Welcome back to The Cantina where we definitely serve your kind. I’m your bartender Kyle Malone and I’m serving up tall glasses of nothing but Star Wars.  By now you know I am the dedicated, well versed in the EU, experienced gamer, and open-minded fan this world needs. I see the flaws in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, but also the great moments too. I know the importance of The Empire Strikes Back but see how strong Return of the Jedi is. I see that the prequels… well… we’ll get there… maybe. There’s nothing more satisfying than a great Star Wars story, and I want more! 

Latest News And Rumors

Luke Skywalker was the original main character for Star Wars. It wasn’t until George Lucas made the Prequel Trilogy that the story became all about Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. By making the prequels the way he did, Lucas changed the entire focus of the Original Trilogy from Luke to his daddy. With Vader dead and Luke being old, there was an expectation that the Sequel Trilogy would focus on a new and younger Skywalker. Instead, we have a group of characters that are supposed to be analogues for Han, Leia, Lando, and Luke but miss that mark.

Kylo Ren, the only known person with Skywalker blood, is a main character but he is not the focus of the story. Many people were upset that Luke had no lines in The Force Awakens and expected him to be a huge player in The Last Jedi, but that second film left fans divided and Luke dies at the end. Additionally Luke received no time with Han Solo before Kylo committed patricide. It’s these last few points that rubbed the Jedi Master himself, Mark Hamill, the wrong way. In a recent interview with Den of Geek he said:

“I just thought, Luke’s never going to see his best friend again. You look at it in a self-centered way. I said that it was a big mistake that those three people would never reunite in any way. I guess I was wrong, because nobody seems to care! I have to stipulate that I care, but it didn’t really seem to affect the larger audience. Luke, Han and Leia will never be together again, and I’ll probably never get to work with Harrison again. Then the second thing was that they killed me off. I thought: oh, okay, you should push my death off to the last one. That’s what I was hoping when I came back: no cameos and a run-of-the-trilogy contract. Did I get any of those things? Because as far as I’m concerned, the end of VII is really the beginning of VIII. I got one movie! They totally hornswoggled (tricked) me.”

This isn’t the first time Hamill has voiced displeasure with the direction of the Sequel Trilogy and now that the film has wrapped principal photography we may hear more from him. I agree that they should have had all three of our classic heroes get together at least once. I also agree that not using him in The Force Awakens was a bad move, but I do agree that the audience wasn’t upset by this. I think many people were upset and just because it made a bunch of money doesn’t mean people weren’t mad at some of the story choices.

There is something else in these comments, something that The Express pointed out, and it’s how he makes it sound like he won’t be used a lot in Episode IX. He uses the phrase “I got one movie” in his comments. Now, he could be talking about one movie between the two that came out, and I think this is likely because of the context of the comments. Hamill also described his only scene with C-3PO from The Last Jedi and how originally he wasn’t supposed to even acknowledge him. Hamill told the director, Rian Johnson, that there’s no way Luke wouldn’t greet the droid and was given the go-ahead to “go over and do whatever.” This resulted in a cocky wink from the Jedi Master to the droid that forever changed his life.

Now, I give actors their due when it comes to “knowing” their characters. However, an actor’s take on a character isn’t the end all be all, especially if there has been continuing stories the actor is not a part of. Luke Skywalker went through drastic changes in the old Expanded Universe canon, and he’s had some development with the new plain and boring canon. Yes, the new canon pales in comparison to the EU due to Disney being afraid to let anything big happen in a book that could be a movie or TV show instead.

We also know that Disney and LucasFilm borrowed from the EU heavily for these last few movies. Kylo is Jacen Solo (with the wrong name of Ben) for example, and believe it or not they got several cues for Luke from the Jedi Academy Trilogy, New Jedi Order, Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi book series. Luke had an Academy that almost failed, and lost several of its first students, due to a Sith ghost named Exar Kun messing with one student in particular. They also had to deal with Imperial Admiral Daala and failing student Kyp Durron with the Sun Crusher superweapon. In the NJO books the Jedi became soldiers, fighter pilots, and commandos. This call to action required more offensive use of the force and even led to the adaptation of The Unifying Force ideology over The Living Force. Luke would lose a nephew, Anakin Solo, as well as many students and a few fellow Jedi Masters in the conflict with the Yuuzhan Vong.

In the last two series, Luke has to deal with an increasingly dark and violent Jacen Solo (basically who Kylo Ren is) before realizing that Jacen must die. Luke isn’t able to do it and has some force vision that his niece, Jaina Solo (Jacen’s twin sister) would be the Sword of the Jedi and be the one to do the deed. The resulting changes to trust in the Jedi order and galactic politics would lead to Luke being exiled. While in exile he would fight a being named Abeloth both physically and through Force Projection. The Luke at the end of the EU was waaaaaaaayyyyyy different than the one we see at the end of Return of the Jedi but he’s not that far off from what we get in the Sequel Trilogy.

I know the EU isn’t canon anymore, and technically never was, but this Luke is the Luke we had before Disney. I love it! I will admit there are elements around Luke Skywalker I wish were different. I think he should have played a bigger part, with at least five lines of dialogue, in The Force Awakens and should not have died in The Last Jedi. I am, however, completely okay with him running away after failing his nephew. I am okay with him not trusting himself to teach others. I am okay with him having thought about killing Kylo. You should be too. It’s hard to see change in characters this drastic, and maybe I am okay with it because I spent 15 to 20 years reading books and seeing the character evolve, but it all makes sense. Even with what little information we get from the movies themselves.

I am not saying that there’s nothing wrong with the ST — there are some glaring issues — I just don’t believe Luke is one of them. Take some time to read a few stories from the EU, since it is still a mine of information Disney and LucasFilm are using, and give a read to some of the key books from those series’ I listed above. Even without those stories, there was no way Luke would remain the optimistic hero we saw at the end of Return of the Jedi. He had too many flaws, and failed multiple times at his training. Yes, he eventually succeeded in his overall mission, but at what costs and what potential costs? What I am saying is look at the character more deeply.

P.S. I think the best Luke dialogue comes with him, Vader, and Papa Palpatine. Those scenes… perfection!

Last Call: Scene Analysis

Welcome to this months scene analysis. This month we’re discussing Solo: A Star Wars Story. I hate this movie. No… I mega-loath this movie. Disney not only has ruined Han Solo but they also told us the two most boring stories surrounding the character: rescuing Chewie from slavery and the Kessel Run with the Falcon. Not too mention the great EU sources they $#!T all over in an attempt to placate fans. I want to actually talk about the Kessel Run though. I want to walk through the story, the acting, the special effects, and give an honest opinion on them.

Firstly, LucasFilm can’t even keep track of the movie canon. Some of the first lines said in the original Star Wars mentions the SPICE mines of Kessel, and NOTHING about fuel. Spice is mentioned several times in the movies and plays a big part in the old EU canon. So the “heroes” going to Kessel for fuel was beyond a shoehorn to get the famous planetoid into the movie. Once there we get the robot revolution, which you can take how you want. I think putting the droid into the ship is dumb and that Lando would have reacted much differently when he saw it in Empire Strikes Back. I also do not think this version of Han would have taken the ship from Lando, knowing his robo-love was permanently on board. Next up is the escape… We get throwbacks to the Maw, as it was known in the EU, with a black hole and space storm, but the Maw in the EU was a whole bunch of black holes. Disney decided it’d be more exciting to have a space monster be the big threat.

Not only that but this space monster has survived for a long time around this black hole, but somehow it gets dumb enough to get caught up while going after the Falcon. Then there’s the part where the falcon almost crosses the event horizon but the engines kick in at the last second and are able to save the day. Let’s not forget the black hole just swallowed the space octopus. Nothing story wise makes sense and it is all a piss poor attempt at fan service. Rogue One did fan service the right way… Solo should have been thrown down the garbage chute.

The acting is okay. Nothing special. If these characters weren’t named Han and Lando, and the story was not in the Star Wars universe, I would have enjoyed it as a quirky action-y science fiction flick. I will also admit that the graphics were decent. The monster and space storm left some quality in texture and realism to be desired, but the ships looked great.

I know many of you think Solo is a great movie, or at least a fun movie, but #NotMyHan! I know he shoots first this time, but he also does all of the right things for the right reasons. He’s not a scoundrel… Last thing, not related to this scene though… SOLO IS HIS LAST F%$#&NG NAME!!!

Next week will bring us March’s Star Wars Moments. In celebration, anticipation, or in spite of the release of Episode IX later this year, let’s talk about our reactions to the first teaser for The Force Awakens. Send me an e-mail ([email protected]) with your memory and it may appear here on The Cantina!

What do you think of Luke Skywalker in the ST? What do you think of Mark Hamill’s comments? What about the Kessel Run? Let me know in the comments below! May The Force Be With you!

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