Chapter 6 of The Book of Boba Fett sure packed a lot in just forty-nine minutes. There was plenty to digest just with the side-cuts to Cobb Vanth and Cad Bane alone. A big focus of the Chapter, however, rested squarely on the beginnings of Luke Skywalker’s new Jedi academy. We witnessed the construction of the school itself, as well as the first steps of Grogu’s Jedi journey. Through those scenes we also make a huge connection to The Last Jedi, and no, not the obvious one.
The easily recognizable connection is, of course, the school itself. In Luke’s TLJ flashbacks, he shows us the aftermath of its destruction. While it’s great to see the school building pre-Kylo Ren rampage, there’s a much deeper, and darker, connection between The Book of Boba Fett and TLJ. Judging by fan reaction thus far, it seems that many didn’t quite catch on to the nuances of Luke’s behavior with Grogu in TBOBF. Viewing it in the light of TLJ, though, makes what’s transpiring now much easier to understand.
The bond between The Book of Boba Fett and The Last Jedi
In Chapter 6, we see Luke begin Grogu’s training. The sequences themselves are great, mimicking Luke’s own training with Yoda. Where The Book of Boba Fett goes awry, according to some fans, is when Luke presents young Grogu with an ultimatum: the Beskar armor, or the lightsaber. The first that that pops into mind is “I thought only a Sith deals in absolutes.” Well, that’s kind of the point of the scene. When you examine it against one particular line from The Last Jedi, it makes all the more sense:
“Now that they are extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified. But if you strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy of the Jedi is failure. Hypocrisy, hubris.”
When Luke spoke those words in TLJ, he wasn’t simply speaking of the Jedi Order as a whole. He was speaking of his own hypocrisy, his own hubris…. And with his training of Grogu we’re getting to see that first-hand. We see Luke ignore the successes of his own attachments that fueled him through all three original Star Wars trilogy films and still condemn Grogu’s connection to Din Djarin. Likewise, as noted above, Luke’s ultimatum of absolutes in The Book of of Boba Fett is far more Sith than Jedi in both action and appearance.
Luke’s Legacy
Sure, it’s painful to see Luke acting in such a manner. Notwithstanding, these Book of Boa Fett scenes are just more proof-positive of how deeply Dave Filoni understands Star Wars. It took more than just Ben Solo to break Luke Skywalker, and now we see the beginning of Luke’s downward spiral to his state of mind in The Last Jedi.
That, my friends, is how you weave Star Wars stories together.
(You can watch both The Book of Boba Fett and The Last Jedi on Disney+.)
