Skip to main content

star wars - Why was it so important that Luke confront Vader and not the Emperor?



Yoda and Ben make a big fuss about how important it is for Luke to confront Vader, but they make no mention of him needing to kill the Emperor. Doesn't the Emperor also need to be destroyed to restore peace to the galaxy?



Answer



Yoda did acknowledge that Luke would eventually have to defeat the Emperor:



Yoda: Only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the Force as his ally will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.1



However, they emphasized Luke's confrontation with Vader because Vader was an easier target than the Emperor (the Emperor had defeated Yoda himself, but Vader's connection to the Force was weakened by his defeat at the hands of Obi-Wan on Mustafar). Luke needed to prove to himself that he could confront Vader and survive without turning to the dark side. Only then would he be a full Jedi:



Yoda: One thing remains: Vader. You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi will you be.2




If Luke finished his training and confronted Vader without turning to the dark side, the rebellion would have a fully trained Jedi on their side to oppose the Empire. This would increase the Rebel Alliance's chances to defeat the Empire, and in doing so help gain allies from systems which wanted to rebel but were afraid to do so. With the help of a fully trained Jedi, the Rebel Alliance could conceivably score victories against the Imperial military and perhaps kill Vader himself. Then, the Emperor would be politically and militarily weakened, and Luke would be strong enough to defeat him.


But that's the long game. At this point, Yoda and Obi-Wan were trying to avoid a scenario of total defeat: Luke was their (nearly) last hope, and if they lost Luke to the dark side they would have virtually no chance to defeat the Sith.3 In that case, the Empire would be even stronger (yet another Sith), and the Rebel Alliance's morale and support would suffer massively -- because the hero of the Rebellion joined the enemy!


Thus, the fate of the Rebellion hinged on Luke's confrontation with Vader. That's why Yoda and Obi-Wan put so much emphasis on it. Luke could confront the Emperor later, once he was better prepared.


Since we're not privy to what Yoda and Obi-Wan saw through the Force, we don't know how they expected Luke's confrontation with Vader to turn out. It's possible they had an inkling that Luke would redeem Vader and then either Luke or Vader would defeat the Emperor, but Obi-Wan seemed to think that Vader was irredeemable (Obi-Wan says Vader is "more machine now than man"). They probably thought Luke would have to kill Vader, as indicated by Luke's conversation with Obi-Wan in Episode VI:



Luke: I can't kill my own father.


Obi-Wan: Then the Emperor has already won.



They thought Luke would have to kill Vader, but he would have to do it as a Jedi rather than giving in to his anger. If Luke did this, he would prove to himself that he could defeat a Sith Lord with the light side of the Force rather than turning to anger and the dark side. Luke would need this confidence as a Jedi against the Emperor, too, so Luke's confrontation with Vader was crucial.




1 Episode V, as Luke is about to leave for Cloud City


2 Episode VI


3 It's true that Leia was another hope, but the situation would be even more bleak if it came down to Leia. If Luke turned to the dark side (either by killing Vader or simply joining the Sith), Leia would have to somehow defeat the Emperor and a young, evil Luke (and possibly Vader) all by herself. And while Luke at least had a crash course in Jedi training from Obi-Wan and Yoda, Leia wouldn't even have that -- Obi-Wan was already dead and Yoda died before the Battle of Endor.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more