Complaints about Luke in The Last Jedi are baseless

This movie is my least favorite of that trilogy, but I never agreed with that criticism. I honestly don't think the argument has a lot of merit.

1. Obi Wan and Yoda ran and hid. Christ, Han runs all the time and he's the cool one.

People are allowed to be scared, angry, whatever. No one is the same throughout their lives. Luke got spooked and did the same thing several other characters in the franchise did.

2. Luke gave up on Dagobah. He failed multiple times during training. He couldn't pass the tests and Yoda salvaged his ship as a result. This came after he dropped Yoda. He failed at the cave too. He was supposed to leave his weapons behind because a Jedi wouldn't "need them".

3. ROTJ-era Luke sucks. He was my favorite character, but even as a kid he rubbed me the wrong way at that point in his life. He's wooden and robotic. Hated saving Vader, but that's a tale for another day. No personality at all. Luke is an emotional guy in the first two movies. He's been mocked for it for years by fans. Called whiny in some circles.

TLJ brought his personality back. He shows emotion and a personality again. Gone is the robot from ROTJ, Mando, and BOBF. Give me TLJ all day every day over robot boy. Is he the same person he was when he was 20? Of course not, no one is, and there's nothing wrong with that at all.

4. Luke's display of power in TLJ is waaaaaaaaaaaaay cooler than season 2 of Mando. That was kinda cliche. It's just a guy mowing down lots of baddies. There's nothing special or charismatic about that. An astral projection and obviously an extremely skilled duelist? Now that's impressive.

5. Hamill is damn near 70. If you thought he was going to be flipping and jumping around, that's simply not realistic. They have to work with what they've got. The alternative is CGI Luke ala Dooku and Palpatine flying through the air. Nobody wants that.