After so many years in the spotlight, on center stage, it was something of a shock for Star Wars fans to see Luke Skywalker pass away at the end of Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. However, this does not mean that the character does not appear in the Skywalker Saga’s last film. Luke Skywalker does appear in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, in multiple capacities.
He is there in memory, he is there in spirit, and he is there as a literal Force ghost. Despite these changes, Luke Skywalker is consistently let down. All the magnificent character work that had been done for him previously was mostly dismantled in this film. The Rise of Skywalker failed in many ways; one of the film’s most heinous crimes was letting down Luke Skywalker’s character.
10 Luke Knows That A Jedi’s Respect Comes From Within, Not From Weapons
Losing Luke Skywalker was a devastating blow for Rey. She really only had one teacher in the galaxy that she could truly look to teach her, and she lost him. However, when she found herself at one of her lowest moments in The Last Skywalker, Luke returned to her as a Force ghost. Rey wanted to exile herself, much like Luke had once done.
She had even been about ready to destroy the blue-bladed Skywalker lightsaber before Luke showed up. However, Luke told Rey that she should be more respectful of a Jedi’s weapons. Luke, of all people, knows that any respect a Jedi does or does not deserve comes from them, not from their weapons.
9 The Rise Of Skywalker Seems To Think Luke Wouldn’t Have Exiled Himself (But It’s Wrong)
When Rey finally tells Luke about her Dark vision of a horrible future, Luke was distressed. Rey wanted to exile herself, just as Luke did before her, but Luke told Rey that he had been wrong to do what he did and that he shouldn’t have done it. While this is true, Luke gets there the wrong way.
The movie seems to theorize that Luke wouldn’t have exiled himself had he been in his right mind or knew what he knew in the future. However, nobody can know what the future holds, and hindsight is 20/20. Luke’s choices in the past fully make sense for his character, even if the character regrets them later on or if fans disagree with the choice.
8 Luke Inexplicably Help Leia Keep A Secret That Had Nothing To Do With Them
During the conversation that Rey has with Luke when he’s a Force ghost, Luke asks Rey what she’s most afraid of. As Rey has already confessed so much to Luke, she admits that she’s afraid of what she, herself, is capable of. She realized recently that she was Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter, and so she was absolutely terrified of turning as evil and Dark as he had.
However, she’s shocked — as was the audience — to find out that Luke and Leia had already known that and chose to keep it from her. For somebody like Luke, who had so much important information about himself kept from him by others, this choice is completely out of character.
7 Luke Should Understand That His Confrontation Of Vader Was Different Than Rey Taking On Palpatine
Rey needs guidance and helps more than anything when Luke appears to her in The Rise of Skywalker. The threat she’s taking on is different than the one Luke had to take on, even if, in the end, they both ended up fighting the same guy (which is a problem in and of itself). When Rey isn’t sure what to do to take down Palpatine and asks Luke for advice, he tells her to do what he did.
Luke explains that he had to face Darth Vader, and so she should go to Palpatine and confront him in just the same way. However, Luke should be more than aware that his confrontation with Vader was vastly different than what Rey would have to do to take on Emperor Palpatine. She had a completely different fight than he ever did, and Luke definitely should have known this and expressed it.
6 Luke Never Encouraged Leia To Continue Training As A Jedi
One of the more shocking reveals about Luke and Leia’s past in The Rise of Skywalker was that Leia was once trained as a Jedi. While it’s unsurprising that Leia could have been a Jedi, as she has powerful Force abilities, the shocking part is that she stopped.
She had a Dark vibe that her Jedi training would lead to her son’s downfall and potentially his death, and so she ended up ending her training. Luke didn’t encourage or help her continue at all, which is absolutely against his values.
5 For Someone Who Suffered From Too Much Pressure, Luke Puts A Lot Of Pressure On Rey
As a young man, Luke went from nobody to the savior of the galaxy almost instantly. As such, he suffered greatly from the immense amount of pressure that was put on his shoulders from that day on.
Despite this, Luke actually tells Rey that a thousand generations of Jedi live in her and are counting on her to succeed, as is the galaxy. After what Luke’s been through, he would never say such a thing or offer advice in that way.
4 Luke Had More Fanservice Moments Than Real Character Moments
The death of Luke Skywalker was unfortunate, but it did happen in canon. Bringing the character back was not in service of the character himself, but more to service Rey’s plot, as well as the fans watching. A few people who didn’t understand The Last Jedi didn’t like Luke’s plot in the film, and so J.J. Abrams sought to retcon and change these aspects in his final film arbitrarily.
One of those moments showed Luke pulling his starfighter, Red Five, out of the water, as Yoda did years ago on Dagobah. While this looked cool, that’s literally all the moment is — and, as such, by definition, is only fanservice.
3 Palpatine Implies That Luke Could Only Have Beat Him Because Of Vader
When Rey has to fight Palpatine, she calls on the training Luke gave her and his advice. In the end, she tells Palpatine that she’s stronger than he was or had ever been.
It’s then that Emperor Palpatine tells Rey that she’s all alone, and so she isn’t strong because Luke Skywalker had Anakin Skywalker, or Darth Vader, to help him win. The implication that Luke wasn’t strong enough without Vader is an insult to his character, regardless of whether Vader helped take Palpatine down.
2 Luke Told Rey She Could Do This, But Still Shows Up As A Force Ghost
So much of Luke’s advice to Rey is him insisting that Rey has the power within her to fight Palpatine and win. However, when the fight comes right down to it, all the Jedi Force ghosts return to Rey to help her fight him.
Luke is one of the Jedi voices that can be heard, encouraging Rey and helping her along. Luke obviously knew that Rey could take Palpatine down independently, yet he still shows up to provide his help. If Luke truly believed in his Padawan, then he would have let her fight on her own because he knew she would win.
1 His Name Is Inexplicably Taken On As Rey’s Own Last Name
The Skywalker Saga is about many things, but one thing is the theme of legacy and identity. Characters in the franchise want to figure out who they are and what they are leaving behind. This is all fumbled in the eleventh hour of the Skywalker Saga, however. When Rey is asked her name at the end of the movie, this character, who famously has had no surname throughout the film and has had no identity, chooses to take on the name “Skywalker.”
There is no apparent reason in canon for her to choose Skywalker over any other name of someone she knows, such as Solo, Organa, or Dameron. Like many other choices made in this movie, this was likely done just as a fanservice move — and one that Luke would have strongly disapproved of. Rey had her own identity, he knew, that was completely separate from his own.
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