Fun 'Star Wars' Theory: What If Luke Was Secretly Dead?
It's been almost two long years, and yet some Star Wars fans are still trying to find ways to fix The Last Jedi with elaborate theories or that unauthorized remake, set to hit theaters just as soon as its creators figure out how to effectively monetize shrieking self-entitlement. On the theory front, a new interpretation of the movie recently appeared on Reddit, and was later picked up by Esquire. It offers an intriguing new reading of the story. Specifically, that Luke Skywalker is dead. Like, not just at the end, but the whole time.
In a twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan proud (presumably for the first time this year), this theory posits that Luke is a ghost for the entirety of The Last Jedi. Not a Force Ghost, like Obi-Wan and Yoda, because Luke never learned how to do that. After all, Revenge Of The Sith taught us that Ghost-ing is a specific skill those two dudes learned from Liam Neeson. The idea is that Luke is the kind of spirit who still has unfinished business and can't fully move on, not unlike Patrick Swayze in that erotic pottery movie. He can only appear to Rey, and is unable to "materialize before people" who aren't Force-sensitive. Remember how Luke never actually converses with Chewie, except through Rey? This could be similar to how in The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis was often in the same room as other people, but not actually interacting with them.
Eventually, Luke is able to self-actualize and project himself across the Galaxy to confront Kylo Ren. In resolving his issues, he learns how to transition into the afterlife, and will likely return as a Force Ghost in Rise Of Skywalker. While the theory suggests that Luke died when his Jedi academy was destroyed by Ren, we'd also like to point out that his X-Wing is at the bottom of the ocean, so perhaps an injured Luke fled to Ach-To, only to crash and drown, trapping his soul there.
Of course, there's a lot of evidence that debunks all this. After all, a solitary Luke interacts with R2-D2 (the theory confusingly explains this by saying that "part of Luke was in R2"). And why would Luke's robe stay behind when he disappears at the end? Was the robe not part of his ghost? Also, while the theory purports to explain how Luke's ghostliness prevents him from saving his friends and roundhouse-kicking Snoke in the junk, that interpretation negates the central message that even heroes aren't immune to the crippling effects of trauma and self-doubt -- and more importantly, can work through them. Still, some YouTuber should probably check and see how well that Righteous Brothers song from Ghost syncs up with Luke milking that disgusting sea monster.
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