I liked Luke’s vibe in TLJ in theory, but the execution bugged me somewhat. Luke in exile was great. Luke reconsidering past events and pondering (as I have as a fan) the idea of Jedi hubris was great. Luke suggesting that the old Jedi orthodoxy had to die was great. All the stuff about the Force and ‘balance’ and how no-one has a particular claim to it was absolutely great.
What I didn’t like so much was the idea of Luke being on the back foot with all this. Having Yoda come back to give Luke a lecture on ‘failure’ annoyed me. Luke transcended his masters in RoTJ. Yoda and Obi Wan wanted Luke to simply kill the bad guys. Luke chose a more personal, Zen route. I’d prefer he’d been doing the grumpy hobo routine in TLJ as an act - similar to Yoda’s initial test in TESB. This could have been his way of forcing Rey to take her destiny into her own hands, a new and different path away from the usual formalised Jedi training routine. Once Rey had flown off to confront Kylo, Luke could have revealed his cunning duplicity to Yoda and they could’ve burned down the Jedi tree together. Then, after Luke’s great skype-battle with Kylo, Rey could’ve realised what he’d done and be like “you sly devil”.
This way he could’ve played the hobo but still been the Luke we all love and respect without being diminished.
If you didn’t notice, the scene with Yoda doesn’t alter the more Zen route he took in ROTJ. Yoda isn’t advising him on the force, he is advising him how to teach. Advising him as a fellow master. I think because Luke was so pivotal, Rian didn’t just have him fill the master/mentor role immediately. He brought back some of that negativity that characterized Luke in ANH and TESB. It created a nice character journey for Luke to take him where he needed to be to help Rey.
The problem of course is, that he didn’t really help Rey, and that she still succeeded despite this. She helped herself to some books, when she was fed up with him, after which Luke sort of rediscovered himself, and was able to create a diversion for the rebels. Ultimately though he wasn’t much of a mentor in this film, except to be an example of how not to be. Yoda told Luke how to be a better teacher, he got to stage an illusion, and then he died before he could pass on what he had learned.
This is Star Wars. Since when is dying a barrier to being a teacher and mentor?
Ehm, since ANH. Force Ghosts can provide guidance, but up until TLJ they couldn’t physically interact with their environment.
False. Obi Wan sat on a log in return of the jedi. 😛
Well, I for one feel that scene in ROTJ is one of the weakest in the OT. It includes a pretty contrived reveal, Leia being Luke’s sister, and has a Force ghost sitting on a log having a relaxed conversation with a living person. If things were that easy, why didn’t Obi-Wan train Luke between ANH, and TESB? Luke seemed genuinly surprised to see Obi-Wan on Hoth. It seems to me there are limitations to what extend Force ghost can interact with the real world. In TESB Obi-Wan states he cannot intervere should Luke decide to confront Vader. In TLJ Yoda can suddenly conjure up a storm cloud, and lightning, and he can hit Luke on the head with his cane. This makes Obi-Wan’s statement in TESB seem ridiculous. Why not summon lightning and blast Vader, Palpatine, Kylo, and Snoke into oblivion? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Force ghost for me are sort of like reflections of the original person. They fade in and out of reality, and in my view are only able to sustain this for short periods of time. They cannot intervere with reality, and are thus not able to summon lightning from the sky or touch a living person. If Luke trains Rey in episode IX, it will feel like a cheat to me. Not only is the mystery of Force ghosts ruined, but it essentially makes a Force ghost a living person with a fresh coat of reflective paint, and with the added bonus of being invincible.
I would argue Dagobah is saturated with the Force. (Same for Ahch-To, only dialed up to 11.) Yoda did not pick a slimy mudhole planet to hide out on at random. We know the cave/ruin where Luke fights a phantom Vader is chock full of Dark Side. Contrast with Hoth, where Luke can barely see Obi-Wan and is delirious to boot.
Obi-Wan only manifests as a voice Luke isn’t even sure he’s hearing in the Death Star battle, so Cloud City would also be difficult for a ghost to show up.