Jedi Council Forums - Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?

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Author	Topic: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
Grand_Moff_Jawa Registered: May '01	Date Posted: 3/11 6:59pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	When Luke fired his torpedoes at the exhaust port did he get lucky or was it skill? Or was it the Force that directed the torpedoes? (I didn't see this posted anywhere else, but if it's been done before, lock 'er up.) -----signature----- "I can't abide those Jawas... disgusting creatures"! - C3PO This sig line is [FABULOUSO!] www.outerrimsieges.com "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." -- Carl Sagan
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jedimasterbac Title: CT and Fan Design Manager Registered: Jun '04	Date Posted: 3/11 7:06pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	"In my experience there's no such thing as luck." - Ben Kenobi -----signature----- Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One (my fan fic) http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/30225011/p1/?3
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eht13 Registered: Sep '07	Date Posted: 3/11 7:55pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	I think it is both skill and being helped by the Force (if we believe or agree with Obi-Wan, we can rule out luck). I think piloting skill and experience got him that far along in the mission, but even before firing the torpedoes he was using / being guided by the Force. Obi-Wan instructed him to turn off his targeting computer, and Vader commented that he could sense the Force being strong "with this one". As the final seconds before the successful firing approached, it seems like Luke was letting the Force take more control of the outcome of his efforts; he seemed to sense the right place to aim and the right time to press "fire". But this is not totally blind reliance on the Force; there is a certain sense of skill in knowing how to use the Force and immersing oneself in it at the same time, and Luke seems to really grasp that for the first time there in the trench.
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Rogue...Jedi Title: Comms and Arena Admin ready for basketball Registered: Jan '00	Date Posted: 3/11 8:39pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	Simply put: he is an excellent pilot whose skill is enhanced by his use of the Force. A top pilot without the Force would have had a lot more trouble (at the very least), and a strong Force user who didn't know how to pilot probably wouldn't even have a chance. Need that base to start with. -----signature----- The Arena's Favorite Baseball Player Tournament - Come vote! http://boards.theforce.net/the_arena/b10777/29864047/p1/ I approve of NYCitygurl's sig
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Ree Registered: Jan '05	Date Posted: 3/12 1:37am Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	Rogue...Jedi posted: Simply put: he is an excellent pilot whose skill is enhanced by his use of the Force. A top pilot without the Force would have had a lot more trouble (at the very least), and a strong Force user who didn't know how to pilot probably wouldn't even have a chance. Need that base to start with. Enough said -----signature----- Grand Master of The New Jedi Trials http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy104/jaden1138/TheForceNet/NJTposter2.jpg "Jedi stabbing Jedi? How peverse." Super-stealth Spy/Slicer for the Rebellion
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DarthSeether Registered: May '05	Date Posted: 3/12 3:08pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	You bet he was! He wasn't such a bad pilot himself! Come on, we don't have to sit here and lis- -----signature----- The misconceptions you had about Star Wars, when you were a kid: "As if millions of oysters had cried out in terror...and were suddenly silenced."
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Qui-Gon_Reborn Title: Qui-Gon's Personal SWC Modsaber Registered: Dec '08	Date Posted: 3/19 2:34pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	DarthSeether posted: You bet he was! He wasn't such a bad pilot himself! Come on, we don't have to sit here and lis- -----signature----- To be a true poet is to become God. - Dan Simmons Now bring me that horizon. - Capt. Jack Sparrow High Priestess in the Holy Order of the Circle-in-the-Sky Worshippers
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MasterMonkey13 Registered: Dec '08	Date Posted: 3/19 2:40pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force? - Date Edited: 3/19 2:41pm (1 edits total) Edited By: MasterMonkey13
	He was a fantastic flyer, but it had to be help from the Force. Especially since Ben, while Luke is flying, tells him to use the Force. -----signature----- "There is no charge for awesomeness.....or attractiveness." Former Padawan of MsLanna / now I'm a Jedi Knight! Isaiah 41:10
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Darthrevan4ever Registered: May '08	Date Posted: 3/19 2:44pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	In star wars every ace is helped by the force since it is the will of the force. But luke was a great pilot before he learned to use the force. -----signature----- Aliit ori'shya tal'din Family is more than bloodline SWC Senator of Mandalore "I am that which grips the heart in fright,Harkens night and silences the light" Sith Warrior of the AoD Dark side points 55 Powerfull and dashing e- husband to linth
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DarkLiberator Registered: Jul '09	Date Posted: 7/5 10:49pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	Lukes father anakin was the best piolot in his time, it was because they were both force sensitives making there skills in precision good, the force and his dads flying skills helped luke
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Hernalt Registered: Jun '00	Date Posted: 7/6 3:10am Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	ANH script: WEDGE: That's impossible, even for a computer. LUKE: It's not impossible. I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-sixteen back home. They're not much bigger than two meters. The simplest explanation of Luke's response is that he used some kind of targeting computer to achieve "bull's-eyes". This is supported by the habitual ease with which he begins using it in the X-wing and his reluctance to turn it off: he does not initially think he can hit the thermal exhaust port just by his eyes. Since he did not have it on when he made the shot, the simplest, most logical explanation is that the Force aided him. If it was not the Force that aided him, Kenobi's injunction has no meaning. Since Kenobi's injunction has carried the highest moral authority in the scene, it redeploys his earlier statement that 'there is no such thing as luck'. Meanwhile, Han's world view is such that there is no energy field controlling his destiny, and that Luke's shot could only have been one in a million. Had Luke still had his targeting computer on and Han had taken out the TIEs, Luke's skills as a pilot would have sufficiently precluded any need for the Force, Or luck, and Han Still would have called it 'luck'.
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Hernalt Registered: Jun '00	Date Posted: 7/6 3:15pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	Clarifying the previous post, and belaboring this very interesting question: The simplest _contextual_ explanation of Luke's response is that, no, it is not impossible to hit a two-meter target with a computer, because he used to hit womp-rats with the help of some kind of computer. In this case "bulls-eye" means to line up the target with a scope of some kind. The necessity of Kenobi's injunction is conserved, Luke's reliance on the Force is conserved, and the necessity of Han's deus ex machina is conserved. No narrative elements were harmed in the crafting of this interpretation. The simplest _naive_ explanation of Lukes' response is that, no, it is not impossible to hit a two-meter target by your eyes only, because he used to hit womp-rats without a computer. In this case "bulls-eye" means to hit the target perfectly by unassisted aim. If the naive explanation were correct, it would 1) squander narrative elements or 2) cause an impossibly complex imaginative scenario. (1) Kenobi's injunction to use the Force would be scuttled or nullified when Han removed the impediments to success. If Luke could have always hit a two-meter target without computer assistance, then after Vader's removal there is no need for the Force. (The hurry because of the superlaser notwithstanding.) The necessity of Kenobi's injunction is lost, Luke's reliance on the Force is lost, Han's deus ex machina is conserved. (2) Or, at the instant just before the first TIE is destroyed (freeze frame the DVD where Vader says "I have you now"), the actual purpose of Kenobi's injunction switches to a counterfactual, a scenario that did not happen and that cannot be imagined quickly. The take away lesson for the viewer becomes an appreciation that Luke _had been prepared for some time_ _to rely on an energy field which he trusted to oppose what the Death Star stood for_, and that he _would have succeeded somehow_, even without Han. The scenario that never happened would be that Luke persisted in trying to reach the exhaust port, with no hope of assistance other than Kenobi's voice, and he relied on the Force _to survive Vader's attacks_ (as he did not require it to help him hit the target), and he finally made it to where he could loose the torpedoes by eyes alone. In this scenario that never happened, Lucas might have him lose a wing and Williams might kick the strings up another half-step - whatever it took to get the X-wing to the exhaust port with Vader on his tail. The necessity of Kenobi's injunction would be conserved, Luke's reliance on the Force would be conserved, Han's deus ex machina would be waived. A further line of inquiry concerns the absolute dependability of the hardware the Rebellion's exists might come down to. (1) "BEN: Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." (2) "WEDGE: (over headset) My scope shows the tower, but I can't see the exhaust port! Are you sure the computer can hit it?" (3) "RED LEADER: Negative! It didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface." With the simplest _contextual_ explanation (womp-rat kill requires computer), Kenobi's earlier line is redeployed as 'The targeting computer can deceive you. Don't trust it.' With the simplest _naive_ explanation (womp-rat kill requires eyes only), this line cannot be redeployed unless Luke snaps his eyes shut and flies down the trench blind, an irrecoverable cost in credibility.
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Darth_Laudrup Title: Host: PT Trivia Challenge Registered: Jul '04	Date Posted: 7/6 4:27pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	A combination of both factors. Luke was a very good pilot, in star wars that sort of thing seems to be in your genes, and being a Skywalker the Force was with him... always. -----signature----- I love Ellen Page: 5' 1" / 1.55 m tall and very very sexy.
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DRush76 Registered: Jan '08	Date Posted: 7/9 2:50pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	I realize that Luke is an excellent pilot, but is he better than Han and Lando?
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Hernalt Registered: Jun '00	Date Posted: 7/9 3:04pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	Luke negotiates a straight trench under fire in a snubfighter. Lando negotiates a static tunnel under fire in a freighter. Han negotiates a dynamic asteroid field under fire in a freighter. Han buzzes an ISD _and_ disappears. Submitted evidence indicates Han > Lando > Luke.
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DarthIktomi Registered: May '09	Date Posted: 7/9 8:05pm Subject: Luke Skywalker: Ace pilot or helped by the Force?
	Hernalt posted: Luke negotiates a straight trench under fire in a snubfighter. Lando negotiates a static tunnel under fire in a freighter. Han negotiates a dynamic asteroid field under fire in a freighter. Han buzzes an ISD _and_ disappears. Submitted evidence indicates Han > Lando > Luke. Yeah, but asteroid fields aren't really that difficult to navigate, despite what C-3PO says. I mean, consider that NASA probes have done so. I figure the Falcon is more maneuverable than a probe.
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