The Rise of Kylo Ren #2 | The Last Jedi
One of the most interesting moments from TRORK #2 is that Ben and Snoke are having a mental conversation while Luke is in the roomĀ and seems none the wiser for it, that it made me think of how everything Luke says in his depression funk about the Jedi Order isnāt really precisely about them, but about himself.
Rian Johnson said this about Luke blaming the Jedi Order:
Ā Ā Ā āWriting Lukeā¦ the first thing I had to figure out is, āWhy is he on that island?ā Ā Thatās the first thing I had to crack. Ā Heās taken himself out of the fight, his friends are fighting and dying the good fight, and heās sitting on an island, hiding. Ā So I had to come up with a reason he was there that was 1) active and 2) positive and 3) something that I could genuinely believe, I could think if I were in Lukeās shoes. Ā And the thing that I came to, the thing that seemed to make sense to me, the first thing I got to that I really believed in was this notion that he sees this hero worship of him and of the Jedi as something that is detrimental to the galaxy.
Ā Ā Ā Ā āThat the universe has put its faith in this false god of the Jedi and they need to basically forget the religion so they can get back to God, so that light can rise from a worthier source. Ā And because heās the last Jedi and a symbol of that it then becomes this self-sacrifice, he has take himself out of it, when he knows his friends are dying, when the thing heād most like to do is get back in the fight.
Ā Ā Ā Ā "Heās taken the weight of the world on his shoulders, taken himself out of the equation, so that the Jedi can die out, so that light can rise from a worthier source.
Ā Ā Ā Ā "So, in his own way, similar to Kylo, heās trying to disconnect, heās trying to throw away the past, heās saying āLetās kill religion. Ā Itās the thing thatās messing us up, thing thing right here, letās kill it.ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā "And the truth is, itās a personal failure. Ā Itās not religion[ās fault], itās his own human nature thatās betrayed him.ā Ā āRian Johnson
The truth is, itās a personal failure.Ā Itās not religionās fault, itās his own human nature thatās betrayed him.
This, in addition to how everything Luke says in those scenes,Ā āYou think what? Iām gonna walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order?āĀ is exactlyĀ what he does at the end of the film, how he recognizes that he is notĀ the last Jedi and the big huge point of that entire part of the movie was that, yes, the Jedi areĀ a symbol of hope and light in the galaxy, a necessary and good one, which shows that the above scene in TLJ is set up precisely to be knocked downāincluding Lukeās depression, his blaming the Jedi Order, and his blaming of himself.
Because, as we see in The Rise of Kylo Renāthat if the Jedi Order were really at fault for Anakinās choices or the rise of Palpatine, then Luke is as well at fault, because he didnāt stop Snoke, he didnāt stop Palpatine, he was responsible for Benās training and didnāt stop the choices BenĀ made on his own.
Given that George Lucas has often said that Star WarsĀ is about choice, I donāt think the bigger narrative take-away should be that, oh, these other people are responsible for Anakin and Benās choices, especially when we see that they areĀ trying to help and theyāre giving good advice based on what information they have.
We see the Jedi caring about Anakin and offering him help, we see Anakin turning away from that help because itās not the magic answer he wanted.Ā Weāre starting to see some of what made Ben turn, that heās having these secret conversations with Snoke behind Lukeās back (which of course echo Anakin and Palpatineās conversations, the dripping poison into his ear in the guise of a friendly mentor who just wants to help, but is instead telling them to embrace all these things that will lead to poison when left unchecked, as thatās how the Force works) and itās hard to find the balance between respecting that other people need their boundaries, need to have a private space in their head, you have to trust them to make the right choices when youāve offered to help, because you canāt forcibly pry them open and make them spill all their secrets, that only leads to resentment and distrust.
Which gives TLJ a lot of important context (which was already there, but this deepens and furthers it) in that Lukeās words arenāt really aboutĀ āmy heroes were actually assholesā but instead thatĀ āI feel responsible for this thing and so Iām going to lash out at someone else, despite that Iām really lashing out at myselfā.
With this comic as an expansion on the above, Lukeās words take on a new context, that itās about his own personal failings that are being cast onto the Jedi Order,Ā because Luke feels soĀ horrible about all of this, heās in suchĀ a bad place, that heās nearly lost his compassion, nearly lost his empathy.Ā He behaves like a real asshole to Rey, furthering our understanding that this is an angry, bitter Luke who has stepped off the Jedi path of compassion and care for others.Ā Itās not gone, thereās something in him crying out to do the right thing again, depression trying to smother that spark, especially as anger is something heās alwaysĀ struggled with (as all people do), from ANH to ESB to ROTJ to all the comics in between, Luke has struggled with this.
What Luke is really saying is:
āAt the height of my powers, I allowed Snoke (and Sidious) to rise (again), create the First Order, and wipe my students out. I was a Jedi Master who was responsible for the training and creation of Kylo Ren.ā
Because he was literally right there in the room while Snoke was manipulating Ben and he feels like its his fault that he didnāt see it.Ā And depression becomes a hell of a drug once it gets its hooks into you and you canāt stop feeling like everything is your fault, your fault, your fault, even when we have to allow other people their agency to make their own choices, we can only provide support and the willingness to listen and help if theyāre ready for it.Ā But depression brain liesĀ and makes us think itās all our fault.Ā /as someone who has dealt with depression brain pretty much all my life
