Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been the most divisive Star Wars film of all time, which is saying something. After the global furor surrounding the prequels, I didn’t think anything could drive a wedge between defenders and detractors more than, say, the gibbering, pandering lunacy that is Jar Jar Binks.

But here we are. Some two months after its release, and The Last Jedi has a critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 91% , and a fan rating of 48%. By comparison, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace has critics rating it 55% , and fans… 59%.Why the gulf? Why the outrage?I can’t answer for anyone else. For a vocal minority, it’s apparently because Rey is a 'Mary Sue', a criticism I believe more often than not is rooted in misogyny and petulance. For others, they hate the diversity in the film. For many, though, their criticisms boil down to one thing.What have you done to Luke Skywalker?

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“ For many, their criticisms boil down to one thing. What have you done to Luke Skywalker?

“ There’s a lifetime of peace and adventures we’ve not yet read or seen.

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“ That’s a sad, terrible but important truth: Some people are irredeemable.

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I maintain that the film is overlong, and made some odd decisions. I maintain that Rose shouldn’t have stopped Finn from ramming the laser thingy. I maintain that there were probably ways to make Poe a commentary on gung-ho heroes who gamble with others lives, without staining his hands with the blood of thousands, before having Leia and Holdo exchange a friendly “oh what a scamp” smiles afterwards. And I maintain that Holdo flinging her ship through another ship like a hot knife through butter has wide-reaching deus ex machina ramifications for the entire Star Wars universe.Let me explain why. If you look at Luke’s life in this film and want to appreciate how things came out in the wash, you need to view his lineage: a genetic disposition towards unnatural levels of power and control over The Force. Anakin succumbs. He has all the tools needed and all the love around him required to use his powers for good, but he fails. As much as his mentors and friends lament that they failed him, he failed them. He chose darkness.Luke, though, chooses good. And the one moment he comes close to giving in is at the tail end of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, when the Emperor goads him into striking Anakin down. Luke has a momentary flash of anger, cuts off his dad’s hand (who hasn’t, though?), and then sees what he’s in danger of becoming. He makes a mistake, then pulls back, and immediately learns from it.He throws his saber away, and refuses to fight. He does, in effect, subvert his genetic lineage, grab the fate of the Force by the hands, and says no. In that moment, he becomes a hero; a kind of zen monk, a pacifist Jedi who refuses to play the game of violence and revenge and retribution that has fed the cycle between Jedi and Sith for millennia.Then - and I feel like this is an important thing to remember - 25 years pass. 25 years during which, in essence, he became an academic, archaeologist and teacher, roaming the galaxy, seeking out the history of this ancient order. There was intrigue, to be sure; Claudia Grey’s excellent book Bloodline , in which we witness Leia’s political dramas just before Kylo turns, is a perfect example that this era wasn’t without conflict. But essentially there’s a lifetime of peace and adventures we’ve not yet read or seen.Luke is plagued with - for the record, completely accurate - visions of his order in ruins and the galaxy at war because of this child, this child who shares the Skywalker lineage, but who has also already begun to turn. And he has that moment once again: A moment where he almost does something terrible. But he doesn’t. This is very important: He was never going to. Of course he wasn’t.Luke is like all good people. He assumes the blame. He blames himself, and he says that in that moment, Ben was a scared child. Here’s the rub, though. Ben was already Kylo Ren at this point. How can I make this argument? Simple.Because if your excuse for murdering kids and becoming Space Hitler was "my uncle who can see the future briefly thought about taking me out then decided not to," then he didn't fail you. You failed you. When Luke came to, the temple was toast, and there were dead children everywhere. Kylo was locked and loaded and was waiting for an excuse. If Luke had a failing - and he does, indeed, apologize to Kylo on Crait - it was letting hope cloud logic.So Luke carries his throwing away of the saber, his refusal to fight, to its logical conclusion: He takes away everyone’s toys. He refuses to teach and arm more Force-powered children to go after Kylo. The Force is like nuclear weapons, and he decides to completely dismantle the means of production; namely, him. Let those who are comfortable with fighting and killing go after Kylo. He’s done.This is a completely understandable, if not noble, response - non-violence, non-intervention. He shuts himself off from the Force, and he doesn’t feel the death of Han. He doesn't feel anything. If I’m the fire that causes all this destruction, he says, if I’m the Oppenheimer, then I’m not playing this game anymore.Before the fight, he tells Leia that no one is ever truly gone, and Leia, at this point, clearly knows Luke isn’t really there. And when he returns to Ahch-To, he disappears, becoming one with the Force. He does, in a way, what Gandalf did when he “died” fighting the Balrog: He carries out a supreme act of sacrifice and love for his friends, and becomes something more as a result. Rian Johnson himself stated: “I don’t know where the next movie is going to go. J.J. [Abrams] and Chris Terrio are writing it right now. But it seemed like the potential of Luke crossing into new realm... that offers exciting possibilities for the role he plays in the coming chapter. No one’s ever really gone.”So, no. I don’t buy that Luke Skywalker received anything other than a passage towards the next step of his story, whatever that may be. If I've done nothing else here, I hope I've helped some of you who left the cinema with an odd, bitter taste in your mouths with some degree of hope. Because after mulling it over, I can’t stop grinning about Luke. And I can’t wait to see him in Episode IX....But I hope Episode IX doesn't redeem Kylo. The message that Luke accepts and enacts on the battlefield on Crait is a powerful one: realising that some people can't be saved. This is a tragic moment, but it’s also freeing. His failing wasn’t that he couldn’t fix Kylo.It’s that he was holding on too long to the idea that he could save an unsaveable piece of sh*t. And if you still don’t believe me, here’s Mark Hamill himself just the other day on Twitter.

Paul Verhoeven is an Australian author, broadcaster and comedian. He hosts the weekly video game podcast 28 Plays Later with Kris Straub, and his first novel, Loose Units, is being published this year by Penguin.