Star Wars is Dead. RIP. (But it's Worse than that) continued

Rating: 1/10 (1 January 2018)

Three main points here. First, Luke Skywalker was absolutely committed, totally loyal and faithful, body, mind and soul. He did not compromise. That is why his character was so beloved, despite his flaws. Second, his path to Jedihood was very arduous, truly a pearl of great price; earned, not bestowed by some cosmic accident. And third, Jedi were crusaders for Truth and would die to protect the galaxy from the tyranny of the Dark Side.
At the end of the last episode of the first trilogy Luke confronted Darth Vader yet again, this time knowing that this embodiment of evil was his real father. In this battle Luke fought not only Darth Vader, but his Master, the Evil Emperor. In the three way battle that ensued Luke bested his father, but refused to succumb to the dark side of hate and finish him off. Instead he appealed to the love that he knew must still hide somewhere in the shell called Darth Vader. Just as the Emperor was about to kill Luke, Vader turned on his master to save his son and in the ensuing battle both died, ending the Evil Empire and freeing the galaxy of its dark despotism.
At the conclusion of this movie, the spirits of Obi wan Kenobe, Yoda, and Anniken Skywalker, appeared. Skywalker was the redeemed soul of Darth Vader, now basking in the Light and Love of the Force. Goodness triumphed over evil without compromising itself.
This was Star Wars. A morality play, a rather simple story of cosmic good versus cosmic evil. The differences were clearly recognizable, we cheered for the good and, on a galactic stage of vast proportions, the Truth ultimately triumphed against great odds. I don't know of any epic fiction in human History that has told a grander story. That is why the atrocity that Disney has committed against this epic myth arouses such passion and anger.
The Last Jedi looks and sounds great, but the story is a mess, with so many plot holes, dead ends, contradictions, inconsistencies, impossibilities, players out of character, deus ex machinas etc. that you can't count them all. Critics in mainstream media have overwhelmingly adored this movie and overlooked its obvious flaws, no doubt because they share the movie's underlying ideology. Fans of Star Wars have been much more critical, and numerous YOUTUBE critics have enumerated the movie's many flaws. As one critic said, "This is Star Wars in the world of Idiocracy." I will mention only a few of those flaws here.
What I want to focus on is the Last Jedi's betrayal and repudiation of the Star Wars' core myth. This betrayal is put into the words and actions of the greatest Jedi of all time, the man who saved the Galaxy and seemingly vanquished the Dark Side forever. Luke Skywalker, who would have been remembered for ages as one of the greatest heroes in the history of mythology, will now go down as the greatest apostate. Its like, after hundreds of millions of people have invested their time, energy, billions of dollars, hope and love into seven Star Wars movies, Disney then pulls a Gilda Radner and just says, "never mind."
When the latest great hope of the Force, Rey, came to Luke for training and introduced herself by handing Luke his old light saber, Luke, by now cynical, disconsolate, demoralized, depressed and dirty, responded without hesitation by throwing the light saber away. Thus, Luke symbolically expressed his rejection of everything he once stood for. He then went on to say just that in ensuing dialog with Rey, basically refusing to train her and telling her what a mistake and a failure the Jedi movement was. "All I know is that the Jedi must end," he said, accusing the Jedi of inadvertently "allowing" the Sith to subvert the Republic. Somehow, his father's turn to the Dark Side was the Jedi's fault. Luke explained that he went to the sacred Jedi planet, not to train, but just to die.
At some point the apparition of Yoda appeared, and they discussed the anachronistic nature of Jediism, and the worthlessness of the old sacred texts. Yoda then seemingly set them on fire, along with the sacred tree which protected them through the ages. Symbolically, a very long and eventful life of reverence went up in smoke. As did the concept of reverence itself.
Later we discovered why Luke gave up on Jediism and seemingly life itself. Years earlier, his nephew, Ben, the son of Princess Leia and Han Solo, during Jedi training, turned to the Dark Side. This happened because Luke, sensing dark proclivities in the youngster, tried to kill him in his sleep, kind of, but in self defense young Ben, (later Kilo Ren) destroyed the Jedi school and almost killed Luke himself. Thus, Luke caused the very outcome he most feared and himself helped create a Sith Lord.
When Rey found out about this, because she was in psychic communion with Kilo, she confronted Luke, and after a brief stick fight, the untrained little neophyte defeated the Great Skywalker, and he ran away in fear. Eventually Luke gave Rey about three minutes of Jedi training, during which she explored both the light and the DARK SIDE, and she became seemingly the most powerful Jedi of all time, even though we are told she had no pedigree or prior training.
At the end of the movie Luke finally showed some spirit, appearing dramatically to save the remaining handful of Resistance fighters from the new evil emperor, the last Sith, his nephew Kilo Ren. But instead of an epic fight to again vanquish evil and/or redeem it (the origins of the resurrected Sith we are never told, but we did see Kilo, improbably, kill his Master and take control), Luke wussed out and just projected a hologram of himself, tricking Kilo into a fake sword fight that took just long enough to allow the Resistance to escape. And then, inexplicably, with the entire Galaxy under the control of Dark forces, the real Luke just vanished, presumably into the Force, from which, we were told earlier, he had disconnected himself. Was this transcendence, like the ascension of Christ, or just a cop out? This Luke, this wastrel, who had rejected his precious, sacred Jedi inheritance, committed suicide to avoid his Jedi duty. What an ignominious end to one of the greatest epic heroes ever.
So, let's compare the Luke Skywalker that was developed in the first three movies to the Luke Skywalker of the Last Jedi.
The Luke Skywalker of Legend had absolute, child-like faithfulness and loyalty to his teachers and their teaching. Though for one second, like Christ on the cross, in his moment of greatest defeat, Luke experienced doubt, he resumed his quest steadfastly and attained his goal. He never wavered in the Truth again. He was always brave, always strong, always faithful to the principles he knew were right, and willing always to sacrifice his life for the right and to fight for that right and the rights of others.
The Luke Skywalker in Last Jedi became agnostic, cynical, weak, indecisive, selfish, lazy and a bit cowardly, because he no longer believed in anything. The Luke Skywalker who would not kill evil Darth Vader in self-defense, Luke Skywalker the Great Redeemer, raised his weapon against a sleeping teenager, his sister's son. And because of this failure he just quit. This is not Luke Skywalker.
No, the trashing of Luke Skywalker is not a literary accident. Trashing Luke Skywalker is trashing everything Star Wars ever represented, and Star Wars, despite borrowing so heavily from Eastern mysticism, represents something deep and abiding in the civilization we inherited. And what does the new Star Wars offer? Nothingness.