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

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...
1 comment
Read more

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...
Post a Comment
Read more

game of thrones - Who were the Kingsguard escorting Cersei?

Now to the question... During the scene where Cersei sits on the Iron Throne and is "sworn in" we see her escorted by seven members of the Kingsguard. Now this is what I would expect as that is the correct number. However, I have no idea who they are ! [embedded content] The books pay more attention to detail in this area, but the show is also diverging and outpacing in this regard. We can see that a few of the names are not possible on the show. I have listed the names from the books and given why the reason they could not be members on the show in bold. Ser Jaime Lannister, Lord Commander - Stripped of title Ser Loras Tyrell - Dead and also was never a KG on the show. Ser Osmund Kettleblack - Possible, but not mentioned by name Ser Balon Swann - Possible, but not mentioned by name Ser Meryn Trant - Dead Ser Boros Blount - Possible, but not mentioned by name Ser Robert Strong (aka Zombie Mountain) - Confirmed I know it can be confusing mixing the books and shows, but the qu...
Post a Comment
Read more