Jedis tend to spout a lot of high-minded rhetoric about embracing the force, and rejecting anger and darkness and whatnot, but when you get right down to it, they sure do like killing folks. I mean, somebody who carries around a laser sword that can cut through flesh like butter at all times can’t be all that into peace and love.
For example, check out the Luke Skywalker kill count supercut put together by Mr. Sunday Movies, above. The Star Wars movies did a great job of making Luke seem naive and innocent, but over the course of the original Star Wars trilogy, he offed a truly astounding number of people. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Of course, most of that can be attributed to the destruction of the original Death Star, but hey, Luke pulled that trigger. Star Wars makes it feel like a glorious, triumphant moment, but when you really think about it, Luke is basically the sci-fi version of the guy who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Except Luke never felt guilty about what he did, because the voices in his head told him to do it. Hmmmm.
There’s a lot of debate of whether the next generation of Star Wars heroes and heroines will measure up to the originals, but I have a feeling none of them will ever top Luke when it comes to pure, unrestrained killing power.
