Luke Skywalker's INSANE Training Routine After 'Empire'
Luke Skywalker’s way of becoming a Jedi Knight was quite different from that of his predecessors.
For “a thousand generations” younglings got to train together in the Jedi Temple under the tutelage of wise Jedi Knights and Masters, who could hope to be chosen as Padawans later on and go on various missions with their Masters across the galaxy, until they passed their trials and became Knights as well. All in all, Jedi training took far more than a decade, sometimes nearly two, and all Jedi had the possibility to go back to the Temple anytime to continue their studies and their training.
Luke had none of these possibilities. His Jedi training started when he was already 19 (far too old to be taken as an apprentice during the time of the Republic) and he only got to spend a brief time of training with this first teacher, Ben Kenobi, on their way to Alderaan. His first lightsaber training was aboard the Millennium Falcon, trying to sense the actions of the small floating training remotes, while wearing a helmet with a ray-shield, so that his eyes would not deceive him. More than once, his endeavors were not successful, and he got hit by the bolts of the remote.
Three years later, he got to train with Yoda on Dagobah for a few weeks, until he chose to leave the swamp planet in hopes of saving his friends on Bespin. Although Luke did some impressive things while training with Yoda, like running and jumping through the jungle, swinging from tree to tree while the little green guy sat on his back, or lifting rocks while doing a handstand, this is still nothing compared to the Jedi training of the old days. The fact that he lost not only his hand but also his lightsaber during his battle with Vader didn’t strengthen his connection to the Force either.
Many of the books and comics that are set in the timeframe between the movies of the original trilogy show Luke constantly searching for guidance in his training and his understanding of the Force, be it in form of old Jedi texts or holocrons or by seeking someone new who could teach him. An early issue of the current Star Wars comic line by Charles Soule that is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi sees Luke traveling to an old Jedi outpost on the planet Tempes, deep in the Outer Rim, that has been there since the days of the High Republic. There, Luke finds a new lightsaber with a yellow blade (finally matching the color of the saber his action figure had used since the late '70s), has a lightsaber duel with the spirit of the Grand Inquisitor from Star Wars Rebels, and beats him, already showing some impressive skills with the Jedi weapon.
But in the most recent issue, #13, Skywalker takes his lightsaber training to a new level: in a small training room inside one of the Rebel Alliance’s flagships, he takes at least eight of the training remotes with him, performing incredible jumps and backflips, smashing the small globes with his lightsaber, or even crushing them with objects that he moves with the Force, while avoiding their bolts with ease.
In the final panels of this scene, he is interrupted by C-3PO. And while he is talking to the droid, he stretches out his saber behind his back to block the bolts of the last remaining sphere and slicing it in half without even looking.
All this is very reminiscent of the way the Jedi trained and fought during the time of the prequel trilogy, and Luke’s cool and controlled behavior is quite similar to that of his father during the Clone Wars. Interestingly enough, he doesn’t wear a helmet with a shield during his exercise, indicating that he found the confidence of not having to shield his eyes to prevent him from using his vision, but instead trusting in his connection to the Force.
In the further events of this issue, the story moves to the smuggler’s moon of Nar Shaddaa, where Luke has to use every bit of lightsaber skill that he acquired. With this issue Luke, is leaving the farmboy and the man that is unsure of himself behind, approaching a Jedi at his prime, the person who will later free his friends from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt and make short work of dozens of Dark Troopers with ease, and probably also the Luke many have hoped to see in the sequel trilogy.
Source(s): CBR