Anakin too old, Luke Isn't?

Yes, that comment from Yoda always seemed to me to be in the same sort of kidding/testing manner he used on Luke before Luke even knew he was Yoda.

It seems that there is more than one reason for the Jedi not to train Luke from a baby so they don't, but also that they had the same notions (from the force?) that Palpatine does: that Anakin's children will be the down fall of the Emperor. Remember The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi? I don't actually think that they were very sure what that meant, though.

So, the way I see it, eventually the Force (in the guise of fate) brings Luke to Obi-Wan and pretty much tells him out loud, It's time already, dude. Start this guy's training and take him to get his sister.

And once Obi was One with the Force, he could (and did) just tell Luke and Yoda outright what was going on when necessary. We know about him giving Luke a few suggestions to go to Dagobah, of course, but Yoda seems to have conversed with Ben as a ghost before, too-- he did not seem at all surprised the first time we hear Obi=Wan speak in Yoda's presence. I think they were quite prepared and ready to train Luke, but they wanted to be sure that he was, himself, ready to be trained. Anakin is old to start training, but he's not quite prepared emotionally to do so. Luke, by starting later and (by circumstance) cutting his attachments completely, is.

 

Anakin's path was more clouded from the start. We know that watching TPM. Luke starts to show the same feelings on Dagobah, but since this is their last strike against the Empire, it's either train him as a Jedi or everyone will die.

 

Ah, yes, excellent, excellent point-- I completely agree, the strong attachments he still does have (to Han and Leia) are almost Luke's downfall. They drive him to go to Cloud City and at the end the thought of Vader turning Leia almost drives him to the dark side. But he handles both situations by saying that he will not, for anyone at all, go to the dark side. I see several ways to analyze this:

1. It's a caveat that Anakin clearly did not make- he was completely devoted to one person or another. Interestingly, a difference between their attachments ends up being that where Anakin has one, Luke always has two. Shmi vs. Owen and Beru (parental figures killed tragically at appx. 20), Obi-Wan vs. Ben and Yoda (Jedi teachers, of course), Leia and Han vs. Padme (I'm talking as friends beginning at age 19/20 and, except for Han, strong, beautiful women. Only. ).

2. Luke knows where the Dark Side can go from actually seeing it and may therefore be more vigilant and adamant about rejecting it. Whereas Anakin didn't know Palpatine's secret and if he had known that Palps was likely feeding him poison, he probably wouldn't have turned.

3. Luke is somehow special in being able to go around the edges of the dark side and not fall completely in?

Which do you think?