How long was Luke on Dagobah?

Vermithrax 4

Well-Known Member
It couldn't have been long because it seems that only a couple of days elapsed between the time the Falcon escaped Hoth and arrived at Cloud City. Unless they were in the belly of that worm and on the back of that star destroyer a LOT longer than I ever thought. This is not something I really caught on to in my younger days but here over the last few years I started wondering how much Jedi training Luke actually undertook on Dagobah and how much training it takes to become one.

Also, in ROTJ, the scene between Yoda and Luke...was that Luke's first return since his duel with Vader? It couldn't have been, he would had to have been back there before for additional training before taking on Jabba.

Thoughts? Skywalker? Skywalker? Anyone?
 
Um 30 minutes! I recall somewhere that it was supposed to be about a month. Maybe the Falcon, without Hyperdrive really had some distance to travel?
 
Also, in ROTJ, the scene between Yoda and Luke...was that Luke's first return since his duel with Vader? It couldn't have been, he would had to have been back there before for additional training before taking on Jabba.

Thoughts? Skywalker? Skywalker? Anyone?

Yes that is first return to Dagobah. In ESB he promises to return and complete his training. In ROTJ he says he came back to fulfil that promise.
 
I always thought he went to Tattooine and went to Obi-Wan's hut and read through his stuff and found the instructions to build his own lightsaber-Canon in the deleted scene. Maybe he found Obi-Wan's Jedi training manuals from his old republic days and trained that way. He is wayyyy more powerful between ESB and ROTJ so he did something.

*LOL got his Jedi degree online...
 
Yes that is first return to Dagobah. In ESB he promises to return and complete his training. In ROTJ he says he came back to fulfil that promise.

And to add to this, Yoda replied that Luke did not require any more training, he had already learned everything he needed to become a Jedi.

My take on the length was something like a month (maybe 5 weeks at best) as well.

A week or so (maybe three or four days) of the Falcon in the spaceworm.

Three weeks to get to Bespin (maybe four).

Maybe two or three days at best on Bespin before Lando's dinner (and big surprise).


It definitely wasn't a long time. Luke did kind of have a "head start" as he had already been practicing using the Force long before going to Dagobah.

Funny thing is, Luke is never really taught any swordplay... guess it comes naturally to Jedi. :lol


Kevin
 
All good responses.

The sense of time passing is handled well on Dagobah...but I never got any sense of much time passing on the Falcon. Everything seems to pass by in a day or so. And Bespin was fairly close by, although the observation that it would have taken a while to get there is valid since their hyperdrive was obviously not working.

In ROTJ I had always assumed that it was Luke's first trip back to Dagobah after having left but later I reasoned that he would had to have gone back at least once, took some more training, got more powerful, set his plans to rescue Han in motion, then left to actually do that, was gone some time, then "came back to complete the training", whence he finally got the nerve up to ask Yoda about Vader being his father. That's how I rationalized it. I do know about the cut scene in Ben's house with the lightsaber but since it was cut we could guess that he built his new saber with the help of Yoda and perhaps the fight training happened during his second visit to Dagobah.

This is all just speculation, of course, but it's always fun to work this stuff out.
 
I was just thinking about this-

We use the time in the asteroid field and "time it took to get to Bespin" as a reference...

However Luke had a premonition of Han and Co. being tortured "in the future"...

For all we know he may have already left to rescue them before the Falcon had even arrived at Bespin (thereby making his training cut even shorter than we think).

Of course it all plays out chronologically in the film. I don't think Lucas pulled a Tarantino/Nolan and presented things out of order. :lol


Kevin
 
Seems like a week or two, barely nothing. We see Luke basically get a few lessons.

Of course there is lots of space travel and maybe there are time issues involved with that.
 
Without light speed it would take the Falcon years to travel from Hoth to Bespin even if the stars are really close together. If Hoth was chosen as a remote hideaway it should be well away from everywhere. This proves Luke was on Dagobah about four years. :wacko :lol

Luke didn't need more training after Empire to take on Jabba and his gang. They don't compare to Vader. Vader is why no more training is needed, because the fight in Empire with Vader is the final lesson. Luke learns patience and not to give in to anger. Learns it the hard way. :behave
 
The biggest thing to remember is that the Falcon was only able to move at sublight speeds. Han mentions that Bespin is far, but they can make it. According to wookiepedia, the Falcon carries about 2 months of supplies. Han might have stockpiled more supplies since it is a freighter, albeit a really fast one.
 
I always thought it was odd that Yoda doesn't want Luke to go help his friends because his training was incomplete. He isnt ready. But as soon as Luke returns in the next movie he tells him his training is done, he is ready for Vader.
 
Yeah, without hyperdrive the Falcon would experience relativistic time effects, so maybe Luke stayed on Dagobah for a long time while less time passed for the crew on the Falcon, moving at near light speed.

Oops - too slow! I don't think Physics exist in the Star Wars universe anyway.
 
I always thought it was odd that Yoda doesn't want Luke to go help his friends because his training was incomplete. He isnt ready. But as soon as Luke returns in the next movie he tells him his training is done, he is ready for Vader.

Cuz he had to face Vader in order to be ready to face Vader. :lol

Sounds silly but maybe the inadvertent lesson he got by running off early and soundly getting thumped accelerated his Jedi career more then sitting in Dagobah class. He also was willing to die instead of getting dragged off to the emperor in Empire, later he of course in Jedi offers himself on a platter but he was ready then to face the darkside in all its fury.
 
I always thought it was odd that Yoda doesn't want Luke to go help his friends because his training was incomplete. He isnt ready. But as soon as Luke returns in the next movie he tells him his training is done, he is ready for Vader.

To be fair, there was about 8 months between the events of ESB and RotJ. Something about tracking down Boussh so Leia could take his armor, setup cover stories for Lando, Luke building a lightsaber, and who knows what else the writers came up with.
 
To be fair, there was about 8 months between the events of ESB and RotJ. Something about tracking down Boussh so Leia could take his armor, setup cover stories for Lando, Luke building a lightsaber, and who knows what else the writers came up with.

That's why I say Luke had to have been back to Dagobah at least once, possible several times, to undergo more training to the point where Yoda declared that now he was finally ready to face Vader. Of course, it would have helped if they had explained this at some point in the film. :lol

Whether sublight or hyperlight, it never takes long to get anywhere in the SW universe, really. "Pretty far" just equals a couple of hours in SW time it seems. The Falcon jumped to lightspeed in ANH, they took a few moments to get settled in, play a game of chess, start lightsaber training....and less than five minutes later, "It looks like we're coming up on Alderaan." Of course, this is all just part of the fun of the SW universe, making space travel feel like a drive down the road.
 
Kinda interesting how involved Jedi training is supposed to be or rather how involved it evolved to be in the prequals, from a little kid on up seems like at least what? 15 years?


Here comes Luke who has demonstrated only superior whining and piloting skills on Tatooine, gets exactly one lesson on the Falcon from Ben and a remote,
add a few weeks or so training on Dagobah, he is taking on a Sith lord on Bespin who had full Jedi training since a child. Granted Vader was probably holding back, but Luke got in some good ones none the less.

Though I suppose Luke was practicing a little bit on his own pre Dagobah, enough to get the saber out of the snow on Hoth, barely.
 
I just find it funny that in the prequels they're raising the kids from being like 4 years old to be Jedi and Luke learns it all in a month. He's a faster learner than his dad was as he had to work at it for years lol. Whoops i didn't notice Cessnadriver mention it already lol.
 
A lot of stuff has been covered already but Luke considered himself a Jedi already so there had to be more training-so he probably taught himself. I think like 3 years had gone by between ESB and ROTJ. Chewie confirms that Luke is a Jedi to Han in Jabba's holding cell and Han says "A jedi Knight, I am out of it for a little while and everyone gets delusions of grandeur..." Also he did in fact go to Obi-Wan's hut as I wrote above as the deleted scene makes it canon...When he returns to Yoda on Dagobah it is the first time he was back since ESB, this is in the dialog.
 
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