Dagobah: Why did Luke find it familiar?

LUKE: Still...there's something familiar about this place. I feel
like...I don't know...

YODA: Feel like what?

LUKE: (looking at the creature) Like we're being watched!

Why does Luke find it familiar on Dagobah? Is it because he senses Yoda's presence? Is it because he's been there before? Before the PT came out I thought Luke would be brought to Dagobah for a short period of time, but that's not the case. Thoughts?

 

Good question. I think it may be because he feels Yoda's presence then, but he can't put a finger on what that feeling really is. And he may have felt that same feeling before when he was still on Tatooine and Yoda was watching him through the Force.

 

True. Yoda said that he had been watching Luke for a long time. Perhaps Luke was sensing that feeling again. I think we answered this question already!

 

"It's like something out of a dream...."

Luke probably had Force-visions about Dagobah, never realizing that it was a real place or even remembering that he had the dreams.

 

I like to think everything in Star Wars is like something out of a dream.

 

The long-held rumour was that the infant Luke would be taken to Dagobah at some point, perhaps as a short stop-off during the flight from Vader & the Empire, or even to live for his first couple of years. I've never heard it confirmed that this was ever considered by GL, however. Just another case of grasping at the tiniest details in the OT for information about the upcoming prequels.

I always took his comment to simply be a vague sense of deja vu brought on by Yoda's strong Force presence, as well as his own increasing Force awareness. The 'familiarity' didn't have to necessarily be any sort of recollection of the place itself, just a connection.

 

Yoda's powerful Force presence. I'm going to sound silly for a moment, but I'm thinking that Luke felt Yoda's presence when he was born at Polis Massa near the end of ROTS.

 

This is what grinds my gears about discussions about what various characters feel through the Force - taking it to another level, i.e. the necessity to explain that they 'remembered' ridiculously brief encounters (or, in this case, merely a close proximity). Surely the very presence of one of the most powerful Jedi ever to have existed would have been enough to ping Luke's Force sensitivity, especially considering that Yoda would have wanted such senses to be alerted.

Until the 90's rumours started, I (& everyone I knew) simply accepted Luke's sense of familiarity to be simply an awareness that the Force was stronger on Dagobah than other places he'd been, largely due to Yoda's presence.

 

Agreed. When Luke speaks of the universal feeling of Deja Vu, we're there with him. We know this planet is important to Luke. Its just destiny. Its like when you meet someone and you know that they will be important in your life. Its not because we've met them before. Like many things in SW, its not important to explain rationally.

 

I agree with this. Jedi see the future, albeit sometimes in abstract form - but I doubt Luke had ever realised the significance of it before his training. Dagobah is so different to any other environment we know Luke to have ever been in. It should be completely alien to him, yet he remarks its "familiar". We now know he's never physically been there, so the fact he says this can only mean he had a vision of it. Remember also, he says to Artoo "its like something out of a dream".

Even though this is how we intepret it now, I doubt the line was put in just because Lucas was thinking he'd set a prequel there one day with an infant Luke. I think it was simply a way of expressing to the audience that Luke was growing stronger in the force and gaining the ability to interpret things outwith his normal perception - sensing a familiarity with a place he'd never been works in that way (and then coupled with his later visions of the future regarding Han and Leia - one he is able to interpret - it makes even more sense that a previous vision was what was being referred to)

 

Absolutely. And it works because it's actually something we can relate to without being Force-sensitive people. I've personally had such feelings, both about people I've never met before & places I've never been to, & the feelings tend to be correct (both positively & negatively). What Luke feels is just an exaggerated version of what most people will experience on a few rare occasions in their lives.

Nutters, of course, will take such experiences as evidence of psychic abilities & start a phone service, but it all really comes down to basic human/animal instincts which can recognise such simple things as danger, safety, comfort & the like. The extension of that is the power that a fictional character such as a Jedi can transform from a simple instinct into a skill that can be utilised consciously.

 

I'll buy into this. Was Leia with Padme for much more than Luke was around Yoda??

 

Luke inherited from his father the ability to see into the constantly changing future. Anakin knew about force visions and sought help from Yoda to explain what the visions mean.

Luke, having no Jedi to converse with, just treated them as dreams and thus Dagobah seemed familiar, even though he couldn't explain it.

Also, I agree it was Lucas's way to illustrate Luke's growing force abilities.

 

Good point. Luke has actually met Yoda before, and they are both immensely powerful with the Force. The original film has a similar scene by the way, when Vader senses something outside the Falcon, "a presence I've not felt since..."

 

I agree that he could sense he belonged there. He knew Dagobah was where he should be, even if he didn't know why he was there.

 

It was definitely Yoda's presence. He was present when Padme gave birth to Luke. So maybe Luke "remembers" him in the same way that Leia remembered Padme.

 

It makes no sense to assume Luke is referring to his time with Yoda on Polis Massa as the reason he somewhat recognizes Dagobah. First, we don't even see in the films Yoda being close to Luke as an infant being born. They are separated by glass (at least what's on film). Also, Luke states the place seems familiar, not a presence like feeling Yoda nearby. It is Dagobah itself that seems familiar, not Yoda.

Hence, my previous post about Luke seeing the future in his dreams, a la Anakin.

 

Not to be contradictory, but Luke does say that what he feels is "Like we're being watched!"

 

That's more a quip to break the tension than anything else, hurled at an unwelcome intruder. Wouldn't read too much into it. They were being watched, anyway.

The 'familiarity' Luke senses is an extremely vague mix of deja vu & destiny when he happens to be exactly where he's meant to be. Anyone as strong in the Force as Luke is at that point would have felt something, regardless of whether or not he'd ever been to Dagobah or met Yoda - just as anyone as inexperienced wouldn't have been able to figure out exactly what he was feeling.

Forget the 'familiarity', there's one phrase Luke repeats, which sums it all up - "I don't know".

Given that premonition isn't something human beings (or any beings) are meant to have, being out of the scientific realm & somewhat the opposite of memory, I imagine that anyone who might experience it in a strong way might describe it as a sense of familiarity, having no other point of reference.

 

Being the force sensative, as he was, Luke could have possibly had a connection, albeit a small one to Yoda. This isn't fact, just an opinion.

 

Well I think he says that once he realizes they are being watched and to let the person watching them know, that he knows they are watching, haha.

I don't think it changes his original comment about something being familiar.

 

Exactly... he already knows that someone is actually there when he says "like we're being watched". The larger question is why he feels the familiarity before he knows that, and I think that's been well addressed by many already (including me ).

 

Also, If Leia can "remember" Padme in ROTJ, and Padme had no connection to the force, so unless Leia sensed her there would be no memory, then it can be believable that Luke feels a familiar feeling on Dagobah, when near Yoda.

 

If Luke felt familiar to Yoda just based on their time on Polis Massa, then why doesn't he recognize Leia in ANH? They spent approximately 9 months together in a womb and presumably spent time together in the maternity ward aboard PM, certainly more time than Luke would have with Yoda.

 

Maybe Luke's latent Force sensitivity caused him to see glimpses of the future in a dream.