Alright, the trailer has been out for some time now and I have been thinking a lot about what could possibly be going on and where they are headed. The trailer may have given a little more than what they intended and some of it links with the books, old and new, and with Star Wars Rebels.
Now, let’s take a little look at the Legends aspect of the Star Wars universe, and we know that they have been taking some of it as a way to appease some of the fans that were upset about the clean slate. Now, I personally think this wipe of the Expanded Universe was a great idea, but the Legends stuff had a lot of good ideas that I think can survive the grave. This being, the origin of the Jedi.
From what we understand from The Force Awakens, Luke had started training a new generation of Jedi only for them to be taken down by Kylo Ren and his Knights. This took place just a few years before we are reintroduced into the world with new characters. Now, we aren’t going to get into too many theories of Snoke, well, cause we think he’s just Snoke. A relic of the past and I’ll give some more detail into that in a little bit. It’s been 30 years and Luke may have had enough time to train a handful of Jedi and raise them to Knights or Masters and left them to the temple while he went on some mission only to return to see the Temple in flames.
Or he fled and returned to see his work in flames. Seeing that the Jedi way was not really working, something Anakin himself noticed in Revenge of the Sith. Ahsoka was another one that noticed it when she was framed for murder and the Jedi not being what she thought them to be. Instead, she chose to leave while Anakin felt it necessary to wipe all of them from the galaxy. Which brings us to Ahsoka being the first to take that step into a bigger world and becoming the essence of light naming her Ashla in the book Ahsoka.
Luke instead chose to seek out the first Jedi temple. Or that’s what Han Solo claimed them to believe and I think that the new trailer gives us a bit of that truth. Luke found something, and exiled himself til he could get it under control. Rogue One mentions Chirrut and Baze being the Guardian of the Whills. Yoda encounters them during his pilgrimage in the Clone Wars. Each Whill embodying a different emotion, a balance.
They even force Yoda to face the darkness within himself, learning to embrace it as a part of him rather than destroying it completely. Allowing Yoda to reach a higher understanding that the future of the Jedi was going to fail.
One can even say Anakin battled this up until his redemption in Return of the Jedi.
Taking what we know and what we see in The Last Jedi trailer, we see an old tree with a shelf, assuming Luke found these and has been studying these in his exile, learning about what the first Jedi knew.
Now what has been confirmed in Star Wars: Rebels, is the existence of the Bendu. A creature that is bound to neither the light nor the dark, but is strictly in the middle. Seeing the destruction that has come from the imbalance has caused him to take no sides. Confirming this to be canon, the first Jedi studied both light and dark and were not actually called Jedi as we know it in the movies.
the Je’daii saw the Force as three aspects of a whole; the Ashla (light), the Bogan (Dark), and the Bendu (balance). They saw this duality in the Force represented in the night sky of Tython in the form of two natural satellites; one bathed in light, the Ashla, another shrouded in darkness, the Bogan. In keeping with their view of balance, Je’daii who fell too far to either the light or dark were exiled to one of the moons to meditate until they returned to balance.
Which is probably where we find Luke on Ahch’To. Meditating until he returned to balance the two sides of the force. The Jedi had fallen far from the original teachings and Luke needed to learn this in order to correct the mistakes of Yoda’s generation and possibly the generations before it. Maz mentions the battle between the light and dark taking many forms and names. The battle between light and dark needed to end.
From what we understand, Luke is in a darker mind at this point when Rey finds him. Studying the teachings has left him struggling with the dark side, which is why Rey is so important, she could be that “Rey” of Light that Luke needs in order to find balance within himself and to master it. Luke does go to the dark side briefly in the old legends universe and brought back to the light by Leia. Luke then is considered to be the most powerful Jedi by mastering and controlling both sides.
In the trailer, we hear Luke asking what Rey sees, she says. “I see the light. The Dark. And the balance in between.” And we see this shot of the familiar Jedi symbol with red and blue, what I am assuming symbolizes the balance of the force.
It was always assumed that Anakin was the chosen one to bring the balance to the force, but indirectly, as Luke is an extension of him. We hear Maul asking Obi Wan in the episode of Twin Suns if he is the chosen one, and Obi says yes to give Maul some sort of peace in his death. So Rey is going to be the one that will bring Luke back through her training with him. “It’s so much bigger” as Luke says in the trailer. Luke will bring about the balance of the force. Many thought that 2 Jedi and 2 sith was the balance prophesied, which didn’t really make sense to me as we know some Jedi survived but stayed hiding and abandoned the Jedi teachjngs.
Luke is training Rey not to be a Jedi, but to be like the Bendu, the balance. He only knows one truth after studying the old Jedi teachings, it is time for the Jedi to end and begin anew. Now, a lot of people are kind of upset that it’s going that way and I am really excited to see what it is going to bring. I don’t necessarily think that it means that he is going to really end the Jedi completely. There has to be a standard of hope and light that shines through the darkness. As Anakin and Ahsoka saw it, the Jedi were doing things wrong, and had become arrogant and blinded by their own teachings. It’s a way to bring the end of the Jedi ways and train a new generation that aren’t bound by rules that restrict them from doing what is right to bring about true peace in the galaxy. We see this in the Mortis episodes in The Clone Wars
Which brings me back to the origin of the Jedi and the Sith.
Surviving on Tython for millennia in isolation from the rest of the galaxy, the Order was deeply shaken by the arrival of a Force Hound from the Infinite Empire.
In the years following the Hound’s initial crash landing on Tython, a schism shook the Order to its foundation. After a bloody civil war, known to history as the first conflict between light and dark side philosophies, the dark side adherents were routed while the Jedi Order thrived. A large group of Jedi departed Tython, eventually finding a new home on Ossus, where they would eventually join the Galactic Republic as defenders of the peace.
Abrams mentions that Kylo and Snoke are not Sith. And also that Snoke has been around a long time and has chosen not to get involved during the Empire era, much like Bendu did when Kanan found him and forced him to dispel Thrawn’s forces and the Ghost Crew. That’s about as much of a theory that I have for Snoke, ancient being from the beginning that chose the side of the dark during the civil war and maybe disturbed by Kylo and starting The First Order.
Now as far as what we think about the trailer and how the movie will play out. We know that Kylo and The First Order are still looking for Luke. I believe that the movie will be The First Order doing everything in their power to find where Luke is and we will see a victory against the Resistance and them obtaining the final piece of the map to Luke.
We see this big explosion by Poe’s X-Wing, so we know the Resistance is going to suffer some losses. At Star Wars Celebration we learn that Finn is rescued by a new character and they go on an adventure. Another shot shows the aftermath of this scene.
Phasma coming into the base. Not too happy about what happened at Starkiller Base and is going to hopefully be a lot cooler than the previous movie, but let’s hope it’s not over the top. Here I believe The First Order will get the location to Luke. Who is training Rey while all of this is happening.
The Resistance is going to recover and rush to save Luke, where we will see Leia and him finally get an onscreen reunion, but not til after a battle ensues. We see a space battle which I believe is over Ahch-To and Kylo Ren facing Luke and Rey.
We’ll get our final epic battle scene with a mixture of lightsaber wielding awesomeness with a space battle. They manage to escape Kylo and maybe his knights or Snoke and make it up to the Resistance fleet as they take off into light speed to gear up for the next movie and the final showdown.
So that’s my little theory of how I see The Last Jedi playing out and Luke’s path to “ending” the Jedi. I really think that the line is cut differently just for the trailer, there is going to be more to that line or we will hear the conversation in full to really understand what Luke means by it. Let us know what you think! Follow us on our social media let us know your theories! This is just my opinion/theory. No spoilers other than what’s already in the trailer.
Thank you for not shipping rey and kylo ren. It’s great to have an actual discussion. I agree with your theory, it lines up with what I’ve research. Thanks again!