Question: In Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Luke's replacement hand looks like a normal human one (though it was mechanical). In this film he has a more obviously robotic hand. Other than to remind today's audiences that he previously lost his hand, was there any point to this change?
Gavin Jackson
16th Dec 2017
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Answer: At the beginning of Return of the Jedi Luke gets shot in the robotic hand and just wears a glove over it for the whole movie even though he could have had the skin fixed. Apparently in the many years between the movies he never bothered having any damage to the face flesh and skin fixed.
Answer: After thirty plus years, it could just be the natural degradation of the organic flesh covering the robotic parts.
Answer: He likely downgraded to a simpler, easier to maintain version at some point. Presumably before going off to the island.
The robotic hand Luke has in The Last Jedi has the scorch mark he got from a blaster from Return of the Jedi. It's the same hand, just without the artificial skin covering.
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Answer: The outer skin could have been destroyed when Ben attacked Luke and ransacked the temple. We see Luke's robotic hand rise out of the rubble. Perhaps it had skin before that, and Luke never fixed it as a reminder of his "failure."