What’s your opinion of Luke’s storyline’s in the Legends lore vs canon?
Bro originally left Jedi training to save his friends lives and loved his father so fiercely that it saved him from the Dark Side and even ended up having a wife and child but in new canon, wouldn’t even allow Grogu to have a relationship with Din during training 😭
imo, luke has always been a character built on love and passion and I’m kinda sad that he sort of strayed from that in the Disney lore and I’m so curious to hear your opinion on it or if you agree/disagree!
We are getting into the realm of headcanons, so bear with me, as a lot of sequel trilogy content is still very vague and they kind of go back and forth on what this direction was.
Mark Hamill has said that during The Last Jedi, he was given the motivation of "what would you do if you found out someone you love might be baby Hitler?" I think that is an interesting lead to think of Luke's backstory building up to the sequel films, as Vader was a source of sheer terror throughout the galaxy that killed a numerous amount of individuals. That person created Luke (and, if we go by George Lucas's original intention, Palpatine created Anakin via the Force). That powerful swirling Force is genetic in the case of the Skywalkers, created specifically for this purpose, and Luke could feel himself on the precipice of turning himself.
I think there is a lot of guilt in Luke, guilt that is not really his own fault, but generational trauma of knowing that his own father wiped out the Jedi Order and assisted in destroying generations of democracy peace. Relatives of Hitler swore to not continue their own line, because of guilt over a man they were only distantly related to. I can see Luke, a man who basically gives up all forms of attraction by the beginning of Empire, internalize this as he needs to go through and do this alone. Because there is an undercurrent of fear, fear that he might unintentionally lead things down the same path. Maybe he could protect himself from something so disastrous, but a child? And his worst fears do come true when he instinctively activates his lightsaber on a twenty-year old Ben Solo, triggered by horrific visions.
Luke has a history of carrying a lot of burdens on his shoulders and not allowing others to share the brunt of it. From his perspective, this is a deeply selfless expression of love for his friends, the worlds, life (yet flawed, it remains). He'll go through it alone, so others won't have to go through the difficulties and trials.
Now, regarding Grogu, I think an important distinction is that Luke ultimately gave Grogu the choice to be with Din if he was not yet ready for this life. Was it the brightest idea to send him flying off with Artoo? No but we can blame that on LucasFilm running out of budget to get the Lukebot running for another episode. A lot of Star Wars fans want to abandon the idea of attachments, which isn't going to happen with Filoni in charge, as that is a huge philosophy of George Lucas's personal life and things like that are one thing he won't give in on. Maybe it is a slightly conflicting message for the prequel trilogy to introduce after we had an exact opposite message in the original films.
Anakin's road to ruin is a direct metaphor for George Lucas's own struggles with his life, especially his first marriage. It is good to love, when it is selfless. When someone wants or has to go, you have to let them go, because it no longer becomes love, it becomes possession. It is a dangerous line to blend. Luke successfully needled that line but would others? It remains to be seen.
Not saying this is all correct or definitive, if your own canon or Legends makes more sense to you, then go ahead. I absolutely have my own personal exceptions. I hope this little essay was helpful in trying to make sense and detangle the web of post-ROTJ Luke, whether you agree or disagree with the choices they made.
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