Episode 8: The GRAY Jedi?

I assume if your reading this, you've seen the Trailer for Star Wars VIII, the Last Jedi, and you've heard the words of Luke Skywalker “I only know one truth…it’s time for the Jedi to end.”

Which also means you probably have the same question as hundreds of other people....what the fuck does that mean?

Now alot of people seem to think this means either Luke went to the dark side, or just gives zero fucks about the galaxy.....but I think theres a third option. Luke Skywalker is, what the original extended universe would have called a "Gray Jedi"

Ok so, for those who never followed any of the cannon outside of the movies, you've only heard of the Jedi and the Sith.,,,,the two polar opposite sides of force users. So what the hell is a Gray Jedi.

Well think of it this way. In the Dungeons and Dragons game, they used to have an alignment system that looked something like this: 

The idea was that everyone's personality, beliefs and actions could fit into one of those 9 boxes. So the Jedi for example have a strict set of laws they have to follow, and are supposed to do things for the greater good. So they would [generally] be Lawful Good. The Sith on the other hand are supposed to be completely obsessed with power for themselves at any possible cost..but they do also have a code and rules they are supposed to live by (though they happily break any laws outside their code) putting them on the neutral evil side of the equation. 

Gray Jedi on the other hand would fit in the middle. They believe in the force, and can use the force. However they dont believe any part of the force is inherently good or evil, and tap into both the light and dark side of the force with ease and no consequence. And as a result they support neither the Jedi or the Sith, as they believe both groups are flawed.  This would but them somewhere in the middle neutral row of the chart above. 

Now of course a given grey jedi might strive for good or evil, or for order (law) or chaos, but they dont particularly support a single way to get there.  

To use a different analogy, Jedi are Crusaders, Sith are religious fundamentalist terrorists, and the grey Jedi is the rank and file practitioners who understand they have to live in a world where most people have different beliefs, and thats ok. 

Point is, a Gray Jedi would totally believe it is time for the Jedi to end, and still be able to fit into the "good" or heroic character role. 

In otherwords, Luke didnt fall to the darkside, and probably still cares deeply about the galaxy and the future.

But that brings up the bigger real world issue....Grey Jedis are kinda of a complex retcon to be dropping into the star wars universe arnt they? might it not confuse a lot of the casual non-expanded universe fan base? No, actually it wouldnt. 

I think the existing 7 movies have actually set the ground work for the Grey Jedi incredibly well. 

For starters, the term Gray Jedi didnt exist anywhere in the Star Wars cannon until after episode 1 came out. It was created to explain Qui-Gon Jinn. 

See in episode 1, Jinn is clearly supposed to be a good guy, and a powerful member of the Jedi order. Yet he isnt on the council, because he cant abide by their decisions, and even wants to train Anakin without the councils permission if it came to it, because he believed Anakin was the savior of the force.  He also left Anakins mother in slavery (likely an evil thing to do) because it served his purposes.

However as a Jedi who didnt follow the rules of the rules of the Jedi, the didnt fit the typical jedi mode, and hence in the real world the term Gray Jedi was coined to refer to him and other possible characters like him. 

Now consider when Jinn pitches the idea of training Anakin, the council objects at first...because of his age....he violates their rules about ages and emotional attachments. They do this completely irregardless of anything else, even though at least one of them (Mace Windu) claims to know the prophecy Jinn thinks Anakin fulfills and dont seem to disagree that Anakin might be the Chosen One.  

This has been noted as one example of the Jedi acting on an Absolute....and as Obi Wan himself tries to claim, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" presumably because dealing in absolutes is supposed to be bad....(which undercuts the idea the Jedi are completely "good" to the sith's completely "bad")

Now yes, after Jinn's death the Counsel changes their mind and allows Obi Wan, who is much closer to the "typical jedi" to train Anakin.  Still this sets the groundwork both for the Gray Jedi and for the idea the differences between the Sith and Jedi arnt as clear cut as the Jedi would like you to believe. 

Now consider the prophecy itself, and what it claims Anakin is supposed to do. As Qui-Gon put it at the time of his death:

"He is the Chosen One… He will…bring balance… Train him."

Note what that says......Anakin will bring balance to the force....not allow good to triumph over evil....or evil over good....but will bring Balance to both sides. 

Now of course, this is misinterpreted by Obi Wan, as he later makes the following claims to Anakin himself in III
"You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!" 

And then to Yoda and Windu in episode III 

"With all due respect, Master, is he not the Chosen One? Is he not to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force?"

And then Windu replies "So the prophecy says."

Notice in Obi Wan's and Windu's interpretation, bringing balance to the force means the light side is triumphant. But that's not balance, as Yoda pointed out in response to Obi Wan:

"A prophecy…that misread could have been."

This suggests that Yoda at least has caught on....he understands that for the prophecy to be fulfilled, the Jedi dont necessarily survive. Which probably explains why Yoda was against training Anakin....at least until the Sith showed some interest in him and his training would be handled by a more traditional Jedi...and then why he wanted to stop Anakin from moving up the ranks as fast.

By the way, its worth nothing, that Anakin ALMOST fulfilled the prophecy. He joined the Sith, to kill all the Jedi, eventually killed all but 1 (Yoda), and when that one died of old age, the turned on the Sith and killed them. 

Boom, the force is now in balance.....no one's left to pull it to one extreme or the other. Or almost. 

At the end of the day, Anakin couldnt kill his son....so a single Jedi survived. And Anakin failed. 

Fast forward to Episode 7. At the time episode 7 starts, we learn Luke tried to restart the Jedi order and failed when one of his students fell to darkness. After his new order was slaughtered, Luke went looking for the First Jedi temple....and basically disappears off the face of the galaxy, and never returns. 

Also note, in Episode 7 we are introduced to 2 force users. Rey and Kylo Renn. Rey is not a Jedi...and she cant ever be there is no one left to train her (at least until the end of the movie when she goes looking for Luke). In fact the Jedi seem to have faded away into legend, as has the force itself. 

Kylo Renn fits the "main bad guy" role that Darth Vader, Count Dooku and Darth Maul filled before him. But with one major different that I think alot of people missed: He's not a Sith. 

Consider, we see a flashback of Kylo Ren standing with a handful of other red light saber wielders clearly helping promote the goals of the First Order.  But the Sith can only have two members at a time. So they arnt Sith. Which is also made clear when it turns out Kylo Ren isnt his real name....but every other Sith we've seen uses a "Darth" honorific with their sith name (Vader, Tyranus (Dooku), Sidous (the Emperor) and Maul). 

Ren also seems to be troubled by the fact that he cant fully extinguish the light side within him, as seen in his "discussion" with his grandfathers helmet and with his "master" Snoke. So oddly enough....he doesnt seem to deal in absolutes well. In fact, in the novel version of Episode 7 at least [which is considered Cannon] Snoke has this to say about Ren

"It is where you are from. What you are made of. The dark side—and the light. The finest sculptor cannot fashion a masterpiece from poor materials. He must have something pure, something strong, something unbreakable, with which to work."

Snoke's interest in Ren therefore seems to be as much about his light side as his dark. 

All of this suggests that unlike the Sith of old, Ren is misguided, but not evil [not yet anyways], and able to tap both sides of the force.....like a Gray Jedi. 

Finally keep in mind, a lot of people assume Ren was the Jedi disciple that slaughtered Luke's New Order....but thats never actually stated. In fact given that his killing the entire order would likely upset his personal balance between light and dark, its probably a safer assumption it wasnt him. (which does mean we dont know who it was or what happened to them....which could shoot some holes in some of the upcoming assumptions)   

Which brings us back to Luke...the last (as far as we know) of the old Jedi and Sith. Why didnt he come back from his hunt for the last Jedi temple?

We dont know yet.....expect for two things. 1) Whatever he found convinced him the Jedi need to end.

2) Whatever he found was written on paper. (watch the teaser closely)

Now that second point might seem a little weird and odd to point out, but consider, its the first time written material of any kind has been seen or even referenced as a thing that exists anywhere in the star wars universe.

In every movie, tv show, video game, book ect about the Star Wars universe so far ALL communication has been electronic. Admittedly some of it uses display monitors to show words/letters ect. But weve never actually seen anything written down before.

Nor has anyone ever said anything to suggest that the concept of non-digital communication is one that even exists as concept for any of the inhabitants.

In other-words, the inhabitants of the Star Wars universe seem farther removed chronologically and culturally from the literally written word than we are from cave painting (we dont use them anymore...but we all conceptually understand they exist).

So whatever Luke found were some of the oldest secrets in the universe....and they caused him to decide to end the Jedi.

From this point out, logical extrapolation does the rest.

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Luke discovered the prophecy is more or less true....the force was supposed to exist in a balance, as a neutral, not a thing to be used for good or evil, and that using and limiting the force to one or the other leads to unintended and bad consequences for everyone....as what has effectively been  millennia of religious wars at this point have proven.

Even in times of peace, people either lived under oppressive sith regimes with no rights and no freedom, or under the Jedi, who broke up families to increase their memberships, and imposed their version of Justice on conflicts (remember in Episode 1, Qui-Gon and Obi Wan are ambassadors sent to end a trade embargo by bringing one side in line with the galactic norms and the Jedi's wishes...yet there is no evidence of any actual abuses by the occupying droid army [other than the blockade itself]...they really are just making a peaceful statement....until the Jedi show up and start a fight)   

Keep in mind, the only wars we've EVER seen in Star Wars always came down to Light vs Dark....they havnt seemed to have had wars that the force users werent behind ever..

And I dont think any objective practitioner of any religion (which is what the Jedi and Sith are) would have trouble admitting their own religion's practices have changed over the last 100 years....yet along a time span as great as the existence of paper in star wars would suggest. So it shouldnt be surprising the revelations Luke discovered shook him to the core, and turned him away from the Jedi. 

What Luke discovered would likely be as shocking as discovering God was actually an alien who brought us to this world after we destroyed our home world of Eden. Assuming you believed the source you found the information in, your world view is shattered forever.   

So knowing what Luke probably found explains why he wants to end the Jedi...but not why he is still alive.

Consider, if Luke really wanted to end the Jedi, suicide would be the fastest way to do it.

Unless Luke wasnt sure the battle was over.

By all accounts, the Sith are destroyed and Luke is the last Jedi right? 

Maybe, but then who in the hell is Snoke? 

Snoke was around at or before the rise of the Empire (as mentioned in the novel) and appears to be dark side force user. Unlike Ren, we cant confirm hes not a Sith Lord. Palpatine and Dooku after all publicly went by their real names and not their Sith names.  Furthermore the "Clone Wars" TV show established that Dooku had his own apprentices.....basically breaking the Sith "Rule of Two" that says only two of them can exist. Plus Darth Maul survived his fall in Episode I, and was running around for a while....so there are some ways in which Snoke could be Sith (most importantly unlike Ren, he hasnt been shown to have redeeming qualities or doubts about the darkside) and trained by any of the Sith we know about.

And this assumes of course the fan theory that Snoke is Darth Plagueis (Palpatines master) isnt correct....though given the theory that Plagueis is Anakin's "Father" based on the speech Palatine gave Anakin in II 

"Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying."

    

Given that Anakin never had a father, and his mother claimed their was no father, and she just got magically pregnant....Plagueis would fit as Anakin's father. And would it not be the most "Sith" thing to do to try to pervert the Chosen One's mission into a way for the Sith to retain power. (incidentally this would appear to be kinda similar to the Jedi trying to train Anakin to do things their way for the same reason....they believed it would let them survive). Cause if the Sith (or Jedi) can control the Balance of the force....they win the never ending religious war.

And given that Plagueis could bring people back from the dead, its reasonable to assume he could do it himself when Palatine killed him (or thought he had)....which would explain both how he's still alive and why Palatine never tried to kill him during the reign of the Empire as a possible rival.  And if Plagueis really does want to corrupt the Chosen One, it would explain his interest in Ren and controlling him, given his claim of the natural balance inside Ren.

So anyways, my theory goes, Luke could detect "darkness" out there somewhere, so knew there was one more person who had to be removed to bring the Balance to the force.

After all, if Luke truly is a Gray Jedi, then the Jedi Order no longer exists, and the prophecy is half accomplished.....so all that remains is the death of the Last Sith to bring the Force back to balance. And thats why Luke is still alive....to make sure that gets done, and bring the truth of how the force is supposed to be back to the galaxy.

Its also why when Snoke revealed himself to the galaxy with the first order and the Starkiller, Luke sent the map piece out that would allow the forces opposed to snoke to find him.....it was time to return.