Got a tattoo today - here’s the story. Ever since I was a little kid, Star Wars has been a refuge for me in rough times, equal parts fun and inspirational. So when I started getting tattoos last year, I knew I wanted a Star Wars one, but I didn’t know how to distill what it meant to me into a word or an image. I’ve seen some amazing Star Wars tattoos out there, but what I wanted mine to represent was more than a lightsaber or an Alliance logo or Vader’s helmet. It was everything you saw guiding the characters on their journeys - hope, faith, love, forgiveness - and how do you tattoo any of that? And Luke Skywalker was always my favorite character, because all of those things were such an essential part of who he was and how he dealt with the obstacles he faced. I *hated* what The Last Jedi did to Luke’s character. I hated that he lost faith, that he abandoned his friends and family. I didn’t think it was true to the character I’d loved for so long, or the archetype he was supposed to represent. And then Luke said these words to Leia at the end of the movie - “no one’s ever really gone” - and there was my tattoo. Because it doesn’t matter if I don’t like new Luke Skywalker. The old Luke Skywalker, the one who let me come through some pretty major traumas still believing in the inherent goodness of people, he’s still there and he always will be. A movie I don’t like doesn’t take that away. Everything we love, everything that’s ever meant something to us, is still with us. That’s hope. That’s love. That’s Star Wars. Add on the twin sunset that book-ended Luke’s journey, and there’s the tattoo.
(And yeah, I recognize the irony of a line from TLJ being what made me feel better about TLJ as a whole, but I don’t make the rules)