I am sure you have all heard about the big debate happening on the internet. For those of you not aware, people are freaking about Luke Skywalker’s plan in Return of the Jedi. The idea is that Luke’s plan to rescue Han Solo from Jabba’s palace is a little ridiculous. People just realized the plan was crazy. I mean, the movie came out in 1983. It is now 2018. People finally noticed that Luke’s plan seems a little off.
Allow me to recap the debate:
-Luke’s plan was insanely complex. He gave up C-3PO and Artoo to Jabba, but what if the gangster had accepted the trade, how would Luke get his droids back? Also, how did Luke know that he would end up on that skiff standing above the Sarlacc? Why have Leia and Chewbacca come earlier? Did they get captured intentionally, just so Luke could come in? And what was Lando doing at Jabba’s palace? How come he didn’t help Leia and Chewie escape sooner?
The counter argument seems to be:
-Luke was off doing Jedi stuff. Lando and Leia decided to take matters into their own hands (or perhaps Leia and Chewbacca). That forced Luke to act and rush in to save the day. The reason he knew about the Sarlacc and needing R2-D2 to have his lightsaber is that he saw this happen in a Force vision.
Here is my take…
At the end of Empire, Luke and Leia stare out into space and then Luke says into a comlink “I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point on Tatooine.” We then see Lando and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon. Lando says that they will find Han and Chewie gives a roar when Luke says he will be waiting for their signal. So that obviously means they had a plan. My guess is that Lando and Chewie did some recon, then Lando infiltrates the palace as a guard. Unfortunately, he cannot find a way to free Han, so he contacts Chewbacca.
If you read Shadows of the Empire, you know that Luke has his own adventure on Tatooine (but is that book in continuity now?). In fact, I feel like that book kind of explains why Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca just do not show up at Jabba’s palace. Anyways, Lando contacts Chewie and says that he cannot get to Han, so they enact a second part. Leia comes as a bounty hunter with Chewbacca. Again, this seems to make no sense. If she is able to free Han and escape, how would they get Chewie and the droids? I think that is where Lando would come in. Once the palace was distracted searching for Han Solo, Lando would free Chewbacca and the droids. If that plan fails, then Luke comes in to save everyone.
Luke gives R2 his lightsaber because he does not think he will need it to defeat Jabba. His plan is too use a Jedi Mindtrick and have Jabba hand over Han, Chewbacca, Leia, and the droids. He figures that if he fails at that, it would make sense to have his lightsaber in a secure place. If the mindtrick fails, he knows that the guards will seize him, and he knows there are probably too many to fight off in such a closed space. His plan, if the mindtrick fails, is to have R2 get him the lightsaber so that he can escape and rescue everyone else.
People get so hung up on the fact that Luke has a handsignal with R2 and that the droid has something that can launch a lightsaber. I would point out that Artoo has tons of little gadgets. He is a deus ex machina, whatever you need for a scene…the little astromech droid has it. Need a saw blade to cut a net apart? R2-D2 has it. Need an electrical zapper to give Yoda a shock? Artoo can do it. Need to plug into a computer terminal and turn shit off. R2 is the droid you are looking for. It does not matter where Jabba has Luke, the little droid will get his master the lightsaber.
One thing I think the movie did a poor job of conveying is how close Luke is to falling to the Dark Side, like his father. The vision he has in the cave on Dagobah, where he fights Vader and the mask explodes, only to reveal his own face, I think many people think that was foreshadowing that Vader is related to Luke. I always thought it was more of a warning to Luke, that if he continues on this headstrong path, where he does not listen to Yoda, tries to rush into things, then he will fall to the Dark Side and end up like Darth Vader. The scene in ROTJ when Luke enters the palace, he chokes the Gamorrean guards. In the books (I know, not canon), that type of Force-choke is a Sith move. Luke is teetering on the edge and what is his downfall in the palace? He is overconfident in his ability. He strolls in and tries to use his power on Jabba, but it fails. He then threatens the gangster and Jabba just laughs, then tries to feed him to the Rancor. You know who else was overconfident? The Emperor…and guess what? That ended up being his downfall.
Anyways, back to Luke’s plan. He never drew the entire thing out and said “okay guys, then I will nod to Lando, then give a hand signal to R2, who will shoot my lightsaber into the sky, and I will jump and grab it.” The plan was fluid. I think I understood that as a little kid and it still makes the most sense to me. What do you guys think?
