#sequel trilogy

Many people realized this after seeing what someone like Jacob Anderson could do with a role like Louis de Pointe du Lac in Interview with the Vampire, after spending years watching him as Greyworm in Game of Thrones.

And then when they get roles that otherwise elevate them to the same status as white characters (Moses Ingram and Amandla Stenberg), external and internal forces work to make their experience miserable or ensure their characters never exist in that space again.

It's something that Rosario Dawson can basically put on orange makeup, play an alien, still bear features that make her (Ahsoka) Black-by-association, and effectively dodge the broader racist backlash that the aforementioned actresses experienced just by existing as themselves as human characters.

1. Luke absolutely would kill someone he sees as a threat to his loved ones. When Vader threatened Leia, Luke snapped. all the composure he had maintained up to that point was gone the instant Vader named his sister and overtly threatened her. He drew his weapon and beat Vader mercilessly, relentlessly into submission, even taking his hand. What's more, it's obvious that he just barely reigns himself in.

all of this while in full knowledge that it is his father he's trying to kill.

you cannot see that and tell me he would not instinctively begin to go down that road again when he feels the same darkness he fought so hard to destroy manifest right in front of him.

2. of course he wasn't going to kill Ben. he explicitly tells us, and we see, that it was a moment of weakness. a shadow from his past that lasted an instant. his body reacted before his mind could engage, and he was ashamed. it is, quite literally, spelled out for us on screen. i don't know how it could be more clear.

this weirdly idealistic conception folks have of Luke as someone who always sees the good in people no matter what and never wavers from that even for an instant confuses and befuddles me. i'd blame Legends, but in there Luke runs (not falls) into the dark side (which i'd argue is actually out of character). i'll have to place this one on rosetinted glasses and nostalgia.