Jake vs. Luke

One of the biggest issues people have with the Last Jedi, is how they made Luke. He went from a beacon of hope to a bitter old man in 40 years, and that's a tough pill to swallow. Too tough actually, for a lot of people. I personally love the underlying message of the movie that anyone can become a hero and all heroes can screw up. I'm not rooted against that development, but when a plot is unconvincing it isn't properly done. This is, to be fair, also my view on the moment Anakin submits himself to the emperor, so it's not just the Last Jedi that makes this mistake.

In Return of the Jedi he went on a one-way trip because he believed that he could save Vader; the evillest man in the galaxy, as far as anyone knew at that point, and succeeded against all odds. Then years later his sister and best friend's son, who he knew and loved from birth, has dark side tendencies and he considers killing him in his sleep? For one moment Luke had crossed over to dark side in his fight with Vader, he barely came back from it when he was hacking away at him.
Him even contemplating killing his nephew in his sleep is terribly written character development, no way around that. It was actually so badly done that Mark Hamill himself said: "...maybe he's Jake Skywalker, he is not my Luke Skywalker." 

So here's an alternative development that would have made sense, while still delivering us the Luke Skywalker we see in episode 8.
Luke gets a vision in which Ben Solo kills another apprentice. This vision terrifies Luke, but initially he knows that the future is not set in stone. But as time passes and Kylo grows stronger, his visions grow worse, and he confronts him. They argue and eventually Luke, consumed by fear, attacks his student because he doesn't see any other choice. This of course results in Ben actually crossing to the Dark Side, making the visions reality. This rhymes with Anakin's fall to the dark side.
When Luke realizes the visions came true because of him, he decides to shut himself off from the Force and go into exile. This rhymes with Yoda's reaction to failure. It also would've made Kylo Ren a better villain, because we had a better grasp on what exactly happened to him.

Then, as he watches Rey and Chewie fly off into the sunset, he contemplates his life. He remembers the sunset on Tatooine and how he used to be, and he decides that he is not happy with the person he has become. Just like his father at the end of his life he chooses to go back to the person he used to be.
He goes to Crait and is unable to reach the bunker undetected, so he does his Force projection while staying hidden in his X-wing as the rebels make their escape.

Article by: Joel "Mith" Storms