Luke Skywalker’s surprise Mandalorian appearance

Onhiho Zaya, a street urchin tasked with caring for captive Fathiers on the planet Cantonica, would tell his friends a legendary tale about Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. The heroic story of Luke’s final stand – to face down the entire First Order on Crait in an effort to save the Resistance.

Perhaps Onhiho learned of Luke’s previous adventures too. Maybe even the time that Luke stormed Moff Gideon’s Imperial cruiser, destroying an entire platoon of sinister Dark Troopers in order to save the lives of the brave Mandalorians, whose attempt to rescue a youngling with a strong connection to the force needed an assist.

It’s the kind of story that lived up to the legend of Luke Skywalker and is a legendary way for an unwaveringly brilliant season two of The Mandalorian to wrap up.

Din, Fennec, Bo-Katan, Koska and Cara had taken the bridge and sealed the Dark Troopers out by closing the blast doors. Din’s previous run in with just one of the mechs had shown that they would live up to the billing as highly dangerous adversaries. These were no B-1 Battle Droids. These were not to be tangled with.

Now an entire platoon of the troopers were punching a hole through the doors, about the breach the last line of our heroes defence. “One X-Wing” was hardly going to save them, unless… unless it was Red Five.

Given the speculation after Grogu’s seeing stone connection and the state of the squad’s predicament, the sight of that X-Wing flying into view at the bottom of the ninth put me on the edge of my seat. Could it be…

Then the hooded figure emerges. Clearly a Jedi that had heard Grogu’s call to the force. The gloved hand and green lightsaber was confirmation. I’m sat at 8:30am on a Friday, cheering at my TV – not for the first time this season, but certainly for the biggest moment of well-placed Star Wars fan service. Luke Skywalker had come to save the day.

This is quite clearly Luke five years on from the events of Return of the Jedi, and I absolutely loved this take on the character. Hooded, swinging his saber aggressively, blocking blaster bolts left, right, forward and behind in a fighting style that looks very much like his father’s at times. Luke isn’t afraid to embrace the dark side because he’s tapped into it’s power before and unlike the Jedi that came before him, he doesn’t fear it. Unlike his father, he was able to reject Sheev’s offer.

The hallway scene is the most obvious example of Luke’s unorthodox approach to Jedi-dom. Yes, Luke joins Vader and Maul in the club of characters who have epic hallway scenes in Star Wars, as he tore through the platoon of Dark Troopers – even crushing one like a soda can for no obvious reason – in order to get to the bridge. It was so reminiscent of Vader in Rogue One.

Sure, these were only droids that Luke was decimating. But this was darker combat than we’ve seen from the Jedi of the past. There was no need for Luke to crush that final trooper, just as there was no need for him to force choke the Gamorrean Guards when he first entered Jabba’s Palace in RotJ. He did it anyway.

The fact that unlike Ahsoka, he doesn’t even flinch at the fact that Grogu is quite clearly showing attachment to Din is evidence of Luke steadfast belief that attachment is not to be feared. His attachment to Han and Leia hasn’t hurt him yet. Eventually it will, of course, and that’s the Luke we discover later in the saga.

I’ve seen a handful of people on social media arguing that this Luke contradicts the character we were served in The Last Jedi. Anyone that knows me knows how I feel about the Skywalker story served up in Rian Johnson’s masterpiece, so I won’t labour the point. This isn’t going to turn into a Last Jedi deep dive.

What I do want to point out is that Chapter 16 is another piece of evidence to show that Luke has darker moments. Brief fleeting moments where he fights with aggression and anger. It passes like a fleeting shadow. But that same darkness is what boils to the surface on the night he confronts Ben at the training temple, only unlike every time (in the past) that we know of, this time it had consequence.

This Luke appearance doesn’t undermine Johnson’s take on the character. I choose to think it reinforces it.

I do have to mention the CGI used to recreate Mark Hamill’s circa 1988 look. I don’t want to downplay how impressive the technology used in modern film and TV is, but this was more than a little stiff and it did take me out of the scene on the first viewing. It isn’t a match for Rogue One’s Tarkin and no doubt budget will have been a factor.

Yes, I’m in the camp who hoped that it would be Sebastian Stan’s face under the hood. His resemblance to a young Hamill is unquestionable and I tend to think any discrepancies would have been far less distracting than watching video game cutscene Hamill shooting the breeze with Din and crew.

That said, the thematic triumph of having Skywalker rock up to save the crew and promise to train and protect Grogu is huge. A moment that transported older fans back to 1983 and one which enriches the Original Trilogy for the new generation. Interconnectivity is the life-blood of franchise storytelling, after all.

Din giving up Grogu also frees up our central character for some Mandalorian-centric adventures in season three. Din ends this season as the rightful owner of the Darksaber. In line with Mandalorian tradition, Din is now the rightful leader of Mandalore and unless Bo-Katan bests him in combat, that’s not going to change.

Luke Skywalker’s appearance has therefore not only energised the season two finale, but indirectly energised the future of the series too. Oh, and made grown men and women cry tears of joy across the world.

The perfect Christmas present for Star Wars fans.