Back in February of 2017, I wrote a theory detailing how Luke and Rey’s hands were used as symbols to represent humanity, “more machine than man,” and a couple of other things. I updated it before the new trailer came out. I recommend reading this before continuing.
In the recent trailer for The Last Jedi, two key moments popped up that tie in with my analysis. First and foremost is the moment that Kylo Ren holds his hand out for Rey, and the moment of Luke’s hand bursting from the ashes of his fallen Jedi academy.
Kylo Ren is Human!
In my theory, I show that ‘holding your hand out’ is a sign of compassion and humanity. We’ve seen this sort of thing not only in other Star Wars movies, but also in other trailers as well. Remember this from the second teaser? Refer back to my original theory for more info, but essentially this came as a sign of compassion after distrusting Finn for a short while and telling him to stop taking her hand. And we now see a similar shot in the new teaser with Kylo Ren. This is especially noteworthy because, the sequence with Rey and Finn in TFA showcases Rey’s distrust of accepting help from anyone else, because of her insecurities and distrust bred from…well, growing up on Jakku without a family. She only felt comfortable giving out help to Finn, not receiving it, because she had built a prison in her mind (a prison she said awoke in the teaser?)
So for her to possibly accept help from the one she least expected is big! Well, as Luke said: “This is not going to go the way you think.”
Kylo Ren is becoming human again, just as Adam Driver promised us.
Luke rising from the ashes of the Empire.
Referring back to my original theory, Luke’s artificial hand represents the scars. The act of disarming someone is a foil to holding your hand out for someone. The former is the dark side, the latter is the light side. Remember, Luke almost did the former in ROTJ, and it led him to realize the path he was going down.
In the trailer for The Last Jedi, we see Luke’s artificial hand rise from the ashes of his fallen temple, destroyed at the hands of his nephew. Kylo Ren is motivated to be as powerful as his grandfather, Darth Vader, who gave Luke that hand on Bespin. It serves as a reminder for what Luke and his father went through. It serves as the one part of Luke that is ‘more machine than man.
And now, the hand has withered away and shows itself again. The scars of the Empire have returned. His hand literally rises from the ashes of what Snoke and the FO have done to him. This idea is made even better if his synthetic skin was burned away in the fire. The ‘more machine than man’ part of him now shows itself again, a remnant from the Empire…
Because, as The Force Awakens opening crawl said: “The sinister First Order has risen from the ashes of the Empire.” And they are determined to wipe out the last Jedi.
Thanks for reading.
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