CT Luke never fought with his lightsaber during A New Hope

It took me a long time to realize this despite the number of times I watched A New Hope, which was that we never see Luke fighting with his lightsaber.

The only times we saw him using it was after he first gets it from Obi-Wan, and when he was using it against the training remote on the Millennium Falcon.

So, did anyone else realize this before?

I also realize that Darth Vader would be the only other person for him to fight against with his lightsaber, which obviously at that time he wasn't ready to have done.

 

back in those days when someone first gets a lightsabre they actually had to learn how to use it, they don't automatically have all the skills.

 

He didn't fight with it, but it was instrumental to his learning how to use the Force.

 

Ben refused to give him the access code

 

He never had a chance to use it..

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It's one of the main reasons that makes ANH a part of a bigger story. As a stand-alone film, it doesn't make sense to have 1) Luke introduced to the lightsaber, 2) LUke training with the lightsaber and..... nothing more.

 

In a A New Hope the Sabre acts as a gateway to ‘a larger World’ for Luke to take his first steps in. It serves the same purpose as Mclovin’s fake I.D, and the ‘Drink Me’ potion in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Though somewhat ironically Alice goes into a smaller world. But metaphorically it’s the same thing.

 

In this case Luke receives his iniation and is passed down his father's laser sword (the original name). Then we see a little bit of training. It was a great first step and memorable scene.

In my story, I'd have this take place at Obi-Wan's crib first then they mozy over to the Cantina with Luke prepared to defend himself. A nice scene would've had Luke slice up Dr. Evazan and Panda Baba instead of Obi-Wan or see him fight off a few Stormtroopers aboard the Death Star or what about slicing up the Diagnoga in the trash compactor to save his new friends. Fighting Vader would have been Obi-Wan's mission and Luke wouldn't have survived the encounter. It would've been nice to see Luke make an attempt against Darth for a minute or two like Ezra did.

 

Yes. I realized it. But Luke was not ready to fight with his lightsaber in ANH. Arguably, he wasn't ready in TESB. At least not in the way that Yoda preferred.

 

Between the second and third drafts, Lucas thought about solving this issue by having the Death Star be blown up by a bomb that would need to be planted by hand in the exhaust port. So Luke would get through the dogfight, then land his fighter on the Death Star surface to get out and plant the bomb. But Vader would also land his fighter and emerge to duel Luke in a lightsaber fight. Ultimately Luke would emerge victorious and complete his mission to destroy the Death Star.

However, Lucas realized that this brought the action of the film to a screeching halt in an extremely awkward way, so he discarded the idea.

 

Of all the alterations that have been made to A New Hope, I wish they'd change Ben's line from "Your father wanted you to have this..." to "I wanted you to have this..." when he first presents Luke with the lightsaber.

 

Luke never uses his blaster in The Empire Strikes Back too.

 

Good point also, he draws his blaster but never fires it. Of course we are on the opposite side viewing the film wanting more and more action but the plot and money to make the film had the final say.

 

“Ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side”: Luke had not yet embraced the Force and trained in the ways of the Jedi, so the lightsaber would not be his weapon of first choice. Its formidable qualities (e.g. being able to deflect laser bolts) were not known to him.

 

But Luke uses it over his blaster to deal with the Wampa, may well be it was he didn't want to kill it, or he didn't think he had time to draw his blaster.

 

In the first draft of ANH, Annikin Starkiller uses it during the first two acts. In the second draft he uses it once in the cantina. Afterwards, Luke never uses it in combat. Lucas decided then to never have Luke fight with it over the next two drafts.

Luke wasn't going to shoot his feet in order to get free of the ice and since he already had it in hand afterwards, he instinctively used it to protect himself.

 

Star Wars in that scenario (the 'Story Synopsis' between drafts two and three) would have been an actual 'stand-alone' movie imho, had it been filmed (even more so than the final film is often said to be).

 

uhhm..yes. I do try to pay attention to what's going on when watching a movie

 

If only JJ Abrams had written and directed ANH, Luke would've taken on Vader after he'd slain OWK, Luke would've been the first opponent to slice open Vader's mask.

 

Two films in the saga now, where Luke doesn't duel with a lightsaber-he didn't in TLJ either. (Actually the argument could be made that there was NO lightsaber duel at ALL in TLJ but that's for another thread.)

For being the most popular character and supposedly just as powerful and memorable as a Jedi as Anakin, we really don't see Luke actually do all that much onscreen throughout the saga.

 

Which is why I never understand why people expected him to basically be a superhero in the sequel trilogy. Don't get me wrong, I like the character, but his reputation gets blown wayyyy out of proportion at times. There was nothing in the OT to suggest that he would one day be a super powerful Jedi. He "won" in ROTJ not by being powerful or a great fighter, but by simply appealing to his father's sense of compassion.

Anyway, as for the original topic about whether or not I ever realized that he didn't fight with his saber in ANH-- yes, I think that was fairly obvious.
But, having said that, I do recall getting into a debate with somebody in the 1980s about it. A kid in school insisted that the duel in ANH (or Star Wars, as we called it then) was between Vader and Luke, not Vader and Obi-Wan, and he insisted Luke was killed, so it was a plot hole that Luke was part of the Death Star assault later in the movie. This, of course, was before the days when we could easily rewatch the movie whenever we wanted.

 

I agree, seeing Luke get some more action early on would’ve been awesome. Imagine him slicing up Dr. Evazan and Panda Baba such a fun way to show his growth! And yeah, having him fight a few Stormtroopers or even take on the Diagnoga would’ve been great for his character development. Obi-Wan definitely needed to handle Vader, but it would’ve been cool to see Luke at least try to hold his own for a moment, like Ezra did.

 

I do wish we had some understanding of Luke’s growth as Jedi by ROTJ, because he doesn’t even look particularly competent with it compared to even TPM Obi-Wan or AOTC Anakin yet he’s supposedly on the same level as ROTS Anakin. Maybe its also because the first time he uses it in actual combat is against Vader in ESB after he trains with Yoda so it’s hard to tell how much is because of training on Dagobah and how he fought with it between ANH and ESB. Only times he uses it before Vader is against the Wampa which is more survival reaction than a skilled strike from Luke and against the AT-AT to throw a grenade in

 

No, just no

 

the bad guys are building something...but building what?...it's a mysteryyyy box

Luke: what happened to my father?
Obi-Wan: it's a mystery box Luke