The boy has no patience… Hmm. Much anger in him, like his father.
#and an aspect of his anger that I think is important#is that #it’s there not only in situations like #mentor dies in front of his eyes #jerk threatens his friends #but also when han doubts his piloting abilities #he just snaps#or when he thinks the old green muppet is wasting his time #or when he crashes the x-wing on dagobah his first reaction is to #angrily throw his gloves #(and swear internally) #it just comes so naturally to him #it’s that much more impressive when he overcomes it at the end of rotj #just… I kinda hate it when this aspect of his character is omitted #even though it’s ?? right there in all three movies
The interesting thing though about Yoda’s line is that, in my opinion, he’s right and he’s wrong.
There is anger in Luke, like there’s anger in everyone. But Luke doesn’t get angry in the same way as Anakin. And I think that’s a difference that can’t be overlooked.
In the examples, mentioned above, we don’t actually see anger all that often. At least not rage type anger.
We see defensiveness “I’m a good pilot myself!”, irritation/impatience “I’m here to see an old Jedi/Ben! Tell him I can be a good Jedi!”, we see frustration, when he crashes the X-Wing.
We see the more violent rage only a couple of times. When Ben dies, and Luke blasts wildly into the stormtroopers. When facing “Vader” in the cave of Dagobah. When Vader threatens his sister.
In the latter moments, he’s far more like his father. But in the former, I don’t really think he is. And the key difference is in how Luke expresses and approaches his irritation/impatience/frustration.
In those every day moments, Luke’s first reaction generally tends to be self-centered. “I am a good pilot.” “I can be a Jedi.” “I was supposed to go to the Academy last year.” He gets plaintive, he gets whiny. And I think that’s what it is about Luke that distinguishes him from his father, and helps him avoid his father’s fall. (Basically, I think Luke’s tendency to whine saved his soul. :-P)
Compare that to Anakin. When Anakin is feeling overlooked and dismissed in AOTC/ROTS, he seems to stay outwardly calm. He doesn’t whine publically. He seethes quietly. And then he blows up later: blaming Obi-Wan, blaming the Council. Lots of anger being lashed out in a specific direction. Anakin is a constant pressure cooker of rage, really, waiting for something to trigger it and explode.
When Luke snaps “I’m a good pilot” at Han, he’s not criticizing or attacking Han. He’s asserting himself. When Yoda tells him that he’s not going to train him, Luke doesn’t lash out at Yoda, he appeals to Ben. He gets frustrated at the X-Wing crash and throws his glove, but he doesn’t vent it out on Artoo. Luke’s general, everyday anger is situation specific. And ultimately fairly easily resolved.
(Personally, I never count Luke’s irritation with Yoda’s old man persona against him, because I honestly think every other protagonist of this series, including Obi-Wan, would have gotten a lot ruder a lot faster.)
The true darker elements: Obi-Wan’s death, Owen and Beru’s death, Vader’s general behavior, those are what prompts something more like Anakin’s. But then, I think that was the point of the Dagobah sequences. Luke acts in that Anakin-style anger, kills Vader, and sees his own head at his feet. Vader’s own reveal probably helped with that as well. Luke wants to save his father, he doesn’t want to become his father. Luke learned the lesson that Anakin never did.
I’ve had this discussion too. A lot of fans think we’re cutting down Luke’s achievement when we argue those moments of irritation aren’t anger.
Thing is, a slow fuse is not any easier to control than a short fuse. Anakin and Leia have short fuses, and tend to always be seething about something. Luke goes for long periods of time wthout being angry, and can suffer a lot of insults and setbacks before he gets angry. He’s got a slow fuse. And its arguably MORE explosive when it does go off. Luke loses his temper and DARTH VADER loses a limb. It’s so fast and so violent it takes a lot to shock Luke out of it.
Luke’s not mad at Yoda. He’s not angry at Han. He doesn’t seem angry when he confronts Jabba. But he is certainly angry when he attacks Vader. It takes a LOT to get Luke angry, and it is very dangerous for even a truly powerful person. That Skywalker Rage is something he’s capable of, but it’s not always present under the surface like with his sister and father. It’s not something that he feels after the little things. Not somethign that comes with frustration or irritation. It’s something that takes a genuine injustice to bring forward, and it may even be MORE difficult for Luke to deal with when it does because he’s not experienced holding it back.
Worst of all is that Luke’s true anger comes out when the people he loves are threatened, and in the face of great injustice. Because this is JUSTIFIABLE anger. This is the stuff that SHOULD piss you off. And yet, a Jedi can’t afford to let it run away with him. It’s not any less the Dark Side if you lash out in rage over your friends being tortured than if you lash out in rage because somebody stole your candy bar.
And THAT is the same rage Anakin had–the real rage that led him to killing a village of Sandpeople and wanting to conquer a galaxy, so he could force peace–but Anakin never learned to get control over it. (Although of course Anakin was a lot more traumatized as a kid.)
Leia on the other hand has that same rage–with an intensity more closely approaching her father’s–but she HAS learned to control it. She has her father’s anger leashed by her mother’s vision. As angry and snappish as she can get, she almost never lashes out in unreasoned violence–except once, on Cloud City when she keeps shooting storm troopers when Lando and Chewie are trying to retreat.
I often watch the first part of Jedi, with Luke’s obvious satisfaction at Jabba refusing him and the way he Force-chokes the guards and the way he LOOKS, and I wonder which side of the Force he’s really running on, there.
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