While reading this question, it came to me that Obi-Wan waited far too long to tell Luke to go find Yoda. Obi-Wan Kenobi could have appeared to Luke minutes after Luke blasted the first Death Star to pieces. He could have told him right then and there that another Jedi Master still lived and could train him.
BEN: You must go to the Dagobah System ... There you will learn from one who taught me: Yoda, the Jedi Master.
Instead he waited 3 years. Luke could have been killed during those 3 years by some wampa beast, frozen during an ice storm on Hoth, shot by Boba Fett, or hunted down by Darth Vader. Very risky to wait because Vader would known the best time to hunt down Luke was before Luke completed another day of training!
Waiting also meant a 3 year gap in his training.
Luke was safe right after he destroyed the Death Star. You'd think a wise old Jedi would have told him to seek out Yoda immediately. You'd also think Obi-Wan would have known Darth Vader survived the Battle of Yavin and would have immediately landed his TIE fighter on the moon and tracked down on rebel base to find whomever destroyed the technological terror.
Why did Obi-Wan wait 3 years to tell Luke?
(I am looking for an in-universe explanation. Not an out-of-universe explanation.)
Edit: This is not identical to the question I linked to. That question is more about why Obi-Wan chose to contact Luke during a snowstorm on Hoth right after Luke stumbled out of the wampa cave. This is about why wait 3 years at all. Nothing in the answers to that question address the 3 year time wait.
The answers there all don't make sense when compared to the simple fact that Kenobi successfully contacted Luke during the first movie. Here are the answers from that question and why they don't hold up.
- Obi-Wan needed time to learn to be a Force-Ghost to contact Luke. We know he could speak to Luke during the Battle of Yavin, so he should have been able to contact Luke immediately.
- Luke was vulnerable and therefore more receptive. Luke was certainly receptive to hearing Kenobi's advice during the Battle of Yavin.
- Luke was collapsing from extreme cold and therefore willing to listen to a ghost. Same answer to this one as #2.
- Luke needed to learn how to use the Force first or to meditate to receive the message. We know that's not true, because Luke heard Kenobi's message during the Battle of Yavin and he wasn't meditating or using the Force during the battle when Kenobi spoke to him.
- The planet Hoth was a Force nexus. Was the planet Yavin also some Force nexus that allowed Kenobi to speak to Luke then?
