I personally think it’s more tragic that Luke considered attacking him before he had truly made up his mind. After all, the title of this project is the “Tragedy of Vader”, and Ben is supposed to be the substitute for Anakin.

One really cool thing about this novelization is how much it leans into the concept of prophecies/visions in Star Wars. Luke believes the vision he saw in Ben’s head to be inevitable. He had already seen dark visions before on Dagobah and been unable to prevent them, so this makes sense. It adds to why Luke retreats in shame to the island, because he legitimately thinks if he returns he’ll just be making that vision he saw come true even faster.

But Rey comes to realize that these visions are just glimpses of potential futures, and oftentimes when you try to avoid them they end up becoming true simply because of that. Take Anakin for example. He saw visions of his wife dying, and in trying to save her they became true. And then, like father like son, Luke repeats the same mistake in a different way, but turns it around to inspire the galaxy.

This was the type of stuff I was looking for in the sequels - adding more depth to the story of Anakin/Vader. It’s a shame this stuff doesn’t appear in the films at all.