ST Possible theories of why Luke was in hiding

I don't know that he is hiding at all. Snoke is quite old and possibly ancient. He seems to have a different relationship to the Force than the Jedi or Sith. It is known that he seduced Ben. Perhaps Luke knows what Snoke is and has decided that only a visit to the first Jedi Temple would give him the knowledge/perspective he needs to defeat Snoke and possibly save his nephew.

So I think he either hasn't figured it out yet and will somehow with Rey's help or he's figured it out but has become stranded for some reason.

 

Yup. I've never been a fan of the idea that Luke would cower from a fight. Certainly to Han, Leia and to the Galaxy at large it appears Luke lost his head and ran off... but I think he's looking for knowledge to defeat Snoke.

 

Luke realised the jedi order wasn't ready to happen and Kylo proved that.

 

After losing Kylo, and then having Kylo destroy is Jedi School, it was obvious that Luke didn't know enough. He wasn't the Jedi he needed to be to defend The Light.

He needed to train and learn from those who came before him. In the First Jedi Temple.

But now it's time to act.

 

Luke's journey first began when Obi-Wan gave him a weapon and told him his father was murdered.

Obi-Wan told Luke to bury his feelings, lest they be made to serve the Emperor. And also warned Luke that Vader was more machine than man, and that if Luke cannot bring himself to kill Vader, then the Emperor has won.

Luke found his own path. He was unwilling to accept his father was lost and tried to resist fighting his father, showing his father unconditional love and compassion and throwing his weapon away in defiance of the Emperor, proclaiming himself a Jedi. This act of love and faith in his father are what redeem Vader, and likewise it causes conflict in Vader such that he cannot bring himself to kill Luke.

Kylo likewise had his heritage kept a secret. He is a troubled youth that falls to the Dark Side and unlike Vader wants to kill Luke. And while Vader couldn't bring himself to kill his son, Kylo did commit patricide.

What worked against Vader, using the Force defensively and showing endless compassion has not worked. Han was killed when he tried to reach out to him. Luke's apprentices are dead. And I would imagine that Luke probably would have a hard time bringing himself to kill his nephew.

"Then [Snoke] has already won."

Luke is probably looking for another path, and when the Force guides Rey to him, that's probably the sign.

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He wasn't the Jedi the galaxy needed. He was the Jedi the galaxy had.

 

It doesn't make sense to me that Luke is hiding - why hide somewhere like the last Jedi Temple?

It's also not in Luke's nature (that we're aware of anyway) to give up the fight, or to not help when he could save someone. If he saw and foresaw the events of TFA (Han and Hosnia principally) then it doesn't make sense that he would stay away when he could help.

An outside possibility is that he may have gone to Ahch-To to destroy the Force - he has seen his own Jedi Order destroyed and he heard how Anakin destroyed the previous Jedi Order. Enough is enough - the cycle must be broken. No Force means no light side, but also no dark. The Force allowed him to reach Ahch-To, but a big Force sea monster ate his A-Wing right off the beach, stranding him on Luke Island so he can't even get to the Force Tree island, let alone leave the planet.

The Will of the Force stranded him on Ahch-To, unable to intervene in galactic events, because he is too important as the last Jedi. All hope dies with him. Now that the Force has awakened in Rey, she has been led to Luke, who has learned from communing with Obi-Wan and Yoda that the Force cannot be destroyed. What they must now do is defeat the darkside and prepare for the next time the darkside rises. Even if the galaxy is cloaked in darkness then the light, however dim, gives hope. Therefore the Jedi must go on.

 

Luke's strategy in Return Of The Jedi was to not fight alongside his friends and comrades at Endor. But to instead face his destiny even if it meant being martyred in the destruction of the death star while he preoccupied the Emperor.

It's not inconceivable that his response to the failure of his attempt to build an order might be an even more oblique or enigmatic strategy.

 

I figured a multiple of reasons:

• He wants to figure out how to properly defeat Snoke.

• Shame that he wasn't as strong enough -- he let his academy get slaughtered by his nephew. He probably saw himself as the next Obi-Wan/Yoda, but events proved him completely wrong.

• He's unable to bring himself to kill his own nephew. He probably wants to figure out how to defeat Snoke without having to kill Ben Solo.

• Fear that history will only repeat itself if he tries again. The look he gave Rey practically screamed, "Not again!" Maybe deep down he considers himself a failure as a Jedi and isolated himself because he unwittingly brought about this new nightmare.

 

If he took a stand, fought the first order and Ren, he would be no better than the Jedi who were wiped out before, the warring generals. Yoda learnt only too late that a Jedi uses a weapon for defence, never for attack. Luke knows he's not a soldier for the resistance, he's a peace keeper. He needed to get away to prevent himself becoming a huge military figure like Anakin had become, and look to how the ancient Jedi lived and worked, how they managed to establish themselves and maintain peace. He had intended for the new Jedi order to maintain peace but they actually caused a lot of the new problems he faces.

I think the grey Jedi theories are along the right track, rather than try to recreate the Jedi, he needs something new, with a fresh perspective on the force without the monk-like dogma nor the potential to become fighters for peace but keepers of peace and balance, like they should have always been.

 

I certainly hope he's not just sitting on an island moping around. It'd be cool to see that he has a few students with him that he's been training. If he's not doing at least that then that means he just flat out abandoned his family, friends, and the new Republic with no intentions of coming back to help them. Not to mention Yoda's request for him to train new Jedi. That doesn't seem like the Luke we know from the OT.

 

Or perhaps he's hoping (or dreading) that the Force will eventually show him his new destiny....which apparently came in the shape of a young girl.

 

Wasn't it kinda explained why he was in hiding??

 

Through the Force, Luke felt the good that remained within his father. He intuited that it was his destiny to turn him back or die, rather than start down the path to darkside himself.

It would be consistent if, following the failure of his first attempt, Luke sought guidance from the Force in the place were the old order began in order to ensure success at building his own. Perhaps he has already intuited that it will take the unheralded emergence of a candidate destined to become a Jedi. Someone coming unbidden to his location. Rather than to seek out and recruit Jedi for the sake of building his own order.

 

It was explained what happened when he disappeared. It is not explained what he's doing, except Han's suggestion of searching for the first temple.

In fact it's not "explained" that he is "hiding" at all.

 

Oh! I see..

 

Apologies, TCF. Edit function is a little bit problematic from my phone and desktop at the moment.

Sometimes not saving any changes or adding extra BB codes that I didn't enter and can't remove.

I'll try using another browser.

 

Poor Luke bought the extended editions of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

All these years he was watching the movies and the documentaries.

True story.

 

After he failed so badly according to the official new canon, I guess a lot of people would have done the same.

 

I think its a mixture of reasons. Since his nephew Ben fell to the Dark-side and destroyed Luke's fledgling Jedi Order Luke might have seclude himself firstly as a means of self inflicted punishment, maybe believing that Force-users of any kind were bad news for the Galaxy. This is certainly the opinion of Han in TFA.

But by choosing the location of the First Jedi Temple specifically I think its possible that he aimed to use his time alone as a sort of sabbatical, that would allow him to learn about aspects of the force that had been forgotten about or neglected by the Dogmatic Order of the Old Republic.
The novel Bloodline mentions that Luke had already been searching for the First Jedi Temple with his nephew before Ben fell to the dark-side, so clearly finding Ach-to had been on his agenda for quite some time.