How powerful did Luke become?

[Macetheace]

between his initial training in Episode V and when we see him again in Episode VI

 

The emperor coments in episode VI, that it will take 2 of them turn him, cos he has become so strong in the force.

 

So how long was Yoda training him? dunno if there are any stories of the period between Episode V and Episode VI...and i know sometime has passed, although at the end of Episdoe V, Luke mentioned that the next thing they would do was go rescue Han, which implied there was almost no time between the two, but, we see new Death STar over half complete, and that surely can't take a few weeks or days, and Luke refers to Yoda as an old friend after they rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt.

 

My guess, it's been roughly something like 20 years, Luke and Leia prob in their 40s at this point altho Leia doesn't look it, good genes, i know 40 year olds that look like they're in their early 20s, no biggy there.

 

But was he completing his training during this time? being trained by Yoda? Yoda does comment before he dies that he regrets that his training was not complete, but he did say that when he was referring to the time before Luke rushed off to confront Vader the first time.

 

 

So we see Luke able to force choke (gamorran soldies in JAbba's pleasure cruise), Force jump, JEdi mind trick etc.. he is showing a lot of strong jedi powers although seeing him in action is not as fancy as the Episdoe 1-3 scenes nor the clone wars cartoons, but then he does best Vader also in that final confrontation. Not to mention he is strong enough to perceive and hear force presence Obi Wan from just after starting his training in episode iv .. a level of force sensitivity only the strongest like Yoda, had or that required much training like Yoda gives Obi Wan at the end of Episode 3 when they go into exile.

 

So how much training did Luke get? Was he more powerful than Anakin was?

[Aurbere]

The time between V and VI isn't even close to 20 years. It's only 2 or 3 years.

 

During that time Luke was studying Ben Kenobi's journal (in which had much information on The Force and lightsaber techniques), he learned from Yoda, and he learned from other sources. He was being trained by some of the most powerful Jedi of all time, not to mention having the same potential as his father The Chosen One.

 

In short, you could compare Luke's power at the Battle of Endor to some of the Old Republic and Prequel Jedi.

 

After Endor he becomes the most powerful mortal being to ever live.

[Macetheace]

more powerful than the Emperor was?

 

anyway, when Luke beats VAder, VAder is quite conflicted during the whole fight. LUke is a lot more sure of his choices, you could say it wasn't an even fight

 

and how does LUke become the most powerful being there ever was? surely he can't be more powerful than the Emperor of the Old republic period. besides what does he do that's so powerful... i do i think recall someone talking about a book where Luke is on some planet, and becomes one with it through the force and learns how to heal and even restore trees and grass etc to it.. but maybe i'm not remembering right

[Aurbere]

more powerful than the Emperor was?

 

anyway, when Luke beats VAder, VAder is quite conflicted during the whole fight. LUke is a lot more sure of his choices, you could say it wasn't an even fight

 

and how does LUke become the most powerful being there ever was? surely he can't be more powerful than the Emperor of the Old republic period. besides what does he do that's so powerful... i do i think recall someone talking about a book where Luke is on some planet, and becomes one with it through the force and learns how to heal and even restore trees and grass etc to it.. but maybe i'm not remembering right

 

At that time Luke wasn't more powerful than the Emperor, or even Vader. He went in there to turn Vader back to the Light. If he failed the Empire would have won.

 

Luke notes later on that Vader was conflicted during the fight and that Vader could have killed him if he wasn't.

 

As son of the Chosen One, Luke inherited the potential of The Chosen One, which is to become the most powerful (mortal) being in the galaxy. It is stated by George Lucas and Leland Chee that Luke does achieve that potential.

 

That is out-of-universe explanation. In-universe explanation is as follows:

 

During his training as a Jedi, Luke studied under Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, two of the most powerful Jedi of all time, and learned much from them at an extremely fast pace. After Endor, Luke continued learning all he could, studying old Holocrons (Tedryn Holocron, Great Holocron etc) and ancient texts that the Emperor had missed during his Great Jedi Purge. Essentially, Luke was learning from some of the greatest Jedi Masters of all time.

 

But before reaching his prime, Luke was forced to do battle with the most powerful Sith Lord of all time. The great Darth Sidious returned from beyond to reclaim control of the galaxy, summoning the full might of the Dark Side like never before seen. It's a wonder Luke was able to defeat him.

 

Later in life, Luke does battle with Abeloth, a Dark Side god, and eventually emerges victorious. If that doesn't prove he is the best, then I don't know what will.

 

I would elaborate, but that would take forever. If you want to know all of what Luke can do and what he's done, go check his wookiee page.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Aurbere

[Macetheace]

by the way, does any other source confirm whether it was actually Vadars body Luke burns at the end of Episode Vi, or just the cybertronic suit his father wore. the reason i ask is cos like YOda nad Obi Wan, Anakin also manages to translate to the force, we don't see this happen, but we see him appear alongside his two old Jedi friends at the very end of Return of hte JEdi. So i'm wondering

 

 

Now i know Qui-gon had his body burned, but we can hear him speak via the force to Anakin in Episode 2 and 3, not sure if he appears though, the reason i ask this is because of a possible comeback.. both Obi Wan and Yoda's bodies become a part of the force, we see them disappear, and they boht appear as force beings later, and so does anakin , if their body is gone like that, might there be a way they can come back into thephysical world. i wonder, can we see an actual ANakin return kinda like Revan, post darkside, now lightside again with no doubts hanging over his future and destiny.

 

kinda like a MEdivh type character we see in warcraft.

[Macetheace]

I would elaborate, but that would take forever. If you want to know all of what Luke can do and what he's done, go check his wookiee page.

where is his wookie page? and where is all this informaiton written? in comics? books? games? cartoons? or newsletters?

[Wolfninjajedi]

where is his wookie page? and where is all this informaiton written? in comics? books? games? cartoons? or newsletters?

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Luke_Skywalker#Powers_and_abilities

 

There are also some scans/quotes in this thread I put up here..not everything you can find, but its a good start.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=579203

Edited January 8, 2013 by Wolfninjajedi

[Diablo_Cow]

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, the time lapse between ESB and ROTJ seems to be so great when you look at Luke's face. This is because Mark Hamil (Luke) got into a car accident during the filming of ESB. He then received extensive plastic surgery which gives him the appearance of being twenty years older. It confused me for the longest time too till I read up on the trivia of the films.

[psandak]

The time between E5 and E6 is only a couple of months. However, there is a VERY vague span of time in ESB...

 

After Hoth Luke travels to Dagobah and meets Yoda and begins his training. At the same time, Han and Leia are desperately trying to evade the Empire with a hyperdrive-less Falcon. How long did it take for them to get from Hoth to the asteroid field? How long did they stay in the belly of the asteroid beast trying to make repairs before realizing their situation?

 

After the Falcon escapes the Empire (after the asteroid field), Han and Leia discuss their next move. Han says that they are in the "no-oid" system and Leia says there is not much there. Han finds Lando's name on the Holonet running a gas mining operation on Bespin and recommends they go there for repairs. Han specifically says, "it's pretty far, but I think we can make it." Remember the Falcon does not have a functional hyperdrive so they have to travel between the stars at sub-light speeds.

 

All of this appears to only take days, when in fact it is more probably months maybe even a year or more. Now in that same time frame, Luke has gone to Dagobah, found Yoda and begun his training. It is only AFTER Han and Leia arrive at Cloud City that Luke gets the premonition of them in pain and goes to "rescue" them. His X-wing has hyperdrive capability so his journey to Bespin takes far less time than the Falcon's. So Luke has had one-on-one training with Yoda for probably at least six months if not a year.

 

As to Luke's "old friend" comment about returning to Yoda. Yoda is 900 years old. The word old in Luke's comment probably refers to Yoda's age, not the fact that Luke and he have known each other for a long time. on the other hand, Luke definitely matures A LOT after his confrontation with Vader in ESB and the word old may be relative to that maturity not the passage of time.

 

Most Sci-Fi genres have the same issues with vagueness of time and distance. for example, in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager they are more than 70,000 light years from home and they say that even at maximum speeds (warp 9.975) it would take 70+ years to travel that distance. BUT based on lines of dialogue from certain episodes Voyager's maximum speed is approximately 4 billion kilometers per second. If that line is true then traveling 70,000 light years should take 3.5 years.

Edited January 8, 2013 by psandak

[DarthMat]

google wookiepedia and search for luke skywalker if you want to just learn about what has happened since the movies. There are also about 30 books from where the information on that site comes from. There is a very big story still surrounded around luke.

[SoonerJBD]

By the end of Return of the Jedi, you can assume Luke is on par with the better Jedi of the prequel era like Obi Wan. Luke just got more and more ridiculous in his power as the EU stories around him progressed. He eventually gets a green, light side force lightning and various other powers that were never shown in any of the movies. Greatest lightsaber duelist of all time. Also the most powerful with the force.

 

Imagine the dueling skills of Mace Windu, only better and the force abilities of Sidious or Vitiate, only better.

 

He rebuilds the Jedi order, and the Jedi that he trained would go on to be the most powerful of any era. And he was the best of them by far.

 

As Aurbere mentioned, in some of the later books, Luke fights a dark side god called Abeloth and defeats it. He is the be-all-end-all of force users in the Star Wars universe.

[TalonVII]

The time in between 5 & 6 is 1 year.

 

Read Shadows of the Empire. Explains all.

[Macetheace]

The time in between 5 & 6 is 1 year.

 

Read Shadows of the Empire. Explains all.

 

oh.. what's it say?

[Kane_Ren]

A few points I'd like to make as far as ESB is concerned. The Falcon had a backup hyperdrive, I have not got the source to hand but I believe it is a x15 multiplier as opposed to its main hyperdrive that is x0.5. It would not have taken that long to get to Bespin, less than a week due to their close proximity in the sector. Factor the other parts of the Han/leia section of the story and I'm confident Luke only spent 2 weeks tops before he went to save his friends.

Remember how much training luke got from ben in the time on the falcon? Fair enough, the distance from Tatooine to Alderaan isn't exactly a local jump., but still.....

Luke's connection to the force musta been good. By my reckoning he had 4 weeks-ish training (Ben's ghost aside)before facing Vader in ESB. He may well have learnt stuff from Bens ghost inbetween 4 and 5 but that'd be like trying to earn a doctorate by using google.

 

My opinion anyway

[Wolfninjajedi]

oh.. what's it say?

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=579203

 

That shows a little bit of how strong Luke has become, by ROTJ. I can post more though.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Wolfninjajedi

[TalonVII]

oh.. what's it say?

 

Read the book. It shows the chase to hunt down Boba Fett as he had Han Solo. Also shows how the rebels got the plans for the second death star. Also shows luke skywalker constructing his iconic green bladed lightsaber. It is an awesome read, highly suggest reading it.

[Colyer]

The trick is that what a Jedi is capable of has changed, but a lot of Luke's big stories were written before the prequel trilogy, and most of what has come after has been more in line with the OT concept of the Jedi as well.

Example: In one of the early NJO books, which was just after Episode 1 was released, Luke downs two YV with straight (though impressive) swordplay. He was leaning on Jacen on his way out of there because the entirely passive use of the Force had drained him. Since then we've seen Jedi throw pillars at each other, throw balls of energy at each other, create lightning storms at a whim, teleport, and decide the outcomes of massive large scale battles.

 

That said, Luke is shown to be very powerful despite his lack of comparable feats. If for nothing else, consider the amount of respect he earned from people who had very little reason to give him any. (I gather FotJ changes this a lot, but I have not read.)

[AlexDougherty]

by the way, does any other source confirm whether it was actually Vadars body Luke burns at the end of Episode Vi, or just the cybertronic suit his father wore. the reason i ask is cos like YOda nad Obi Wan, Anakin also manages to translate to the force, we don't see this happen, but we see him appear alongside his two old Jedi friends at the very end of Return of hte JEdi. So i'm wondering.

 

Since the suit steamed when burning, it can be assumed it was the body, in star wars the body is only assumed into the force if the force user(usually Jedi) was totally at peace, and was a Master(Lightside). Since Vader had just abandoned the Dark side, he was neither, he hadn't atoned for his past, and the could not be called a master of the force (he had abandoned his path, and was nominally neutrally aligned at that point). Qui-Gon is supposedly Neutrally aligned, and his rebellious nature means he was never totally at peace.

[Saurrantion]

The time in between 5 & 6 is 1 year.

 

Read Shadows of the Empire. Explains all.

 

No it's not. It's 6 months between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

[Lord_Karsk]

We dont know because we have not seen episode VII VIII IX yet.

 

But i do know he could make waffles with only using the force.

[Newyankalt]

It was actually 2-3 year between ESB and ROTJ.

[Praxeum]

No it's not. It's 6 months between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

 

No, it's a year... it was always stated Hoth was 3 aby and Endor was 4 aby... from wookiepedia

 

"At the Rebel rendezvous point, Skywalker, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, Leia Organa, C-3PO and R2-D2 began their year-long quest to save Solo from being held frozen in carbonite by Jabba Desilijic Tiure in Jabba's Palace on Tatooine.[8]"

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/3_ABY

 

To the OP... at ROTJ Yoda expressed that Luke did not need more training, while he indicated it was regretful that he left early, it seems he now feels his training was complete. In that year, from ESB, it would be assumed Luke had a fair amount of time to realize his innate abilities. The entire sub-plot of the Emperor and Vader chasing Skywalker indicated that he had an unusually strong connection, being the son of the chosen one. I don't think it's a stretch to think he would be able to strengthen his connection to the force during this time. He had apparently taught himself in ABY 3 to create his own lightsaber (wookiepedia and a ROTJ cut-scene) one of the final tasks in Jedi training.

 

Besides, they'd have to know he was special, they wouldn't knowingly send Bob the Jedi to confront Vader without help, but they did Luke.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Praxeum

[Ra-Ki-Lau]

I have always believed there was no way Luke was powerful enough (had enough adequate training) to be able to take on the emperor and vader single handedly. In terms of training, he had the initial training by Obi-Wan which only lasted a few days. Then he had about 3 years to train himself between ANH and ESB, demonstrated by his use of the force to pull his lightsaber towards him. Then he trains with yoda for about 6 weeks on dagobah where he learns the ESSENTIALS of being a jedi. given he has a very powerful connection to the force it is not surprising once he has learned the basics and trains himself between ESB and RTOJ and learns on his own, ie building his own lightsaber, he definitely has the capability of putting up a fight. In fact some might say that teaching himself was actually a better way to learn. The one factor that i think most people dont incorporate is that Luke goes on to rebuild the jedi order, however he actually changes the training. As seen in ROTJ, luke believes that one can use passion to fight as long as they can harness the power for good and tame it rather than letting it run rampant and out of control. One example of how he changes the Jedi order is that he allows marriage, which was a major no no and has a strong correlation to compassion and attachment, however it must be controlled. This is why i believe Luke was such a powerful jedi. He was good yet maintained the ability to fight with passion and anger without letting it consume him. It is the only possible explanation for how he was able to become so strong in such a short period of time.

[AshlaBoga]

Well Vader had 50% of his full power due to being 50% cybernetic - that's actual a number from Lucas himself so it's canon.

 

So In 3 years Luke apparently achieved 50% or so of his full potential.

[StarMagus]

The big thing to remember in these Jedi/Sith fights.... the Force Cheats.

 

All over the stories you see examples of more powerful beings getting taken out by people who shouldn't have been able to. The Force Cheats, and Light Saber fights can be very coin flippy.