lukes easy escape from the hoth system

I was watching ESB DVD yesterday and was reminded of something which had been bothering me about the film for a while.

One of Vaders main objectives during the assault on Echo Base was to apprehend Luke, as well as wiping out a rebel stronghold obviously. With this in mind, how was Luke able to escape from the Hoth system and set a course for Dagobah without any resistance what so ever? At the same time the Millenium Falcon was hounded and chased into an asteroid field!! We know there was an entire fleet of imperial ships surrounding the planet so his X-Wing must have come under fire. I realize that if he was caught at this point there would be no film, after all, Vader only wanted the Falcon so he could get to Skywalker, but I just found his exit from the planet very unbelivable.

Does anyone know if a sequence was scripted or shot which was dropped out of the edit for pacing?

 

Well, if you think about it, Vader simply assumed, mistakenly, that Luke was aboard the Falcon, thus after watching the Falcon blast off from Hoth he simply ordered the entire fleet to pursue. This left the rest of the Rebel ships completely free to leave, including Luke in his tiny non-descript X-wing.

 

^^^^ yep

L8r

 

Luke had to be lured to the dark side of the force, and not captured by Vader.

As ROTJ's novel points out, Luke's journey to the dark side "it must be of his own free will, else all was lost. A spirit could not be coerced into corruption, it had to be seduced. It had to participate actively. It had to crave".

So, that's the reason why Vader did not go directly for Luke but his friends. Because it was Luke who had to take the first step if Vader wanted success in converting his son to the dark side.

 

As was previously said, Death Squadron had taken off after the Falcon, so Luke's X-Wing was able to simply fly away unmolested.

 

Vader thought Luke was on the Falcon. He never thought a simple one man fighter would be any threat.

 

I guess there is merit to the idea that Vader may have known all along that Luke was NOT on the Falcon and was thinking of it as bait to bring Luke to him. I think I just always assumed Vader figured Luke was on the Falcon, as he had been in ANH, then when he discovered this was false he simply changed his plans and used Han and Co. as bait. But I can see it making since that this was his plan all along...

 

It was part of Vader's plan to let Luke be trained by Yoda? Not likely. It would be easier for him to corrupt and train Luke himself than to take the chance that Luke would shun him for the good guys. Which is what happened.

L8r

 

I don't think Vader knew anything about Yoda...

But I can't be sure because I have not seen ROTS, but you'd think that if he did know of Yoda, he would've followed Luke to Dagobah and nipped Luke's training in the bud...



D_M_S_L

 

Vader obviously knew nothing of Yoda:

"Obi-Wan has taught you well... you have controlled your fear."

 

Well, if you think about it, Vader simply assumed, mistakenly, that Luke was aboard the Falcon, thus after watching the Falcon blast off from Hoth he simply ordered the entire fleet to pursue. This left the rest of the Rebel ships completely free to leave, including Luke in his tiny non-descript X-wing.

I dont buy it. I think its just one of those things, but- there were many SD in the fleet, i would imagine protecting every angle of Hoth.

Only 3 or 4 SDs plus the executor went after the falcon. There were many others to try and get any and all rebel ships.


There should of been something chasing luke. They didnt want ANY rebels to go.

CLOne

 

Im a lil rusty with ESB but didnt the Rebels use their cannon thingy to fire some shots at the Empire to clear the way for escape? I think that is how most of them escaped scott free.

 

Maybe Luke found a gap in the Imperial fleet's covering of Hoth and flew out that way. Maybe the gap was created by the 3-4 Star Destroyers pursuing the Falcon.

 

Maybe Luke found a gap in the Imperial fleet's covering of Hoth and flew out that way. Maybe the gap was created by the 3-4 Star Destroyers pursuing the Falcon.

I'm pretty sure that all of Death Squadron (6 ships) went off after the Falcon.

 

In the ESB Radio Drama (at least in the script), Luke, Wedge and on eor two other pilots escort one of the last transports off of Hoth, but a Star Destroyer blocks their path.

The fighters hide in under the transport to hide their sensor sillouette and wait for the ISD to drop it's shields for the tractor beam, and then they spring out and unleash a volley of proton torps to disable the ISD enough for the transport to get away.

Luke then tells Wedge and the others to go on ahead with the transport, and that he'll hang back to make sure they aren't followed, despite Wedge's protests.

They take off and Luke breaks away from Hoth, leading into the shot from the movie ("we're not going to regroup with the others").

Just before Luke gets in his X-Wing on Hoth, Wedge is heard to say that he'd meet him back at the fleet. And when we see Luke's X-Wing leaving Hoth he's on his own.

And all of Death Squadron didn't go after the Falcon initially- just the one ISD. Once the Falcon hides in the asteroid field, the rest of the fleet then joins the hunt (though I'd guess some stayed behind to oversee the mop-up operations on Hoth).

At least three of the five Star Destroyers in Death Squadron are seen trying to cut the Falcon off after its escape from Hoth, so I'd guess that Vader was desperate enough to send the other two, along with his Commandship off after the Falcon as well, as we saw that he did later on in the film. His main aim all through the movie seemed to be to catch the Falcon, from when we see him enter the Rebel hanger, right up to where we see him personally go alone in Executor to Bespin, so I'd say that he'd given orders to all the Star Destroyer captains to catch the Falcon even during the Battle of Hoth.