Luke Skywalker’s portrayal of Star Wars: The Last Jedi proved controversial, but he had his two most powerful uses of the Force on screen.
Luke Skywalker’s portrayal of Star Wars: The Last Jedi proved to be extremely divisive and controversial, but it featured the two most powerful uses of the Force on the character screen. Rian Johnson’s movie shocked Star Wars fans with their portrayal of Luke (Mark Hamill). Gone is the wide-eyed farmer from the original Star Wars, and similarly the daring hero of The Empire Strikes Back Y Return of the Jedi it was also missing (at least on the surface). Instead, this was an elderly Luke, full of regret and living like a hermit in Ahch-To.
Not only was Luke in exile, he had actually separated from the Force. Given that he was one of the most powerful Jedi ever known, this was a surprising choice to say the least. However, it is one that largely fits the story Johnson tells, not to mention the setting of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which left Luke stranded on an island in the first place. This was just one of many criticisms about Luke, continuing the idea that the character is underpowered in Star Wars movies versus the most dominated Luke in Star Wars Legends and, of course, with Luke isolating himself from the Force being such a shocking decision to behold.
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And yet, for all that Luke chose to withdraw from the Force, The last jedi described him as more powerful than any other Star Wars film, and in fact louder than in The mandalorian too, even though it essentially shows Luke in his prime. It’s true that he was generally stronger as a Jedi there, but his most impressive abilities come in his most divisive output, and they include isolating himself from the Force. The use of Sever Force, the skill required to do this, hasn’t been explored much in canon (although it was something used by Kanan Jarrus). However, for Luke in particular, this was an impressive feat.
Anakin Skywalker’s son, aka the Chosen One, Luke has an incredibly high midichlor count; it is very attuned to the Force, so disconnecting it is an almost impossible task. Luke cannot completely isolate himself from the Force, as the novelization of The last jedi he enlarges it, showing that it still came to him in dreams. However, the fact that he slashed himself shows a mastery of the Force itself, and an ability greater than any he had displayed since, given the level of difficulty involved, which is more than just learning to use the Force first. In Legends, Sever Force was an even more powerful ability, because it could be used as an offensive technique, with a Jedi using it to sever another Force user’s connection. It was a rare and exceptionally powerful ability, and while that doesn’t translate directly into canon, it does further demonstrate how strong Luke was using it.
Luke’s reconnection to the Force later in The last jedi It then led to his other more impressive display of power, the Force projection that Luke used against Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to allow the Resistance to escape. Based on the equally powerful and rare Doppelgänger technique from Legends, Force Projection, although recorded in ancient texts, has only been used by Luke in Star Wars canon, and it is such an astonishing display of Force power and connectivity that many in the galaxy believe it to be a myth. Luke’s Force projection unites the two strands of the Force – Living and Cosmic – in a means not unlike becoming a Force Ghost, in that Living Force energy (which is the energy of life; active and present) enters the Cosmic Force (which is essentially everything else; a source, or the history of the Force and its future).
The effort it takes to create a Force projection is what leads to Luke’s death in The last JedI. And although I was older and had been disconnected from the Force for some time, the power and energy required necessitated such a Force connection that few could even contemplate attempting it, much less achieving it to such a convincing degree. He may have finally killed Luke, but most other Force users would have died even faster from the effort. For all of Luke’s abilities with a lightsaber in the original trilogy, destroying Dark Troopers in The mandalorian, or even his return as a Force Ghost in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, nothing matches the Force abilities displayed on Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
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Reference-screenrant.com
