It's unbelievable to me that the person Luke was would become the person in this movie. The only way he could get so down and abandon everything was is his family and friends were already dead. Character inconsistency would be a more accurate term than regression. They wrote an entirely different character. He already knew that the Empire had won before he was born, but they were eventually brought down specifically because Obi-Wan and Yoda didn't give up. They went into exile, but not to give up, not to die, but to bid their time. When the time came they never said "fuck it, let the bad guys win." I get that people change after 30 years, but this extreme of a change needed an extreme reason for it, and the reveal was not believable in itself or executed well.
I don't care about a redemption when I don't accept the reason he was in a position from which he needed to be redeemed. It's an empty gesture.
Force powers are totally arbitrary. Luke projected his image and voice, and apparently sent some physical dice to Leia. Snoke connected two force users without making his presence known, projected images and sounds from two separate places, and transferred rain water across the galaxy. An argument could be made for one or the other being tougher, but it doesn't matter because it's totally arbitrary, as is the overuse of force power leading to death. They just wanted a big reveal so they came up with the projection idea, but they also wanted Luke to die at the end, so they threw in a line about the strain being too much. There was no reason he needed to die.
Yeah like I said I could accept him giving up if it was truly an all is lost scenario. As it is he seems to have accepted defeat years before everyone else on the good side.
There are also ways to bring someone to a bad place without assassinating their character and making them completely abandon their values. A desperate and tired Luke who believes victory is a long shot would have been more believable.
How a character such as Luke sank so low should have had more time dedicated to explaining it, and a much more thoughtful, logical reason why he became that way. What they showed us doesn't cut it. What he did to Kylo is just as unbelievable as him giving up all hope immediately after.
In theory I'm ok with the idea of questioning the jedi teachings. The problem is basically all of the questionable things about the jedi come straight from the shitty prequels. Force awakens mostly ignored the existent of the prequels, last jedi conflates the OT with the prequels in order to shit on them both. I've never seen a movie so clearly made by someone who hates the series it belongs to and all the fans. Zak Synder obviously hates Superman, but not even close to how much Johnson hates Star Wars.
This was hella well-written and quite compelling.
What's odd to me, and this has happened numerous times, is that whenever I read a criticism like this -- it SEEMS to me the film already ticks these boxes. But, I guess, it does so in a much different slant than what was wanted and left audiences wanting.
For instance the comparison of exiles -- yes, Luke's is different in that he
says he came there to die but the fact that he is not dead for me creates that dramatic irony that draws me into his character arc. He is a walking dichotomy divided between what he tells himself and what he truly is. This isn't strictly an indication of cowardice or weakness of character, but of inner conflict. He's wrestling with the Dark Side within him, which includes figments of cowardice and weakness against his self-perception of being a Jedi Master/Skywalker/Legend.
This conflict is exemplified when he tries to burn the sacred tree
but can't. He thinks he wants to die but he can't. He wants to turn his back on the world, and does so, but ultimately he can't.
Yoda tells him the burden of all masters is being what the student moves beyond, which is very much the same principle of parents wanting their children to be better than them but also hating the disobedience and rebellion attendant to that process. That part of himself that could not abide his own mistake and just move forward. Once he forgives himself, by accepting his own "weaknesses" and "mistakes" he overcomes them. Nothing to fear but fear itself. The irony of acknowledging his human failings to once again regain Jedi Master level self-esteem (hello, Purity of Intent!). It's a matter of looking at yourself in a good light, then looking at yourself in a bad light -- then understanding that both perceptions are true together, and neither one individually suffices.
I don't see it as character assassination, but rather his greatest struggle with his greatest enemy.
Seriously, though, yours was one of the best critical treatises on his character in TLJ. (Second to mine.)