How Did Luke Know There Was Good In Vader?

i was wondering how luke knew there was good in vader i think it was from vader saving him from xizor and he didn't kill him on bespin.

 

I see three explanations:

1. Luke wanted to believe there was good in him so he wouldn't have to kill his father.

2. Rather than remembering Padme (like Leia did), Luke remembered her message ("There's still good in him") and that influenced his thinking.

3. He felt it through the Force.

 

the same way he knew leia was his sister. i assume some mix of trust in the force, and "search your feelings"...

 

Not to mention faith in humanity. Anakin used to be good. Hell, Obi-Wan loved Anakin greatly. Luke was not the type of person to believe that that could ever be completely extinguished.

 

Vader is his daddy and Luke has a bunch of those midi's yapping at him. Added together it means that Luke pretty much has a tape recorder in Vader's mind.

 

Or his chest-plate was set to "Still Some Good"?

E_S

 

He feels the conflict between Anakin and Vader through the Force.

-The Jawa Jedi

 

Here's one of the things I've always liked about the West End Games RPG vs. the Wizards of the Coast RPG.

The Force skills are "Modified by Relationship." So, even unconcsciously, it would be easier for Luke to read Vader's thoughts (Receptive Telepathy) and turmoil than it would to read Han's.

It's always made more sense that the Force is harder to use on random people (since you're unfamiliar with them and their particular "energey-field makeup") which is why a solo mission is one of the LAST trials undertaken by a Padawan...

 

Sanctified by the fact the movies made incest canon, and that one of my earliest memories of Star Wars was Kenobi in a TV comedy daring Luke to sit on his lap and see what Force can lure him away, I convex under pressure and grudgenly accede Luke may have read too much of LOTR's synthesised perspective of, mmm, mateship.

 

Your universal explanatory device. The Force, that is.

 

Well...all they did is kiss...I hope...

That's why I prefer to add to that my simple psychological explanation. But yeah, if Yoda can sense fear, conflict and emotional turmoil shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Sure he could have sensed it, in the Force. But IMO, he was probably gambling.

It was a crushing blow to learn about his heritage. And let's not forget his uncle's constant unwillingness to talk about his father and the lies he was told growing up. Possibly Luke feared that he was so much part of Vader that he'd turn out just like him. If he convinced himself there was good in his father, then maybe he wouldn't be the next Dark Lord of the Sith.

The fact that he admitted feeling Vader's conflict could have been a bluff, to see his father's reaction. Well not that he could see behind the helmet, but you all know what I mean.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts.

 

Personal experience with Vader - "that is why you wouldnt kill me..."
Intuition - both natural and Force-based.
Blind Faith in humanity
knowlege of Vader's past actions as Anakin

Besides there's good in everyone, regardless of how far they've fallen.

 

Meh. I'd like to believe Palpatine is evil to the core.

 

Yeah, he sure was nasty wasn't he?

But he must have had the potential to be good inside him, otherwise how could he truly be evil if he didn't have a choice?

It would be like saying a wolf is evil for killing and eating it's prey - It's not like the wolf has any choice, or potential to not do it, so doing it does not make the wolf evil.

There's good inside the Emperor, he just hides it.

The moment a Jedi stops believing someone can and should be saved is the moment they truly turn to the Darkside.

 

In DL, the Emperor keeps trying to get Vader to destroy Anakin. I tend to think that the Emperor made his choice, and has become irredeemable. He has become so evil that he no longer has the capacity to repent.

 

I keep thinking that it must have been their duel on Bespin that gave him this idea. I always felt that Vader could have easily killed Luke (or captured him) if he really wanted to. Luke might have sensed this, and looked deeper into it from there.

Where I wonder is why Padme said it. She knew what he did, but you'd think knowing that your husband murdered all kinds of people, including kids and almost you that maybe he didn't have any good left. She died of a broken heart so you'd think she wouldn't have thought that.

 

There's something about the part where Luke escapes from Bespin and Vader is walking away from the deck on the Executor. He doesn't look mad, he looks sad. It was like it almost broke his heart that his son wouldn't come with him... And to me you could always tell in that moment that he really did love Luke.

 

QFT. He loved Padme, and was excited to have a child, and then to find that his child survived after all? That's huge.

 

So yeah, I kind of forgot my point in that post...

Uh, the point was just, perhaps in that moment where Luke and Vader connect while they are running, he could just sense that Vader actually wanted him as his son. Not as a tool of the Emperor.

 

In the ROTJ novelization, IIRC, Luke rationalizes that his father had been good once and could still be good. That he himself, Luke, is not an evil person so there had to be good in his father. He wasn't always evil which is a theme in all life. No one is born evil. It is what happens to us as we grow up and learn, that sets us on the path to who we become. He also sensed it through the Force, but was not aware of it until afterwards. His insight served him very well.

 

Obi wan could have told him, or maybe he just felt it when fighting with vader on bespin. While I was playing kotor2, the handmaiden told me that someones real nature surfaces when he/she is fighting. Maybe that's what happened with luke. Vader could have easily struck him down at bespin. Maybe luke could feel vaders true reason why vader want's luke to join him. Maybe luke feels that vader wants to use luke to avenge padme's death

 

Obi-Wan and Yoda both though Vader was irredeemable.

 

I think it's made pretty clear that he can sense it through the Force.

 

Indeed, I also think he sensed it.