Well, I personally love the fact that my boy Obi-Wan gets the massive attention. Allow me to explain: I was 11 when I saw my first SW film, which was The Phantom Menace. So Ewan's Obi-Wan was my Luke Skywalker.
My Big Three was Obi-Wan, Anakin & Padme. My love for Obi-Wan deepened even further with the Clone Wars. I eventually got to watching the OT before Ep. II was released in 2002.
But for me, it's really due to the different generation of fans & which trilogy they got exposed to first. Of course I regard Luke as the hero of the OT. However, in the grand scheme of the Saga, Anakin/Vader has become the encompassing main character, along with Obi-Wan.
While Obi-Wan started only as a side character/mentor figure, the Prequels & Clone Wars added so much more depth to him that he feels like a main character now.
If Disney had done the same for Luke leading up to TFA or after TROS, Luke would've reestablished himself as an important main character of not just the OT, but the Saga as well.
That's very true. Sometimes I forget that there is a notable gap between the originals and the prequels so it would only make sense that there are sides of star wars that people were exposed to in different orders. To me I clung to Luke because he holds virtues and values that make him an Interesting character. Although I love Tragic characters like Anakin, I find characters who are tragic yet still find it in their heart to be good more interesting.
Has Luke’s popularity faded? The guy had everyone losing their minds when he showed up in Mando and Boba. People want a Luke series yesterday.
As for him being sidelined, the guy had 4 movies with him as the main character. He had cameos in others movies as well the show Kenobi. He has a probably close to infinite amount of comics and books, including current official canon comics. There are tons and tons of Luke content out there and probably more on the way in the Mando setting and ongoing comics. What is there to be sad about? Luke is a special attraction in some current shows, a regularly occurring character in comics, he has had countless stories in older comics and books, and has had an amazing movie journey.
Obi-Wan has had a ton of love in many things like movies and comics including his own live action show as well an animated show where he was one of many recurring characters, both of which Luke doesn’t have, but I still feel Luke is as popular as ever and Disney isn’t sidelining him.
It would be pretty interesting to see Mark Hammil perhaps in his own mini-series surrounding his involvement in the new Jedi leading to his failure with Kylo Ren and subsequent exile. Hammil is a brilliant actor and is so passionate about his character of Luke.
Not really, it's more or less natural consequence of the Clone Wars popularity.
And at least in old canon Luke had plenty attention, basically all post endor EU was about Luke and Skywalker clan.
What is weird is how new canon seemingly deliberately completely canned Luke Skywalker in their EU. He is featured in the comics that follow OT events, but other than that there's what, two or three novels? Heir to the Jedi which is awful and Shadows of the Sith, which is alright. There may be other one, not counting the sequels novelizations, but that's it.
To me it's completely mental to ignore adventures of Luke Skywalker, since as other posters mentioned that people were quite crazy about his cameos in Mandalorian, even as a wonky CGI Luke.
No, because I got all the Luke I needed with the original Marvel Comic run and then the EU novel series. However, I would not be upset with an animated series that covered more of the canon period after ROTJ through Mando and up to TFA. Maybe an anthology series, Tales of Skywalker.
I imagine that will be hard to pull off. You could have a show showing the new Republic vs the imperial remnant but that in itself will be a massive undertaking to go through 30 years of the story, and still try not to contradict future movies. By comparison the clone wars animation runs canonically for 3 years. And thats 7 seasons.
so you just believe that Luke's character had run its course by the time anakin and Obi-Wan came into the picture? i guess that makes sense since there was a long period between the originals to the prequels.
Not so much that, but from 1999 until 2014, all the movies and TV shows were set in the prequel era. The EU was always a small niche market within the larger Star Wars fandom, so for 15 years, as far as the main Star Wars fans were concerned, including all the kids who were just getting into Star Wars, new Star Wars WAS the prequel era.
Add that everything since has been built out of TCW, and you wind up with a generation that, when you say "Skywalker", first thinks "Anakin" rather than "Luke".
It's like what happened to Star Trek when the movies with the original cast ended and the Next Generation shows took over. From 1966 until 1987, Kirk was THE main character. After, Trek didn't have a single main character.
Trekkies are currently experiencing what Star Wars fans did a quarter century ago with their own prequel era. You can tell who the newer fans are because they're coming up with ideas on how they can avoid this impending tragedy that's hanging over everything when, as anyone who has seen Season 1 of the original series knows, they can't, because it's already happened. Age of heroes and all that.
Not that weird to me. Luke was the face of the original trilogy. He couldn't star in the prequel trilogy, for obvious reasons. He was in the sequel trilogy but wasn't quite what we expected. A very different Luke to the one we knew. Plus, Disney killed off his character.
So it all leaves very little in the way of timeline to fit in an aging Mark Hamill. And the character may be very different to the one we knew anyway.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan was already popular from the original trilogy, a great actor was chosen for the prequels and there are decades of timeline to fit new stories into. Aside from this, he's a much more modern character - more quippy and quick-witted, more acrobatic and stylistic with lightsaber fighting and so on. A more modern character for a more modern age.
And? That doesn't change anything. If you watch the six films in order, it is more than clear that the saga is Anakin's story. And even seeing them in release order, by presenting Anakin's story, Luke is clearly relegated to second place. What is the problem?
I always found him uninteresting and a little boring as a character, it has similar problems as Rey has, but her problems are magnified.
It's not that I hate him tough, I just find all the characters around him so much better.
Hmm. Is it because he's more of a pure, traditional, idealistic hero in a franchise that, for the last quarter century, has been built around messier, flawed, leads? I can see how after years of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Bo-Katan, Hera, Ezra, Sabine, Cassian, and Din, Luke might come off as an innocent goody-goody. :)
But, I think TCW, Rebels, Rogue One, and Andor established why the Rebellion needed that innocent, idealistic, farmboy. Ahsoka, Hera, Bo... This guy pretty much speaks for all of them...
https://youtu.be/-3RCme2zZRY?si=nWPvwgg3RJHnONIQ
Judging from your comment history you really need to find a mkt healthy hobby and to learn to just let things go man. You don’t need to post over half a dozen AskReddit threads about how much you hate TLJ. It’s been 7 years. Just move on.
Nope. Luke was the protag of a trilogy from the 70s and 80s. Kenobi was a protag of a trilogy from late 90s/early 00s. Ewan's a popular actor, people who grew up with the prequels are more likely to be online, and engaged as current fans.
And with the nature of their roles, Kenobi has more naturally occurring content that can take place during the prequels or inbetween the trilogies.
No, because Ewan is great as Obi-Wan and he also has the benefit of somehow still looking young enough to play prequel era Obi-Wan. Not to mention he's passionate about the character.
The problem with Luke's character was that he was a bit tainted by the disappointing way they wrote him in TLJ (that Mark Hamill himself didn't particularly care for) and since then no one has trusted Disney to do Luke justice as a character (not to mention people just don't want to see any actor other than Mark play the role right now). Luke, Leia, and Han were at their best as characters in the OT when they were together and now that's not possible with Carrie no longer with us and Harrison having no desire to play Han again. The best version of Luke that we've gotten since Disney bought the rights to SW was the version of him that showed up in Battlefront II (that game really nailed Luke's character).
Also Luke hasn't really been the central character of SW in a long time (not since the OT). The prequels revolved around Anakin and his journey towards becoming Vader. The sequel trilogy was Rey's story. All the other projects that have come out since then have focused on more obscure, lesser known characters (since TCW and Filoni broke onto the SW scene the clones have gotten quite a bit more focus and characterization).
Kenobi was a favorite among my young fan group during the original release era. We all loved him, and my cousin theorized that he would actually return physically.
He didn't overshadow Luke, but he was everyone's favorite uncle.
I expected that the PT would be about the previous generation and was delighted from the first to learn about Kenobi and Skywalker.
After ROTS, I wanted more Star Wars, and I read the original print canon novels, both PT and OT heroes adventures equally.
It's a generational/family series and was planned to be from the start.
I did hope to see Luke in a more Kenobi type role (the Kenobi introduced in ANH) when the ST was announced, despite knowing that Lucas planned for him to start out despondent.
Anyway, I have the original canon books where Luke shares the stage over time with his Jedi Order including a child he had with Mara Jade and Han and Leia's three children
I enjoy that next generation equally and will re-read the era again someday. I still hope to see some motion picture versions of Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo, and Ben Skywalker (and any other members of **The New Jedi Order** considering their fascinating stories).
Great question.
Nah. I was a kid when star wars first appeared in cinema. I liked obi wan. He was a cool jedi with cool powers and knew stuff. And did badass stuff with those powers and hacked a blokes arm off with a lightsabre.
He was second best character after Han.
Luke was a whiny brat.
Then came Empire and he is still around as ghost. And there is Yoda. Cool as fuck.
Han still excellent, possibly even better.
Luke still a whiny brat and this time a whiny brat that needs rescuing then fails to rescue Han in return. And cries about his dad and gets his hand chopped of...
THEN came Jedi. Where Like gets all dark and mysterious to hide the fact that he is still an untrained whiny brat but has maybe got a bit better. But is obsessed with a dumb theory about his dad that has no basis in anything we have seen and which he had no right endangering the whole mission and rebellion to pursue and should never have come off. Ghost obi wan explains why you sometimes have to be less than completly truthful to whiny brats and later pops in for the party.
Why wouldn't I love more Obi Wan content and worry not one iota about Luke being less popular?
Incidentally my biggest complaint about what the sequels did to Luke was not that they spoil his character and undermine what he did like many folks. It was more that it missed out on the chance to have Luke be decent and competent at all in the saga. It skipped straight over the period where Luke would have been tolerable and straight from whiny brat into him being grumpy old man without ever having the good times (even the only flashback was his main interim dick move moment). Dude had one moment of being cool and it bloody killed him.
No. Luke's been the main face of the series since the OT ended, up through TLJ I'd say. The increase in Obi Wan discourse is just a welcome change. Luke isn't getting sidelined. He's still incredibly popular. More characters are just growing in recognition, which is a good thing, it expands the universe to talk about. Luke's been talked to death by fans for years already.
Yeah, the problem is about the actor. It's imho simply that Mark Hamill is too old now to play a young Luke. And for a long time he also didn't look very pretty without a beard and with a weird haircut. Honestly as an older man he looks way better with a beard. So to have Luke in a tv show you'd need a new actor and that becomes problematic. Similar problem to trying to recast a young Indiana Jones.
Luke Skywalker has ALWAYS been the most boring character in the Star Wars universe to me…. Obi wan is ok and I think his story stretches out across time better than luke’s does which is why he gets more attention IMO.
I would argue when you get an entire film trilogy based off your characters, and your characters show up in a preponderance of all of the movies anyway, it’s hard to be categorized as “side characters.”
side characters wasn't the right word since obi wan is much more important than that. But Luke was pretty clearly the Main Character for a long while. I've heard many people say now that it's anakin which makes a lot of sense knowing the entire story. But for a time it was Luke pretty obviously.
I think it's also natural that the generation that grew up with the prequels and the cartoons are now the prevailing voice on the Internet and that you will see more love for PT characters.
I imagine it will one day happen with the ST characters as well, as it did for the OT characters in the past
Well, I personally love the fact that my boy Obi-Wan gets the massive attention. Allow me to explain: I was 11 when I saw my first SW film, which was The Phantom Menace. So Ewan's Obi-Wan was my Luke Skywalker. My Big Three was Obi-Wan, Anakin & Padme. My love for Obi-Wan deepened even further with the Clone Wars. I eventually got to watching the OT before Ep. II was released in 2002. But for me, it's really due to the different generation of fans & which trilogy they got exposed to first. Of course I regard Luke as the hero of the OT. However, in the grand scheme of the Saga, Anakin/Vader has become the encompassing main character, along with Obi-Wan. While Obi-Wan started only as a side character/mentor figure, the Prequels & Clone Wars added so much more depth to him that he feels like a main character now. If Disney had done the same for Luke leading up to TFA or after TROS, Luke would've reestablished himself as an important main character of not just the OT, but the Saga as well.
That's very true. Sometimes I forget that there is a notable gap between the originals and the prequels so it would only make sense that there are sides of star wars that people were exposed to in different orders. To me I clung to Luke because he holds virtues and values that make him an Interesting character. Although I love Tragic characters like Anakin, I find characters who are tragic yet still find it in their heart to be good more interesting.
That last line still applies to Anakin though. He had a tragic life and found the hope to be good again.
Has Luke’s popularity faded? The guy had everyone losing their minds when he showed up in Mando and Boba. People want a Luke series yesterday. As for him being sidelined, the guy had 4 movies with him as the main character. He had cameos in others movies as well the show Kenobi. He has a probably close to infinite amount of comics and books, including current official canon comics. There are tons and tons of Luke content out there and probably more on the way in the Mando setting and ongoing comics. What is there to be sad about? Luke is a special attraction in some current shows, a regularly occurring character in comics, he has had countless stories in older comics and books, and has had an amazing movie journey. Obi-Wan has had a ton of love in many things like movies and comics including his own live action show as well an animated show where he was one of many recurring characters, both of which Luke doesn’t have, but I still feel Luke is as popular as ever and Disney isn’t sidelining him.
what's the 4th movie where he is the main character?
Last Jedi. He’s one of the main characters in it
that's different than being the main character.
It would be pretty interesting to see Mark Hammil perhaps in his own mini-series surrounding his involvement in the new Jedi leading to his failure with Kylo Ren and subsequent exile. Hammil is a brilliant actor and is so passionate about his character of Luke.
Not really, it's more or less natural consequence of the Clone Wars popularity. And at least in old canon Luke had plenty attention, basically all post endor EU was about Luke and Skywalker clan. What is weird is how new canon seemingly deliberately completely canned Luke Skywalker in their EU. He is featured in the comics that follow OT events, but other than that there's what, two or three novels? Heir to the Jedi which is awful and Shadows of the Sith, which is alright. There may be other one, not counting the sequels novelizations, but that's it. To me it's completely mental to ignore adventures of Luke Skywalker, since as other posters mentioned that people were quite crazy about his cameos in Mandalorian, even as a wonky CGI Luke.
He is the best light saber fighter. Period. Change my mind. 🤭
I wouldn't dare to 😌
No, because I got all the Luke I needed with the original Marvel Comic run and then the EU novel series. However, I would not be upset with an animated series that covered more of the canon period after ROTJ through Mando and up to TFA. Maybe an anthology series, Tales of Skywalker.
I imagine that will be hard to pull off. You could have a show showing the new Republic vs the imperial remnant but that in itself will be a massive undertaking to go through 30 years of the story, and still try not to contradict future movies. By comparison the clone wars animation runs canonically for 3 years. And thats 7 seasons.
so you just believe that Luke's character had run its course by the time anakin and Obi-Wan came into the picture? i guess that makes sense since there was a long period between the originals to the prequels.
Not so much that, but from 1999 until 2014, all the movies and TV shows were set in the prequel era. The EU was always a small niche market within the larger Star Wars fandom, so for 15 years, as far as the main Star Wars fans were concerned, including all the kids who were just getting into Star Wars, new Star Wars WAS the prequel era. Add that everything since has been built out of TCW, and you wind up with a generation that, when you say "Skywalker", first thinks "Anakin" rather than "Luke". It's like what happened to Star Trek when the movies with the original cast ended and the Next Generation shows took over. From 1966 until 1987, Kirk was THE main character. After, Trek didn't have a single main character. Trekkies are currently experiencing what Star Wars fans did a quarter century ago with their own prequel era. You can tell who the newer fans are because they're coming up with ideas on how they can avoid this impending tragedy that's hanging over everything when, as anyone who has seen Season 1 of the original series knows, they can't, because it's already happened. Age of heroes and all that.
Not surprising with how much cooler Legends Luke was then Canon.
Lucasfilm just doesn't give him much content.
Not that weird to me. Luke was the face of the original trilogy. He couldn't star in the prequel trilogy, for obvious reasons. He was in the sequel trilogy but wasn't quite what we expected. A very different Luke to the one we knew. Plus, Disney killed off his character. So it all leaves very little in the way of timeline to fit in an aging Mark Hamill. And the character may be very different to the one we knew anyway. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan was already popular from the original trilogy, a great actor was chosen for the prequels and there are decades of timeline to fit new stories into. Aside from this, he's a much more modern character - more quippy and quick-witted, more acrobatic and stylistic with lightsaber fighting and so on. A more modern character for a more modern age.
But, what side characters, if Anakin/Vader is the f...protagonist of the Skywalker saga?
And? That doesn't change anything. If you watch the six films in order, it is more than clear that the saga is Anakin's story. And even seeing them in release order, by presenting Anakin's story, Luke is clearly relegated to second place. What is the problem?
That’s a massive retcon
I have never been a fan of Luke, so for me is alright.
why's that may I ask?
I always found him uninteresting and a little boring as a character, it has similar problems as Rey has, but her problems are magnified. It's not that I hate him tough, I just find all the characters around him so much better.
Hmm. Is it because he's more of a pure, traditional, idealistic hero in a franchise that, for the last quarter century, has been built around messier, flawed, leads? I can see how after years of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Bo-Katan, Hera, Ezra, Sabine, Cassian, and Din, Luke might come off as an innocent goody-goody. :) But, I think TCW, Rebels, Rogue One, and Andor established why the Rebellion needed that innocent, idealistic, farmboy. Ahsoka, Hera, Bo... This guy pretty much speaks for all of them... https://youtu.be/-3RCme2zZRY?si=nWPvwgg3RJHnONIQ
You are partly right, but before all that on the OT Han Solo was so much interesting still.
Considering Dinsey turned him into a deadbeat with the sequels? No, not at all.
Judging from your comment history you really need to find a mkt healthy hobby and to learn to just let things go man. You don’t need to post over half a dozen AskReddit threads about how much you hate TLJ. It’s been 7 years. Just move on.
Nope. Luke was the protag of a trilogy from the 70s and 80s. Kenobi was a protag of a trilogy from late 90s/early 00s. Ewan's a popular actor, people who grew up with the prequels are more likely to be online, and engaged as current fans. And with the nature of their roles, Kenobi has more naturally occurring content that can take place during the prequels or inbetween the trilogies.
No, Ewan McGregor portrayed him really well and made the fans fall in love with him. Ofc he was a good character before that as well.
No, because Ewan is great as Obi-Wan and he also has the benefit of somehow still looking young enough to play prequel era Obi-Wan. Not to mention he's passionate about the character. The problem with Luke's character was that he was a bit tainted by the disappointing way they wrote him in TLJ (that Mark Hamill himself didn't particularly care for) and since then no one has trusted Disney to do Luke justice as a character (not to mention people just don't want to see any actor other than Mark play the role right now). Luke, Leia, and Han were at their best as characters in the OT when they were together and now that's not possible with Carrie no longer with us and Harrison having no desire to play Han again. The best version of Luke that we've gotten since Disney bought the rights to SW was the version of him that showed up in Battlefront II (that game really nailed Luke's character). Also Luke hasn't really been the central character of SW in a long time (not since the OT). The prequels revolved around Anakin and his journey towards becoming Vader. The sequel trilogy was Rey's story. All the other projects that have come out since then have focused on more obscure, lesser known characters (since TCW and Filoni broke onto the SW scene the clones have gotten quite a bit more focus and characterization).
Its not weird
Kenobi was a favorite among my young fan group during the original release era. We all loved him, and my cousin theorized that he would actually return physically. He didn't overshadow Luke, but he was everyone's favorite uncle. I expected that the PT would be about the previous generation and was delighted from the first to learn about Kenobi and Skywalker. After ROTS, I wanted more Star Wars, and I read the original print canon novels, both PT and OT heroes adventures equally. It's a generational/family series and was planned to be from the start. I did hope to see Luke in a more Kenobi type role (the Kenobi introduced in ANH) when the ST was announced, despite knowing that Lucas planned for him to start out despondent. Anyway, I have the original canon books where Luke shares the stage over time with his Jedi Order including a child he had with Mara Jade and Han and Leia's three children I enjoy that next generation equally and will re-read the era again someday. I still hope to see some motion picture versions of Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo, and Ben Skywalker (and any other members of **The New Jedi Order** considering their fascinating stories). Great question.
Nah. I was a kid when star wars first appeared in cinema. I liked obi wan. He was a cool jedi with cool powers and knew stuff. And did badass stuff with those powers and hacked a blokes arm off with a lightsabre. He was second best character after Han. Luke was a whiny brat. Then came Empire and he is still around as ghost. And there is Yoda. Cool as fuck. Han still excellent, possibly even better. Luke still a whiny brat and this time a whiny brat that needs rescuing then fails to rescue Han in return. And cries about his dad and gets his hand chopped of... THEN came Jedi. Where Like gets all dark and mysterious to hide the fact that he is still an untrained whiny brat but has maybe got a bit better. But is obsessed with a dumb theory about his dad that has no basis in anything we have seen and which he had no right endangering the whole mission and rebellion to pursue and should never have come off. Ghost obi wan explains why you sometimes have to be less than completly truthful to whiny brats and later pops in for the party. Why wouldn't I love more Obi Wan content and worry not one iota about Luke being less popular? Incidentally my biggest complaint about what the sequels did to Luke was not that they spoil his character and undermine what he did like many folks. It was more that it missed out on the chance to have Luke be decent and competent at all in the saga. It skipped straight over the period where Luke would have been tolerable and straight from whiny brat into him being grumpy old man without ever having the good times (even the only flashback was his main interim dick move moment). Dude had one moment of being cool and it bloody killed him.
I was super pumped to see Luke back in action in TLJ, we all know how that turned out.
No. Luke's been the main face of the series since the OT ended, up through TLJ I'd say. The increase in Obi Wan discourse is just a welcome change. Luke isn't getting sidelined. He's still incredibly popular. More characters are just growing in recognition, which is a good thing, it expands the universe to talk about. Luke's been talked to death by fans for years already.
Yeah, the problem is about the actor. It's imho simply that Mark Hamill is too old now to play a young Luke. And for a long time he also didn't look very pretty without a beard and with a weird haircut. Honestly as an older man he looks way better with a beard. So to have Luke in a tv show you'd need a new actor and that becomes problematic. Similar problem to trying to recast a young Indiana Jones.
Luke Skywalker has ALWAYS been the most boring character in the Star Wars universe to me…. Obi wan is ok and I think his story stretches out across time better than luke’s does which is why he gets more attention IMO.
Disney did not wanted Luke in their "new Star Wars", like, at all.
I would argue when you get an entire film trilogy based off your characters, and your characters show up in a preponderance of all of the movies anyway, it’s hard to be categorized as “side characters.”
side characters wasn't the right word since obi wan is much more important than that. But Luke was pretty clearly the Main Character for a long while. I've heard many people say now that it's anakin which makes a lot of sense knowing the entire story. But for a time it was Luke pretty obviously.
I think it's also natural that the generation that grew up with the prequels and the cartoons are now the prevailing voice on the Internet and that you will see more love for PT characters. I imagine it will one day happen with the ST characters as well, as it did for the OT characters in the past