Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Han Solo in The Force Awakens and Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. The action hero played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. They are the good guys.

Does the Arnold Schwarzenegger action hero need redemption? No, we say. Because he saves lives (in the way an action movie hero does in implausible fantastical situations that have little if no bearing on reality). He’s too good to need redeeming.

It seems the “good guys” in movies don’t need redeeming or it appears that way. Would the good guy really need redeeming, anyhow? Isn’t a good guy beyond redeeming?

The good guys

Some characters transform into evil, but others have gone the other way, to the good.

Like Luke Skywalker.

Thirty years on, we may wonder what is going to happen to Luke in the next Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, coming out this year.

We, as viewers of Star Wars, first meet Luke as a farm boy working on his uncle and aunt’s homestead, in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Luke’s commitment is to his family, but he desires the galaxy to be free from tyranny. This desire propels him to the center of the battle against tyranny. Therefore, Luke is a good guy.

However, even Luke needs redemption, though he is the epitome of goodness.

Luke’s redemption

It matters that the good guys are redeemed because, like Luke, it sets them in a direction of purpose and maturity and in affecting the world for good.

In the beginning, Luke is immature. His recklessness makes him vulnerable to succumbing to temptations that could take him off the good path. He needs to grow and grow through a process of redemption. He needs to change from immaturity [read: his recklessness] to maturity and this required him to change.

Luke’s stage by stage redemption was put to good use for the step-by-step redemption of the galaxy. Luke was instrumental each step of the way.

It will be interesting how Luke pans out in the next Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, released this year. He is thirty years older and wiser than when we last see him. Luke’s redemption started in his youth, but there may yet be some work to do on his character.