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Originally posted by: BosskTo bring down the Empire, Obi Wan knew he'd have to give Luke reason to want to fight them. Not exactly the way of the Jedi, true. But times were bleak like the opening crawl of ANH said.
I agree with that, but the way you got it there Bossk, it sounds like Ben is manipulating Luke to his own ends.
My take on it, Lucas-making-stuff-up-as-he-goes-along and back-peddling-like-crazy-to-cover-his-ass aside, the way it's presented I think Obi-wan was being as honest as possible without telling Luke the whole traumatic truth.
Is Vader unbelievably bad? No question, even if you weren't related. Does Vader's existence have anything to do with his lack of a father? Heck yeah. Would telling you who your dad really is, right this minute when you're just a country bumpkin with no maturity or experience to handle it, help you in any way? No. It was more of warning Luke about the dark side, how it can conquer and defeat you if you let it. In ANH Ben tells Luke that Vader was his own fault, and that he felt responsible for it. That's why Ben fell on his sword. And in ROTJ, Ben pretty much said that Vader was beyond hope and redemption. Remember, both Ben and Yoda didn't think that Luke would even know the truth anyway. It was unexpected and unfortunate in ROTJ.
So Ben and Yoda was trying to protect Luke from something that would have hurt him, being on opposing sides with his own father, Luke as a good guy and his dad being bad. If they fought knowing, they believed this would have hampered Luke.
And they were right.
Although Luke's compassion ultimately did win over his father, it was a gamble. If it hadn't play out, the Emperor would have killed Luke with Vader watching from the sidelines, and Yoda and Ben would have lost their 'only hope.' (Well not really. Han still would have lowered the shields, and Lando and Wedge would still have blown up the Death Star.
Emperor:
"Now young Skywalker... you will die! Okay, job done. Moving on... Oh no, what's going on? Death Star 2 is blowing up?! But I just killed Luke instead of doing my job to eradicate the rebels, how could this have happened?! I didn't forsee this!!! Aaaarrrgghhh!"
So really it was everybody else who saved the galaxy, rendering the whole 'self-centered family' greek tragedy Luke-Vader-Emperor love triangle moot. Talk about plot holes.
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