‘Star Wars: Episode 8’ Speculation: Why Luke Would Want Kylo Ren Dead, His Sudden Change of Heart Explained

If there is one thing that Star Wars: Episode 8 – The Last Jedi is expected to elucidate, it is what Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has been up to after the events of Star Wars: Episode 6 – Return of the Jedi.

The Jedi master only appeared in the final minutes of Star Wars: Episode 7 – The Force Awakens, when Rey (Daisy Ridley) handed his lightsaber to him. He did not even have any lines.

It is expected that Star Wars: Episode 8 will give fans further understanding of the reason Luke secluded himself from everybody and why he has never been the same ever since.

As revealed in Star Wars: Episode 7, his self-imposed exile came after one of the apprentices believed to be Ben Solo (Adam Driver) killed his fellow students and destroyed the temple where Luke was teaching them.

However, it is being speculated that he has suffered a much greater loss than what is being currently let on and that it will be detailed in Star Wars: Episode 8 – The Last Jedi.

Star Wars watcher Bastion of Kuul posits that he also may have lost his family in the tragedy. The YouTuber believes that Luke was married and had a son before Star Wars: Episode 7.

At least this is what happened in the Star Wars Legends, formerly known as the expanded universe, which are material and stories set in the galaxy far, far away that are now considered non-canon.

While such tales are no longer taken into account, they still present parallels to the ongoing Star Wars films and other media. Some characters and stories were actually brought back to the canon such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, who appeared in Star Wars: Rebels, so Disney has not completely closed its doors on the Star Wars expanded universe just yet.

In the four-issue Dark Horse comic Star Wars: Union, Luke married a woman named Mara Jade, a former smuggler who worked for the Emperor as an assassin with the task to kill the man she ended up falling head over heels for.

Mara Jade eventually became a Jedi master like her husband. Together, they had a son and went on to train the next generation of Jedi, which is what Luke was also doing prior to Star Wars: Episode 8.

This had Bastion of Kuul speculating that Luke may have been with his wife as well, building up the new age of the Jedi with him in the new Star Wars films until she was killed during the attack.

In the Star Wars Legends, Mara Jade was murdered by her own nephew Jacen Solo in the book Sacrifice from the Legacy of the Force series. There is a parallel between the events in these stories and the new trilogy.

If Luke’s wife existed before the tragedy that fans got a taste of in Star Wars: Episode 7, she may have met the same fate as Mara Jade, but at the hands of her own nephew Ben Solo. To note, Ben also happens to be the name of Luke and Mara Jade’s son in the Legends stories.

To deepen Luke’s wound in Star Wars: Episode 8, his wife may have been pregnant when she was killed. The untimely death took away the chance for Luke to be a father.

While in the Star Wars canon, he does not tie the knot and start a family, Bastion of Kuul believes that him getting to do all that opens up a lot of storytelling possibilities. It will enrich his story and will add an emotional weight to his relationship with Rey (Daisy Ridley) when he trains her in Star Wars: Episode 8.

If she is not related to him, the Jedi knight could treat her as the child he never got the chance to raise in Star Wars: Episode 8 – The Last Jedi, which is why he decides to train her and might even give his very best in doing so even though he was hesitant to return to his old ways in the first place.

The YouTuber explains, “The dark side of the Force took something away from him and the light side gave him something back. It will kind of be beautiful and poetic.”

The Star Wars analyst believes that bringing Mara Jade back to canon, or at least giving him a wife and son, will add a new layer to Luke’s narrative and will heighten the tragedy that he has been dealing with while also cementing Kylo Ren as one of the most atrocious villains in Star Wars.

Having gone through such heartbreak, no man, not even a Jedi master like Luke, will ever be the same. This would explain why he left and why he potentially would not want to save Kylo Ren even though he is his own nephew.

Star Wars: Episode 8 – The Last Jedi will be in cinemas December 15.

[Featured Image by Lucasfilm/Disney]