CT "Jabba, this your last chance. Free us, or die."

Would Luke really have allowed Jabba to continue running his operation if he had chosen to free him and his friends? It seems immoral to knowingly allow a criminal organization that uses mafia tactics to freely terrorize a population.

 

Tricky question. Generally speaking, when a group is in revolt against an established government, that group encourages criminal activity. They don't fight those criminals because they wouldn't waste precious resources. A group of rebels enjoy the fact that criminal organizations are a thorn in the side of the government they are rebelling against. In the GFFA, it was the other way around.

 

I think so. At that point, Luke was only concerned with freeing his friends. He might try to shut down Jabba's operation later, but that wasn't a priority at that point. It's sort of like Qui-Gon not trying to single-handedly free all the slaves in TPM; slavery was bad, but he had more pressing matters to deal with first.

One interesting note: James Kahn's ROTJ novelization has a passage where Luke is actually a bit glad that Jabba doesn't give up. He's actually looking forward to taking the Hutt down, and (if I remember correctly) considers him, "despicable, a leech on the galaxy". A bit of this comes across in the movie; Luke is nodding and slightly smiling when Jabba sentences them to the Sarlaac, giving Luke the opportunity to get rid of him. As I noted a while back, part of it is because if fits in with his plans, but beyond that...

 

I wonder if Luke's desire for "adventure and excitement" and being more agressive than other Jedi will backfire in Episode VII.

 

If Luke can forgive his Father for his atrocities, surely he could cut Jabba the Hutt some slack.

 

I don't think Jabba's operation was high on Luke's priority list at that point in time. If he could've got his friends off the planet quickly and without fuss he probably would've done so.

 

Evidently not, since he didn't stop Leia from killing him.

 

How could he have stopped her? Wasn't he on the sand skiff swinging his light saber around while she was taking care of Jabba? But it doesn't matter. He wouldn't have bothered stopping her anyway. Leia, understandably, had a bone or two to pick with Jabba.

 

"Slack..." heh heh.

 

Easy, say, "Leia, whatever you do don't kill Jabba. Our resources need to be with saving our friends."

 

Yup:

RoTJ novel:

Luke only smiled. "You should have bargained, Jabba. That's the last mistake you'll ever make." Luke was unable to suppress the satisfaction in his voice. He found Jabba despicable- a leech of the galaxy, sucking the life from whatever he touched. Luke wanted to burn the villain, and so was actually rather glad that Jabba had refused to bargain- for now Luke would get his wish precisely. Of course, his primary objective was to free his friends, whom he loved dearly; it was this concern that guided him now, above all else. But in the process, to free the universe of this gangster slug- this was a prospect that tinted Luke's purpose with an ever-so-slightly dark satisfaction.​

 

He probably didn't really care what Leia had to do to save herself, and if killing Jabba is what it took, then all the better. His goal was to get himself and his friends off of Tatooine. If he could do that without bloodshed, good. If not, so be it. He wasn't exactly 100% 'pure holy paladin' Jedi just yet, I mean for goodness sake he's clad in complete black! As if Lucas was symbolically saying Luke wasn't sure what sort of Jedi he was going to be.

And admit it, you were rooting for him when he was slicing and dicing through Jabba's men. He's no Yoda, but at least he knew Jabba was a threat and took care of that when he could.

 

Yeah, of course we were rooting against Jabba, that's not the point

But as for saving herself, Jabba is a giant slug, what was he going to do in the heat of battle, sit on her?

 

Eat her, possibly:


Or flatten her with his tail:

 

I don't remember Jabba being that mobile in RotJ.

 

He was pretty mobile in ANH though - which was only 3 years before.

 

He stopped his WeightWatchers program.

 

He's far from the fattest Hutt around though:

Spoiler

 

Luke's primary interest (as always) was to free his friends. If Jabba had allowed Han, Leia, the Droids, and himself to leave, Luke would have let the Crime Lord be. Jedi are not required to purify planets of crime and evil. They only saber rattle when there is no other possible choice. Luke was practicing typical Jedi negotiating.

 

Exactly. Aggression is supposed to be a last resort for a Jedi. Single-handedly murdering everyone in a criminal organization isn't the role of a Jedi; it's the role of a vigilante. Luke's only interest was in rescuing his friend who was being held against his will. If Jabba had simply let Han go, I think Luke would have kept his word and left Jabba in peace.

Of course, that doesn't mean the reconstituted Republic wouldn't eventually have something to say about Jabba's activities.....

 

Well, his predecessors had absolutely no problem with crime syndicates keeping slaves, even when it was directly brought to their attention and the slaves specifically asked for help, so...

 

It wouldn't have mattered whether or not Leia had taken Jabba out. Obviously, Luke wanted to take him out, or else he wouldn't have destroyed the entire Sail Barge (killing everyone in it) when they left.

 

It wouldn't have mattered whether or not Leia had taken Jabba out. Obviously, Luke wanted to take him out, or else he wouldn't have destroyed the entire Sail Barge (killing everyone in it) when they left. If Leia hadn't already eliminated Jabba, he would have died when the Barge was destroyed...

 

These were literally my exact thoughts when reading the original post. Luke attempting to reach a nonviolent solution with Jabba over Han's fate (and later the fates of his other friends) doesn't imply that either he or the Rebels in general are okay with Jabba, but rather that he's trying to handle things the Jedi way. Luke might have eventually come back to put a halt to Jabba's activities, but more likely it would be a job for the Republic, and even if he did he wouldn't do it by slaughtering everyone in site.

 

The Jedi are guardians of peace and justice, but not necessarily a police enforcement of it any-and-everywhere across the galaxy.