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Yoda had a vision that the galaxy will be free of the Sith, yet neither he nor Obi-Wan believed redeeming Anakin to be possible. Not seeming to be ones who would leave everything to fate, it's more probable they formulated a plan to defeat the Sith or at least liberate the galaxy. They chose to only train Luke and keep Leia hidden so as not to bet all their chips on a single all-or-nothing showdown. Even to the end, Obi-Wan in his ghost form - which one would expect to be wiser and more perceptive of the Force than while alive - continued to insist against attempting redemption and to continue preparing to face Palpatine.

Did the two Jedi Masters really intend a rematch by a newly trained Skywalker against his father and the Emperor combined - who both had experience killing many of the best Jedi swordsmen of the day - to be the finale of their plan, or were they actually planning something else? In the event that a battle was really what they were planning for, then did they send Luke off Dagobah in RotJ genuinely believing he stands a chance to win the impending battle against both Sith Lords, or did they, rather uncharacteristically in my opinion, gave up trying any further to train him, resigned instead to leaving Luke's success to fate, thus getting ready to move on to Leia if he indeed failed as they seemed to have expected?

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    training someone isn't exactly super easy when you're dead.
    – phantom42
    Oct 13, 2015 at 15:32
  • They didn't exactly have many options.
    – Null ♦
    Oct 13, 2015 at 15:35
  • Keep in mind that by the time Luke is ready to face Vader/Palpatine, some ~20 years have gone by. They aren't as quick or as strong as they once were.
    – user38763
    Oct 13, 2015 at 17:40
  • @Amy That only applies to normal humans though. The Force affects one's biology enough that your point is moot. The regenerative and healing properties of the light side increase the general longevity of Jedi beyond peers of their own species. While the dark side saps away the natural vitality of the Sith, Sith magic also permits them to sustain themselves unnaturally. One such instance, albeit a controversial one, is where Palpatine purportedly sapped Padme's life force to keep Anakin alive. He would do that on himself too, no?
    – thegreatjedi
    Oct 14, 2015 at 2:55

2 Answers 2

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What's important to remember is that Luke didn't defeat the Emperor, it was Anakin, and even there I think there's a lot of room for interpretation when considering this question, and you have to consider Yoda and Obi-Wan didn't always agree on this.

Firstly, let's not forget that Yoda never had a lot of faith in Anakin. He never believed Anakin should be trained, because (unlike Qui-Gon Jinn) he didn't see the full picture. So it's very likely that when training Luke he didn't even consider redeeming Anakin, but instead indeed trained him to fight Palpatine. There is - however - no actual basis for this in the films, he always trained Luke to fight Vader.

As for Obi-Wan, I like to think he had faith in his old master and his Padawan, so while Yoda was training Luke to defeat the Emperor, Obi-Wan still had in mind the possibility of redeeming Anakin and letting him fulfill the prophecy and bring balance to the force (which I believe simply means an end to the dark side, not an equilibrium as some interpret it).

It's hard to tell, really - if they trained Luke with the purpose of defeating Palpatine or redeeming Anakin (or both), but I like to think that Qui-Gon Jinn was right all along, and that Obi-Wan never stopped believing in that and trained Luke to find the light in Anakin, rather than defeating him or the Emperor.

If you examine the original trilogy alone, though, it's almost impossible to tell. They never discuss Luke or Anakin's roles in the grand scheme of things - it seemed like Yoda's main concern was that Luke wasn't ready to confront Vader because he was afraid Vader would tempt him into the Dark Side. The Emperor never came up in that context.

Only if you look back into the prequels and examine the relationship of each of the Jedi to Anakin and the prophetic force, you can come to some understanding of what their end-goals might have been, but it's never specifically expressed.

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  • +1: Excellent answer, you've also to consider that they - literally - made this stuff up as they went along, it was only in one of the later script re-writes for ESB that decided to make Vader Lukes father. In the original script he meets the force ghost of his father, and is told of a twin sister (not necessarily Leia).
    – Binary Worrier
    Aug 2, 2017 at 7:23
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    @BinaryWorrier yeah that's the sense I get from it looking at it from the outside looking in. My answer is my "in-universe" interpretation.
    – Elad Avron
    Aug 14, 2017 at 1:13
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Yes. I'll need to dig up quotes (I posted them on another answer about Yoda fighting Palpatine in Episode 3).

But basically, he (Yoda) realized that he - or any other Jedi - is no match for newly evolved Sith, and a "new model" Jedi would be needed to fight them. That was the plan. The specifics were basically up to the Force ('cause that's how their religion rolled)

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