Throwing the Lightsaber Away
In Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader goads Luke Skywalker into acting aggressively by tempting him to imagine a future where his sister Leia Organa turns to the dark side. Enraged by this threat to a loved one, Luke instinctively attacks Vader, only to come to himself a few moments later, after cutting off Vader’s cyborg hand reminds him of his own cyborg hand and prompts him to realize he has briefly become like his father. Committing himself to nonviolence, Luke uses his biological hand to throw away his lightsaber.
In The Last Jedi, Luke explains to Rey that when he was training his nephew Ben Solo, he sensed a future in which Ben turned to the dark side: “He would bring destruction and pain and death and the end of everything I love because of what he would become, and for the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it.” As in Return of the Jedi, when Luke’s loved ones are threatened, he instinctively reacts out of aggression. Using his cyborg hand, he ignites his lightsaber to attack Ben, only to come to himself a moment later, looking at the cyborg hand and recognizing that he has briefly become like his father, who killed Jedi trainees to try and stop his visions of his wife’s future death from coming to pass.
When Rey comes to Ahch-To and presents Luke with his lightsaber, asking him to come and help Leia, he uses his biological hand to throw it away, just as he did at the end of Return of the Jedi. Once again, Luke is committing himself to nonviolence – but this time, he is taking his ideals to a distorted extreme, distancing himself from the real needs of Leia and the galaxy because he is reacting out of the guilt and despair he feels over his failure with Ben. At the end of The Last Jedi, Luke finds a middle way, taking up his lightsaber to defend his sister without once using it to attack his nephew.
EXPLORE FURTHER…
Characters: Luke Skywalker
Films: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi / Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: aggression / cyborgs / dreams and visions / family / fathers / guilt / hands / idealism / instinct / nature and technology / siblings / war and peace
READ MORE ABOUT…
Follow The Jedi Archives on…
I couldn't have written it better myself. As you already know, I have touched on this in one of my entries (https://christopherwilbur.substack.com/p/silver-flashbacks-and-the-cave?r=3ulcqv). I will be doing some more in another next year.