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

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

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more