi That are Actually Beautiful - Part III (Spoilers)

PART 3 of 5

DONT MISS THE FIRST TWO PARTS

PART 2
PART 1

3. That Crazy Plot Though!

Acknowledgement: The movie begins with the bad guys figuring out where the good guys have their base. A huge armada is sent to destroy our heroes, but they manage to escape through some ingenious heroics. Unfortunately, because of some shenanigans involving hyperspace, the bad guys stay in hot pursuit.  The heroes have to place their faith in a less than scrupulous character, who ends up betraying them. This sudden but inevitable betrayal (Yes, I am quoting Firefly in a Star Wars blog) is thwarted by the good guys thanks to the help of a resourceful little droid, and the heroes escape again. By the end of the movie, the good guys are still on the run, but their numbers have been severely depleted through attrition. Also, I should mention the main protagonist has a separate adventure where he is trained by a deranged wrinkled master of the force. The Jedi master thinks it is a really bad idea for the protagonist to rush off and face the main bad guy, but the protagonist does not listen. Fortunately, he escapes his encounter with the bad guy (albeit after a heart-to-heart about his true parents) and rejoins the other heroes.

That is one crazy plot leading to nowhere. I agree, it would be much better if the plot had actually mattered, because at the end of the Empire Strikes Back our heroes are pretty much exactly where they started. Oh, I know  . . . I know. This is supposed to be the acknowledgement section, where I explain how I understand why so many people are upset. Instead I am giving you some sass. I feel the need to point out how I am surprised, after the amount of backlash The Force Awakens got for being similar to A New Hope, that nobody on Youtube or Reddit has complained about how The Last Jedi is just a rehash of Empire. Instead, people are complaining about a plot that does not make sense, and some have even gone so far as to call this film a mess.

I would not go that far, but here is where my acknowledgement begins. The Last Jedi, while following the same basic plot structure as Empire, is filled with lots and lots of distractions to sway your attention from this fact. Perhaps the largest fault with the movie’s plot is it is filled with too many of these distractions. It also tries to use the padded plot to drive home some life lessons that the Empire Strikes Back could not. Did they try to do too much? Probably. Can I forgive Rian Johnson or Disney for the attempt? Absolutely.

 How the plot was written:  Disney approaches me to write and direct The Last Jedi, and I say yes immediately. I would not hesitate. Would you?  However, Kathleen Kennedy gives me some parameters to work within. She tells me I have to work within the same plot structure as The Empire Strikes Back, but I am free to add my voice to this structure so it will be different enough that people won’t notice. The formula worked so well for Disney with The Force Awakens that they sticking with it. However, she stresses that they caught too much flak last time about reusing too many elements from A New Hope. This time the movie needs to be different enough that nobody could possibly complain. Kathleen has the utmost trust I will be able to make it work.

“This isn’t so bad”, I would think. “I can tell a good and different story within these boundaries. Especially since they want me to really dress the film up with some things Star Wars fans have never seen before.”

Naturally, there are a few other key plot points that J.J. Abrams and his crew came up with back while writing The Force Awakens, so I need to include those in my movie as well. Also, also, I must not forget to use Finn, Poe, and a shiny new character. This new character needs to be female, ethnic, and maybe a potential love interest for Finn. Wink-wink.

             “We will leave that up to you,” I imagine Kathleen would say. “In fact, anything else you want to do . . . go nuts.”
             Great!” I say. “I’ll get started.”
             “Oh, one more thing,” Kathleen says. “And this is super-secret. You can’t even tell Mark. Not that we don’t trust him to keep a secret, but he won’t be able to emotionally hide it if he gets asked about it. I promise we will make it up to him.”
             So secret I can’t even tell Mark? This makes me apprehensive. What could it be?
            “Luke Skywalker has to die in the end.”
             My face drains of color. I don’t want to be the one to do that. I grew up with this character. And I can’t even tell the great Mark Hamill?  Kathleen has anticipated my reaction.
           “But it isn’t as bad as you think. You see, he’s going to become a Force Ghost like Obi Wan and Yoda. So all you have to do is make him fade away at the end.”

 I might argue about how a lot of people aren’t going to like it, and eventually I would give into the vision under the stipulation that Luke will have one last grand moment. I knew when I was offered a part in writing the new trilogy that a major motif was for the old generation to make way for the new, but this is a very bold way to do it. So now, even though Disney is giving me a lot of power and freedom for my own artistic expression, I have to use a familiar story outline which leads to Luke Skywalker fading into the force. This is NOT going to be easy. My entire plot must build toward an epic Luke Skywalker moment that he won’t survive.

How the Plot turned out:  This roleplaying scenario of how I think the conversation went down between Disney executives and Rian Johnson is not meant to bash either Disney or their director. It is meant to say I sympathize with their task. Kathleen Kennedy worked with George Lucas for a long time, and her business model is not based on rehashing the work he did, but on his philosophy. When Lucas was making the prequels he gave voice to this philosophy.

 “It’s like poetry, sort of. They rhyme. Every stanza kind of rhymes with the last one.” ~George Lucas

For a lot of people, his attempts to make things rhyme did not work with the prequel trilogy. However, is Kathleen Kennedy and the new Disney regime making this philosophy work?

The numbers and the critical acclaim seem to indicate the answer is yes. At the same time, something odd happened with reactions to the last Jedi. People aren’t focusing on the way it rhymes this time. They are focusing on the ways the film is different.

 One sidebar: I don’t know if Kathleen Kennedy really kept Mark Hamill in the dark about his final fate at the end of The Last Jedi. This speculation is based on his mood and demeanor before and after the world premiere of the film. Here is a link to good Youtube video where you can judge for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FntZKz9fXp8&t=1s

 I don’t want to dwell on Luke’s story too much here, because I will be devoting the last two sections of this blog series to him. Nevertheless, I had to point out that one of the major deviations from the Empire plot structure involves a build up to Luke’s final act.
For now, let’s take a closer look at some of the key events in The Last Jedi.

A slow grind through space – Some of the problems people have with this film have to do with suspension of disbelief. For example, since Hollywood has conditioned us to think that we will die instantly if we get sucked into the vacuum of space, some of us find it hard to give space Leia a pass. I find this odd since Guardians of the Galaxy did it and nobody complained. Second, everybody know you have to gesture to use the force. And finally, it stands to reason it would take much less force power to pull yourself toward an object in zero gravity than to try to lift something super heavy in the presence of gravity. Still, it’s these moments that caught people off guard that took them out of the film. It’s these moments that I think people are more likely to suspend their disbelief on in a second or third viewing.

 Let this be reason number one people like this movie more each time the see it.

 After Leia force-pulls herself out of danger, the main plot for the Resistance revolves around what seems like contrived chase through space where all the ships can’t help but go the same top speed. I think there is a sneaky explanation for this chase that you are just supposed to realize, but the movie does not beat you over the head with it. If the same people are selling weapons to both the first order and the resistance, it stands to reason both sides have similar engine speeds for their big ships. Now, for some reason the First Order doesn’t want to launch any more fighters, (which are shown to be faster) do a micro-hyperspace jump, or send any ships in a longer hyperspace jump to cut the resistance off. Allow me to put on my Star Wars tactical nerd glasses and explain away all of these.

Launching fighters is a waste of resources. Kylo and his wingmen were able to fly inside the shields when they caught the Resistance by surprise, but any fighters launched would risk being shot down. The First Order, and Snoke in particular, know that all they have to do is wait for the Resistance to run out of fuel. If the First Order made a small hyperspace jump, then their special hyperspace radar would not be trained on the Resistance Fleet. Admiral Holdo, if she is as smart as she seems, would use this window to make her own hyperspace jump and escape.

 Hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy. ~Han Solo

While micro hyperspace jumps are possible, Star Wars is full of lore as to why they would not be able to be accomplished with much accuracy. Why couldn’t the Death Star simply have come out of Hyperspace on the side of Yavin with the Rebel base? We are supposed to assume Hyperspace is for vast distances, and the best you can hope for is to not bounce too close to a supernova or go right through a planet. Smart fleet commanders use techniques like hiding a Starfleet at the edge of a solar system, and then jumping to the middle, but it would be super tricky to jump in front of the Resistance, and again, you might end up giving them an avenue for escape. The best tactic for the First Order is to let the battle of attrition run its course.

The Plan: Poe actually has the best plan. The best chance for the Resistance is to disable the special hyperspace radar. (They should have called it something like Hyperspace Radar, because at first I thought they were talking about the physical tracking devices we have seen used in both of the other trilogies.) The fact that he and Holdo do not trust each other and do not communicate is a little contrived, but as a ten and a half year veteran of the Air Force, I will tell you it is not unrealistic.

Even if it seems she should explain the plan, Holdo wants Poe to trust her without having to explain everything. She wants to teach him a lesson. Her hubris in holding on to her plan even causes other members of the Resistance to try desert in the escape pods. So I can forgive this little bit of manufactured conflict. Especially since this really produces an interesting arc for Poe Dameron where his mutiny ends up hurting the plan, rather than helping.

The most contrived device about the plot is how they are able to send Finn and Rose light-years away from the battle, then expect them to return with a magic slicer man, infiltrate Snoke’s ship, and then shut down the Hyperspace Radar. I will defend Rian Johnson by saying this isn’t lazy writing. The Canto Bight sequence is creative and fun, and it expands the universe. However, next time Rian should take some advice from Stephen King in his book, On Writing.   

 Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings. (King, 2000)

I feel like Rian Johnson would have had two directives from Disney. Make good use of Finn and Rose, and make sure you use a Lando-type scoundrel character. If you are going to have DJ the slicer, there is no reason you have to have a whole adventure to find him. If you are able to establish a connection with Maz Kanada, then she should be able to connect you to this guy. There were apparently a lot of deleted scenes on the Supremacy with Finn, Rose, and DJ trying to accomplish their mission. Put these back in the movie and give us the other lesson Luke taught Rey. It makes sense for Luke to go with Rey after his chat with Yoda. Once he opens himself up to the force again, he should sense Leia is in trouble and want to go to her. He would still try to convince Rey not to face Kylo Ren, but would relent and remain on the Raddiz with Leia. These deleted scenes and my little “what if” story are part of what Stephen King calls the true story—the one that develops on its own after the first draft. King says the writer must stop writing for himself and come to a place where he listens to what the story is supposed to be. (King, 2000)


I am not unhappy with what we got. I enjoyed seeing another corner of the galaxy. I even liked the bunny-horse race. I think it is one of those Star Wars moments the kids of today will remember fondly. Maybe it is a place Luke and Rey could have gone, since it makes more sense for them to run an errand for the Resistance, and then join up with Finn and Rose. Together, Finn, Rose, Rey, and DJ would have all used the Falcon for their infiltration. However, one of the main story devices was the new force projection force power. Rian Johnson built his entire movie around this new power, and it works. Unfortunately for Luke, it meant Rian was moving his story toward Skywalker’s ultimate, and last force technique. As I have pointed out, Luke could have physically gone to help out and we would have believed his reasons for doing so. He could have faced the entire First Order and destroyed multiple walkers with the force in an awesome display like we all thought was going to happen. Instead, we got something unexpected and yet beautiful. I will explain why I am elated with the results in the next section.