Many rightfully seeLuke Skywalkeras one of the most important characters, if not the single most important character, inStar Wars, yet these 8 aspects of his appearances inStar Warsmovies and TV showsstill don’t make any sense.The Skywalker familyhas dominated theStar Warsfranchise from the beginning.
In fact, even now, after the Skywalker Saga theoretically ended withStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the Skywalkers are key to countlessStar Warsstories. This therefore only makes it all the more surprising thatthere are still many things about Luke Skywalker that simply don’t make sense inStar Wars.
8Luke Knows Nothing About The Jedi In A New Hope
Although it’s clear inA New Hopethat Uncle Owen went to great lengths to keep Luke away from Obi-Wan Kenobi and from any knowledge of the Force or the history of the Jedi,it’s still odd that Luke seemed to have absolutely no awareness of the Jedi or the Forcebefore the events of that movie.
Yes,Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sithsolidified that the Jedi had been all but extinct for about 20 years, and it initially seemed as though Tatooine was just a little-known desert planet, upon which very little transpired. Yet, that has proven far from true at this point.
We’ve now seen Tatooine play a critical role at multiple points intheStar Warstimeline, and, what’s more, theObi-Wan Kenobishow revealed that Luke had even come face-to-face with an Inquisitor as a child. In fact, even before Reva went after Luke, there had been several Inquisitors patrolling Tatooine.
The Imperial Inquisitors' entire purpose was to hunt down any remaining Jedi and Force-sensitives, so surely their presence on the planet would have caused chatter. Luke may not have been incredibly informed, and there were many things that remained secret about the Jedi, yet his entire lack of knowledge is difficult to understand.
7Luke’s Lesson To Grogu Ignores His History
It was thrilling to see Luke Skywalker back on the screen again inThe Book of Boba Fett, but some of the choices Luke made in that arc were pretty disappointing. In particular,Luke insisted that Grogu choose between the path of a Jedi and his bond with Din Djarin.
While this is in keeping with the Jedi rule against attachments, it’s not in keeping with Luke’s own history. After all, he was raised by his aunt and uncle, became and remained incredibly close with his sister, and saved Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader specifically because he was his son.
It wasn’t clear exactly what Luke’s Jedi Temple had entailed in terms of the ancient Jedi rules, as we only got glimpses of its destruction in the sequel trilogy, but it was surprising that Luke would follow this rule, given his own experience as a Jedi with attachments.
6Luke Has Completely Forgotten His Defining Characteristic In The Mandalorian
In tandem with the issue of Luke confusingly insisting on the rule against attachments despite his own history is the fact thatLuke was abandoning the very thing that had defined him throughout the original trilogy: family. Indeed, the original trilogy became a whole family affair with both Skywalker plot twists.
Interestingly, this does seem to work with what we see in the sequel trilogy, as Luke goes into exile and entirely isolates himself even from Leia. Yet, those choices were disappointing for the same reasons. They seemed to reject and betray what had always defined Luke.
With Luke’s appearance inThe Mandalorian, and the impact he had on Grogu’s path, it seems Luke forgot what his own origins were and why they were important. As it’s unclear whether we will ever see Luke again on theStar Warsscreen, this may also be the last word about it, making it even more confusing.
5Luke’s Exile To Ahch-To Makes No Sense
As mentioned, the sequel trilogy (very controversially) revealed that Luke had gone into exile onthe planet Ahch-To, following Ben Solo’s fall to the dark side, for which he felt responsible, and the destruction of his Temple. This stirred controversy in part because it felt entirely contrary to the hope he had embodied in the original trilogy.
Yet, there were other aspects of this arc for Luke that made little sense. For one, he was effectively decrying Jedi as a whole. He tells Rey fairly explicitly that he no longer believes in the Jedi and that the Jedi have always had a hubris that he is clearly very critical of.
This raises the key question:If Luke was in exile and was so against the Jedi, why would he choose the very birthplace of the Jedi?Not only does this further connect him to the Jedi he theoretically doesn’t agree with anymore, but also, it’s not exactly"the mostunfindable place in the galaxy,“as Luke claims, given its significance.
4Luke Doesn’t Seem To Grieve Much For Owen & Beru
A New Hopereveals devastation for the adoptive families of both Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. For the latter, her home planet Alderaan was famously blown up by the Death Star, with her adoptive parents, Bail and Breha Organa, still on it. In Luke’s case, his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were murdered by stormtroopers.
Luke even returns to the Lars farm to find his aunt and uncle’s corpses burnt and strewn across the sand and debris. Despite those horrors,Luke has a very minimal reaction to the death of his adoptive parents. In fact, he is considerably more devastated, at least visibly, by the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi later in the movie.
When first watchingA New Hope, it’s slightly easier to accept because we don’t see much of their relationship. However,Obi-Wan Kenobirevealed how much Owen and Beru truly loved Luke and saw him as a son, which only worsened the fact that this made no sense.
3Return Of The Jedi Made Luke & Leia’s Kiss So Much Worse
Perhaps one of the most jarring things to happen inStar Warswas the revelation that Luke and Leia were really siblings, which made their romantic kiss inThe Empire Strikes Backespecially uncomfortable. In that way,Return of the Jedimade this kiss infinitely worse by revealing it to actually be incestuous and by giving Luke one awful line.
One would think that learning they were siblings who had shared a romantic kiss would lead to some awkward conversations between Luke and Leia and distress on both sides. On the contrary, both Luke and Leia don’t address this issue on-screen at all, and Luke goes so far as to say that, in a way, he always knew.
This makes the kiss exponentially worse, as it implies Luke had a hunch Leia was his sister, yet he still kissed her and looked notably satisfied and smug after doing so inThe Empire Strikes Back. To this day, that remains a bewildering and unexplained aspect of Luke’s character.
2Why Luke Skywalker Was Hidden With Family On Tatooine
InRevenge of the Sith, it’s clear why Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda go into hidingas survivors of Order 66and even why they separate the twins. Leia’s adoption placement in particular makes sense, as she’s effectively hiding in plain sight as the princess of Alderaan. Vader would have no reason to suspect the truth, though.
With Luke’s placement, that isn’t the case at all. Even now,it makes absolutely no sense that Yoda and Obi-Wan would send Luke to live with Anakin’s step-brother and his wife. For one, as mentioned, the Jedi were against attachments and had long been removing Force-sensitive younglings from their families to be trained.
This choice went directly against that and essentially guaranteed that Luke would develop attachments. Moreover, Obi-Wan and Yoda didn’t even change Luke’s last name. Had anyone done even a small amount of digging, it would have been noteworthy that a little Skywalker was being raised by this family.
1How Luke Went From Wanting To Join The Empire To Becoming A Rebel
Finally,Luke makes a massive change inA New Hope, originally wanting to join the Empire but quickly pivoting to being fully dedicated to the Rebellionand becoming one of the most important Rebel fighters. InA New Hope, Luke wants to join"the Academy,“and while he doesn’t explicitly say the Imperial Academy, that’s almost certainly what he means.
For Luke, this was likely much less a political stance than it was an effort to get away from Tatooine, a place where he was clearly unhappy. Likewise, it’s understandable that Luke would then turn against the Empire following the death of Beru and Owen. Even so, this is a huge shift for his character, and it’s never really addressed.
One would think that this would be a significant part of his story and would therefore warrant some sort of exploration on screen, but that never really comes. This is therefore one of the most shocking things to remember aboutLuke Skywalker, and certainly among the things that make no sense about him inStar Wars.
