I really agree with your dislike of the dark and gritty DCEU, but i am perplexed that you would lump this with those (hyperbole aside). Luke is shown as ‘not perfect’ and struggling with how to exist as a perfect legend, and a flawed human. And i feel like he resolves this by the end of the film, so I didn’t come away feeling that he was flawed when i left the theater.
JJ / TFA set RJ up with a difficult question to answer: Why would Luke go missing for all of this time? RJ came up with the best answer he felt that he could… that Luke felt compelled to take himself (and the Jedi) out of the equation, leaving the Knights of Ren to run amok.
That just doesn’t ring true to the character for me.
But… but it’s what Ben Kenobi and Yoda did.
Ben Kenobi and Yoda did not themselves attempt to defeat Vader and Palpatine after the events of Episode III, even though Yoda himself says “only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the Force as his ally could conquer Vader and his Emperor.” They left Luke and the Rebel Alliance to do it for them.
Exactly right.
I continue to be amazed how many people are holding the ST to a different standard than the OT.
It’s also frustrating that people say Luke being anything less than perfect (i.e. one moment of weakness that quickly passes) is “out of character.” Did he not have a moment of weakness in ROTJ as well?