CT Why didn't Luke go back to Dagobah before rescuing Han?

It's not explicitly stated that he never went back to Dagobah before ROTJ, but from the dialogue "I have a promise to keep...to an old friend" it seems pretty clear he didn't.

Why not? He just found out Vader could be his father. Wouldn't you want to figure that out as soon as possible? Han wasn't going anywhere while he's in Jabba's palace.

Wouldn't he want to tune his Jedi skills so he had a better chance of saving his friend? Didn't he learn his lesson not to rush into saving his friends? What if this was another trap set by the Empire? Boba Fett could still be in contact with Vader.

I realize there may be EU answers here, but alternatives are welcome.

 

I wonder about that too, and it probably is covered in the EU somewhere.

It seems pretty cleart to me that he must have done some training on his own too--- otherwise how did he construct his lightsaber? According to Vader, when you construct your own lightsaber, your "skills are complete". If Yoda or Ben didn't continue his training post TESB, then who did?

 

Shadows Of The Empire illustrates that he spent most of his time at Obi-Wan's hut on Tattooine; there was a 'Jedi manual' Obi-Wan had left there for him, which included instructions on how to build a lightsabre.

 

Luke spent the intervening time trying to find Han, as well as improving his Jedi skills on his own.

 

I always got the feeling there was a bit of pride (and shame) involved, too. He didn't want to return to Yoda until he'd basically finished what he left to do in the first place, i.e. save his friends.

It was only about six months, anyway - rescuing Han was the #1 priority, & Luke probably didn't have the time to head back to Dagobah & deal with his Jedi path.

 

He didn't go back to Dagobah before ROTJ because we wouldn't have been able to watch.

 

Why would it take so long to find Han? There's only one Jabba's Palace in the galaxy.

 

Boba Fett didn't go directly to Jabba's Palace. When he arrived at Tatooine, he was attacked by IG-88, and Slave I was severely damaged. Tatooine didn't have the facilities needed to repair his ship, so he had to travel to the planet Gall, and spent a long time there until his ship was ready to fly again.

In the meantime, Luke hung out at Obi-Wan's hut, constructing his lightsaber and honing his Jedi skills, waiting for news of Fett. When Lando brought news that Fett was at Gall, they flew out right away, only to see Slave I fly away shortly after they arrived. But then they got caught up in the Black Sun mess and had to deal with Xizor and his schemes before they could return to Tatooine and rescue Han.

It's all there in the Shadows of the Empire novel. Go read it.

 

Hmm, interesting. I thought about reading it, but to be honest, I have never really enjoyed the EU. I read Timothy Zahn's series, but wasn't blown away. I read Dark Empire, but didn't like some of the aspects of the story. I read the Jedi Academy series, the Corellian trilogy, and a few others, but I was never enthralled in any of those books. After many failed attempts at finding a SW book I absolutely couldn't put down, I finally gave up on the EU altogether.

 

I always saw it this way:

Luke thought they needed to rescue Han as soon as they could, since he didn't know that Han was still frozen in carbonite anyway. He probably thought Han was in more danger than that (not that being frozen indefintely is probably good for you anyway).

Second, he probably thought that more training was in store for him on Dagobah, and he didn't know how long that would take. He didn't expect Yoda to tell him he had nothing left to teach Luke... although it is true that even when he did go to Dagobah he didn't have a ton of time either, since the rebellion was gathering for their attempt on the Death Star soon.

 

Yeah, Endor wouldn't have been the war-changing victory it was without Luke. I think the DS2 would have been destroyed-Luke had very little to do with that-but the Emperor and Vader probably would have escaped if they hadn't been so focused on Luke.

 

There is more to the EU than just those stories you mentioned. Most of it is quite good.

 

How l long of a time was it between Empire and Jedi?

 

About 6 months, but possibly as long as a year.

 

Visa issues

 

It's worth mentioning that in GL's rough draft of Revenge Of The Jedi, Han was already thawed out, sporting a beard (!) & scheduled for execution. Even in the final version, Luke & co had no reason to believe that this couldn't happen at any time, once Jabba grew tired of his current decor.

 

That is a very good question. Why didn't he? It would have made more sense than using Obi-Wan's notes. The idea of Luke using notes to train himself to become a skilled Jedi Knight makes very little sense and it seems like a very poor way to acquire training.

And why did it take them a year to find Han? Surely they must have realized that he had been turned over to Jabba the Hutt, who was on Tattooine. And why did Boba Fett remain as a bodyguard for Jabba? Did he become Jabba's personal bodyguard or bounty hunter? Why was he there after a year had passed?


I've read the explanations posted above. They didn't really make any sense to me. Why didn't Boba Fett hand over Han to Jabba before getting his ship fixed on Gall? All he had to do was contact the gangster.

A good deal of the transition from "THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" to "RETURN OF THE JEDI" doesn't make any sense. Perhaps that's why I consider "ROTJ" the weakest entry in the saga.

 

Out-of-universe explanation for the thread starter's question - it's more dramatic and exciting to open the film with an extended rescue sequence.

In-universe explanation - I like Darth Nub's suggestion that Luke may have delayed meeting Yoda partly out of shame for ignoring Yoda's advice and making matters worse.

It sort of does if you ignore EU etc. Nothing in Return of the Jedi as a film indicates that it takes place a year after The Empire Strikes Back. Even the construction of the Death Star is stated to have taken place in secret (in the opening crawl) so there's a little bit of wiggle room.

 

I still mostly think it's these two reasons...

... and on the valid point about out-of-universe reasons too, I wanted to add that the rescue of Han was probably at the top of most viewers' minds after having waited three years since the end of TESB.

 

Luke thought they needed to rescue Han as soon as they could, since he didn't know that Han was still frozen in carbonite anyway. He probably thought Han was in more danger than that (not that being frozen indefintely is probably good for you anyway).

Second, he probably thought that more training was in store for him on Dagobah, and he didn't know how long that would take. He didn't expect Yoda to tell him he had nothing left to teach Luke... although it is true that even when he did go to Dagobah he didn't have a ton of time either, since the rebellion was gathering for their attempt on the Death Star soon.


Then why didn't Luke go after Han BEFORE resuming his training as a Jedi? Surely they all must have realized that Boba Fett would deliver Han to Jabba on Tattooine?

 

that and I'll bet that since Yoda was 900 years old, Luke had no clue he was that close to dying or he might have come back quicker

 

Umm... he DID go to rescue Han before resuming his training. Assuming, of course, that resuming training means going to see Yoda again on Dagobah, which seems to be the case. I don't think that going to Obi-Wan's hut on Tatooine and building a new lightsaber is generally considered to be "resuming training."

 

I don't dispute that. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that I really liked. Most people list the Thrawn trilogy at the top of their list, but I didn't find it that compelling. What would you recommend?

 

Prequel Era: Cloak Of Deception, Labyrinth of Evil, Dark Lord: The Rise Of Darth Vader.

OT Era: Han Solo Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion (a comic series)

Post-OT: Luke Skywalker And The Shadows Of Mindor, Rogue Squadron series, Hand Of Thrawn.

 

Splinter Of The Mind's Eye is a bit of a must-read, simply as a relic of the pre-ESB vision of Star Wars, & even a glimpse at what the SW franchise might have become without the massive success.

(It's not actually all that good, though)