Why did no one teach Luke to catch lightning???

In the novel, he repels the lightning for a short amount of time before being overwhelmed.

 

exactly.

 

jedi4c has it right, everyone is missing the point. Luke deflecting lightning is ot necessary since victory comes from love, not violence. Yoda and Ben tried violence and it failed in ROTS. Luke forsakes anger and the darkside and gives himself to the force, total surrender. It is the most beautiful moment in the saga and the greatest payoff for all the Jedi plots.

At the moment he throws his saber away he states his unwillingness to fight his destiny and the force. Perhaps he could have deflected with the saber, but that is a moot point. As far as blocking with his hands, well, form what we've seen only Yoda can do it and Luke is 900 years behind ther on the power curve.

Also, producing lightning is NOT the same as force pushing at all. Lightning is a raw manifestation of hate, and that IS the darkside. A good Jedi cannot produce lightning because it comes from anger, fear and agression, all darkside traits. I'm sure if a Jedi needed to produce a fire for freezing victims, he would relay on the force for a solution or accept their destiny as good Jedi must.

 

Obviously Senility.
Yoda who is 900 years old and Ben kenobi who is in his 60's they probably have senility.
"Do or do not. there is no... no... no..."
"Use the... Forks? no... Farce? no..." Etc.

 

If he hadn't thrown away his saber I think he would have been able to deflect the lightning. Minus the saber and he is in trouble.

 

Luke has a lot to learn in an extremely small amount of time from Obi-Wan and Yoda. Obi-Wan trains Luke to block/deflect blaster fire (which would be much more common than force-lightning). Yoda teaches Luke about the force and sensing and controlling it. With enough force mastery you would be able to naturally catch force lightning (unless you get surprised by it like Yoda in Palp's office). I don't think anyone was taught how to catch or absorb/deflect the lightning (we see Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Mace) but they responded they way they did because of their control of the force.

 

Maybe he was taught but he may have been caught off guard like Yoda in ROTS

 

On a similar note, when LUke entered Jabba's palace did he use force choke on the guards? Isn't that a Sith skill and who taught him?

 

I don't think that (or necessarily any) force skill needs to be taught. It seems like more of a raw ability or a reflex that can be honed.

 

I'm thinking to learn how to catch it with his hands would take a lot more training. Yoda had couple centuries of training to learn how to defelect it with his hands.
They could of told him how to deflect it with his lightsaber, but like everyone is saying. He ran off to save Han, Leia and Chewie in ESB.

It wouldn't of been any good anyways because he tosses his lightsaber away.

 

Luke: ".. But I've come back to complete the training."
Yoda: "Already know, you, that which you need."

that is humility. Anakin wasn't notably humble, but very notably renegade.

Luke stopped trying to control things and finally let go (as physically symbolized by tossing away his saber).

Luke learned humility after he left Dagobah the first time. He saw the price of his aggression - and Vader's.

Luke's humility impressed Vader enough to allow him to get back into the "chosen one's" character.

It's not about the lightning at all. It's about being a Jedi.

Turning a Jedi into a Sith has been shown in the prequels to be through hostility, manipulation, and delusions of grandeur.

The classics showed us that a Sith is turned to a Jedi by means of humility.

In ANH Obi Wan staved off his demise long enough to leave Vader a message - alluding to Vader's delusions of grandeur: "Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine." ObiWan immediately changed from a stance of defense to a stance of humble submission to the force.

Many things could have been running through Vader's mind when Obi said that - but he was gradually learning throughout the classic trilogy exactly what Obi had meant.

Luke punctuated the lesson of humility for himself and Vader when he tossed his saber to the side in RoTJ. It was Vader's duty to clean up the mess he'd made - not Luke's.

It's not about the lightning at all.

** Though I do wish Luke wasn't such a little b!tch-boy **

 

*Voice over inside Luke's head while he's being electrocuted*

Yoda: "No more training do you require."

Luke: "Stupid Yoda!!!"

 

Excellent post, RII. I've been frankly baffled by this question for 23 years! With the points about humility, letting go of control, and about Ben basically doing the same thing before Vader, Luke's action at the end of ROTJ now makes complete sense to me. It doesn't matter if Luke knows about Force lightning or doesn't know. Yoda would have had no need to tell him, because Luke is now morally and psychologically prepared to act "correctly". In this case, the correct act is to surrender himself and let his destiny -- and that of his father -- guide them both.

 

From the RotJ novel (emphasis mine):

"Palpatine raised his spidery arms toward Luke: blinding white bolts of energy coruscated from his fingers, shot across the room like sorcerous lightning, and tore through the boy's insides, looking for ground. The young Jedi was at once confounded and in agony - he'd never heard of such a power, such a corruption of the Force, let alone experienced it.

But if it was Force-generated, it could be Force-repelled. Luke raised his arms to deflect the bolts. Initially, he was successful - the lightning rebounded from his touch, harmlessly into the walls. Soon, though, the shocks came with such speed and power, they coursed over and into him, and he could only shrink before them, convulsed with pain, his knees buckling, his powers at ebb."

So he isn't even aware of the Emperor's signature power. Way to go, Yoda!

Oh, and BTW, there is no Tales story in which Qui-Gon teaches Luke how to deflect Force lightning. Qui-Gon has no contact with Luke whatsoever, whether in canon or Infinities.

 

Several possible reasons:

Luke wasn't ready
Luke didn't know about lightning
He wanted to redeem Anakin. How better to do that then put himself in jepordy?
He ran off before Yoda could teach him to catch it
Obi-Wan didn't mention it
Yoda forgot about it.
Yoda didn't know Palpy could do it
Luke didn't know how to catch it.

Pick one.

 

Luke wasn't ready to learn that kind of thing. According to Yoda he was still a Padawn until he confronts Vader, and even if you consider him a Knight a little earlier, he is only a knight. And a very new one with that. The only people who we've seen absorb lighting was Jedi masters or Obi-wan as a Knight but he had much more training than Luke, obviously.

 

Also I'm sure there more important things for Yoda and Ben to teach him about the force.




Emporer Gerner Dark Lord of the Sith

 

Luke was a very inexperienced Jedi. He had very little training from Ben and Yoda if you think comparatively to ANakin and other characters. Another explanation is that once again Luke didn't head Yoda's advice ("Do not under estimate the Emperor") and clearly he did underestimate his powers and got lucky in the end......

 

Maybe he could not do it anyway because of his artificial hand?

 

But it doesn't matter wether somebody was teaching him this or not. Luke accepted that either his father would turn, or he would die (and then at least serving as a diversion to keep the Emperor on the Death Star while the rebels attacked it).

Luke put his faith completely into his father's hands. It's not like fighting the Emperor would have done any good anyway. There is no way that Luke could have won that battle.

 

It's questions like these that make me rue certain plot elements from the OT being "spoiled" in the PT. I can remember being startled to see this weak, withered Emperor rise up and electrocute the bejesus out of Luke--it was a totally unexpected moment. By using this power wantonly in the PT, it not only takes away the surprise at the end of ROTJ, but confuses people that saw how easily Obi-Wan, Mace and Yoda defended themselves from it in the OT.

 

The reason Yoda was able to block the lightning is because he did some study of the dark side at some point in his lifetime. not as a student like Sidious, but in a quest for greater understanding.

 

I wouldn't say Mace had an easy time. He looked like he was barely able to hold on to his saber from the shear intensity of the attack. And he was not able to absorbe it later, without his saber he was just as vulrneable as Luke.

btw, when did Obi-Wan deflect lightning? I just remember him getting easily bested by Dooku. It was a while since I watched ATOC so correct my if I'm wrong though.

 

I could definitely be wrong, but I'm picturing Obi-Wan deflecting Dooku's lightning in AOTC--it's been a long while since I saw that too, I may be getting him mixed up with Yoda in that scene.

 

Obi-Wan didn't necessarily deflect Dooku's lightning, but he absorbed it with his lightsaber.. during my favorite quote of the PT, which belongs to Obi-Wan:

Dooku: As you can see, my Jedi powers are far beyond yours. Now.. back down.

*Dooku shoots lightning as Obi-Wan absorbs with his saber*

Obi-Wan: I don't think so.