I’m really unhappy with the characterization they gave him. He’s already the cold, calculist Jedi Master, the one that fails Ben and prompts the ST into existence, and… that’s not Luke. Luke is all about emotions and attachments, that’s how he saved his father’s soul. He went against his masters, he was a truly unorthodox Jedi, that’s how he won. He won through love, he understands that that’s what the Jedi are all about, so that’s how his Jedi Order should be. And that character would never remove Grogu, an infant, from the care of a loving father figure, because he knows the importance of such a figure. That was my biggest - and only - problem with TLJ Luke too (that got a pass because Hamill’s just so fantastic). I buy depressed/disillusioned Luke, that’s an extremely emotional Luke, but I don’t buy how he got there, and it’s already showing here. How he seems to have become a cold, detached Jedi, without the love and compassion that won the revolution and his father’s heart in ROTJ. That’s exactly why the PT Jedi failed and exactly why he fails in the post-ROTJ world, but it goes directly against his character IMO.
I’m surprised, to me the Luke from this episode is the exact same Luke we last saw in ROTJ. First, let’s address that Grogu is in fact a danger to those around him. We’ve already seen this when he force choked Cara Dune last season over an arm wrestling match. He’s spent decades alone and afraid and needs guidance on how to control his emotions or he runs a very high risk of either falling to the darkside and/or hurting someone by accident.
Now getting back to Luke. Luke doesn’t just show up and snatch Grogu and run off. He’s there because Grogu called out for help on Tython. And Grogu wants to go with him as is made clear in the dialog of that scene. What you interpret as cold and detached, I interpret as the serenity he carried himself with through Return of the Jedi. Throughout that scene Luke is very warm and reassuring with both Mando and Grogu. He assures Mando that he will protect the child with his life, he reasserts why it’s so important that Grogu complete his training. He gives them all the time they need to say goodbye for now. And he continues to reassure Mando with a “see he’ll be okay” look while Grogu is interacting with Artoo.
It was all consistent with the compassionate Luke I know from the end of the Original Trilogy.
Very good points, Tobar. I’ve been going back and forth on what you said and what I said. I initially had the same impression as you, but then when I gave it more thought it left a sour taste in my mouth, then I came to terms with it again, and so on.
I think once again the rushed execution is to blame. For this season it really feels like Favreau and Filoni lost track of how much stuff they wanted to put in. Since they wanted to do so much story-wise, introducing many new characters and plot threads, and literally wrapping up (for now) Grogu’s story, I don’t think we had the time for a filler episode with Frog Lady, for instance, even if episodes like that are at the very core of the show.
I’m also a bit surprised by how much acclaim Luke’s appearance is getting. I loved it, but only because it’s Luke and I have my nostalgia and love goggles on. Otherwise, from a narrative standpoint, it’s very anticlimatic. The episode is all about the crew and specifically Din giving everything they could to rescue Grogu. That as soon as they find him he immediately gets taken away, is very awkward writing. Again, it mostly works because it’s Luke and everyone loves him and the writers obviously knew that when writing the script, they only wrote it like this because it’s Luke, but it’s weird nonetheless, and I’m never too fond of when something works solely on the grounds of nostalgia.