ST Premonition Crises: The Saga's True Antagonist?

That was the trap: show up and save them or stay hidden and let them die. Maybe rescue is a bit strong for what Luke did, but do you really think Vader would have kept Leia alive if she turned out not to be useful as bait? Maybe Han too if Vader was annoyed enough to cross Jabba. Luke's appearance was what saved them.

 

It was Lando who saved Leia and Chewie, plain and simple, and then they all escaped together. Not only did Luke have no part in rescuing them, but they ended up having to rescue him. I don't see how Luke not arriving would have changed anything.

 

Luke showing up seemed to served the purpose of separating Vader from Leia & Chewbacca which probably made the escape possible. Some officer tells Vader that Luke is incoming and he hangs out in the carbonite chamber to meet him. If he were instead escorting Leia etc to his ship personally I doubt the Lando-Lobot dream team would have been able to do anything.

 

Hmm I guess that's true, but I'm still not convinced that they wouldn't have managed to escape if Luke hadn't shown up. Didn't Vader order Leia and Chewy to be brought to his ship after he found out Luke was there? If so, then it's just as possible that he would have left them there as he had agreed to, and if not then they would have been taken to his ship without him anyway.

 

Yeah, I don't think Luke's arrival at Cloud City could really count as helping to save his friends. Han was frozen anyway, and the others escaped on their own / with Lando's help... and then they even had to go back to also save Luke, as Mystery Roach mentioned. Yoda even brings this up to Luke later in ROTJ:

"Unfortunate that you rushed to face him... that incomplete was your training. Not ready for the burden were you."

Of course, Yoda is talking more about Vader there, but the relevant point here is that Luke's failure against Vader is what caused him to have to be rescued by the others.

 

This beings up an interesting philosophical point about what constitutes success or failure. It never seemed to me that Luke was trying to distract Vader from Leia. He just wanted to help them escape. *as it turned out*, he fell into Vader's trap which distracted Vader from the others, but I don't think he did that on purpose. If my goal is to save a child from a burning building and I accidentally step on a gun that shoots a fire escape ladder, causing it to slide down to the ground and the kid climbs down it to safety, can I really be said to have succeeded or just gotten lucky?


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Would any of them have been able to escape if R2 hadn't repaired the Falcon in the nick of time, though?

 

Bingo!

Not only does Luke keep Vader's attention from the escape, but it enables Artoo's presence to fix the Falcon's hyperdrive.

 

So Luke actually saved the day by bringing the true hero of the saga to Bespin with him. That I can buy.

 

One more question about Luke's premonitions/visions in maybe episode VII, if he can see the past, present & future, why he could not see that he will maybe cause it by his actions and therefore avoid it?

 

One could say the same about Anakin. I guess that's just the nature of prophecy. It bears repeating... "always in motion is the future".

 

Premonition Antagonist. That's the name of my new surrealist handprint.

 

What a coincidence. Premonition Crisis is my new band name.