Full Series Why did Luminara just climb into her own execution sarcophagus?

Sounds like she went out just as a Jedi would, by accepting her death. It's exactly the way I would expect Luminara to go, if she had been imprisoned and sentenced to death. Soooo, good characterization?

 

Exactly. I mean, what was she supposed to do? Take on the Inquisitor with her hands tied together? Yeah, not going to end well. Jedi are pretty okay with dying, even before you get into how psychologically broken Luminara must have been. Apprentice goes dark side in the worst way and murders Jedi, then she witnesses the destruction of the Jedi Order and survives Order 66 long enough to understand what happened, only to be captured and probably tortured. She's done. Inquisitor walks in to execute her? Fine. Will of the Force. Get it over with.

And that's assuming that the "Inquisitor" in question was the British lizard from Utapau that we're familar with, and not the aforementioned crazy apprentice, which is a thought I can't help but have.

 

Oh, certainly it must have been an Imperial classification number of one sort or another. As you say, her prisoner number, I'd think.

 

Actually the Jedi do not want to be taken alive as prisoners to be used:

Mace Wundu: We will not be hostages to be bartered, Dooku.


So Luminara being passive in being captured is a problem. Jedi can use the force and are trained in martial arts , we even saw from the Jedi fight to the death rather than lay down their arms on the toon, or even the ones captured there was never giving any in to being a prisoner from any of them. Maybe they want to have Luminara as a lost faith-type jedi.


Obi Wan was ok dying for Luke's benifit so he would be run away and not be shot down or captured by Vader there . Plus Kenobi was an old man, and he also knew how to become a Force Spirit which other Jedi did not, he knew he could live past being cut down and perhaps be stronger cause he's not trapped in an aged old body but his appearances were very sporadic anyway.

 

You make it sound like she had a choice in whether she was captured, which I highly doubt. The other Jedi you're referring to also had a hope of being rescued or escaping on their own. Luminara didn't. And if they had actually executed any of the Jedi captured in TCW, I expect that they would have calmly accepted it if there was no hope of escape. Which there wasn't for Luminara. Even if she somehow overpowered the Inquisitor without her lightsaber, she had no way to get off of Stygeon Prime, and she was surrounded by hundreds of Stormtroopers. No point in delaying the inevitable.

Case in point: when Pre Viszla was going to execute Ahsoka, she closed her eyes and calmly accepted it because she didn't see any other option. But then she got rescued by Artoo and it turned out that wasn't a good day to die after all.

 

The context in AOTC is entirely different. A war has just begun. The Separatists can use Jedi hostages as extremely valuable bargaining chips to be leveraged against the Republic, and it could potentially have a huge impact.

And yet, several Jedi actually were disarmed and taken alive as prisoners. They were pushed back into the middle with the rest of the Jedi, but they did allow themselves to be captured, they did give themselves up, they did stop fighting, and the Separatists could have taken them aside and imprisoned them. The Separatists didn't have to put them with the rest.

For Luminara, the war is over. Her side lost. Completely. Her fellow Jedi are gone. Dead. The Empire has won. The Empire doesn't need to negotiate with anyone. There is no one to barter for Luminara. There is no government seeking to trade for her. The galactic government, the only government, has branded her and her kind as traitors to be exterminated.

Luminara has already been taken alive, and she's not going to be used as a hostage, she's going to be executed.


One thing I don't think is consistent with Jedi is going out in a blaze of glory, taking as many lives with them...for the sake of going out in a blaze of glory and taking as many lives with them...just to be badasses, to avoid going out "like a punk".

She's going to die. If she's going to take lives with her, there has to be a reason, a cause, worth killing for as she goes. Jedi value life, they don't destroy it carelessly. They don't lust to kill as many of the enemy as they can.

Realistically, Luminara is defeated. The fight is over, the cause is lost. The Jedi are no longer the guardians of peace and justice. The Jedi are no more.

Death is a natural part of life. She's going to transform into the Force. And she's accepted that. She's not afraid. Not enough to go ape **** and fight like a scared animal clinging to life.

"It's not that I gave up, Skywalker—but unlike you, when the time comes, I am prepared to let my student go. Can you say the same?"

Letting go of her own life is good, consistent characterization, imo.

 

Yeah, whether or 'we' would prefer to go down fighting or not, Luminara choosing to accept defeat and death when the time comes is entirely in character with what we know of her specifically. The Jedi have lost, she in particular lost more than most what with Bariss becoming a terrorist and a traitor and Luminara would feel (rightly or wrongly) that is down to her failings as a teacher. She's letting go of her life. Yoda did something very similar when he lost to Sidious; he acknowledged he personally could not win the day, so he retreated to find another way rather than try and go down fighting against Sidious or the clones. It's the Jedi way, or at least a widely held interpretation thereof.

 

I wonder if that's why Obi Wan let Vader kill him as well? One some level, he felt responsible for Anakin's fall/the extermination of the Jedi because he "failed to train Anakin right."

 

The idea for this thread actually came to me when I saw this image the other day in the Rebels caption this thread:



The first thought into my head: Her wrists aren't even that tightly bound!

And it seems to me if Inky was standing right there... she could have Force-pushed him backwards and called his lightsaber to her hand at the same time. Freed herself, and then went on the offensive. If she could have taken him out then she could have cut a swath through the surrounding Imperials, if they didn't expect a sudden rogue Jedi armed with a lightsaber on the loose. Quite possibly she might have escaped, and gone on to bigger and better things. At worst, her attack on him would have failed and he would have killed her right there, so she would be dead anyway, and would have lost nothing for the attempt.

Instead it seems like she just gave up, too easily.

It's one thing for a Jedi to accept their death when it is inevitable, when there is absolutely no chance of successfully fighting. But that didn't nescesarily seem to me to be the case with Luminara. Someone above brought up Ahsoka in AFIN, where you can see in her face and actions the moment that she comes to the conclusion her time has come, and prepares for death - but her situation seemed a lot more hopeless, than what Unduli's looked like from the hologram. She was also weaponless, but on her knees, pushed face down, trussed up with cables tightly wound around and around her body, with four Mandalorian warriors in full battle dress standing over her with ready weapons, besides Vizsla and his saber. The dynamic totally changed a few seconds later, as R2 charged in, barraged the place with smoke, gave her her lightsabers, while a squad of reactivated battledroids assaulted. But without that intervention, Ahsoka's position was utterly hopeless, hence her drop into pre-mortem meditation. In Unduli's case though, it sure looks to me like she could have at least had a go at turning the situation around. Look at the way Ahsoka just exploded into agressive action once she was freed and armed in AFIN. In the blink of an eye, she terminally shortened the four warriors holding her at bay, and then went into single combat with Vizsla, before making good her escape. If Luminara Unduli had attacked Inky and got his saber away from him... she might well have made good her escape.

Of course if as someone suggested "Darth Vader and a gang of five inquisitors" were standing there out of frame it would make her situation pretty damn hopeless. But we don't know that. There isn't any evidence of it I don't think.

Her death also wasn't like Obi-Wan's. Obi-Wan let Vader kill him so that he could become a Force-ghost and continue to be more useful to Luke that way. Luminara did nothing of the sort. Quite the opposite in fact - not only did she not become a Force-ghost, but after death her corpse was used by the Empire to lure and trap Jedi, bringing more Jedi to their deaths. Presumably she didn't know they were going to do that, but it underscores the more how her death was nothing like Obi-Wan's. There was no underlying ploy or positive purpose to it, like his had.

 

I've pretty much already responded earlier in the thread to the points in Darth Valkyrus post, so I won't type it up again.

 

Oh they are fair points Kablob, I was just stating my initial impression of the thing.

 

I don't think that we're meant to assume every single Jedi would react like Luminara did in her position - nor are we necessarily to assume she was 'right' to do as she did. After all, other Jedi may well have decided going fighting to the death was preferable to accepting defeat. Yoda himself initially decided to fight and presumably kill Sidious, only when he failed did he change tactics and concede defeat. But for Luminara specifically, the choice to simply accept her fate seems pretty legitimately in character even if you don't ascribe to the theory that she's got what basically amounts to PTSD and has given up long before she was actually captured/killed.

 

Actually that case does not support you at all. Tano was bound by multiple Mandalorians while Luminara simply was not well guarded(Stormtroopers are mostly a joke anyway where Kanan and Ezra have no problem slapping them around nor the rest of the cast for that matter). Luminara was not well bound, and those flimsy oversized cuffs she could slip her hands out,lol.

If Kanan, a wayward padawan, who has abandoned the Jedi way in favor of fear for many years within a few seconds is able to find strength in the Force was able to overwhelm The Inquisitor than why couldnt Luminara?! Ezra walked himself out've the cell after being captured by Kallus, why couldnt Luminara?! No where do these Imperials seem capable of capturing a Jedi Knight or being a match in hand to hand combat with the likes of Sabine. Very few Jedi were captured back in TCW, if they were they went down with a fight and were not passive in captivity and either freed themselves or were freed by others. I don't think you paid attention to A Friend in Need anyway. Tano had R2 search to ship to find her hidden lightsabers, and R2 told her he had them before they were all taken away on the speeder and she trusted in Lux doing the right thing at the right time and at first played along to protect him even from himself or The Death Watch if need be. So she she never gave up, was just waiting for the right moment, and she had friends. She even risked her own neck after breaking cover to try and fight off superior armed and numbered Death Watch with nothing but a piece of debris(a rod of some kind), so she was even fighting without a lightsaber up until she was captured by being cabled up by Vizla's soldiers when she just had her fists left. While bound in the tent she was simply calming and gathering strength through the Force , not unlike Jinn closing his eyes meditating before Maul recuperating his strength bringing himself in full tune with the Force in preparation for the right moment of defense , or following his own advice by allowing the Force to find another solution and present itself. So she was aware of her surroundings and had R2. Yoda's teaches “You will know when you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” And so she awaiting for the right moment to free herself and defend herself and Lux along with liberate the villagers. She was awaiting R2. So no that is not a good example and it supports what I was saying.

 

For those reasons, and what we've seen of the Inquisitor, I doubt he captured her. He may have been the warden of this prison, but Vader likely captured a Jedi Master with the knowledge and experience of Luminara. Her story after ROTS is critical to understanding why events transpired the way they did. Her death seemed voluntary, so I have to hope there was a good reason for it.

 

Ahsoka still had a chance to escape and a plan. Luminara had neither. She was dead regardless of what she did. Either she's executed, or she's cut down while trying to escape. So what's the point?

 

That was a great stand up and cheer Ahsoka scene in AFIN, I'm glad they did it. It helped make this one of my favorite standalone episodes.

 

The jedi had it pretty good on Kashyyyk, obviously, since she survived to be captured later on, Yoda made it out-wonder if Quinlan Vos also survives order 66 under this new canon...or if under this new canon, he was there at all with Luminara and Yoda...

 

The 41st Elite Corps really dropped the ball when it came to Order 66.

 

As I was reading through this thread (and helped by the fact that I just re-watched AOTC) I couldn't help think of another very powerful Jedi that was captured, despite putting up a fight, against droids - Obi-Wan on Geonosis.

He's incapacitated, bound, and beaten when Dooku comes to have a "chat" with him. It's only the ill-advised decision to have a public execution in the arena that gives him the opportunity of fighting.

 

They really sucked at there job.

 

It's possible all the Jedi on that planet survived with the help of the Wookies. That would be an interesting story to explore, especially since Yoda didn't realize Luminara escaped.

 

Yes, and we were to get a Clone Wars Season 7 arc focusing on Yoda and the Wookiees. It would be interesting to see the close bond they formed, and it may help us understand how heartfelt Yoda's line was as he left Kashyyyk in Ep 3 "miss you I will." With that close bond, maybe they worked together to help Yoda and possibly the other Jedi escape.

Also, I think a big portion of the failure of Commander Gree and his crew on Kashyyyk was due to Yoda being such a great Jedi.

 

Maybe that's why Wookiees are being shipped as slaves to Kessel from time to time in Rebels - their aiding of Jedi led to Palpatine ordering Kashyyyk subjugated.

Something similar happened in the EU in Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, at least. Written by Luceno, who also wrote the newcanon book Tarkin and dropped a reference or two to events from Dark Lord.

 

Wouldn't surprise me. If the Wookiees went all out to shelter, aid and comfort the Jedi... Palpatine would undoubtedly be furious and order that they be collectively punished, made example of, as an entire people.

The subsequent enslaving of them would fit right in there.

I'm kinda reminded of the story that the North Korean national soccer team, after failing to win the 2010 World Cup, were sent to work in coal mines as punishment.