Saga Did Yoda not tell Luke that the Emperor could strike him with lightning?

We all know that Yoda knew of Dooku's abilities and Sidious' abilities to use lightning. So before Luke went to face Vader and the Emperor, why did Yoda never tell him while he was on Dagobah to be prepared for it? Because Luke tossed aside his saber and assumed that the Emperor could not hurt him in Return Of The Jedi. Thoughts on this??

 

Luke was prepared to die. That's irrelevant.

 

Prepared to die? Are you sure? I doubt he would want to be tortured and shocked to death. In novelization it implies that Luke did not know about the lightning so I dont see how this is "irrelevant"

 

Are you talking about the '83 novelization or something more recent? Because obviously James Kahn didn't know that George (who probably didn't know either) was going to have Yoda face off against the Emperor in the prequels, or that anybody else would use Force Lightning. I thought it was just supposed to be a power the Emperor had, because he's the only person we saw use it until Dooku. Vader didn't use it.

It wasn't that he thought the Emperor couldn't hurt him, just didn't expect him to hurt him then, and even if he did there's nothing much he can do if the Emperor decides to kill him in the middle of the Death Star. The Emperor had only sat around up to that point, and Luke wasn't really fighting for his life in that throne room, Vader and the Emperor weren't REALLY trying to kill him, they were trying to turn him. Luke won the game, he disabled Vader without killing him, and refused to finish him off and join the Emperor. So he threw down his lightsaber in defiance of that, he didn't know he was about to need it to defend himself against the Emperor, because he didn't know that the Emperor would even attack him. It ended up being the point where the Emperor got tired of the games and just decided to put Luke down, but for all Luke knew he'd keep trying. I doubt Luke was too worried about "I need that in case he shoots force lightning", because when you're in the middle of the Death Star the Emperor can probably have you ordered to death in a thousand different ways. As ovi-arin said, he was prepared to die when he went aboard the Death Star, though he was hoping for the best. Things were looking pretty bleak by that stage of the game for Luke though, Vader wasn't budging, the attack seemed to be thwarted, he thought he was a dead man but he was going to go down defiant to the Emperor.

 

That's true, he was going out with pride and dignity because that definitely seemed like a no-win, no-survive situation. I do recall now that Yoda told him to not underestimate the powers of the Emperor. He couldve been more specific about the lightning but he was about to pass so who knows what was going thru Yoda's mind

 

Well it's possible that Yoda did tell Luke about it at some point, we don't see all of his training and conversations in Empire. But we're talking about Luke here lol, they could have at least told him about his father and sister too. Luke never gets any need to know info.

 

Yes exactly. Obi-Wan and Yoda were never straightforward with him on anything

 

Surely they were...

 

Yoda did tell "do not underestimate the powers of the Emperor." He did warn Luke.

I find some Yoda's teachings and Obi-wan lying to Luke and saying "certain point of view" crap more troubling than his lack of saying "beware of lightning shooting from the Emperor's fingertips."

P.S "Luke before go you do, say good and clap his hands, he will"

 

They should have never included Force Lightning in the PT.
Give Dooku and Palpatine several different Force powers to keep people guessing.

 

Luke: "...soon I'll be dead, and you with me..."

 

He tossed his lightsaber aside because he wouldn't fight anymore, not because he tought the Emperor couldn't hurt him.

Guess what?

Not sure that's true. It was established that Yoda did know the Emperor, and Yoda warned Luke to not underestimate his powers.

 

I love Lightning and Tutaminis. If Luke was ready, He would learn of it through the force. It seems like some didn't listen to Yoda in tESB/RtoJ and take it to heart.

 

According to the actual dialogue in ROJ, there is no indication that Yoda really expected Luke to meet the Emperor (we discussed this recently in another thread).

His and Ben's idea rather seemed to be that Luke would defeat Vader first (on Endor), and then train Leia as a Jedi before they'd confront the Emperor together.

But Luke decided to execute his own plan (i.e. meet Vader unarmed and persuade him to run away from it all together with Luke). This didn't work but Luke was obviously accepting to die together with his father and the Emperor in the Rebel attack on the Death Star (so he still wouldn't have to kill his father).

SatineNaberrie wrote

I find some Yoda's teachings and Obi-wan lying to Luke and saying "certain point of view" crap more troubling than his lack of saying "beware of lightning shooting from the Emperor's fingertips."

I agree or shall I say I used to agree?

First, Yoda already told Luke why neither him or Ben revealed the true nature of his father:

LUKE Unfortunate that I know the truth?

Yoda opens his eyes again and studies the youth.

YODA (gathering all his strength)
No. Unfortunate that you rushed to face him... that incomplete was your
training. Not
ready for the burden were you.

But instead, the lad also had to pester Ben about it, although Yoda had made it abundantly clear why he wasn't told:

LUKE Obi-Wan! Why didn't you tell me?

(BEN: Didn't you listen to Yoda?!?!?)

The other thing - I recently opened a new thread about it - is how Ben and Owen Lars agreed to handle the situation whenever anybody was mentioning the Name "Obi-Wan":

LUKE But what if this Obi-Wan comes looking
for him?

OWEN He won't, I don't think he exists
any more. He died about the same
time as your father.

I could argue that assuming a different identity was the "death" of the previous identity had become such a second nature of Ben Kenobi's thinking, that he also applied the same wording for the story of Anakin Sykywalker as he did for himself.

This may not be the greatest of rationalizations, but perhaps it removes the "thorn in my side" feeling each time I have to listen to Ben's awful "from a certain point of view".

 

The fact that Yoda warned Luke about the Emperor's powers pretty much proves that he did expect that.

 

Alexrd

Yoda was on his dying bed and tried to provide all the information Luke might need for the future, including a future confrontation with the Emperor.

I'd say both Yoda and Ben were fully aware that Luke wouldn't be able to take on both Vader and the Emperor at the same time.

 

Obi-Wan and Yoda didn't send Luke to take on the Emperor but he knew he would face him, hence the warning.

 

Even if Luke kept his lightsaber I don't think he had a chance vs Palpatine's lightning.

Mace could barely hold it back and I think Mace in ROTS was way more powerful than Luke in ROTJ.

 

Yeah, Palpatine's lightning was on a different level than Dooku's. Yoda and Obi-Wan were able to block Dooku's attack with relative ease. Yoda got a nasty surprise when he first encountered Palpatine's lightning.

 

My personal view is that neither Yoda nor Obi Wan contemplated that Luke might voluntarily surrender himself to the emperor.

They each implore Luke to confront Vader and destroy him. Luke takes it upon himself, with faith that his father still had good in him, to surrender willingly and be taken before the emperor.

Yoda's line - don't underestimate the power of the emperor - is a generalization. For all Yoda knows Luke will destroy Vader and then attack the Emperor.

In my opinion Luke went completely outside the box in an effort to save his dad, something only the emperor foresaw and expected.

 

I'm sure Palps had a bunch of different Force tricks up his sleeves, and lightning was only one option. Yoda didn't have time to coach Luke about the million ways to die from the Sith, so he just went with the general advice to not underestimate him.

 

Luke: Never. I'll never turn to the Dark Side. You've failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.
Palpatine: It's treason then *red lightsaber ignites*
Luke: *gulp*

 

That's true. Yoda did give him the general warning. There was no telling what the Emperor was going to do

 

If Force lightning was the only power Palpatine had in the PT and was able to be blocked why not mention that?
If Palpatine fires 2-3 different powers at Yoda in their ROTS battle, the warning would make more sense. One power shown, why not mention it specifically?
AOTC and ROTS ruins the suspense of ROTJ.