Highlights
- Luke's emotional nature leads to his downfall, shown when he loses his hand in a duel with Vader.
- Luke's reliance on violence causes problems throughout the original trilogy and hinders his growth as a teacher.
- Luke's lack of proper Jedi training and misguided teaching contribute to the rise of the First Order and the lackluster resistance.
One of the main focuses of Star Wars' Skywalker Saga, Luke Skywalker is considered by many to be one of the most iconic heroes in cinematic history. The character, surrounded by the Force and his friends, manages to bring an end to the Empire and the rule of Emperor Palpatine and Luke’s own father, Darth Vader.
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However, even a great hero like Luke Skywalker isn’t without his weaknesses. Having not been trained as a proper Jedi in the old sense, there were gaps in Luke’s knowledge, not to mention a lot of issues he’s had due to the trauma and weight piled on his shoulders at such a young age after leaving the only home he ever knew. Luke is a true hero, but no hero is without his faults and weaknesses.
7 His Emotional Nature
Leads To Losing His Hand
- Shown In The Empire Strikes Back
There are a number of times throughout his life when Luke is ruled by his emotions. Any true Jedi is supposed to fully master their emotions, but this wasn’t something that either Obi-Wan or Yoda managed to instill in the young rebel before passing on, and Luke remained brash throughout at least the rest of the original trilogy.
The most egregious mistake that this caused him to make was being drawn into the trap set by Darth Vader on Bespin. Luke believed Vader had his friends and he had to fight him, despite the warnings of Yoda to the contrary. This resulted in Luke dueling Vader, uncovering the truth about him, and losing his hand, making for a pretty bad day.
6 His Missing Hand
Leads To Delays In His Mission
- Shown In Star Wars #19 Comic
Luke grows a lot between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, appearing in the latter as a much more sage Jedi Master. In recent Star Wars comics, more details have emerged about the time between these two films, including a mission where Luke struggles with his newly mechanical hand after losing his real one in battle against his father.
In Star Wars #19, Luke attempts to use the Jedi mind trick on two guards as part of a mission he is on. Unfortunately, this is when he discovers that his mechanical hand cannot be used to channel the force. This means Luke has had to adapt and find other ways to utilize the force, making for a slight weakness from then on, despite the learning he went through, so that he was able to make the necessary adjustments.
5 His Dark Side
Leads To His Near Ruin
- Shown In Return Of The Jedi
In Return of the Jedi, The Emperor is convinced that he can convince Luke to join the dark side and stand with him and Vader. However, he was proven wrong, and this showed a lot of growth from Luke. In the earlier films, he was brash, whiny, and all in all very similar to his father when he was young, and he could easily have become as scary as him. However, he was still barely strong enough to resist the Emperor.
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The feelings of rage that were easily inspired in Luke brought him to the brink of darkness. Unfortunately, it has always been an issue for him. Despite gaining wisdom as he grew older, the darkness remained and was a potential factor in him backing away from the fight in the sequel trilogy, lest he find himself delving further into that darkness in his attempts to win.
4 His Assumption Of Responsibility
Leads To Near-Death
- Shown In The Empire Strikes Back
Another constant in Luke’s life is his assumption that he can, and should, do everything himself. He is often found going off on his own and trying to achieve great tasks. Never proving himself a true leader because he liked to be in the middle of the fight, Luke’s tendency to take on too much almost resulted in his doom on multiple occasions.
Perhaps the most ridiculous thing was that Luke, doing scouting work on Hoth, risking himself unnecessarily to begin with, stays out too long and assumes he’ll be fine. Thinking he is bulletproof is one of the ways in which Luke is most similar to his father. This nearly results in his demise. If it hadn’t been for Han Solo, the Rebel Alliance’s greatest hope would have been found frozen to death due to his own idiocy.
3 His Reliance On Violence
Leads To Darkness
- Shown In The Empire Strikes Back
One of the things that showcases the darkness within Luke is his violent ways. He always believes that this is the primary way to solve problems, and despite learning from this by the end of his life, it was a weakness that caused him a lot of problems throughout the Original Trilogy.
The worst case of this was when Yoda sent him into the dark caves on Dagobah, and Luke brought his lightsaber, assuming that this would be required despite Yoda telling him not to bring it. Resorting to violence in a place like that was a bad sign, and Yoda was almost despairing of Luke. Truly, it didn’t seem like he trusted him not to be turned to the dark side by Vader and the Emperor. This weakness was also a problem, as Luke’s role moved on from soldier to teacher, and obviously, it didn’t go well.
2 Lack Of Teaching
Leads To The First Order
- Shown In The Last Jedi
It isn’t fair to blame Luke entirely for the rise of Kylo Ren and the First Order. However, his bold attempt and subsequent failure to revive the Jedi Order likely stems from his own lack of teaching. Luke was never really a Jedi Master. Jedi are trained their entire lives, and Luke only trained from the age of nineteen.
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Obi-Wan died almost immediately after starting to teach Luke, and Yoda didn’t last long either, though he gave some sage advice. The total amount of training Luke gathered from other Jedi was truly minimal. He wasn’t the man, unfortunate as it is, to start the next Jedi Order. The lack of training he was given led to many of his weaknesses, particularly his own misguided teaching of others.
1 His Fears
Leads To A Lackluster Resistance
- Shown In The Last Jedi
The Resistance really struggles to ever get going to the same degree that the Rebel Alliance did. Part of this is because Luke Skywalker left. He was one of the major figures who could help garner support for the new organization, and instead, he backed away and went into hiding. This took some of the pressure off the Resistance, as Kylo Ren and Snoke were more concerned with finding Luke than crushing them, but it was all because of his fear.
Luke barely did anything in the sequel trilogy. There are good things about those films, but his absence isn't one of them. He was so afraid of the darkness within himself, and of the failures he had committed with Kylo Ren, that he was almost paralyzed by fear and backed away from the fight completely. Eventually, he tried to take on too much again in one grand effort to save the Resistance, leading to his demise.
