I was watching Return of the King the other day, and the film
made me think about how much my feelings differ toward Frodo sailing west
versus the bullshit ending with Luke. So many of TLJ’s defenders are quick to
label those of us who hated the movie as whiners and claim that we’re just angry
because we didn’t get our way. Yeah, it is sad that Luke didn’t get his happily
ever after, but neither did Frodo, and that still doesn’t diminish my love for
either the books or the films. The difference is Frodo’s story arc is treated
with more respect than Luke’s. If Tolkien had Frodo succumb to the Ring’s power,
only to fall into the lava with Gollum, thereby destroying the Ring but dying
needlessly, then I would have been pissed. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but
Frodo does suffer a great deal throughout the story, and he was unable to
recover mentally or physically from his ordeals. The trauma he endured
permanently changed him and there was no going back to who he was before his
journey. It’s heartbreaking, especially since he’s my favorite character, but
the ending of RotK honestly brings me a sense of peace. Frodo is leaving
Middle-earth, but I know he’ll be okay because he’s going to a place where he
can finally heal, and he’s going there with people he loves.
What do we get with Luke in the sequel trilogy? He starts a
new Jedi order that we never get to see and is already destroyed before the
beginning of TFA. The galaxy is in nearly the same damn war that he fought to
end thirty years ago. We get a Luke who contemplated killing his (sleeping!) nephew because
he sensed the dark side within Kylo, even though Luke was the one living person
who believed there was still good in Vader, a man who brought fear, suffering,
and death to the galaxy for over two decades. And at the end of TLJ, Luke dies
needlessly. Alone. After only one movie in the new trilogy. And then the film
tries to tell us (compared to how we were shown in RotK) that he was at peace, but what the hell is there to feel
peaceful about? The Jedi are gone, the Resistance barely exists, his nephew is
now the Supreme Leader of the First Order, Han is dead, and his sister has lost
everyone she loved most. What about any of this is supposed to bring peace to
Luke or the audience? That he finally gets to say fuck it and drink pina
coladas in the afterlife? If that’s the case, then shit, I don’t blame him.
I still think Luke deserves a happy ending, however I also
agree with the idea that media consumers are not entitled to happy endings. I
wouldn’t be so pissed off about TLJ if his death held some kind of meaning, one
that respected his character and completed his story in a way that felt
fulfilling. And I realize that comparing Rian Johnson’s writing to Tolkien’s is
like comparing a literal pile of shit to a diamond, but at least I appreciate
LotR’s ending even more.
So yesterday Dwight found half a joint in the parking lot. Which is unfortunate because, as it turns out, Dwight finding drugs is more dangerous than most people using drugs.
The Viking Blog 