CT How long was Luke on Dagobah?

If I remember the ESB book I read ages ago it was 2-3 weeks

 

Here's canon. The simplest interpretation with the fewest moving parts and least amount of special pleadings is that "the training" (with a definite article) takes longer than "Adventure" (generic) and "Excitement" (generic). "Deepest commitment, the most serious mind" requires more raw time in the saddle / pilot seat than adventure and excitement. Yoda's statement of criteria that he has trained Jedi for eight hundred years means the the criteria for who is ready to begin "the training" has to share some degree of proportion to eight hundred years. This is because a spare plural of days, two minimum, out of Yoda's eight hundred years, is no appreciable cost of any kind for Yoda to put his foot down about. "The training" is an investment on Yoda's part as well as Luke's.

Yoda thinks Luke is "too old to begin the training". He's visually about 20 years old. "The training" has to be of some amount of time that is proportionate to Luke's age. If it was a one-day refresher course in First Aid or CPR, then, Luke would not be "too old". A lot of people can get 2-day training in something.

Yoda has been watching young George Luke S pursue mechanics and racing and nearly get himself killed, to the point where Biggs gives him a lecture about risky flying. (Kitster warns young Anakin he'll be bug splat.) What Luke has been doing, fun if dangerous activities, Yoda reduces to coping mechanisms for the chronic sensation of displacement from an idealized better, bright center of the universe. So what Yoda asks of Luke to perform as an alternative to fun if dangerous activities, to not look away, have to be things that are not something that can be 'craved'. It cannot be "fun". A spare plural of days, two minimum, is a very small price, nearly no price, for Luke to pay of alternative activities that are not to be craved and are not fun.

Luke asserted that he was "ready". Yoda retorted, "what can you know" about the quality or state of being ready. If "the training" required a spare plural of days, two minimum, then Luke was "ready", and Yoda would have had no reason to haul him up on that claim of asserting / thinking / knowing he was ready. The script confirms Luke acknowledges he is "reckless". Definition, "without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action". Luke has not demonstrated an ability yet, to Yoda's satisfaction, to keep his powder dry, to wait until he sees the whites of their eyes, and to execute a decisive action. But Luke feels that his victory over the Death Star qualifies, or maybe drawing the sword from the stone. These actions required very short timescales, and it may be that the readiness Yoda speaks of is not the readiness that Luke feels he has. The readiness Yoda speaks of has to be on timescales that are proportionate to Luke's age, Yoda's tenure, the definite article "the" in front of "training", and has to be of a duration and an arduousness that it cannot be "craved" like "Adventure" or "Excitement".

 

it doesn't say that at all

lol relevant saw this today

No images with curse words that aren't completely starred out/cubman987 edit

the comment section on it is very relevant Seems most people also realize it was only 2 or 3 days

 

Can you repost?

 

That was apparently what very early West End Games material was working from. Over time it's been reduced to "a few weeks" or "about a month".

for me, 1 month's vastly more plausible than either 2 days, or 18 months.

 

it's a reddit thread looks like i can't every time i try posting it it puts the image up. let me try this reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/emcgzy/progressively_less_training/ there we go. just copy and past that

which again makes no sense so between the start of Empire and ROTJ it's 1 year. Even 1 month makes no sense as when does that happen? During what scene does 1 month of time pass.

 

we don't know have long the Falcon was in the cave/slug or how long it took them to get to Bespin. "It's pretty far but I think we can make it." It's really not that unlikely. Plus the Falcon's light speed was broken.

 

Between when the Falcon detacheds from the Avenger and sets off from Bespin and the very next scene, when Luke is meditating and has the vision of them suffering. Luke even makes it clear that he's been on Dagobah a while becuse a couple of scenes later, when he's preparing to leave, he says he's learned so much"since then" in reference to his experiance in the cave; if that had only been a few days ago it would seem like a pretty presumtious statement for him to make, and that scene took place around the same time that the Falcon was being chased by the Avenger.

And I don't think we know how long the passage of time between Empire and ROTJ is (Empire is in 3 ABY and Jedi in 4 ABY, but we don't know when in those years they fall; as far as we know the only information we have is that the Battle of Akiva in Aftermath occurs "months" after Endor and its still 4 ABY then.

Not super long I would think. Long enough for Han to do some repairs and "think" that he fixed the lightspeed; it was seemingly the equivliant to pulling over on the side of the highway to change a tire and check under the hood.

 

that's the issue right there. Up until that point the falcon has been in space maybe a day and a half. The second Luke has his vision is when he makes the decision to leave. he doens't have more training and there are no more scenes for Luke. The next time we see Luke after having the vision he is leaving for Bespin. Han and Leai arrive on bespin as Luke leaves.

I agree the time traveling to Bespin is the only place you could fit more training in but there isn't as we see Luke deciding to leave.

yeah he does learn a lot like how to listen to the force hell even his failure is a huge learning opportunity for him. But it still doesn't change the fact that it's clearly only a few days

they can't be in the cave long as they mynocks would have eaten the ship if it was too long. As for the trip to Bespin as soon as they head off to it Luke has the vision and makes the decision to leave. So at that point no more training occurs.

 

According to the novelisation, Luke has several visions, not just the one.

 

At least a few days, more than likely weeks. The Star Wars: Essential Atlas (Legends) says that it took the Millennium Falcon weeks to get to Bespin. And I have to imagine the timeline of Luke on Dagobah relative to the B-plot of the Millennium Falcon is pretty similarly paced to what we see.

 

I want to point out here that the specific cut in which the time jump must take place is the one right after the shot of Boba Fett in the Slave I, which is right before the scene in which Luke has his vision.

 

I am failing this thread. I know there is an interview with Kersh during which he discusses this, but I cannot find it. I checked the Annotated Screenplay and the commentaries on the BluRay. I have not re-watched to special feature docs, yet, though.

Until an individual attached to the production states something specific to the contrary, I'm going with my initial interpretation that several weeks passed between the Luke leaving Hoth and arriving at Bespin. I don't need to know if that was three weeks or eight. It clearly wasn't just a couple of days, tough. Of that I am certain.

 

and that is the only place it could be but again we have no indication of any major time jump and when Han and Leia arrive on Bespin they are still wearing the same clothes with the same dirt stains on them indicatiing there wasn't a passage of time. I mean if it was a long flight to Bespin they would have cleaned up since they had the time.

They don't get cleaned up till they are on bespin. So again there is nothing to indicate there is a jump in time of months or even weeks.

but it was because there is nothing to indicate that was longer then a few days. Something that would have been very easy to add at any time or show there was a passage of time.

 

With all due respect, @Vicarious Fan, this thread is full of descriptions of other indications. They may not be as explicit as we'd prefer, but they are indications nevertheless. The fact that it is not conveyed well I acknowledge as would the filmmakers, I suspect. It never seemed likely to me that so much activity could occur in such a large space in such a short amount of time. I can see how others would interpret it differently, given the quick movement between scenes, however.

 

The assumption (based on some dialogue and logical deduction) is that the time jump is between the Falcon setting off for bespin and the scene withe vision, in which you could very easily fit such a passage of time.

Clearly based on what? Though? The only thing we have in the film regarding the passage of time is vuage dilogue (hence why this debate exists to begin with) and none of it makes any amount of time certian.

"It's pretty far but i think we can make it."

"Remember your faluire in the cave" and "I've learned so much since then."

It could be a few days, but it could just as easily (and more then likly is, due to the fact that they had no hyperdrive) be a mounth or more

A few hours to a day seems resonable - it gives han time to do the repairs, Leia time to get to the point were she's visably tired of waiting around doing nothing, Piet time to want to give up the seurch and the Mynocks time to gather but not due an serius damage.

That's only assuming that the passage of time between those two scenes is instantanus, hence this discussion existing in the first place. The only way it could have been a few hours/couple of days is if the Falcon had a backup hyperdrive/jury rigged her existing one - which i don't recall ever being stated in a canon source - otherwise their must have been a signficant passage of time (weeks to a month or slightly more)

Four explanations i can think of
A; Backup hyperdrive; never stated in canon and feels like reaching even if it did, becuse surley someone whould have brought it up; I.E "Well what about the backup" "Well, it won't get us far."
B; Jury-rigged the hyperdrive for a microjump to Bespin; more beleviable for not being brough up in the movie (especially if it was jury rigged after they set off for Bespin) but still has the downside of never being mentioned in canon to my knowladge
C; They got a tow; the Anoat system has "not much" in it according to Leia and Anoat istelf was rendered unhibited by the Empire but that dos'nt preculude the existance of small settlements, independent outposts or passing trade ships that they could have bribed for a lift.
D; They "surfed" some sort of gravitational eddy - a sort of spaceborn East Australian Current if you will - that flung them at lightspeed from Anoat to Bespin; possible, but extermly convinient.
Or
E; They went on sublight; the most likley explanation, IMO, as it requires the last about of reaching and you can fit the passage of time into the movie without any trouble

Theres also the possibility of a combanation of E and either B or C - they traveled part of the way at sublight until Han either finished jury-rigging the drive to jump the rest of the way or they ran into a trade ship heading to that would tow them the rest of the way (Bespin is, after all, a mining colony, so their should be fuel haulers/supply ships going in and out fairly regularly).

 

An in-universe explanation has already been given: the Falcon has on-board facilities.

More generally, though, this can just be explained as an aesthetic within movie convention (and more specifically, Star Wars). Kind of like how Luke's hair and Leia's dress look perfect again right after they've been submerged in liquid waste.

Or another example: after meeting Aragorn at Bree he takes the Hobbits "into the wild," and if I recall correctly spend about a month traveling off the road--during which time neither the dirt on their clothes, nor hair, nor (in Aragorn's case) facial hair growth change in any significant way.

In genre films, we apparently want to keep our characters looking the same.

Yoda: "The cave! Remember your failure at the cave!"
Luke: "But I've learned so much since then!"

This isn't a conversation one would have about an event that took place a few days ago. Compare the following conversation about person B's ability to pick up women:

A: "The Cat Club! Remember your failure at the Cat Club!"
B: "But I've learned so much since then! "

Doesn't work.

 

If Luke was only on Dagobah two days (and it looks like his conversation in Yoda's hut is in the evening of the day he arrived there - it's noticeably darker than when Luke landed) then "so much since then" would be only a few hours before.

 

I dunno, i've known a few morons who would probobly make that exect statememt on the exact same night they had already struck out bad.

Sometimes with the same girl too

 

yes pretty far to be traveling in open space with the entire empire chasing you would be far to travel in a day.

space travel in Star Wars doesn't conform at all to real world physics. With out a hyperdrive a minimum would be traveling for at least a year to Bespin.

Yes there are facliiteis onboard and yet they don't use them. We also see a big difference in the cleanliness Leia's clothes when she puts them back on in Bespin.

As for LOTR you are talking about a difference between the movie and the book. The movie addaptition does change a lot of things but they show a montage of them traveling with Aargorn thus showing a passage of time. Now they did shorten the overall time in traveling as once the montage is over they are attacked and they carry Frodo to the elf city. In the book there is a lot more time of them traveling first.

But in Empire there is NO indication of a passage of time.

except in Empire especially they already show the characters changing for passage of time... like Luke changing out of his flight suit. The next day in his clothes with his jacket off. So again the movie does show an indication of some time passing just not weeks or months like you are thinking.

see this is the problem with Star Wars and is best explained by this quote by Grant Morrison

Yes they travel at sublight speeds because George didn't stop to think of how big space is. In reality if they traveled from Hoth to Bespin at sublight or even at the speed of light it would take 1000 years. Obviously that doesn't work because it's not suppopsed to work because its not important to the story.

Just like Luke spending 2 to 3 days or 2 to 3 years training with Yoda isn't important to the story.

The falcon traveling light years in a few days or even weeks isn't a plothole or anything like that. It's like how han and Leia walked outside of the falcon wearing only breathing masks commenting on how much moisture there was in the vaccum of space.

i mean it does... you could easily be saying that about something that happend just the other day. remember though the other really imporant thing. He is standing on his head stacking rocks... if that is the only progress he made in 4 weeks or a month then he clearly didn't learn that much in that time. Progress wise he is about where he should be after a day or so of training.

 

https://boards.theforce.net/threads...n-spends-in-esb-asteroid-cave.50050761/page-1
I'm just posting the thread I remember where I did any thinking about this.

 

Then why would he not say it that way?

And as far as they knew they were in the clear and nobody was chasing them - the fleet was breaking up and starting to jump away and they had no idea boba fett was following them. They thought they were fine until they ran into Vader on Bespin.

Err...what?

(and for that matter the outfit is the same degree of clean when she arrives on Bespin as well)

And they definatly do use them, unless you assume that Han and Chewie just scoot around the galaxy peeing in bottles.

We don't have any reason to think the distance between Bree and Rivendale is any different in the films virus in the books - the maps we see in the movies are identical to those made for the books, and the sequence of events plays out more or less indentical minus the replacment of Glorfindel with Arwen and the removal of the bit were the party sees Gandalf's duel with the Nine from afar

It's the jurney before Bree that was shortened (no stopover in Crickhollow, no Old Forest and Tom Bombidil and no Barrow Downs) not after

Yes, but were talking about fictional spacecrafts; Star Wars ships are already shown to be very, very fast at sublight (Yavin 4 to the death star, the Imperial Fleet swinging around Endor to cut off the Rebels and the chase scene in ESB itself, which takes them from the Hoth system to the Anoat system and occurs entirly at sublight). Given that i don't think a month or slightly more is that unrealistic a travel at sublight, and fitting it in not only dos'nt conflict with anything in the movie but is actually somewhat supported by dilogue.

And of course its not importent to the story (and not even really a plothole) but that dos'nt mean its not worth discussing.

Perhaps the interior of the space slug is'nt a vacuum? (I mean, it can't be simply becuse their was moisture and they we'rnt freezing to death; The perhaps the slug can simply create its own oxegen in order to survive, or oxegen creation is a byproduct of its disgustive system.

We don't know what he learned though, saying all he learned was standing on his head is a little silly, especially since Luke himself flat out says he's "learned so much" and neither Yoda nor Ben takes issue with the statement.

 

sublight means less then the speed of light. If somehting is 1 light year away that means traveling AT the speed of light will take 1 year.

it is

because that's not how movie dialouge works. I mean it would be an awful movie if they voiced the reason they did anything in a movie. You already know the empire and the bounty hunters are looking for them. You know the hyperdrive doesn't work. So it makes sense that traveling with out hyperspace to a far place is dangerous when they are looking for you.

you might be right maybe it's just the lighting. Of course that makes it more likely that it was only a day or so as again no indication what so ever of a passage of time.

it's mouth is open to the vaccum of space. any oxygen and mosiure it created would instantly be sucked out.

This goes back to the Grant Morrison quote.


“Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everyday life. Adults foolishly demand to know how Superman can possibly fly, or how Batman can possibly run a multibillion-dollar business empire during the day and fight crime at night, when the answer is obvious even to the smallest child: because it's not real.”

we know what he is learning at that time the end of his training. We also know his training is about feeling the force and listening to it. Im not saying that's all he learned i'm saying if it took him months to get to the point he is at when he leaves he is a very slow learner.

He did learn a LOT in the time he was there. remember his training is about making some super jedi it's about making him be able to resist the dark side and to kill his father.

To trust the light side.

 

...
or how a filmmaker could cut from one scene directly to another that takes place several weeks later
...

 

except directors don't do that... there is an indication of time that takes place. For example on Hoth when Han and Luke stay outside we see a change from night to day to indicate time has passed. If you don't do that it can be very confusing like in the Warcraft movie. In the game the events of the movie take place over the course of several months. In the movie it happens in the span of a week. If it was supposed to be several months in the movie they would have indicated that otherwise it makes no sense that it takes place over the course of months. Even then it's still very confusing in Warcraft as how much time passes

The tools of film making are used to show passage of time when it's needed. If these tools are not used then we assume it's happening at the same time or shortly after.


Cutting from one scene direclty to another isn't a way to show a passage of time.