anabananakin

Yoda complained that Luke was too old to begin Jedi training (older than younglings, older than when Anakin started, etc.). So why didn't Obi-Wan take it upon himself to find Luke when he was younger and start training him? Why did Obi-Wan he have to wait until Leia was captured, the droids were sent down, coincidentally finding their way to Owen Lars' moisture farm, and then miraculously finding Obi-Wan way out in the desert?

It seems like he was waiting for the Empire to kill Luke's annoying uncle so then he could exploit Luke's pain to compel him to become a Jedi. Owen said Obi-Wan was just a "crazy old wizard"...so Obi-Wan should have just slayed him in his sleep and blamed it on the Empire. Then he could have trained Luke early on.

Also, how the F did R2 know where Obi-Wan lived? He was already off on his merry way in the right direction towards Obi-Wan's crib after he escaped the farm. I guess it was droid instincts, huh...

dhmac

It's basically hinted that Luke's Uncle Owen intentionally kept Luke away from Obi-wan by slandering him ("crazy old wizard"), probably because Luke was like a son to him and he was afraid something bad would happen to Luke if Kenobi was allowed access to him. And Obi-wan probably wanted to train Luke years earlier, but couldn't due to the Uncle's unforeseen interference. I think if Obi-wan had known ahead of time that the Uncle would act like this, he would have never given Luke to him to raise in the first place.

(As for not killing the Uncle to get him out of the way - well, that's just not the Jedi way.)

hufferstl

my question is why didn't Yoda take Luke with him to Degobah so that he could be trained his whole life. In fact, take Obi Wan and Leia there, too. Then when they finish their training, the four of them go head to head against Vader and Palpatine for a bad-ass fight. Seems to make more sense than having Luke just hang out at the Toshi station when he could be honing his Jedi skills...

Trigger

I thought all the jedi went into hiding for awhile because darth could sense the force being used and whatnot... so they only emerged when the time was right and Luke was old enough to both be man enough to save the universe and young enough to get in touch with the force and shit. Right? Medichlorides... psh..

aukevin

The reason Yoda and Obi-wan didn't train Luke early on is described in the Episode III novel.



spoilers for the novel




Yoda believes that the reason they lost to the Sith is because the Sith had evolved over the thousands of years while the Jedi had not. Yoda believes that the old ways of Jedi teaching need to be altered in order to eventually destroy the Sith. In the novel, Obi-wan wants to take Luke away and start training him in secret so that one day he can emerge and destroy the Sith but Yoda instructs him to only look over him. When the time is right, the Force will put Obi-wan and Luke together.


end spoilers




Now, this doesn't explain why Yoda doesn't seem too interested in training him in ESB, but it does cover why Obi-wan doesn't train Luke at a young age.

bboisvert

Yes, exactly... Look at the Jedi in Episode I-III. They're arrogant, set in their ways, and they manage to miss a powerful Sith Lord plotting right directly under their noses. We're used to thinking of them as the "good guys", but Palpatine is right -- there's really little difference between the Sith and the Jedi in the prequels.

Yoda realized -- as he should -- that the old Jedi ways were no longer working. Hell, the whole "pull Jedi away from their families young and don't allow them to form any attachments" is the basically the cause of Anakin's downfall.

milo bloom

He's interested all right, Yoda and Obi-wan are just playing good cop/bad cop. They're trying to draw out Luke's impatience and such.

Shannon Nutt

The real answer is because George was making things up as he went along...

The theoretical answer is probably close to what the Episode III book says.

raven56706

I think because Yoda wanted to be in seclusion for dishonoring the jedi.....

or because we wanted to be the coolest person on the planet with jedi powers.....didnt go his way though

GuessWho

Obi was busy in a 3way

ShagMan

wow that's a really disturbing picture heh.

nodeerforamonth

That's for sure (especially if you've read the scripts for eps 4-6).

I got an e-mail from a friend a few years ago who worked for LucasArts. It was a request from Lucas for a list of "things you want to see resolved in Ep III". Just proved right then and there that not everything was set in stone.

Filmmaker

Exact-a-mundo!

mikehunt

I always took that to be luke's first test

Jason

That's just, um, wow.

Class316

That and Jabba (not the Empire) controlled Tatooine.

Class316

The answer to this is easy.

They needed to lay low.

Two powerful Jedi training the children of the powerful Anakin would draw a lot of attention (ie the Sith would easily sense them) and ultimately lead to Vader and Troopers storming the Dagobah defeating Obi Wan and Yoda and Vader would turn his children to the dark side (probably in the hopes that he would destroy the Emperor).

It was actually a smart move to minimize detection via the force.

The children separated

The force powerful Yoda in a planet with lots of life that would help drown his aura,

Obi Wan barely participating in little to no force activity watching over Luke on a remote planet beyond Empire control where Vader has lots of bad memories.

As for Yoda complaining about Luke being too old, I guess it was probably a test for Luke and maybe to insure Luke doesn’t take the training for granted.

milo bloom

Hmm, just checking to see if I'm posting in inviso-text.