The Other Luke Skywalker

          

  Between 1991 and 2014, a hero named Luke Skywalker saved the galaxy dozens of times, not at the movies, but on the bookshelves. This version of Luke was vastly different than the one we saw on screens this December in “The Last Jedi”. The book version of Luke Skywalker much more resembled the one that we saw in “Return of the Jedi”. This is not to say that the two Luke Skywalkers are completely different from one another. In fact there are some notable similarities.

Rebuilding the Jedi Order

            In 1994, Kevin J. Anderson published the “Jedi Academy Trilogy” which told the story of Luke founding the New Jedi Order seven years after the Battle of Endor. Luke trained twelve students at the Great Temple on Yavin IV. Of course, things did not go very well. One of Luke’s new students, Kyp Durron, started seeing visions of an ancient Sith named Exar Kun (See Tales of the Jedi). Kun corrupted Kyp Durron and Kyp turned against Luke and the other students.

Sound familiar? In “The Last Jedi” Luke claims that he trained a dozen Jedi. In this case, Snoke corrupted Ben Solo and it was Ben Solo that turned against Luke and the other students. 

Romance & Marriage 

In “The Last Jedi” Luke has secluded himself on the Island of Ahch-To away from his friends and family. It is unknown if Luke ever had any romance in his life (besides his sister). But in the old Expanded Universe, Luke had many love interests.

Luke’s first love interest in the books is a mysterious woman named Callista. Callista was a Clone Wars era-Jedi Knight whose force spirit became trapped on a dreadnaught-class ship known as “The Eye of Palpatine”. When Luke became a prisoner aboard the ship he encountered the force spirit of Callista and the two began developing feelings for each other. Eventually, Callista is able to regain corporal form and she and Luke have many adventures together.

The character of Callista was a project that Lucasfilm had assigned to Barbara Hambly and Kevin J Anderson. According to Anderson, Lucasfilm wanted Callista to be the great love interest in the life of Luke Skywalker. However, fan reaction to another Star Wars EU character would cause Lucasilm to change its mind about Callista.

The other EU character, of course, was Mara Jade. Originally, Jade served as an agent to Emperor Palpatine. Palpatine gives her the command to kill Luke Skywalker and even after Palpatine's death, Jade is driven by this command. Of course Jade doesn’t end up killing Skywalker, she ends up falling in love with him.

Jade was created by Timothy Zahn for his “Thrawn Trilogy” first published in 1991 by Bantam Books- though Zahn didn’t initially intend for the two to be an item. Bantam Books ruled the Star Wars EU from 1991 to 1999 and one of the final titles under the Bantam line was Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn Duology” which sees Skywalker and Jade fall in love and become engaged.

The wedding of Skywalker and Jade is depicted in the 4-issue comic series “Union” which sort of ties a nice ribbon around the Bantam line of Star Wars novels published in the 1990s. At the turn of the Millennia, Star Wars novels began being published under Del Rey and things became much darker.

The Yuuzhan Vong War & Ben Skywalker

When Del Rey took over the Star Wars publishing line they wanted to do something big with the Star Wars galaxy. They wanted to raise the stakes. In “The New Jedi Order” series of books, the mysterious Yuuzhang Vong invade the galaxy. Many characters are killed including Chewbacca and Anakin Solo. Mara Jade Skywalker became terminally ill with spores created by the Yuuzhan Vong and even after she is cured, she believes that she will never be able to bear a child. Later, however, she discovers that she is pregnant. When their child is born Luke & Mara name him “Ben” after Luke’s former master.

In “The Force Awakens” fans discover that Kylo Ren's real name is “Ben Solo” which is reminiscent of “Ben Skywalker”. However, Kylo Ren more closely resembles Jacen Solo, Luke’s nephew who eventually turns to the Dark Side and slaughters Mara Jade.

The End of the Expanded Universe

            In 2013, the novel Crucible became the last story to feature the “other” Luke Skywalker. The other Luke was 64 years old during this novel which saw one last adventure with his twin sister and a 70+ Han Solo. All three survive the story- only for the past 40-years of their existence to be wiped out when Disney purchased Star Wars. Luke’s wife, Luke’s son, Han and Leia’s children and grandchild, everything they had done… was undone by "The Force Awakens".

            It is no wonder that some fans when viewing “The Last Jedi” were upset seeing the grizzled shell of a man that claimed to be Luke Skywalker. Fans of the novels knew that the real Luke Skywalker that “other” Luke Skywalker would not have given up, would not had given in. They knew in their heart of hearts that the “other” Luke Skywalker, their hero, is still alive out there somewhere- alive and well.

Luke Skywalker, You Are Not The Jedi That I Used To Know

With the release of “The Last Jedi”, Star Wars fans reunited with Luke Skywalker. Many viewers were surprised that the once wide-eyed farm boy was now a broken and grizzled man. How could 30 years have changed Luke so much?

            

Though the movie attempts to answer this question, the real answer probably stems from the necessity of the storytelling process. When J.J. Abrams was writing “The Force Awakens” he tried including Luke Skywalker in the script. Yet every time Luke entered J.J.’s  story something would happen. Luke would kind of take over the story, he would overshadow the new characters, he would steal every scene. How could he not? He’s freaking Luke Skywalker!

 To give the new characters some room to grow, J.J. decided to save Luke for the next film, to have “The Force Awakens” become a film about the question: “Where is Luke Skywalker?” The answer to this question was: “Hiding on a secluded island somewhere” and when Rian Johnson took over he had to answer a new question: “Why is Luke Skywalker hiding away on some island?”

 It is the answer to this last question, which kind of kills the Jedi that we all knew as Luke Skywalker. The answer, for Rian, was that Luke Skywalker isn’t hiding away on some island somewhere, because Luke Skywalker would never do that. When his friends are in trouble, Luke is there to help. Therefore, Rian faced a terrible realization. The man hiding away on that island isn’t Luke Skywalker- not the one we used to know- this is some new Luke Skywalker. Some old man that used to be Luke Skywalker.

 The fact that Luke has changed so much after 30 years had made some fans angry and there are some good reasons for their anger. A thousand questions run, like rivers, through their collective consciousness. How could Luke have got so old? Was Return of the Jedi really so long ago? Am I old? Why did George Lucas spend so much time making prequels, when he could have made the further adventures of Luke?

And while some fans are angry over how much Luke Skywalker storyline that they have missed out on between the years of 1983 and 2017, others are angry because they didn’t miss out. They have spent the last thirty years growing up with Luke Skywalker, it was just a different Luke.

 This “Other” Luke that I am referring to is the Luke that continued to have adventures, long after the original trilogy was complete. It is the Luke that married Mara Jade. It is the Luke that founded a new Jedi Temple on Yavin IV. It is the Luke that saved the galaxy, time and time again and ran away and never stopped being a hero. It is the Luke from the old Expanded Universe. The Luke from the books that were published between 1991 – 2014. The books that are no longer canon.

The fans that spent over 20 years reading those books have to wonder “Where is the Luke Skywalker that I used to know? The champion of the Yuuzhan Vong war? The father of Ben Skywalker?” And the answer is: “That Luke is gone now. And we are left with the broken and grizzled one.”

 Next time on the blog I want to talk about that “Other” Luke Skywalker. The one with the wife and kid who never lost hope. The one that, in a fair world, would still be with us.

"Solo" Trailer Review

The "Solo" teaser trailer premiered early in the Superbowl coverage. Here is a shot by shot breakdown.

:3 - A dark imperial facility. Quite possibly an Academy.

:8-A Star Destroyer making its way through some sort of nebula. Possibly part of the Kessel run.

:10-A new TIE fighter. Possibly a TIE bomber.

:16-Humanoid worker droids. Possibly on Kessel. Is this what Threepio was scared of?

:17-Certainly sounds like a young Solo. I think Han did join the Imperial Academy in the old expanded universe, and that seems to be what is happening here.

:26-Emilia Clarke wearing earrings. She certainly doesn’t look like she’s in the Star Wars galaxy.

:28-A really cool monorail. I am digging the design of this film. It may be grittier than Rogue One.

:29-A very quick shot of Woody Harrelson. He looks the part of a Star Wars character. The costume suits him.

:30-A club. I think I spot at least one Twi’lek among the dancers.

:31-There’s that train again. Reminds me of the train heist sequence in the Shadows of the Empire N64 game. I guess it’s about time we get a train heist in a Star Wars movie. What is that thing that someone is fighting? What kind of weapon does it have?

:32-Lando: looking very John-Snow-like. I’m glad they didn’t just cut and paste his cloud city costume onto him.

:34-We only really see the back of the Falcoln in this teaser trailer. For the full design you’ll have to look at those leaked Lego photos.

:37-And finally Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. His face is obscured, so we don’t get the full effect. Can he actually pull this off?

:42-Han and Chewie at the end. Somehow that shot doesn’t jive with the rest of what we see. The tone is quite different. Maybe it’s because they dubbed that Wookiee howl over it.

Well, the film certainly seems to have a darker tone. But I can’t think of any Ron Howard movies without humor and joy, so that shouldn’t be too concerning. There is nothing worrying in this trailer (ie Nothing Porg-like). Hearing Ehrenreich’s dialogue does give me hope that he can pull off a young Han Solo. What did you all think?