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?
Not exactly right.
Obi-Wan and Yoda were forced into hiding by the ruling government, whereas Luke chose to go into hiding and die, while the Republic still controlled most of the galaxy. The moment the Rebel Alliance had a fighting chance, after their first victory stealing the Death Star plans, Bail Organa asked Obi-Wan’s help, and Obi-Wan didn’t hesitate to do so, unlike Luke. Luke refused to help even in the Resistance’s most desparate hour.
The OT makes it pretty clear that Obi-Wan can sneak around all he wants on a heavily-fortified Imperial battlestation if he so chooses, and that Yoda does not need a message from a droid to know what people are up to across the galaxy.
They went into hiding because they chose to, not because they were not forced to. Sure, they needed to back off and regroup right after the Emperor established power, but they weren’t forced to wait 25 years to cut the snake off at the head. The senate was still intact for the most part right up until the events of Star Wars, and they waited until the political climate had shifted entirely in the Emperor’s favor before they acted—and then only by proxy.
And Yoda even threatened to not train Luke because Luke was too old, too reckless, and too clouded with dreams of adventure and excitement.