The Empire Strikes Back

Special Edition Laserdisc Side 5, Chapter 24.

Luke and Yoda are in Yoda’s hut while Artoo stands on tiptoe outside in the rain, looking through a window.

Y: <To Luke> Why must you become Jedi? Hm?

L: Mostly because of my father, I guess.

Y: Ah! Father! Powerful Jedi was he! Hmmmm. Powerful Jedi.

L: C’mon. How could you know my father? You don’t even know who I am. Oh, I don’t even know what I’m doing here! We’re wasting our time!

Y: <Sigh> I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience.

<Ben’s voice is heard -- Luke’s facial reaction shows he hears the voice too.>

B: He will learn patience.

Y: Hmmm. Much anger in him. Like his father.

B: Was I any different when you taught me?

Y: <Sigh> He is not ready.

L: Yoda! I am ready. I...Ben!...I...I can be a Jedi! Ben! Tell him I’m ready! <Luke bangs his head on the low ceiling.>

Y: Ready are you? What know, ready? For 800 years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment. Hm? The most serious mind! <Looking toward the invisible Ben> This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away, to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was! Hm? What he was doing! Huh. Adventure. Eh! Excitement. Eh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!

B: So was I, if you’ll remember.

Y: He is too old! Yes! Too old to begin the training.

L: But I’ve learned so much!

Y: <Sigh -- looking toward the invisible Ben> Will he finish what he begins?

L: I won’t fail you. I’m not afraid.

Y: Yehhh. You will be. You...will...be.

1) This scene seems meant to evoke the scene in TPM in which Anakin is presented to the Jedi Council. In that scene too, Yoda thought the new apprentice was too old to begin training -- and at the time, Anakin was what, nine years of age? Yoda’s "too old" fears don’t make much sense. If Anakin was too old, Luke is downright ancient in Jedi trainee years. If Yoda has been watching Luke grow up as he claims, why hasn’t he instructed Ben to intervene in Luke’s upbringing? He and Ben seem to have had this planned all along, so what’s Yoda griping about? He’s not really meeting Luke for the first time...he’s been watching him, hasn’t he? So why the apparent disappointment? He’s playing with Luke’s head, I suppose -- building up Luke’s determination to succeed at becoming a Jedi. Yeah, that’s probably it.

2) We learn that Obi-Wan had much anger in him when he was being trained by Yoda. Wait a minute...trained by YODA? I thought Obi-Wan was trained by Qui-Gon Jinn! So what’s going to happen in Episode II...Yoda is going to take over Qui-Gon’s role to continue Obi-Wan’s training? And after all that’s happened in TPM, in Episode II Obi-Wan will still have "much anger in him," so much that Yoda will need to continue his training to quash it? Obi-Wan’s not a fully trained Jedi at the end of TPM, ready to take on Anakin as an apprentice? Something’s screwy here. And if Yoda doesn’t train an angry young Obi-Wan in Episode II, this is a major plot discrepancy.