I think for a longtime Luke has been a legend, not just in terms of what I’ve read, but what I’ve imagined in my own mind. Growing up with such a great character to watch on-screen, I’ve always been enamoured with his ability to grow, as a character through experience and gaining skills that take him through those hurdles.
Mark Hamill’s work from the original film, through to where we are now with The Last Jedi has defined heroism, tragedy, mate-ship and sacrifice in the time-honoured tradition of mythic storytelling.
As a youngster I remember seeing the colour in books, breakfast cereals, we’d look at the packaging and the amazing illustrations we’d see in particular for Empire and Jedi as I remember those better, I would make up stories in my mind of what Luke would do between the films, and this only made a bigger impact when my mother bought home the first Kenner toys. With A New Hope Luke and his telescopic lightsaber I had the hero I needed to battle against family friends that had Han, Chewie and the Falcon.
I remember those days fondly and vividly, and then remember wanting to see those in Jedi, and then I saw even better ones, with the greatest star battle I’d ever seen against the second Death Star. It’s then it dawned on me, we make our own legends in a way, and the surprise of Jedi as a kid gave me the greatest surprise I could have been presented.
Our imaginations are the greatest cinema, it’s an unlimited budget, and anything goes. You cast your characters, and plot the story, make all the action happen – it’s part of why I enjoy roleplay games so much.
I then got right into the books available at the time, like Marvel comics and magazines of making Return of the Jedi where I thought the actual name was Blue Harvest for a while.
It was then in the middle years of the 1980’s where my fandom had been sidetracked by anime, and action films, TV shows like Robotech gave me a slice of storytelling heavily inspired by the saga itself. Characters were mortal. They were vulnerable, and their sacrifices, and heroism mattered as their time in the galaxy was precious. Something that a lot of heroic tales forget to have.
The advent of West End Games Star Wars RPG was the next big area I would experience the legend of Luke in a way, as any character I created for the game I wanted to focus on a hero’s journey like path, however it never followed that. There was always something that changed, took my Jedi on a turn I never expected but the experience was always more rewarding as I learned more.
Heir to the Empire was a big time for me as a reader, absorbing almost all details of the Timothy Zahn book, that it became cinematic in my mind. The beginnings always building an original trilogy vibe and all scenes with Luke gave me my feel what Luke had been doing and where he was at. Zahn’s epic trilogy felt like a natural progression for me, spending a holiday with family in Caloundra on the Queensland Coast, we devoured the books, some friends having to read my copies out of sequence as they waited for the other to read Heir, Dark Force Rising or The Last Command.
Afterward I realised I’d seen that again, a legend I’d built up in my imagination, which was then put aside by a vision from a new story, which was better than I had as a fan in my mind.
Many of the influences of George Lucas became of interest to me from the comic books he read, to the classic pulp sci-fi and on to the Kurosawa and Ford films which no doubt inspired his writing of Star Wars but other films also.
The samurai films in particular presented me with a look at where some of the Jedi inspiration was however I never saw Luke in them. I think part of this was from seeing Luke only become a knight by the end of Jedi – so I never saw his explorations into becoming a master. Imagination took hold as I watched countless feudal era films, like Mifune’s ronin in Yojimbo and Sanjuro, plus Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai. There was a sense of no emotion from the heroes, the samurai. This was very in line with the samurai like Jedi we saw in the prequel films, and onto Clone Wars. There’s a touch of the Clint Eastwood like, man with no name, ronin like figure when Luke enters Jabba’s Palace at the start of Jedi but it’s fleeting at best. If you watch Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Mel Gibson almost echoes the ronin like behaviour of Luke as he enters Bartertown – one of the more hilarious parts of the Mad Max franchise.
Luke was the last of the line by Jedi, and he was going to cut a new cloth for the Jedi Oder. I always thought emotion would be part of the key to whatever order he brought together as he would have seen from the failures of his teachers that to some degree he had to accept some compassion into the order, and keep a balance.
For more than twenty years, we got a series of novels, comics and even video games exploring the further adventures of Skywalker. Masters of Teras Kasi being a fave, just loved the idea of a Mortal Kombat like Star Wars face off. We could have done with more of that.
As one novel after another would come out from early nineties up until arrival of new canon, there was a tapestry of legendary tales of what Luke had accomplished, marriage, a Jedi Order, failures and redemptions, fatherhood, the list goes on. It was a life lived, and a rich one at that. The stories filled all the parts one could think of for a hero like Luke.
Then in 2012 we learned there was new films on the way. The Luke we knew was once again going to be redefined, for a future set of films. By 2015’s release of The Force Awakens, I let go of my “Imagined Luke” and although he was in it for all of three seconds, I sensed this is not the Luke anyone had thought we’d see.
In 2017 we got the Luke that no one expected, a Luke Skywalker that was beaten, by worry, failure, fatigue and most of all the legacy of the Jedi Order. Mark Hamill’s performance cemented what could have been a boring, and by the numbers hero realising facing his failure and leaning from it as a stepping stone, into an interesting look at what we think of heroes and the rumoured tales of their adventures.
How many people have wondered what the real Robin Hood would have been like? How many have often wondered what Wyatt Earp was really like beside his known heroic tales?
The same happens in the Star Wars universe, as even Finn is known as a hero, and as we see in the start of The Last Jedi isn’t sure how to handle that kind of worship.
Luke Skywalker may not have been what we imagined he would be in The Last Jedi but what will live on in the minds of us, and the people in the future of the Star Wars franchise is the legend of Luke Skywalker.
