User blog comment:Jeremiah Garland/Jerrytalk: Star Wars Episode IX Predictions/@comment-25164591-20171231051942

Excellent analysis. I can't add much to your wisdom apart from a few things:

1. I've seen the point about Luke becoming cynical raised a few times. It makes sense to me. We saw him conflicted and tempted by the Dark Side in 6, and, prior to his failure to protect the new generation of Jedi, he had never really experienced "true" failure in the sense that he did everything possible to succeed but still failed for one reason or another. If I were Luke, Ben turning to the Dark Side and undoing all your work to rebuild the Jedi would dash my hopes for the Order ever being restored, too.

2. I agree that Snoke and the Knights of Ren will be expanded upon in IX. Abrams himself stated that, if given the opportunity to make an anthology film, he would base it on the Knights; this mysterious order is a key component to his infamous mystery box, Snoke too, and he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to expand on them if given the chance.

3. The Gray Jedi, as a concept, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Force is. Per statements from Pablo Hidalgo, Dave Filoni, and George Lucas himself, the Force is not two equal aspects in the sense that in order for it to be in balance, both sides need to be equally powerful. The Light is the balance - the Dark Side is a corruption of that balance that can only lead to pain. Notice how using the Dark Side throughout the series has only made things worse for the user; the darkness, by nature, is seductive, and perhaps even quicker and more powerful than the light, but using it will always result in ruin (Vader and Palpatine losing everything, Kylo losing his family and being used by Snoke, the fact that Sith in general cannot become one with the Force after death, etc). Yoda himself that the moment you let the Dark Side control you, it will dominate your destiny forever. We see this happen with Luke's temptation in VI, and later his failure to restore the Jedi.

Note that "the Light" is not synonymous with the Jedi, per se. Luke was right that the Jedi, or at least the order as we know it, has to end or see very radical change if it is to stand up to the darkness. And yes, there have been "gray" Jedi in the past, in the sense that they don't necessarily follow the Jedi Code but still serve the Light - but really, the term doesn't make sense in that context either. You're either a vegetarian or you're not a vegetarian. There are no gray vegetarians who sometimes eat meat but are usually herbivorous, just like it doesn't make sense to be a Light Force user who sometimes commits some random act of violence like stealing candy from a baby for "balance."