"He is too old. Yes, too old to begin the training."

We know that Ben and Yoda do train Luke eventually, but putting that aside.

Yoda says "He is too old...". If Luke really was "too old", then why did they leave it so late to train him?
Wasn't it Ben and Yoda's intentions from the moment he was born to train Luke at the right age; when he's ready?
Or...did Yoda sense that Luke could end up going down the same path has his Father and was trying to put things off?

 

I think waiting to this moment to train Luke was the plan, but as Yoda finds out, Luke lacks patience, and is reckless and impulsive (which was proven to be right when Luke left in the middle of is training to go to Bespin) and had concerns about creating another Vader. So he said Luke was too old just as an excuse not to train him.

 

The thing I don't get is if Yoda really thought Luke was too old to train, who else is there? Leia's the same age and probably more hot-headed than Luke. Was it just something Yoda said to text Luke's reaction? I can't imagine Yoda thinking "Damn, Luke's too old, he's useless. Oh well, I guess we're stuck with the Empire and Vader then."

 

I doubt it would simply be an excuse not to train Luke, if that were the case, he wouldn't have had to mention the age part and just maintained with the "reckless" bit. It doesn't make much sense if the plan is to train Luke at the age of 18, and simply turn him down. The way I figure it, Yoda and Obi-wan gave up entirely on the Galaxy and went into hiding to spend the rest of their days in peace. It wasn't until Luke's adventure happened that the Jedi business got started, none of the whole "We shall train the boy at the right time" stuff, but rather "He'll lead a better life, safe from danger."

 

I think part of it was a continuation of his testing Luke, and trying to instill in him the seriousness of the situation.

Luke, of course, passes the test wonderfully by smacking his head on the roof.

 

Luke, of course, passes the test wonderfully by smacking his head on the roof.

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LOL!! Yes, I see what you mean. So Yoda had already started to test Luke, by checking or watching his reactions to certain things...?

 

Well, he'd been testing him the entire time with the crazy Muppet act. Obviously, Luke's patience failed him there. This pushes the testing a bit further.

But I think the "instilling some seriousness into Luke" thing is probably more important. Obi-Wan had been pretty easy on Luke when it came to the training; there was little doubt there that Luke could become a Jedi: "Hey, your dad was a great Jedi, I was a Jedi, how about you be a Jedi, too?"

This conversation with Yoda makes Luke realise that being a Jedi requires more. He's not going to become a Jedi just because his father was one, or because he feels the Force, or even because they're in this terrible situation -- he needs to earn it. He needs to have the mindset required of a Jedi if he wants to become one. It's made clear there's a very real possibility he won't be trained, which acts as a great motivator for him to start taking things very seriously. If Yoda thinks he's "too old," he's really going to need to work hard to convince him he can be trained.

Of course, there wasn't really much of a possibility he wouldn't be trained. Luke doesn't know quite how desperate they are. The issues Yoda addresses are certainly very real concerns -- including his age -- but I think the debate is mostly an act.

 

It might have been a bit too obvious to train him 2 or 3 years after the Jedi Purge or something. Or during it.
Yoda and Ben probably needed to convince the enemy that they're dead.

Plus, the old methods didn't help the Jedi at all, or they wouldn't be almost extinct. So, they tried something new. Maybe Yoda knew that Luke's compassion will be the Sith's undoing - the opposite of what Palpatine foresaw.

The Jedi changed quite a lot of points of view between the PT and the CT

 

Yoda and Ben were playing good cop/bad cop with Luke.

Ben had been pretty laid back with Luke in ANH because he saw how his overbearing training method worked for Anakin. However, Yoda needed to be the disciplinarian and the one that Luke will have a different relationship with than Ben, who was almost grandfatherly.

 

I'm curious as to wether Obi-wan was trained from when he was a baby?

Did his parents enroll him in the jedi temple ?
Was threre an entrance test?

 

"Had he been born in the Republic, the Jedi would have identified him earlier", Qui-Gon Jinn

Children born in the Republic get midichlorian tests (I think) and are then taken from their parents. Not sure if it's with or without their consent.

I gotta ask in Lit sometimes how many exceptions there were to that rule...

 

If you remember in that scene, Yoda is telling Obi-wan.... "Along time have I watched him. All his life has he looked away......adventure, excitement....blah blah."

So Yoda is saying that he has "looked" over Luke all his life and then tells him that he is too old to train? So, which is it, Yoda. Yoda could have started his training sooner to stop Luke's "careless ways couldn't he?

My opinion.

 

Heh....

Yoda was making exuses at this point. The scene is MUCH more powerful now because of the Prequels. Luke is already showing signs of being too much like his father.

Tied with that this was the reason they almost DIDN'T train Anakin....

But his tone of voice betrays him... it SOUNDS like he's making an exuse

 

Makes me wonder if Obi-wan and Yoda would have pursued Leia instead.

 

Of course when TESB was made the prequels didn't exist, so none of the training babies stuff existed. And there was no 20 year old plan to train Anakin's children and use them to bring Balance to the Force or whatever.
So the whole 'too old to begin the training' bit made a bit more sense. Not 20 years too old, but simply too old. But it was little more than an excuse by Yoda, who was already reluctant to train Luke.

Plus Obi-Wan had wanted to train Luke when Luke was younger, but uncle Owen wouldn't let him. This is made clear in the scene where Obi gives Luke his father's lightsaber. It's obvious that Obi wanted to show Luke the way of the Force, but Owen didn't want Luke to go anywhere near that crazy old hermit.
So I guess Yoda did have a bit of a point when he said that the boy was too old.

 

Obi-wan should have used the Jedi mind trick on Owen.

HA. HA.

 

^I don't think Owen was simple minded so the Jedi trick wouldn't have worked on him. I don't think Yoda ever wanted to train Luke, I think he just wanted to let him live in peace. However, something about the scene where Obi gives Luke his lightsaber always botherd me. He said, "your father wanted you to have this". Did he just say that to make Luke go with him, or what? Why would Vader want his son to be trained by a Jedi? (Don't answer this if it is a spoiler)

 

not to give too much away, but a really good answer is given in ROTS.

It is a test.

 

I dont think Yoda or Ben really planned for it, but when Luke was thrown together with Ben in ANH, he decided to take him to the rebels. Then it was his idea to send Luke to meet Yoda. They probally hoped Luke or Liea could help end the war but thought it was to hard to ever do it.

 

It's an "entrance exam".
Yoda needs to know that Luke really wants the training, and that he's not just there because Obi told him to go.

 

Kind of ironic that Yoda does the same to Anakin in TPM. He gets his "entrance exam" by what Mace was doing. Then Yoda tells Annie that he has too much fear in him. Feels like Yoda sets them both up and then shoots them down.

From a certain point of view.

 

To me it just seem Yoda not all the ken on the idea. His line "I've watched this one for a long, never foucs on where he was or what he was doing" and then the age thing it seemed Yoda thought it wasn't the best idea.

 

Yoda doesn't have a whole lot of options does he. He wants to defeat Vader and the Emporer but he's basically being picky!

 

Yoda is not being picky.

You don't give undiciplined combative the keys to the universe with out first considering the consequinces.

 

I personally, don't see why they couldn't have had Luke trained at a younger age--for that matter, why wouldn't they simply keep Luke on Dagobah with Yoda from birth? Therefore, he would have no outside attachments, he would be trained from birth, and he would be better hidden there than on Tatooine...Vader's home planet...