I’ve been thinking for a while about the infamous “Luke tries to kill Ben” scene in TLJ, and I think I’ve come up with a pretty neat idea to fix the scene’s biggest problem: why did Luke think Ben was beyond all hope, if all he saw was that Ben had some pretty scary thoughts? My version, which would be executed with the help of AI, attempts to give that reason. Here’s what I’m thinking:

REY: Tell me the truth!

LUKE: I saw darkness.

Flashback to Luke standing over Ben as he sleeps

LUKE (VO): I tried looking into his mind, to see what was causing it. But instead, I saw his future, and it was more horrible than I ever imagined.

Cut to a montage, with a ROTS-esque dreamlike filter, of Kylo’s darkest moments: destroying the temple, kneeling before Snoke, slaughtering people across the galaxy, watching as the New Republic is destroyed, and killing Han. Cut back to the flashback, as Luke recoils in horror.

LUKE: Ben’s fate had already been sealed.

Luke moves to pick up his lightsaber

LUKE: He would bring destruction and pain and death, and the end of everything I loved because of what he would become. And there was only one thing I could do to stop it.

Luke ignites his lightsaber, but hesitates

LUKE: But yet, I couldn’t do it, and I was left with shame. And with consequence.

Luke sees that Ben is awake

LUKE: And the last thing I saw were the eyes of the monster I failed to destroy.

They clash sabers, and the flashback ends

REY: You failed by thinking his choice was made! It wasn’t!

In this version, Luke’s choice is almost classicaly tragic. Rather than simply seeing what Ben might do, he sees what Ben WILL do, and he thinks that he has only two options:

Do nothing, and let everything and everyone he loves be destroyed.
Kill Ben and save the galaxy, but live with the knowledge that he killed his own nephew in his sleep.

In the end though, like with all classical tragedies, Luke’s attempt to cheat fate is exactly what leads to that fate happening in the first place: his indecision causes Ben to wake up, see his own master holding a lightsaber over his bed, and strike back, cementing his fall to the dark side. Luke made the wrong choice, but for reasons that are far more understandable than just “bad dreams”.